HYPNOTIST Paul McKenna says he can make you thin – and it’s all down to the power of your mind.
He’s urging Sun readers to ditch fad diets and stop being a slave to the “shaming” scales.
Instead, he says his simple mind techniques will change your relationship with food — and help you reclaim your body FOREVER.
In exclusive extracts from his book, I Can Make You Thin, Paul says you will become happier and more confident and you will be able to eat what you want — without succumbing to feelings of shame or guilt.
And today, one woman reveals how she lost 13 STONE by following Paul’s techniques of mastering the power of your mind.
Paul says: “Being slim is a state of mind. I have spent over 30 years researching these methods and if you practice them, I can make you thin.
“When it comes to losing weight, it’s not about the food.
“It’s the way you think and behave around food that makes the difference.”
Paul believes that losing weight won’t just change your figure — it will change your life.
He says: “It’s very common that when someone loses weight, they become happier and more confident.
“And both anecdotal evidence and research has found there is a correlation between those three elements and making more money. As you get thin, you’ll also get fitter which boosts your sex drive too.
“The massive gain literally is a better life.”
Paul reckons the first mistake many people make is thinking a diet is the answer.
He says: “Many diets make you fat.
'GIVE UP THE SCALES'
“It’s the classic yo-yo of starving yourself then falling off the wagon and people can be trapped for decades. The diet industry is an extraordinary, multi-billion dollar con.
“I recommend that you give up the scales for life — or at the very least, only weigh yourself once every two weeks.
“You’ll know when you’re thin because you’ll look great and feel wonderful.”
Paul says successful weight loss is all about what’s in your head.
He adds: “The first step is to focus and ask yourself this question, ‘What do I really want?’
“You might want to lose a few stone in the next few months, feel comfortable in a size 12 dress, or you even might want to look good naked!
"I can show you how to reach your goal.”
Follow the 4 golden rules of weight loss
THERE are four golden rules to losing weight, celebrity hypnotist Paul McKenna reveals today.
They are the cornerstones for a healthy relationship with food and will banish dysfunctional eating patterns from your life — forever.
If you struggle at first, Paul says consider trying to eat a meal BLINDFOLDED in order to teach yourself how to really savour flavours and eat slower — both of which are crucial to long-term success.
Paul says: “How would you like to eat whatever you want whenever you want and still lose weight?
“I know that seems like an outrageous claim, but it’s true.
“Before long, you will be eating less and enjoying it more without feeling like you are missing out.
“Over the decades, time and time again I observed that people who are overweight think about food all day long, except when they are eating it.
“I also noticed they shovel food really fast.
“Eating mindfully reduces the amount you consume.
“In the past I have demonstrated this by asking people to eat blindfolded for a meal as well as chew slowly and put down their cutlery between mouthfuls to experience food in a different way.
“Without exception they eat considerably less.
“There are four steps to taking back control of meal times, which when combined with visualisation techniques will help you to get thin.”
Rule 1: Eat when you are hungry
YOU must make a distinction between real physical hunger and emotional hunger.
Physical hunger comes on gradually over several hours.
It begins with that feeling of “I fancy chicken for lunch” and gradually builds.
Emotional hunger is sudden – that feeling of “I’m bored, I’ll go to the fridge”, or “I’m upset and stressed, I need some pizza to feel better”.
Fortunately, as you begin to listen to your body, you will become able to easily recognise the signs of true, authentic hunger.
I have created a Hunger Scale which you can put on your fridge door.
Never allow yourself to go to either extreme: Never be ravenous or stuffed, stay in the middle and then your relationship with food will become healthier.
Reset and recalibrate
BECOMING aware of what your body needs and wants is liketraining a muscle – the more you use your awareness, the stronger it gets.
But some people tell me they don’t know if they are physically hungry or not any more.
This is because they have over-ridden their natural calibration with repeat yo-yo dieting. This helps you reset.
- Remember a time when you felt really, really hungry. What did it feel like? Where in your body did you feel it? Really remember it in every detail now.
- Now, remember a time when you felt totally stuffed. Again remind yourself exactly what that felt like now.
- Compare the two. Keep going back and forth between the two extremes about ten times to help your body remember.
It may not feel like much is happening when you first do this exercise, but your body and unconscious mind are beginning an important process of recalibrating your inner signals.
