I think Courtney Love is possibly one of the worst advertisements Paul McKenna could have to be quite honest. I actually liked his “I Can Make You Thin” programme and thought that his system was very sensible. I think it’s probably more challenging than he makes out-particularly recognising when you are truly hungry-but it’s generally based on sound ideas and promotes a healthy approach to food and eating, as well as encouraging keeping active. It’s not ground-breaking, and most of it isn’t even new. It’s certainly not revolutionary but he put it all together well and definitely managed to encourage people to make positive changes in their lives which is a wonderful thing.

This is quite at odds with being associated with Courtney Love in her weight loss journey. She reportedly lost vast amounts of weight through a very low calorie diet (VLCD) consisting of protein shakes (she describes this as th”old-fashioned way” above!). This, while effective in the short term, is hardly dealing with why she gained weight in the first place, and instead of dealing with her attitude to food and eating just removes it from the equation. It’s similar to entering rehab for drug or alcohol addiction I suppose-just don’t allow access to the problem substance. That may work for drugs or alcohol since we don’t need them…but for food? Protein shakes provide the mininum for survival without incurring major deficiencies…but hardly for optimum health! And food is everywhere. We have to deal with it on a daily basis and it is surely much better to have a relaxed relationship where it is something to fuel us, make us healthy, and to be enjoyed rather than a best friend/worst enemy. And did the protein shakes make her look “well” or “healthy”? Not in my opinion. I think she looks like she’s lost weight too rapidly and also has very little muscle. She looks miserable!

What’s more worrying is this statement about her relationship with Paul:
“He’s brilliant and is totally responsible for me staying so skinny. Whenever I start to feel my resolve weaken, I go to Paul for another hypnosis session.”
What a sad result! To believe that someone else is responsible for your body is just such a pity. For her sake, I just hope that this feeling changes and that she begins to realise that SHE is totally responsible for the things that happen to her, not somebody else. An internal locus of control is very useful!

And don’t even get me started on the whole “weight” issue. I’ve probably gone to the other extreme at this stage, in that I don’t go near scales at all usually. Only get weighed for medical appointments/fitness assessments etc! Clothes are enough of an indicator for me-it’s easy enough to tell a loss or gain. Or the tape measure! And my local friendly exercise physiologist is more than willing to attack me with calipers if I want to know how my body fat, which is far more relevant than scale weight. Scales are a source of so much tension for so many people. They’re ridiculously variable to begin with-can show a few pounds difference depending on time of day, whether or not you’ve eaten, what you’ve eaten, whether or not you’ve been to the bathroom… And women will fluctuate depending on hormone levels. And with each fluctuation there is the associated feelings of success or failure. Aargh! Slimming clubs have their place I’m sure. Lots of people find them very supportive and apparently group weight reduction tends to be more effective than going it alone. I went to 2 classes once upon a time many years ago and couldn’t face more. Picked up my books the first week, followed the points religiously…and went back to discover I’d lost 0.5lbs. I felt like a total failure! Reckoned that something that made me feel bad like that wasn’t for me 🙂 And don’t start me on the potential for people to get obsessed with calculating the points value of everything they eat and trying to get away with eating as few as possible…..Grrr!

Sorry for the ramble. Your article was really good!