This all began back in the 80s when I was a radio broadcaster and I went to interview the local hypnotist. I was very stressed that day so he said, “look, instead of me talking about it, I’ll demonstrate it.” He hypnotized me and I became very relaxed. So, I borrowed some books from him and began hypnotizing myself and my friends to lose weight and quit smoking. Then I’d be at a party and everyone would say “make someone into a ballerina or a kangaroo” and we’d all fall about laughing!
The Brain: Our Very Own Deep Thought Computer
If the brain is like a computer, I’m a bit like a computer programmer. NLP stands for neuro (which is neurology – our brain) linguistic (language, the way we communicate) and programming. Just like a computer has programs it runs in order to do its functions, so do human beings. We learn how to tie our shoelaces or shake hands as a child and once we’ve practiced that several times, we store that program in our subconscious mind so the next time we go to tie our shoelaces, we don’t have to think about it.
As we continue through life, we learn more and more complicated things – these processes are then automated in the form of programs which are run from our brains. When it comes to overeating, many people have just learned bad habits around food; they learn to eat too fast so they can’t get a signal from their stomach that says when they’re full. Or they eat when they’re not really hungry but feel upset, lonely or bored and change their mood when they eat food.
With this TV show on TLC, I’m going to re-program people’s mind through the television set so they become more in control around food, stop being controlled by cravings and stop emotional eating. As a result, they feel totally motivated to exercise and more confident about themselves.
Okay, But How Do You Do It?
Let’s say I meet with a lady who is eating five pounds of chocolate a day. I do a very simple technique with her where I get her to think about a food she hates and a food she loves. I get her to think about the two foods at the same time and her brain takes the feeling of repulsion of the food she hates and the feeling of compulsion from the food she loves and mixes them together in the neural networks of her brain. Then, BAM! One cancels out the other, and she doesn’t feel like eating chocolate anymore.
This is the first time something like this has ever been done on American television. Normally, all the self improvement happens to people you’re watching on the screen but this is not just a voyeuristic show. This is me coming through your television while you're sitting on your couch in Arkansas or wherever - and if you want me to, re-wiring your brain so that suddenly you feel more in control around food and feel better about yourself. I’m hoping we’ll start a whole new genre of television.
Fitter, Happier, More Productive
Most people spend more time learning to work their cellular telephone than they do their own brain. At school, they teach us what to think but they don’t teach us how to think. What I’m doing is showing people how to think and ways to control their thoughts, behaviors and feelings. Many of the problems that we have in the world these days stem from people not being able to control their feelings. Everybody, to some extent, controls their feelings by external means – drinking, drug taking, gambling, sex, shopping, television, and of course, food.
Food is easily available and relatively inexpensive, so right now food is the western world’s drug of choice. More people change the way they feel using food than anything else. Sixty-five per cent of Americans are overweight now and the obesity epidemic is completely out of control.
A lot of it is just habit. People who are overweight are not broken. They’re not bad and they’re not wrong. It’s just that they’ve gotten into a bad habit or their emotions are a bit overwhelming so they use food to change how they feel. I’m simply re-setting the thermostat so they feel more in control.
Does every technique work for everyone every time? No, just like no drug works for everyone, every single time. While we share the same neurology and physiology, we’re all unique. But we do know from the independent research studies that my success rate is seven in 10, compared to one in 10 for all of the diets that have been thoroughly tested.
The Four-Letter D-Word: DIET
I’ve been picking a fight with the diet business in England for the last couple of years because there’s a better case for banning diets than banning smoking. Seventy-five per cent of people who come off a diet end up putting on more weight than before they went on the diet! It’s not just that diets don’t work: they are the cause of obesity in America and the UK right now.
Even though I’ve been openly attacking them for years, the diet industry won’t fight back. They know I’m going to pull out the statistics and wave them at them, and they’re terrified of that. Actually, they’re all trying to distance themselves from the word “diet” – every diet you pick up says “This is not another diet book” and then there are 100 pages of recipes!
Everyone’s been looking for the cure for obesity and I think I may have found it. Certainly the statistical evidence seems to suggest that, because it works for more people than any other system in the world. And, it’s fun! Diets aren't very much fun and I think I’ve developed a system that’s easy and quite a lot of fun.
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Visit Paul McKenna's website at McKenna.com [3]
If this you enjoyed this story, you may also enjoy 'I Can Make You Thin' - A Personal Experience [4]