Each time you repeat it it becomes easier to notice when you are truly hungry.
Rule 2: Eat what you want, not what you think you should
ALL the naturally thin people I know eat chocolate, crisps, pizza and cheese – all the supposed “forbidden foods” but the difference is they don’t eat them to excess.
As soon as you make a food forbidden, it becomes all you can think about.
It takes the pressure away if you know you can eat whatever you want.
So I want you to clear out your fridge.
But not of the foods you like – instead, get rid of any low fat, chemical rubbish which is often full of sugar.
Only keep the food that makes you feel good, you know is good for you and you enjoy eating.
Rule 3: Eat consciously
THE single most important message is: Whenever you eat, do so consciously and free of all distraction.
Focus on the food and nothing else. Slow your eating speed down to a quarter of what it normally is, and chew each mouthful 20 times.
That way you cannot over-eat. This will enable you to hear a signal from your brain that says you are full.
It’s very important to put your knife and fork down between every mouthful.
This alters the experience so you can give your body time to notice what it’s doing and not simply shovel food in.
If you’re not using cutlery, prise your fingers off your sandwich and put it down between each mouthful.
When your mouth is empty, you can pick up where you left off. Turn off the TV, put down your phone or computer.
We have proved this over and over again with an experiment where we get a group to eat a full English breakfast on day one and they clear the lot.
Then on day two we blindfold them and offer the same meal. They eat half as much as they have to go slowly and they really savour every mouthful.
If you struggle with this you could even consider blindfolding yourself for a meal to help yourself recalibrate. It works!
Rule 4: When you think you are full, stop eating
WHEN you shovel in food quickly, you will miss the signal of the stomach telling the brain that it’s full.
When you slow everything down you will become conscious of that signal and it’s easier to stop.
If you even think, or have an inkling you are full, then stop.
People often ask me: “But what if I’m hungry ten minutes later?”
My answer is: If you decide you really are hungry, and it’s not an emotional hunger, then eat, until you “hear” that inner signal again.
Craving buster
SOME people are completely out of control around a particular food or suffer cravings.
Chocolate, bread, biscuits or some other comfort food may have turned from an occasional treat to uplift your spirits to a heavy anchor round your hips and thighs.
This technique conquers that.
Best of all, it can work in less than two minutes!
- Imagine the food – for argument’s sake we’ll use chocolate – that you are craving and visualise it in front of you. On a scale of one to ten, how much do you want it?
- Now think of a food that you really hate, not just dislike, but one that repulses you. It could be anchovies, chopped liver or whatever makes you feel nauseous.
- I want you to think about the chocolate (or food you crave) and imagine biting into it. But as you bite into it you can actually taste the food you hate mixed with it.
- And to add a little bit more disgust, there are some hairs in there too.
- Chew on it. Taste the anchovies and the chocolate and hair mixed together.
- Now swallow it. Now ask yourself do you really want some chocolate?
Because you have combined a compulsion (chocolate) with a repulsion (anchovies and hair) one counteracts the other.
And if your craving isn’t quite busted, repeat.
'I lost 13 stone after a child said my bum was the size of a planet'
MUM Janet Johnson tipped the scales at 23 stone when a child at her son’s nursery said she had a bottom “the size of a planet”.
After a decade of failed diets and mounting unhappiness she picked up Paul McKenna’s I Can Make You Thin book – and now she’s an incredible 13 stone lighter.
She dropped from a size 30 to a size eight and her waist, which was 137cm is now a trim 71cm.
Janet, 44, of Swindon, Wilts, mum to son Joe, who is now 15, said:
“Shame, disgust and guilt were feelings I was accustomed to when looking at and thinking about my body, although I didn’t admit it, even to myself, at the time.
“At the time I might have told you, ‘I’m fine, I’m happy’, but in those silent moments when your legs are rubbing together so much they are bleeding, or when you meet up with friends for coffee and you find yourself unable to fit into the cafe chair without the arms cutting painfully into your thighs – in those moments, it feels so embarrassing and the sadness and self-hatred would seep in.
“Food became both the comfort and the very thing that was causing my problems.”
The turning point came when Joe, then three, came home from nursery upset that a friend had joked his mum’s bum was as big as a planet.
Janet said: “I can laugh now, but at the time it hurt as I know that children of that age don’t say things to be mean but just say what they see.
