Someting to Chew on....

Did any one watch the program "I Can Make You Thin" last night? My hubby groaned when I grabbed the remote and flipped to it. Not another weight loss show! But he relented and let me watch it.

The guy (this twerpy looking little Englishman) gave 4 "Golden Rules" regarding weight loss. I've heard them all before and especially a little more than not - out on blogdom these days - with such books as The Diet Alternative, Intuitive Eating and even the Core Program (to some extent). I'm thinking that the little guy is on to something.

Here are the Rules: Eat when you're hungry.

Eat what you want.

Eat consciously.

Stop when you're full.

So he walks you though these steps. And I just happen to be getting ready to eat dinner so I follow along. (Okay...I'll admit I broke rule #3 because I was eating in front of the TV - but stay with me here.) I was hungry. (It was 9:30 pm.) I ate what I wanted but for the sake of the experiment - I took exactly half of what I'd normally take. I ate consciously. (except the TV part - there are supposed to be no distractions so you can savor your food and enjoy it.) But I put my fork down between every single bite - and chewed each bite at least 20 times. Do you know I was full before the plate was clean? I mean - I really registered satisfied in my mind and tummy! But I ate it all anyway because in my warped little brain I figured I took half of what I'd normally have taken (and probably still gone for seconds) and this was (after all) just an experiment. But - still - it worked!

So this morning I am getting ready to have breakfast. I stop and think about it. Am I hungry? Yep. The tummy's gnawing. So I look on the Core Plan and see I can't have cold cereal with fruit or nuts in it. And I remember the show. Eat what you want. So I pour myself a small bowl of cereal with dried cranberries and almonds in it. With skim milk - I like skim milk. I don't bring it to the computer with me. I don't grab the newspaper. And I purposely move the remodeling magazines off the table where they were last night so I won't be tempted to read. (I need to always be reading something) Always. But today I don't. I put my spoon down between each bite and savor each morsel as I chew. It's really good cereal. I don't think I ever noticed that before. I usually inhale it. And when the bowl is empty - I feel satisfied and I can actually walk away and not feel compelled to fill the bowl up again...or scrounge around for a cookie or an english muffin or something else.

One of the things the little man said last night (one of those Aha moments) was that fat people spend most of their waking moments thinking about what they're going to eat - but when it comes time to eat it - they wolf it down so fast that they never even have time to enjoy it! That's me. A speed eater all the way. And I think the reason I always take seconds is because I never really enjoyed the first round.

The other sticky point for me is leaving food on the plate. I have a real problem with that. Most overweight people do. So I'm thinking that I need to take a lot less than I think I need for a while - until I learn to really register that full feeling in my mind.

But here's the interesting thing! On the show they conducted an experiment where they had these people go into a diner and order breakfast. Everyone of them cleaned their plate. Then they had them go back the next day - order breakfast again - but this time - eat blindfolded! Because most people it seems (at least overweight people) eat with their eyes! And all of these people left a LOT of food on their plates when they couldn't see what they were eating! Their stomachs registered full before they were done! That really was an eye opener for me!

So I'm really intrigued by this. The show will continue for a few more weeks on Sunday nights (at least here in the North Eastern US). There is a website too, that you can visit if you can't get the show. There is a link on that site to another also - directly to this guy's website.

I would encourage you to check it out. I'm going to follow his guidelines (while trying to to stay within the core menu plan). I think that as I'm losing with the Core plan - the principles of the 4 Golden Rules will help me immensely. And I may deviate....like this morning. I ate the "forbidden" cereal. But I'm full and I'm satisfied and not still foraging the cupboards.

Let me know if you saw the show and what you think! (I tried this way of dieting about 10 years ago with a program called the Weigh Down Diet) and I was successful in losing 22 pounds. Problem was....I was only doing it half heartedly and fell into my old habits again. I was also still reeling from the death of my parents (lost both in the same month) so my heart was elsewhere.

I'm excited about this!