Thursday, May 29, 2008

Justification

I read a report on the BBC yesterday that power was being restored to London, Cheshire, Merseyside and East Anglia on Tuesday after power cuts. What power cuts? I didn’t even see it mentioned on the national or local news. Did we plunge into some crisis, but someone forgot to mention it – or maybe due to lack of power the message didn’t get through? Perhaps there were power cuts but I was totally oblivious to this (nothing new there then) but I asked about and didn’t find anyone else who was aware either. How very odd…

G is thinking about getting more fit and healthy and we were talking about Paul McKenna’s philosophy on healthy eating. There are four principles, which are:

• Eat when you are hungry
• Eat what you want
• Eat consciously
• Stop when you are full

All seems fairly straightforward. G is not actually following this eating regime but, nonetheless, seems to particularly like the first one and on Monday this voice kept piping up “I’m hungry. Paul McKenna says I must eat, so you need to feed me”. If I queried this then G would just reply “But Paul McKenna says so”. Hmm… The other thing is that G seems to think this would be a marvellous excuse to eat chips everyday because you can “eat what you want”. Yes… technically within the rules, but probably not the wisest choice.

I’m not knocking Paul McKenna’s plan because I do actually know some people who have had great success with it – it is basically about taking control of your eating and understanding what makes you eat and helps you to work out if it is really hunger that you’re feeling, but I think G has rather taken the choicer bits to heart and that it will regularly be quoted back to me to justify many things!

5 comments:

(no subject) said...

i have heard paul mckenna's principles and it sounds like G and i think quite a bit alike when it comes to them! =)

But Why? said...

Those principles strike me as being sound, except for the last one - I'd replace it with "Eat slowly, chew your food, and stop when you no longer feel hungry". For me, at any rate, there's a massive gap between having had enough (to meet my energy needs for the day) and being full (unable to consume any more).

I also think it takes a couple of weeks of eating well (i.e. healthily) before the body stops craving bacon butties and and begins to crave boiled wholewheat rce, pumpkin seeds and broccoli instead.

Random Reflections said...

no subject - don't encourage G, this is meant to be a way to be more healthy not just to eat more!

but why? - I do actually think the principles are quite sound and that some might say they are obvious, but I think it is good to have a very simple approach that people can understand. There are so many diets and fads out there that sometimes we need to know where to even start.

I see what you mean about the difference between having had enough and being totally full.

I'm not sure the day will ever come for me where I would turn down a bacon buttie for some wholewheat rice (although I do eat far more of the latter than the former!)

titration said...

Um. This may sound a tiny bit judgmental but, I think that diets usually are for the rich and middle class. The "eat what you want" really is not an option for the poor, and when he's thinking of this diet he's probably thinking what will my chef cook for me. Of course he does have information on how to become rich so... there you have it. :)

Random Reflections said...

titration - interesting view. I can see what you're saying about diets and actually I would not advocate anyone going on a diet anyway as they are a sort term solution.

I can see they are also a luxury of those with more money as well.

Paul McKenna isn't actually advocating a diet he is telling people how to take cntrol of their eating which I think anyone can do regardles of income.

We have had a debate in the UK for ages about whether those who are poor can afford to eat healthily and the conclusion is generally that yes they can (a simplistic summary there from me admittedly).

I do see what you're saying and it's something that is really relevant at the moment here.