Reminder to self and making me thin.

When I exercise, I feel...strong. Healthy. Energized. Accomplished. I sleep better. I feel better. I always need to remember this when I'm feeling lazy. The last time I got into a regular exercise routine, I was really surprised at how just plain good it made me feel. Oh, this is what people are talking about, I thought. I wasn't doing anything really complicated; I was just walking/jogging, yoga, aerobics and strength training, all at home. Sometimes it's easy to make excuses. I can't exercise because I don't have the right equipment or I need to take a class or join the gym. But it's really not true at all.

I was reminded of this when watching "I Can Make You Thin" tonight. OK, when I first saw this guy, Paul McKenna, on "Ellen" a month or so ago naturally I thought it was a load of crap. But with a title like that, you can't help but be curious. And although I'm not fond of most of the show -- he of course waits until the end to give you the big "trick" or "tip" -- I think it has some good points. So much about losing weight and exercising is in the mind. I have used self-hypnosis before to help with stress and weight loss, and while it's not that, it is about mind over matter.

His "golden rules" are stupidly easy. When you're hungry, eat. Eat what you want. Eat consciously (i.e., slowly, taking time to chew and savor each bite, not eating in front of the TV or while working). When you're full, stop.

Not too surprisingly, these are things that I have already been working on. When you're an emotional eater, eating becomes about dealing with stress, sadness, et cetera. Not about getting fuel. So you don't pay attention to hunger or fullness. I've tried to deprive myself and ended up eating a massive amount later because I was so hungry. I've also kept eating even though I knew I was full just because it was there (usually in an expensive restaurant) and ended up feeling really horrible and disgusting.

As for the different tricks, I'm open-minded but I'm not a believer. Kind of hard to be when you've tried as many diets as I have over the years, anyway (and that includes self-hypnosis). But it is a different approach than what I'm used to and none of it is difficult to do. So why not try? Well, the problem is that the whole testimonial thing from various people he's worked with in the past and audience members make it feel like an infomercial. And it's kind of creepy. But at least it keeps me thinking.

This whole thing reminded me of how I once got to actually enjoying exercise because tonight's show was about boosting your metabolism. Through exercise, of course, and making yourself associate exercise with pleasure and determination.

Changing gears a bit, after watching the show I decided to exercise (of course). But I didn't much feel like any of my DVDs. Since we got DVR we've been ignoring the on demand service altogether, but I recalled that there used to be on demand exercise stuff. Guess what, a whole mess of exercise programs there -- yoga, walking, cardio, dance, targeted stuff like abs, etc. So I can try them all and not get bored! I did a walking one that was very different from my DVD and it was pretty good. Of course there were ads along the bottom of the screen most of the time but they weren't too distracting.