It was an early start (well for me, I don't usually get up until 8am when Paul leaves for work!) and today I was out of the house by 7.45 to get to Earls Court. I met Mum and we walked to the hotel, it was very easy to find for 2 reasons. 1, There was a great big sign saying "Ibis Hotel" on it and 2, there was a steady stream of larger people walking in the same direction! We got in and got some good seats and then hung about for an hour (it was a sit where you like job so we needed to be early) nattering which was nice.
At 10am it all kicked off and Paul McKenna came in (well duh!) and grandstanded a little. he very quickly broke the ice with the 800 strong crowd and got onto topic. He is not a fan of the usual diets, because he thinks they focus too much on the food and not enough on the thought processes behind what we eat. He has a good point to be fair, all the impulses we have to comfort eat or binge are all just electrical signals in the brain. And they can be re-programmed or changed! Weightloss is about Eating Less and Moving More, but for those of us who struggle his system helps us reprogram our brains a bit to manage our eating and movement for the positive.
So much of what he said made sense to me and Mum, the self sabotage, the denial and comfort eating etc etc etc. As I am sure did many of the others in the seminar room too. Some very brave women went up on stage to go through some of the techniques with him and then he went through them with the rest of us en masse. They were amazing and really did help! After his craving buster technique I am not sure I will go near a cream slice for a while, combining compulsion and revulsion really worked and I was very nearly sick whilst thinking of eating them mixed with courgettes and spitoon contents!
The main crux behind his system, hypnosis to oneside, was 4 golden rules, they are very very simple ones to remember and are:
1, When you are hungry EAT
2, Eat what you WANT
3, Eat CONSCIOUSLY
4, When you are full STOP.
Basically eating consciously means turn off other distractions whilst you eat, put your cutlery down inbetween mouthfuls and then savour each mouthful for longer. He suggested chewing about 20 times to really get all the flavours and enjoy the food, I didn't manage that many but I certainly spent more time per mouthful! This way when your stomach sends the full signal you aren't busy on a high from lots of lovely food chucked down your throat at speed. When I went to lunch I found I could eat much less and be full, and stay full. He also showed us how true hunger comes on gradually and doesn't come on all of a sudden, that is usually stress related hunger which can be dealt with! He showed us plenty of techniques to deal with all of this too which was fab and very useful. We also got a set of 5 CDs each to help us keep it up and keep on top of all the techniques until they become second nature to us!
I got to meet the man himself at the end too which was exciting!
(excuse the picture, iphone + starstruck Mummy lol!)
I am so glad Mum and I went today, it was a fabulous day (if long 10am - 6pm) and we both learnt lots. I am looking forward to putting it into action properly, slightly tricky tonight because the Chinese restaurant we ordered from hadn't heard that when I am hungry I need to EAT lol
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