kingkeld's Journal, 15 May 2012

Hello, Fatsecret world!

I slept amazingly well again last night. I did have a little trouble getting the Paul McKenna CD to play the way I wanted it to, so I woke up when it was over, as it started playing something else. No biggie, I fell asleep immediately again, and this is one more morning of me feeling well rested.

I lost weight again, a whopping 700 more grams. 3.3 kgs (7 lbs) since Friday morning, and it feels like it's done even without trying.

The really cool thing about my new approach is that it feels like I have literally no restrictions, I can do what I want, I don't have to think whether I can afford the calories I want. It's not a free-for-all - I won't go over my RDI - but I simply don't have the urge for the foods that would break the bank.

I eat my three meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner, and nothing else right now. It's not that I decided it to be like that, I just don't feel like I want anything else. I have bananas sitting at work staring at me all day, but I have no urge to dig into them. I'm gonna have to toss them out soon, and they're getting too mushy.

I have sugar free Jell-O sitting in the fridge, ready to go. I made it Saturday. Normally, I'll eat the whole thing, all four servings, in one go. It's okay for me to do, as the whole thing is only 20 calories. However, I have twice felt like having a little of it, and I've had one serving, 5 calories, twice. The other half of the Jell-O is still sitting there. How long is a Jell-O good, I wonder? This is a concern I have NEVER had before! LOL!

Yesterday, I barely made it past 1000 calories. Wow. I've been going way too low on my calories lately, but I simply don't feel like eating more. I think one thing is to restrict yourself beyond what's healthy, and fight to get there, but I do think the body reacts a little differently when it's not starvation. When it's actually you working a little harder to get UP to those calories, not feeling restricted, feeling full and satisfied.

Of course, just like the entire journey I've been on, and everything I have learned, I don't recommend going under the magical 1200 calories. I do think it's a bad move to do for longer time. For me, it's just happened. I try to sneak a little extra in here and there, but mainly around my meals. A slice of cheese is added to my breakfast. I had a beef frank after dinner last night - I felt like I needed more protein, so I had it. It didn't feel like a snack, it wasn't emotional eating, it was actual hunger - but not in a bad way. Not "Oh, my god, I'm starving"-hunger, but more like my body was telling me that I needed more.

I think I'm getting better at feeling this. Feeling when I'm hungry for actual food, and when it's my mind playing tricks on me.

Once more, I can't thank my buddy Pam enough for pointing me to the Paul McKenna tools.

I wish I could share them online. I wish there were some youtube videos or something, because I do feel that they are something that we should ALL watch and learn from. I sure wish I had known these things when I started my weight loss journey. I can see how they could have made the ride even easier. Not that I'm complaining. Honestly, my weight loss journey seems to have been pretty easy. I've done good, and enjoyed it by far the most days.

For those of you, who are interested in this new approach, I highly recommend that you take a look at his 6 disk DVD box, it's £60 on his website www.paulmckenna.com - and I'd say it's well worth it. It's completely changed the game for me this week.

It seems that he's very protective about his copyrighted material, there's not much to be found on youtube and other places, so it's hard to really give you guys much to preview.

However, what he does it basically set up a few VERY easy rules. He takes the dieting out of the weight loss journey, and focuses on "reprogramming" us to do the right thing.

His four rules are:

1. When you're hungry, eat!
- He talks about the importance of feeling satisfied and not starving yourself. When we starve ourselves, we end up binging, and the metabolism goes out of whack. So it's important to learn to feel when we are physically hungry, and to learn to recognize (and fight) emotional hunger. He gives us tools to do this.

2. When you eat, eat what you want - not what you think you should.
- Just like when we were cavemen, our bodies WILL tell us if we're lacking nutrients, carbs, proteins, fat etc. However, we have stopped listening to what it's telling us. We are being "reprogrammed" to listen better, and learn to eat what our bodies are telling us to eat.