“I thought if I don’t lose weight for me, I need to lose weight for Joe.”
Janet, who runs a garden maintenance business, followed Paul McKenna’s plan – and says it was “life-changing”.
She adds: “The way Paul McKenna’s system works is that it’s not something that you go ‘on’ or ‘off’ like a diet and then you revert to your old habits and the weight goes back on.
“He changed me from the inside out, so my habits had changed, not superficially as a result of following a diet, but they had changed at a much deeper level.”
She met her husband, also called Paul, 52, at the end of 2012 when she got down to a size 16.
She believes she was more open to love – because she wasn’t thinking negatively about herself any more.
She says: “Back when I was overweight I would always be thinking about food or my weight in one way or another.
“My mind was always on it, like constant ‘noise’ and talking badly to myself.
“When I started doing the I Can Make You Thin system, one of the things early on that felt amazing was I stopped obsessing and worrying about food. I found peace.”
The friendly mirror
THERE are THREE STEPS to cutting out self-loathing and emotional hunger that can stop you from being thin.
In the Sixties, a plastic surgeon called Maxwell Maltz wrote about Psychocybernetics – creating the concept of not just treating a patient’s physical needs, but their psychological ones too.
He recognised that often the strongest abuse we get in our lives is from our internal dialogue.
I am continually amazed at the negative abuse most people subject themselves to.
They’ll look at themselves in the mirror in the morning, say “fat face, fat arms, fat thighs, fat bottom”, and then go about their day wondering why they don’t feel good about themselves.
It’s time for that to stop.
The next three exercises will eliminate self-loathing by enabling you to feel better about yourself each time you look in the mirror.
Read through all the steps for each technique before you try it.
Part 1
- Stand in front of a full-length mirror and close your eyes. Think of somebody who you think likes what they see when they look at themselves in the mirror. You don’t have to know it for a fact, but you suspect when they look in the mirror they say nice things about themselves.
- Imagine that person is standing in front of you. Imagine how they look, their posture and as much as you can about them.
- Next, imagine stepping into their body. Copy their body posture exactly and see through their eyes, hear through their ears and feel the confident, happy feelings of self-appreciation they have.
- Let those feelings flow through your body to the top of your head to the tip of your toes.
- Now, staying in touch with those good feelings, open your eyes and stare into your eyes in the mirror. DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR BODY – just keep staring into your eyes for at least two minutes. This exercise allows your mind to see more clearly in the future.
- When you get comfortable doing this, then move on to part two.
Part 2
- Stand in front of a mirror and, with your eyes closed, remember a time when you were paid a compliment by someone you respect or trust. Run through the experience all over again.
- As you recall the compliment, and the sincerity of the person who said it, pay particular attention to your feelings of trust and regard for that person.
- When you feel that as strongly as possible, open your eyes, look in the mirror and see what they saw. Allow yourself to see what someone else has seen and notice how that feels.
- Finally, imagine taking a picture of yourself just like that. Imagine taking that picture right into your heart. Keep it there so you can look at it whenever you want to remind yourself how good you can feel.
- When you are comfortable with part 2, move on to part 3.
Part 3
- Every day, spend at least one minute looking at your body in the mirror. Ideally you will do this without clothes, but if you don’t feel comfortable with that at first, you can wear anything that reveals your basic shape.
- Notice what thoughts come up, from “this is stupid” to “God I hate my thighs” to “hmm, not bad!”.
- Send feelings of love, approval and positive thoughts to the person in the mirror. Let them know you are on their side and your love for them is not dependent on the size of their thighs.
Your perfect body exercise
THIS simple but powerful visualisation exercise, which you should do every morning, will train your unconscious mind to help you lose weight and keep it off.
Before you do it, read through all the steps first.
- Stop for a moment and imagine that you are watching a movie of a thin, happy, confident you.
- Watch that thinner you doing the things you do in your daily life and accomplishing them with ease. Imagine this new you eating just the right amount, moving their body regularly, and handling their emotional needs quickly and easily.
- If the movie is not yet exactly how you want things to be, make the adjustments that make you feel great. Allow your intuition to be your guide.
- When you are satisfied with the other you, step into them. Take the new perspective and behaviours into you.
Now run the movie and imagine being in all of your daily situations and view them from your new perspective.
Think what it will help you to achieve. How are things going to be so much better now?
