Diet Trials : Paul McKenna » Week 1

Week 1 Nearly Over

diettrials — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 11:16:31 +0000

I can’t quite believe that the first week on the Paul Mckenna diet is nearly over, it’s now Day 6. Normally on a diet, and most recently it has been the Atkin’s diet, I have found that the first week is normally the hardest. This week has been surprisingly enjoyable and relatively easy. It certainly helps writing about my experiences and hopefully sharing what I am going through with others in a similar situation.

I’m looking forward to the second Paul McKenna show tonight that i’ll have to watch once I come back from doing my radio show, StrikePoint. Hopefully Paul McKenna will fill me once again with inspiration and teach me some new visualisation techniques.

The Weekend Problem

diettrials — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 21:13:01 +0000

Now one thing that I will need to sort out are the weekends. It’s been fine during the week when you have to get up to go to work, as I have found that reasonably easy. Plus you don’t have a well stocked kitchen to keep nipping into.

As I was up late, breakfast was more like lunch and lunch was more like an afternoon snack. Not sure that my lunch was actually needed though? I did though find that I had more motivation and energy and volunteered to take the kids into town to get a hair cut and and buy a few bits. We live about three quarters of a mile from town and it’s not a bad walk really. So off I went.
It was a real bonus for me as the kids were on best behaviour and I really enjoyed the little outing we had.

Normally at weekends we will have family meals but you then have to fit in with the kids and when you have delayed all of your other meals I was not particularly hungry when we sat down at around 6pm for a meal. I still managed to eat consiously though which is really working and enabling me to make sure I am not eating too much.

The problem with January in my house is that we still have a huge bag full of chocolate bars that were collected up from the dozen or so selection boxes that the kids got for Christmas. It’s just too tempting when there is so many goodies in the cupboards. I probably should skip a few chapters of Paul McKenna’s book and get to the part about craving and comfort eating.

Paul McKenna – Day 5

diettrials — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 21:02:39 +0000

So it’s now Saturday and Day 5 on my new diet, or should that be the start of my new approach to eating, as it is not to be classed as a diet as such.

The morning didn’t get off to a great start, as at 2am I was woken up by my three year old son having a bad dream. Not too sure if this is still a repercussion of Father Christmas taking his bedtime dummies away but it’s not what you need when you are trying to get your own beauty sleep. Anyway no matter how hard I tried my son wouldn’t stay in his own bed so had to come into our bed. My youngest son has a habit of not sleeping normally in a bed with head on pillow and laying down the bed…he gets himself into a situation where he lays across the bed.

I was then woken up a few hours later with my wife moaning and sounding confused…and it turned out that my son was kicking her in the head. All in all a bad night and if I get a broken night sleep I’m in a foul mood when I wake up. I did get a lie in till about 11am but this wasn’t perfect, as you will know if you have young kids. One minute piece and quite, the next you can hear tantrums battles going on in the next room.

I could tell that this was going to be a difficult day!

Paul Mckenna – Day 4

diettrials — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:38:49 +0000

Four days in and I still feel very inspired by the theory that this really could make a difference to my life. So far throughout the week, since I signed up to the Paul Mckenna website for this big experiment, I have been getting daily emails to keep me on track.

They help to remind me that I am actually on a diet but they give you a bit of a lift. There are visualisation exercises to do but when I get the email at work I feel like a bit of a prat going deep into my imagination…so I save these to do at home. You do feel a bit stupid doing the mind exercises but it does work. Just imagining how you would feel in 3 weeks after you have lost some weight, and how you would feel when you have reached your ideal weight. It is all about getting that feeling of happiness in the way you look, to inspire you to carry on.

I actually went back to the pub at lunchtime, mainly to pay for the food that we forgot to pay for last night, but ended up staying for lunch as I was hungry. Paul McKenna says it is important to eat when you’re hungry so I was following the rules. Again I ate slowly even though at times it was really difficult not to shovel it in like normal, but I managed it. I ended up leaving half of my lunch. The chef there is going to start wondering what’s wrong with his cooking soon!

The Thursday Test

diettrials — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 21:36:28 +0000

Thursday’s are normally the day that we get a babysitter to look after the kids and myself andÂ my wifeÂ go out for a meal or go to the pub. Normally we will combine both and have a meal at the pub. I have my local pub in town which we have been going to for a while now. We go out regularly with the landlard (he’s a fat bastard too!) and landlady so we always have a good night out. But this was Day 3!

By the time we got sorted we got to the pub about 8pm. I was hungry then, but I normally am. I wondered how I would cope being faced with a delicious pub meal in the company of people who would normally see me eat all of mine and what was left of my wife’s. At the pub they do a fantastic mixed grill which arrives on a plate as big as a dustbin lid..no joke…and I have finished a few of those in my time.