3. Eat consciously.
- Put the fork down! Pry the fingers off the sandwich! When you eat, focus on the food. Take a bite, put the fork down. Chew at least 20 times. Take your time, even to the point where your food gets cold. When we rush, we don't enjoy the foods, and our brain doesn't have time to register that we eat. We eat a LOT more than we need, simply because we hurry. We eat more when we watch tv, surf online, read books etc while eating. So put the entertainment away, sit down at the dinner table and FOCUS on the meal you're eating. Why is it that we're thinking of foods all day, except when we actually eat? When we eat we shovel it down as fast as possible, like we were eager to get it over with. He talks about the importance of stopping this, and eating slow.

4. When you're full, STOP eating!
- We learn to recognize this feeling. It's something that many of us have forgotten. We learn how to check ourselves through our meals and recognize when we are full or satisfied. Just like McKenna doesn't want us to go hungry, he doesn't want us to be overly stuffed either.

Of course, writing it out like this is not the same as watching the shows and getting the understanding of it, but it really isn't much harder than this. There are no traps that I'm leaving out.

When it comes to all the BAD foods - the chips, the candy, the chocolate, the beer - all the stuff that we often are concerned about because it destroys our weight loss plans, McKenna gives us some great tools to handle them. He simply helps us remove the urge for them. I've done this since Friday - take a look at my food diary and see how I've done. Virtually NO snacks, candies or chocolate. Actually, NO candies or chocolate at all - and this is what has occupied my mind like crazy for quite a while.

So bottom line, I highly recommend this. If you're interested in hearing more about it - other than my journal babble - feel free to write to me. I'll be happy to share.

EDIT: I found a video on youtube, where McKenna explains this pretty well. Take a look:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NRK4JW5QegA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So, what's in store today?

Well, no biking. I did the 30 minutes yesterday, and I feel that I'm still being punished. I think I overworked my legs this weekend, and they are politely asking me for a break. I'll let it pass today and get back tomorrow if my legs are okay with it. I don't want to strain them.

Besides, with the new lower calorie intake, I'm not too concerned with getting ALL that exercise in. :)

Work is gonna be fairly busy. I need to focus on a few things I am working on. This is another thing that the McKenna DVDs have helped me with. Since I'm not constantly thinking about food, and fighting the thought, I feel that I can better focus on my work. I got a lot done yesterday, and it was a great feeling. I'm hoping for more of that today. :)

So, right after I'm done writing this journal, I will sit back, relax and listen to the "easy weight loss" CD and get the new ideas to stick even better in my mind. It's great. Then, I'll play a little bass, I think. I'm still getting used to a few new songs, and I want them to sit better with me. They're so much fun to play, I just gotta get more used to arrangements, details etc.

...and then off to work.

...or maybe I'll skip the bass and go to work early.

We have Thursday and Friday off from work, so I have more I need to do this week. It's nice to have days off, but it's also a hassle when you've got a lot to do.

So, today I'm thankful for:
- A nice, new low weigh-in. One more kg to go and I'm at goal weight. I'm hoping to see this happen this week.
- Another good night sleeping like a log.
- A general positive outlook on things.
- Morning coffee and a wonderful chat with Wife before she left for work.

Happy Tuesday, my friends! Make someone's day today! :) Life is good!

172.0 lb Lost so far: 169.8 lb.    Still to go: 0 lb.    Diet followed 100%.

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1068 kcal

Fat: 29.16g | Prot: 88.29g | Carb: 112.15g.   Breakfast: Egg, Sliced Ham (Extra Lean), Rye Bread (Reduced Calorie), Gouda Cheese. Lunch: chicken, lettuce, pita bread. Dinner: White Rice (Long-Grain, Cooked), chicken breast. Snacks/Other: jell-o gelatin. more...

2857 kcal

Activities & Exercise: Walking (moderate) - 3/mph - 45 minutes, Sleeping - 8 hours, Desk Work - 2 hours and 30 minutes, Standing - 6 hours, Sitting - 6 hours and 45 minutes. more...