Programme your mind to exercise
IT’S possible to make being thin an everyday habit.
In the morning you get up and you don’t think: “Shall I brush my teeth?”, “Shall I tie my shoelaces or not?” You just do it without thinking about it as it’s become a habit.
Once something has become a habit, it’s easier to do it than not do it.
Nobody forgets to put their clothes on before leaving the house.
So when I’m designing a goal, I go to the end point — when you have got the lifestyle you want and lost the weight — and then I work backwards.
You then have a series of steps. And your brain really loves to “chunk” it into stages.
So people can imagine themselves a little bit thinner, clothes become a bit looser, and then a bit more.
They can even have the aim of running a marathon, but they start by walking a bit further with the dog, next they could get a pedometer and aim for at least 10,000 steps a day.
Don’t make the task ahead overwhelming. But taking exercise helps you to lose fat, build muscle and supercharge your metabolism.
It also leads to an increased sex drive and certain hormones released during exercise can even reverse the ageing process.
So why haven’t you already made exercise a habit?
The reality is, if you want to exercise regularly, you have to enjoy moving your body, both as you are doing it and after.
Until you deliberately root out your negative associations with exercise and install new positive ones, you will continue to tell yourself you should do it and beat yourself up for not listening.
The two visualisation techniques below will create a super-state of motivation to take exercise which you can trigger whenever you want.
Motivation power: Part 1
I WANT you to remember some times when you felt totally motivated, or anything else that you really enjoy doing.
We are going to create an association between those feelings and a squeeze of your fingers by repeating them together, over and over again.
1. On a scale of 1 to 10 how strong is your motivation to exercise? 1 is the weakest, 10 the strongest.
2. Think of something you are already motivated to do. It may be something you feel particularly passionate about, such as your favourite hobby or pastime, being with a loved one or spending time with your family.
If nothing springs to mind, ask yourself, if you’d won a lottery jackpot – how motivated would you be to go and collect the cheque?
Or how motivated would you be to save the life of your closest friend? Or if the most attractive person in the world asked you out on a date – how motivated would you be to say yes?
3. Whatever motivates you most right now, I’d like you to visualize the scene – seeing it through your own eyes as though it’s here now.
See what you would see, hear what you would hear and feel exactly how being motivated feels. Now notice all the details of the scene. Make the colours richer, bolder and brighter.
Make the sounds clearer and the feelings stronger. As the feelings build to a peak, squeeze together your finger and thumb.
4. Keep going through that motivational movie in your mind. As soon as it finishes, start it again, all the time feeling that motivation and squeezing your thumb and finger together.
See what you saw, hear what you heard, and feel that motivation.
5. STOP! Relax your fingers. Move about a bit.
6. Are you ready to test your motivation trigger? Squeeze your thumb and finger together and relive that good feeling now.
It’s important to realise it may not feel as intense, but you can increase your feelings of motivation every time you do this exercise.
Motivation power: Part 2
1. NOW it’s time to make the association between feeling motivated and moving your body.
Squeeze your thumb and finger together and remember what it’s like to feel motivated.
Now imagine yourself moving your body easily and effortlessly throughout the day.
Imagine things going perfectly, going exactly the way you want them to go, finding more and more opportunities to enjoy moving your body in enjoyable ways.
See what you’ll see, hear what you’ll hear and feel how good it feels.
As soon as you have done that, go through it again, still squeezing together your finger and thumb, permanently associating motivation to exercise.
2. Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, how motivated do you feel to move your body?
The higher the number, the easier you will find it to incorporate exercise into your daily routine.
The lower the number, the more you need to practise this technique.
Reader offer
SUN readers can get two of Paul McKenna’s apps for a special price of £4.99 each instead of the usual price of £7.99 – but hurry, this offer is only available for 72 hours.
To get the apps, Thin – Weight Loss Hypnosis and Hypnotic Gastric Band at this special price, visit the links below.
For information about the apps go to McKenna.com.
For more information about Paul McKenna’s book, I Can Make You Thin, visit PaulMcKennaBooks.co.uk.
Offer expires 23.59, Monday, March 15, 2021.
- To get the app Thin – Weight Loss Hypnosis, for £4.99, visit McKenna.com/thin
- To get the app Hypnotic Gastric Band, for £4.99, visit McKenna.com/hypnotic-gastric-band
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