Today though I got the usual email pop into my inbox and it was one that I had to read a couple of times as it really made sense. The part that stood out for me was this part:

“There comes a point in the creation of any new habit where it becomes easier to do something than not do it. This is true whether the habit is a negative one (smoking or dieting) or a positive one (exercise, kindness, eating when you’re hungry).”

It become easier to do something than not to do something… a great way to look at the way we form our habits. The email makes you think about when you reach your tipping point, for instance when it is easier to stop eating when you are full rather than when your plate is empty.

My fear at the end of last week was the weekend, but all in all it was fine. I made sure that I kept busy with a plan to keep me busy and to make sure I didn’t just wander into the kitchen to check out the fridge. We have taken steps to reduce the amount of tempting food that is in the house, so even if I fancy something to eat when I’m not hungry I can’t find any quick snacky foods. I made sure that I stuck to my plan of getting up reasonable early for breakfast and fitted in with the kids meal time on an evening, so we could still have a family meal at a time that suited everyone.

I started to do jobs around the house that have been on the list for a while, since we moved into our new house back in October. Saturday saw me installing a big hose pipe reel so that I can do the typical weekend task of washing the cars regularly, then a family meal out at the local Italian restaurant. Sunday was a day of sorting out boxes that still hadn’t been unpacked and building shelves and storage units for kids toys. I didn’t over eat nor did I eat when I wasn’t hungry…so I am pleased with how it all went. It will, I hope, continue to get easier the longer I stick to the diet.

I’m not too sure how I will achieve this yet but I know that I have to keep myself busy and motivated. I think the main thing that I have to do is keep myself into a routine that is similar to a normal week day, so I suppose this means getting up before 9am and having breakfast. Then this will mean that the rest of the day in terms of meal times will fit in with my hunger and the kids.

Also what I need to do is go out for part of the day somewhere so that I’m not just roaming around the house in search of food. I’ll perhaps take the kids on an adventure. An adventure to my kids consists on having a walk to the river and exploring the woods. All good fun though. I’ll have to make sure I give the bread to the ducks and not be tempted to have some myself!

The craving for a big bacon sandwich may end up getting the better of me today so I may have to do some tapping to try to stop myself. Hopefully after a few cups of strong coffee I will get back to normal and regain my enthusiasm.

If you have a strong stomach there are also photos of Manual, but these should come with an advisary warning as you might just loose your lunch. If I ever got to being this big… just shoot me or better still don’t give me any food because I’m certainly not going to be able to go and get it myself.

So that leads me to my initial question… would Paul McKenna be able to help? Is there a limit to how big you are before the only answer is surgery?

Anyway back to the point of this post. I am still getting used to the fact that I do not need to put so much food on my plate as I would normally do as by eating consciously you do get full quite quickly and then you have to stop eating. Last night was a classic example. We had gone to Marks and Spencers and treated ourselves to an easy meal. What we bought we would have normally eaten in one go but we decided to half it and have the rest tonight. Looking at my plate, I was slightly worried that this wouldn’t fill me up let alone even touch the sides as I was quite hungry.

By eating consciously and slowly I still get surprised as to how little my body actually needs to keep me going. Once I had finished my meal I was full… there was not quite enough on my plate to be able to leave some, which you are meant to try and do, but I still think that this is a waste of food. The only problem is which caused quite a bit of amusement while I ate last night was that when you start a meal you struggle to chew your food a lot as it is very hot and it can burn your mouth if you’re not careful…. then towards the end of your meal it has gone cold and is not too appetising.

Perhaps I should stick to having salads or something that is cold from the start. Or perhaps the whole conscious eating rule is only successful since you stop eating thinking you are full, but it is actually because eating food that has gone cold is fairly awful!

I’m not sure that this is because I am eating consciously and really enjoying the taste of my food, but I find it really hard to work out what I really want to eat. Before starting the Paul McKenna diet I used to eat pretty much anything. Now I fancy certian foods, like yesterday I really could have eated a Hard Rock Cafe Pulled Pork sandwich and fries… but the nearest Hard Rock is about 30 miles away.

I have gone off foods that I would normally love such as currys and pizzas. It just takes me longer mulling around the supermarket trying to tempt myself into buying food that I want to eat.  I have though been able to stay well away from chocolate as I don’t really want to eat that anymore either. Very strange??

I will have to catch up with the actual process for doing this task from the book as by this point of the programme I was all a bit confused especially with all of that tapping. I may even watch the show again tonight from my Sky+ box and see if I can master this technique too.

It was definately something to do with squeezing your thumb and middle finger together while visualising happy times. This would get this thought programmed in somehow, and then you could release that happy thought again whenever you needed a boost by squeezing together your thumb and finger again?

Paul Mckenna told us all then to tap about 10 times at various points of our bodies while thinking about the desired food, starting with above the eye…tap, tap, tap. Moving down below the eye and onto the collar bone…tap, tap, tap. Then under your arm, on the side of your hand, and finally on the back of your hand…tap, tap, tap… All the while thinking about the food you crave. Then you have to roll your eyes clockwise and then anti clockwise, then look down to the right then to the left, then back to tap above your eye… ( I think that was how it went, but it was all very fast) Anyway after a few more taps… I no longer wanted any chocolate! MAGIC!

It was either me starting to change my body’s algorithm or just by concentrating on tapping it distracted me from what I actually wanted.

This technique apparently was developed by Dr. Roger Callahan PhD and has been proven as very successful in controlling and eliminating emotional stress which causes us to emotionally eat. This is where we have to change the algorithm in the body and do some diagnostic training.

The theory behind this technique sort of made sense, it is about tapping on key areas of the body’s energy meridian which is something that people have used in acupuncture for hundreds of years. It was described to us as tapping a healing code into our healing system. It did all sound slightly strange and I did wonder it it was going to have any effect. I’m not really one for all this self healing milarky.