Hi everyone,
I know this should probably go in the Emotional Issues forum, but I'm just pissed off so I thought the War Zone might be more appropriate .

Don't know if anyone is familiar with this show on TLC, but I think it just started a week ago. From what I've seen, it's basically a live audience type of thing and hosted by Paul McKenna. Basically, it's all about intuitive eating (i.e., eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full, emotional eating, etc.) and techniques on how to stop them.

I was looking forward to watching this, since I've been a binge eater since I was in my teens. I've read several books on intuitive eating so I was familiar with most of the techniques and was anxious to see how this would go.

So I watched one show tonight about emotional eating. First off, McKenna made it sound like intuitive eating was the easiest thing in the world. He even had one of his past clients come up (who lost 185 pounds) and the guy was all about "oh, this is so easy, I lost the weight so easily," etc.

Um... hello??? If it was "so easy" to just eat what you want, be conscious of what you're eating, stop when you're full - most of us who are overweight wouldn't be in the position we're in, would we??? To me, that's just insulting the intelligence of people who have struggled not only with their weight but with food issues in general. We KNOW what we need to do and the theory is a beautiful theory. But in practice, it's a whole lot harder, especially since most people who overeat have lost the ability to know what hunger and fullness really feel like.

I've tried intuitive eating the way that McKenna describes it (i.e., eating what I felt like I wanted, stopping when I was full) and it's tough. Sure, it's the ideal way to eat and maybe the way "thin" people eat, but after twenty plus years of overeating and using food to numb emotions and stress, it's just not as simple as eating half as much (which is what one guy said he did last week trying the IE techniques)

Then, McKenna answered one question that viewers had (why are there no meal plans to his program) and he went on and on about how restricting food from without (i.e., a diet) was detrimental and how his technique was about listening to internal cues. Again - hello??? For most people who are overweight (that I've met and talked to) if we knew what internal cues to listen to we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

Then, there was this clip about a woman who gained weight after her divorce and is dealing with emotional eating. McKenna sits down with her and tells her he has some techniques that he wants her to try to get rid of her stress so she won't overeat - and proceeds to show her some "tapping" techniques on certain points of her body. Here he is, ranting on about how you can't rely on external techniques to lose weight and get healthy and change habits and here he is using "tapping" and acupuncture, which, in my mind, are external techniques.

Sorry this is so long. It's not that I don't think intuitive eating is wrong or that this guy isn't really trying to help people. But the way the show presented it, intuitive eating sounds like just another "diet" in a more unconventional sense at best, or, at worst a gimmick.

Thanks for letting me rant .

Tam

I also happened to catch a bit of the show last week...interesting. Eating until you're full may not be a good idea. I did like his technique of putting your fork down and chewing your food completely rather than just midnlessly shoveling it in. But he required the woman to chew 20 times?? The idea is so you TASTE your food and food becomes more enjoyable. Okay - so this is NOT new advice. He just happens to pull togther all the things your mother told you and repackage it for a new, desperate generation.

Maybe Mom was right - you should put your fork down. But that is not going to solve overeating problems alone. Nor is eating anything you want. I've tried that technique and it doesn't work. I want a brownie, a glass of red wine, and a BOX of Pop-Tarts. That is not going to help me. Stylish huckster - telling people it's not really their fault but all the "bad" advice they've been given over the years. Jeez...I've got some ocean front property in Nevada...

Thanks so much for the reply! I was a bit nervous about posting here since I didn't want to turn this into a flame war. I do think that some of the suggestions he gave are good ones, as you say. That's one reason I was frustrated with the "it's so easy" gimmicky approach that the show seemed to use...

Tam

I saw 5 minutes of his show yesterday. Hubby and I just started laughing and turned it off.

He sounds like every other "seminar guy" I have ever heard.

I haven't seen the show -- only the previews -- but everything I hear about this guy makes me chuckle. He seems like a modern Horace Fletcher (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9693596) who also practices EFT tapping. If someone told me he recommends hypnotic regression to discover what you preferred to eat in your past life, I wouldn't be surprised.

Hey, I should start a show about making people thin too. I can do it. Pay me $500 and I promise to get you to your goal weight within a year.

(just duct tape people to their chair and let them starve. Oh wait, that's what low fat diets already do.)

instead of eat, tap yourself and hum

what a snake oil salesman. The whole thing smacks of infomercial.

My husband and I rolled with laughter at his, 'eat what you want, just stop when you're full' what do you bet me he's NEVER been overweight or had binge eating disorders.

and if you believe that one, I've got a lovely bridge Ocean front property to sell you in Detroit.

OOOH!!!! I want to buy it!!! Does it come with a free surf board?

i meant, lovely ocean front property... I was going to offer the Brooklyn Bridge but I think that idiot Trudea offers it with his book.

That was not a infomercial? heheheheheheh I was waiting for Billy Mays to come out and pitch something.

Hahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaha

--screaming voice-- BILLY MAYS HERE! I'M GOING TO TELL YOU HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT! ONLY EAT WHEN YOU'RE HUNGRY! FOR SIGNING UP, YOU GET A FREE 2 GALLON BUCKET OF OXICLEAN! AND IF YOU CALL IN THE NEXT 2 AND A HALF MINUTES, A WHOLE BOTTLE OF ORANGE GLO!

Okay, that is the *newest* winner for the day, on a day when there have been many winners posted!

And I'm sure some of the folks in TVland can use the oxiclean as part of a colonic cleansing.

I can hear his voice!!!

Wait...


oh, that's my chest wheezing from laughing too hard....

I'm crying again...

PALEEZE tell my you're joking..................right??!!!!



Hey, that was U2's idea!!
Oops--that was "Rattle and Hum" sorry.

uh, it's his schtick... really...

if you want to eat something, tap yourself on your collarbone, under your eye, hum a tune, look to the left, to the right, then around in a circle, count to 10, hum a tune, keep tapping... under your eye, back of your hand...

apparently this will make you stop wanting those cookies.