Well not me actually, but that is the claim of Paul McKenna in his book entitled . . . . . you guessed it . . . “I Can Make You Thin”. Now this book has been around for a while but it is surprising how many people do not know about it. It is not about counting calories, exercising, matching food type to body types, healthy eating or even about what you actually eat.
There’s not much left then, what is it about Charlie?
I’m glad you asked me that!
Have you noticed how some people seem to eat whatever they like and however much they like and still stay thin? There’s a word for people that. It’s “bastard”!
Only kidding.
Some people have a faster metabolism and get away with eating what most of us can only envy. But although some people may have naturally fast or naturally slot metabolisms, it can be sped up. This is where my mate Paul McKenna comes in.
First of all, Paul is a hypnotherapist, NLP practitioner and lifestyle coach. He is famous in the UK, but I don’t know how well known he is in other countries. His reasoning is that with many diets and eating patterns, our body can react accordingly. If we overeat and don’t exercise then obviously we are likely to gain weight. But also, when we don’t eat enough, or if we skip meals or go hungry to keep down the calories, then our bodies tend to think that there is a shortage on and go into a kind of “famine” mode. That means that the body will store whatever it can because it does not know when it will be fed again. Obviously this is a biological response, not a mental one. This means that the more people diet and the more that they cut back, then the more that there bodies work against them and slow down the metabolism and stores what it can in the form of fat.
Paul’s approach is to re-train our eating habits so that our bodies think that there is an abundance of food whenever it wants it, so it does not need to store it as fat. The metabolism will then speed up and burn it off more quickly. His approach will initially sound like plain common sense. But as the old saying goes, common sense isn’t very common and most of don’t do it.
Part 1, Eat Whenever You Feel Hungry
This will immediately feel strange to somebody used to missing meals or between meal snacks, but if you want your body to speed up its metabolism, then you need it to feel that food is abundant.
Part 2, Stop When Full
Sounds obvious doesn’t it, but I for one was brought up with the idea of “don’t waste your food” and I was always encouraged to finish my plate (even if I became stuffed). Paul’s mother used to say to him, there are people starving in India who would be glad to have that food, to which he comments, “so it will make them happier if I’m obese will it”?
Eating until we are over-full contributes a lot to weight gain; even if we only eat once a day (especially if we only eat once a day – see Part 1).
Part 3, Eat Consciously
Many of us rush our food. Slow down. When we eat fast, the brain releases endorphins which make us feel good. That is the real pleasure that many people who eat fast get from their food . . . not the taste. Stop what you are doing, don’t eat while watching TV or doing your work and make yourself conscious of what you are eating. Put your knife and fork down between mouthfuls.
When people start to do this, they realise that a lot of the junk food that they eat doesn’t actually taste that good and they start to actually prefer the taste of food that is good for them. The body is very intuitive if you take the time to actually listen to it.
When the stomach becomes full there is a delay in it signaling this to the brain. If you eat fast there is already more food on its way down before the brain knows that you are full, so you will end up bloated. When you eat consciously (slowly), the stomach has the time to send messages to the brain to let it know that you are full, so you can stop eating sooner, before you become bloated.
Part 4, Eating Disorders
Paul also advices on how to overcome disorders such as binge eating and comfort eating. I will confess that I am not so familiar with these problems not being a sufferer myself, but it is all in the book.
I am a fan of Paul McKenna and would really recommend his book for anybody wanting to lose weight. As I have mentioned in previous posts, until recently I was a carer and had a very busy life. As such I rushed my meals so as to be able to meet the next need. From now on I will be making an effort to apply the above principles. The book comes with a hypnosis CD to help you as well.
For further information on weight loss matters, see the HealthyHabits blog which is very informative but with a touch of humour.
