The four golden rules of weight loss

While Chocolate and Beyond was never meant to be my journal to weight loss - much more about losing the diet mentality - shedding a bit of the blubbery stuff wouldn't go amiss. And I see that Paul McKenna sums up what probably are the most important rules regarding losing weight without dieting.

I think these four golden rules are incredibly helpful and so will summarise them here.

Rule One:

You guessed it - eat when you’re hungry.

If we’re shoving rice crispy cakes down our gullet when we’ve already got a belly full of chips then we’re never going to drop a size in tents are we? But for compulsive eaters this is possibly one of the hardest aspects of intuitive eating to tackle, because the need to feed emotional hunger doesn’t always come along nicely with physical hunger, does it?

Rule Two:

Eat what you really want, not what you think you ‘should’ have.

This is a very freeing concept and one of the nicest to experiment with when you’ve begun the road of diet dereliction. It occurred to me that I’ve never allowed myself to buy in taramasalata even though I love it, because it’s so fatty and creamy. Sod that – I got a tub yesterday.

Rule Three:

Eat consciously – enjoy each mouthful.

Another lovely experiment and Paul outlines a gorgeous little yummy exercise to get you started. The more you become aware of your food, the more you will know what you like, when you need to stop, and when you feel satisfied. You are also more likely to feel satisfied if you’ve thought about and savoured every bite. No more telly snacking.

Rule Four:

Stop when you think you’re full.

This doesn’t mean at the point when you could be impersonating a fois gras goose of course, you’re supposed to stop before the food comes up your throat and you have to tie a band round your neck to keep it down. Possibly quite a bit before. There is a hunger scale on McKenna’s site and his advice is to aim for around 6, pleasantly satisfied.

Comments

[lisa jane]

I love how you say "sod that",it reminds me of my darling dad, who comes from the uk.It's a cute expression!

[Lorena]

I stumbled across your blog right after I sent the children to bed, thinking "after I have a look online, I'll sit down and eat some of their Halloween candy". Never mind that I'm not hungry, never mind that I don't even feel like eating candy....I've spent my life breaking the Four Golden Rules. Now that I see them laid out in such clear language, it's so obvious. Thank you!!!

[Andrea Wren]

I'm so glad you found my blog then, Lorena! I have also broken the four golden rules a fair bit but I'm fed up of dieting - and I'm fed up of having an on and off love/hate relationship with food, so I'm trying hard to practice these 'rules' (it doesn't always go to plan but I give myself a break). And just for Lisa Jane, "sod that" if I'm going to stay on the diet treadmill for the rest of my years!

[Keris]

Yep. Ate half a packet of Tuc crackers during Strictly Come Dancing Takes Two last night. Not only wasn't I hungry, I was having to force them down because I was thirsty and they're pretty dry. Why do we do it?