Anyway I found something on the menu that tempted me….it was haddock and chips. Certainly something that would not be allowed on any type of diet really full of carbs and fat. But I didn’t care at all as it is what I wanted and that’s what you have to eat. Even in a pub environment I still managed to eat slowly and consciously and in the end I left about a third of my fish and some chips. I was really amazed that I had the will power or the determination to actually leave food on my plate. I certainly passed the test.

Paul McKenna – Day 3

diettrials — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 17:36:44 +0000

It was no use hiding the scales.

The temptation was too great. Every diet that I have been on I have always obsessed about whether through the night I have miraculously lost a few pounds.

I even was that curious that I went and got the scales from the wardrobe and jumped on them, feeling like I shouldn’t be doing it. Anyway 3 pounds less… so something could just be working.

Afterwards I quickly put them back into hiding and I have promised myself that I will wait until the 3 weeks are up before I weigh myself again.

Paul McKenna – Day 2

diettrials — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 17:28:35 +0000

Day 2 all went really well for me…
I was still really focussed when I woke up and had breakfast again. I am so not used to eating first thing in the morning that it was odd. But it is doing me good getting up a bit earlier, actually spending a bit of quality time with the kids before they go off to school & nursery. The only problem is that it takes ages to eat a bowl of cereal, especially if its something like mini shredded wheat… you can be chewing that forever.

I was late getting my lunch because I was busy at work and by the time I got it I was at the starving level… so not good as my body presumably was starting to think “Arh.. there’s no food…start storing away” Well probably not that serious! I have found myself wanting to eat salads and fruit, rather than the big sandwich and pork pie that I would normally have. Not sure what the local deli will do for the next few weeks?

Eat When Youâ€™re Hungry

diettrials — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:54:45 +0000

Now this is a tricky one. I woke up on Day 1 and didnâ€™t really know whether I was hungry or not, but I had a small breakfast I suppose to start my metaboloism. The problem I found on Day 1 was when I got back home from work I was hungry, but didnâ€™t know what I fancied to eat. Given the chance to eat whatever I liked would normally mean a good bingeâ€¦but there was nothing I really wanted. Was this because I wasnâ€™t actually hungry or that I was now getting confused over what signals my stomach was sending to my brain. Talk about confusing!

The added problem is that we have 2 young kids and with my wife working with me all day we have the problem on an evening of making sure the kids get bathed and put to bed, this routine normally ends about 8pmâ€¦then we have to sort some food out. Normally by that time I will have gone past the hunger stage. I ended up just having more cereal!

Eating Consciously

diettrials — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:59:26 +0000

Fortunately during lunch when by meal arrived, because the guys I was with had seen the programme the whole idea of eating slowly and chewing each mouthful, savouring the food, didnâ€™t seem too hard. I was amazed how long it took me to eat my meal though.

I really did enjoy the food though, more than I normally would do, which surprised me. Either that or it was just a top lunch that would have tasted great even if I was shoveling it in?

What I found a bit hard to do was to know when I was full. This is something I believe I was better at over time. When I had eaten about three quarters of my meal I had a sort of full feeling. Strange to be actually questioning your body and asking it â€œAre you full yet?â€ After another mouthful I knew that this feeling that I was getting was me feeling full. I stopped eating and didnâ€™t feel that bad for leaving food on my plate. When the waitress came to clear the table there was food left on all the plates around the table. Not too sure what she thoughtâ€¦but who caresâ€¦I felt that it had been a great success

Its so True

diettrials — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:57:53 +0000

On Day 1 I had a lunch meeting at one of the top local restaurants that always does really great food and this would be my first big challenge. The main topic of conversation while we ordered the food was the Paul McKenna programme. We were all in agreement that what he was saying were the 4 Golden Rules were so true and obvious if we had only sat down and thought about how we all eat.

How many time though have parents said to their kids that they have to finish their plate or else they wonâ€™t be getting any pudding? I know for certain that this is something that I have said many times before to my kids in the past but will now try to stop using it. When I was a kid it was always seen as a waste of good food to leave anything and you are programmed to eat what is put in front of you.

This is also so true if you are having a meal at a friends house and they have spent a lot of time preparing the meal. It is a Uk, if not worldwide, custom to clean your plate. What would they think if you left half of what you were given on your plate? If you make the excuse of that youâ€™re full? Does this get interpreted that you donâ€™t really like the meal? We have to now listen to our bodies and think about ourselves and if we are full why should we continue to eat only to feel bloated afterwards.