Paul McKenna's I Can Make You Thin

I became aware Paul McKenna in the most backward way. First, I caught the last 10 minutes of him on a QVC commercial. I liked him- he had a lot of charisma, but I missed the beginning of the show and therefore didn't really catch what his 'diet' was all about. I thought about him for a few days and then simply put him out of my mind. One day in the library, his 90 Day Success Journal was upfront and center and so I checked it out. It was good, but again, I really needed the accompanying book- I Can Make You Thin to go with it, but alas, the library didn't have that. This time I didn't forget about it, I simply filed it away for future reference. During my trip home to the US at Christmas 2008, I made another heady trip to my local bookstore- Barnes and Noble and there was his book, I Can Make You Thin on the display table as soon as I walked into the door. Now I don't need to be whacked on the head to get the hint, so I bought the book, of course.


He states right from the beginning that the book can be read in about 2 hours. It can be. And it is full of information. It all sounds simple- and it probably is- it's just that the application is the thing that proves to be the most difficult.


I tried it last year for 3 days- but the timing was wrong. At the same exact time, I had just started my dark journey into hell. However, 14 months later and although still living the nightmare, I'm getting 'used' to it, so to speak. Plus, I've got a year of counselling under my belt and some fabulous insight and self discovery courtesy of said counselling.

Anyways, here I am with a 10 pound weight gain since last month. The last two weeks have been atrocious, to say the least. Since last January, I have put on 50 lbs.! Yikes. A couple of people have mentioned that perhaps now isn't the best time to confront my weight problem with all that is going on in my home life. The reason being that comfort eating is my coping mechanism among other things. But as my sister pointed out, when will it ever be a good time? We all have 'stuff' going on at any given time in our lives.

So anyways, since Friday, I've picked his book back up and instead of zipping through it in 2 hours and jumping right in, I've decided to take it slow.


This is not a diet by the way. Here are the 4 Golden Rules:


-when you're hungry, EAT
-eat what you want, not what you think you should
-eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful
-when you think you are full, STOP eating


These are very straightforward, simple rules. However, I have a false appetite. I eat to comfort myself and to push down feelings that I don't want to deal with. It would never occur to me to eat when I was actually hungry. I can't remember the last time my stomach growled. And although I'm full and sometimes sick, there is something there that is not sated and it is not my hunger.

I've decided to focus for the time being on listening to my body to see what true hunger feels like. I'll get to the rest of the steps, but first, I need to find out what it feels like to be hungry. For the past thirty years, I've listened to my head and my heart instead of my stomach.

I started this on Friday, the 26th and I caught myself on the first day eating 'unconsciously' not noticing if I was hungry or not and not even paying any attention to what I was putting into my mouth.

McKenna does give a hunger scale from 1-10 and suggests in the beginning to check every hour where you are on the scale.

All I can do is give it my college girl try.