In his book I Can Make You Thin Psychologist Paul McKenna outlines 4 easy weight loss tips I wanted to share here and elaborate on a little.
1. Eat only when physically hungry. Learn to listen to your body’s cues about hunger and differentiate between peckish, slightly hungry, hungry, very hungry, ravenous, and faint with hunger. Aim to eat when you are some where in the middle of that range. Also learn to differentiate between physical hunger and emotional hunger. Here are a couple of easy clues that can help. First emotional hunger comes on as a sudden craving and is usually unsatisfied by food. Physical hunger comes on gradually. Second the brain’s signal to the body for thirst and hunger are identical. To tell what your body is saying to you, have a glass of water or two before eating. If you still feel hungry eat, if not then the message being communicated was just “Man I was parched! “
2. When you are physically hungry, eat what you want: Whether it’s a crsip cool salad, a crunchy fresh sweet juicy apple, hot soup and a chunk of crusty fresh bread with lashings of butter , creamy mashed potatoes , a bowl of delicious Rojan Gosh, Chilli Con Carne, or Chicken Chow Mein, a meat pie or Black Forest Gateau, if that’s what you’d like and you have it on hand go for it.
3. Enjoy EVERY morsel : Pay close attention to every bite, slow down, chew well ( digestion begins in the mouth) and eat with healthy relish
4. Stop when you have had enough: Give up being one of the clean your plate brigade. If you are full save the left overs for later, if eating out ask for a doggy bag. Differentiate between: a) still hungry, b)satisfied, c)full, d) stuffed . Aim for some where between b and c.
Don’t worry that you will endlessly indulge your cravings at the expense of a healthy balanced diet, if you follow these principles your diet will even out. Your body will tell after the third day in a row of Death by Chocolate Cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner that it has had enough of that and would like something else thank you.
For help overcoming dependence on certain foods and other advanced behaviour modification techniques check out Paul’s CD I Can Make you Thin, and for great info on healthy food choices and delicious recipes, see our products on our web site www.flexibilityplus.com.
Yours In Health,
Nancy