I Can Make You Thin - Oh yeah? Prove it!

Did anyone see I Can Make You Thin on TLC? It's hosted by some self-help guy named Paul McKenna. I PVR'd it and watched it today. Most of what he has to say is "Well, DUH!" and if I had to pay to hear what he had to say I'd demand my money back. But I did manage to get a few useful ideas out of the show (which is a series that will be running on Sunday night's at 9pm) that I thought I'd share for fun.

The 4 Golden Rules

1. When you're hungry, eat! (DUH #1) But only physical hunger, not emotional. Don't skip meals or starve yourself. (DUH #2)

2. Eat what you want (sound like WW to you too?), not what you think you should. Ditch the low-fat, low-cal, artifical sweetened stuff and have the real stuff which leads to...

3. Eat consciously. Chew slowly (1/4 your usual speed) and savour ever bite. Chew your food 20 times before you swallow and put your fork and knife down between each bite. No distractions while you eat, no TV, music, reading material, pay attention to your meal and your body. Learn to recognize when you're full. [see below for instructions] And if you're hungry 1/2 hour later, go back to rule #1 and repeat.

4. When you're full, stop eating. (DUH #3)

Hunger Scale

1. Physically faint
2. Ravenous
3. Fairly hungry
4. Slightly hungry
5. Neutral
6. Satisfied
7. Full
8. Stuffed
9. Bloated
10. Nauseous

Live in between numbers 3-7.

I've always heard you should rate your hunger on a scale of 1-10 before you eat, but I never had a guide as to what each number signified so I found this helpful.

Challenge #1

a) Throw out all food in your pantry/fridge that doesn't excite you to eat.
b) Make a list of your 5 favourite foods and shop for them and stock up.
c) When you eat, put your knife and fork down between each bite. Hand held foods like hamburgers should be put down between each bite as well.
d) Fill a plate with your usual serving size. Eat the meal with your eyes closed or blindfolded (chewing slowly, putting fork down) and stop eating when you feel full and see how much food is left on your plate. This will help train you to recognize the feeling of being full before you hit "Stuffed".

I'm going to try the eating with my eyes closed tonight and see what happens.
Next week's topic is conquering emotional eating so we'll see what he says on that topic.