Paul McKenna

Having had some success with Paul McKenna's method in the past, I have decided to start again. Don't know the method? Very simple, Paul McKenna pretends that by following his four "golden rules" we will be eating the way naturally thin people eat and hence lose weight.

The four golden rules:

- Eat when you are hungry
- Eat what you want
- Eat consciously
- Stop when you think you are full

That is it!

He says it's important to eat when we are hungry and before we are too hungry, this way we eat less. The important point here is to listen to our body. Because his "system" is not a diet but a normal every day eating, he insists that we should eat what we want and not restrict our diet to certain food, which would lead to frustration and more desire for them. Eating consciously means eating slowly, chewing each mouthful at least 20 times, putting the fork down between mouthful and thinking about what we are eating. This also means that we shouldn't be doing anything else while eating such as watching TV, reading, being on the computer, etc. as it has been proven that distraction while eating increases the amount of eating. His last point once more is to listen to our body and stop when we think we are full.

As I said, I have used the technique before and it is surprisingly successful (and easy). Now, I'm starting again and this time will try hard to stick with it. The last time I stopped, I had a very stressful schedule at work and needed to eat my lunch quickly to go pick up the boys on time in two different locations, so the conscious eating went out of the window.