Can Paul McKenna really make us thin?

Have any of you been watching the TLC show, "I Can Make You Thin" with hypnotist Paul McKenna? Ellen Degeneres went to Paul to help her quit smoking, and apparently it worked, so I thought why not check it out because hey this is potential primo BISJ fodder.

To help people lose weight, Paul is basically using techniques to help break your food-pleasure connection using methods like tapping and negative association. He has yet to break out the golden pocket watch and wave it in front of someone saying, "You are getting sleepy...very sleepy." There is no food or exercise plans. He's focusing on changing how your brain thinks about food and exercise, and he's doing it "over the TV."

It cracks me up how he always points that out because I'm thinking, "Dude, I'm watching you on TV and isn't that the whole point of your TV show. It's TV." My first impression was that the show is actually one big infomercial for his books and DVDs as TLC doesn't have too much on Paul on the show's site. They direct you to his personal site. As well, he gets the audience rah-rahing like they do in those "Who wants to be rich" seminars. BUT, I decided to be open-minded and give the show a shot, and try the techniques.

Here's what happened....

I am out of control when it comes to the sweets, and I find it REALLY hard to keep my sugar consumption to a minimum. Although, I eat healthy for the main meals, I always have to have a cookie, some cake, or some chocolate every day. I get into these literal battles with myself to chill on the sweets, and it's really tiresome frankly. I don't want to fight with my sweet cravings the rest of my life.

I did the negative association technique to see if it would help break my intense desires for sweets, and it actually has been working. My offending food if any of you are curious is liver and tripe. The other day, I was at Whole Foods eying the bakery like I always do, and while drooling over the chocolate chip cookies, I pressed my thumb and middle finger together on my left hand and sure enough the desire for the cookies quickly diminished. It was pretty amazing. I tried it again the next day with cake, and I ate some cake but not the whole slice like I normally would.

The point is not that I won't ever eat sweets again, it's that my decision to eat the sweet is now out of choice versus mad cravings. The battle is no longer there if I choose. Nice! I'm curious to see if the technique will last long term, so we'll give it a try and find out.

I've done the tapping technique before using different kinds of EFT, and it never works on me. I've tried it with over a half dozen different holistic healers, and it just doesn't do a thing for me. It may work for you, so I'd still try it. There is no harm to the body, mind, spirit.

Sunday's episode is on speeding up your metabolism so I'm really fascinated to see what that's about. Can Paul McKenna make you thin? I think the jury is still out on that, but he can give you some things to try out to see if they can help you live a healthier life.