Thank you for all the support and warm welcomes!
I'll elaborate on the '4 golden rules' from Paul McKenna for those that are interested.
1. When you are hungry, EAT.
Practice listening to your body, it's talking to you. You want to eat when you are fairly hungry, but before you become ravenous.
People often eat when they are not hungry because it is simply a habit. Many people are so desensitized to their body's messages that they've forgotten how to pay attention. Real physical hunger is different to emotional hunger. Physical hunger comes on gradually. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, when you feel bored or upset. If you starve youself you will end up bingeing. That's how your body gets thrown off balance.
In future when you feel physical hunger, eat! When you starve yourself your body goes into ‘survival mode', it slows your metabolism and your body starts to store fat. When you eat when you are truly hungry you tell your body there will always be enough food and your metabolism is likely to speed up.
2. Eat what you want, not what you think you should.
As soon as you tell yourself to not eat certain foods, (usually because you've been told they're bad for you), you upset the natural balance of your relationship to them. Rather than wanting it less, that ‘forbidden food' instantly becomes more attractive to you.
The inner battle can be exhausting. As you begin to make peace with food and learn to listen to the wisdom of your body, you experience freedom from the tension and guilt that comes from NOT following your intuition.
Also, as you stop resisting and start to follow your natural intuitions about what to eat when, you may notice your tastes changing. You may even find yourself naturally attracted to the very foods you're ‘supposed' to be eating now.
So in future eat what types of foods you want and not what you think you should.
3. Eat conciously and enjoy every mouthful.
People that are overweight often shovel food in to their mouths as quickly as possible in order to get high from the happy chemicals we release in our brains when we eat. Unfortunately, because they are eating unconsciously, they never notice the signal from their stomach that lets them know that they are full. So they keep on stuffing their faces, expanding their stomachs and putting on weight.
The problem is that even though they feel temporarily high from cramming in lots of food, they feel fat and guilty afterwards. In fact, they feel so bad that they repeat the whole ritual of unconsciously stuffing themselves again in order to anaesthetize the bad feelings they just created!
Here is perhaps the single most important key to success with the system:
You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want. So long as you fully enjoy every single mouthful.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Put the knife and fork down whilst you are chewing your food and really enjoy it - savour the taste, and enjoy the wonderful textures and sensations as you thoroughly chew each mouthful of food at least 20 times!
If all you did for the next two weeks was to slow your eating speed down to about a quarter of what it used to be and chew each mouthful thoroughly, you will find it easy to leave food on your plate.
I actually find that even if you don't follow any of the other golden rules, follow this one. It will make a HUGE difference.
4. When you think you are full, stop eating.
The natural design of the human body is to eat when we're hungry and stop when we're satisfied, but many of us are conditioned to eat until we think we're full - or even worse, until whatever food we put on our plate is gone. When you've eaten enough, your stomach sends a signal - a sensation that says "I'm satisfied - that's enough." Most people experience this gentle, clear, satisfied sensation in their solar plexus (the area below your rib cage but above your stomach).
Of course, if you miss this warm feeling of satisfaction when it first occurs, you'll notice that each subsequent bite of food becomes a little less enjoyable than the one before. The more you pay attention to it, the more obvious it becomes. If you are not sure whether you are full or not, just guess. You will soon find it becomes easier to tell.
I find this step quite easy now, I can read my body and it tells me when enough is enough. I believe that I am now eating 1/4 of what I used to.
These simple steps have changed my relationship with food. It all makes sense!
Ask me any questions you may have regarding this program, I hope you guys give it a try.
xox Leonie xox
