| The pile of recent dieting books is growing faster than the average American's waistline. From the well-known programs that deprive and restrict to ones that rely on juice alone, it seems that everybody has an answer to the growing problem of obesity. When Jon Gabriel's life took an unexpected turn, he suddenly was awakened to the marvelous gift that he had been given -- the opportunity to live -- and was disgusted at how he had treated his body. At over four hundred pounds, walking, sleeping, and working was a struggle against gravity, and his life was a constant battle between emotional and physical satiation. He was slowly killing himself with food. Like the estimated 58 percent of Americans, and rising numbers in other countries, Jon was trapped in what he came to call the FAT - Famine and Temperature - trap. By studying biochemistry, Gabriel learned that your body has an internal logic that determines how fat or thin you will be at any given time. The way to lose weight is not to struggle or to force yourself to lose weight but to understand this internal logic and work with it so that your body wants to be thinner. When your body wants to be thinner, weight loss is inevitable and becomes automatic and effortless. You simply crave less food, you crave healthier foods, your metabolism speeds up and you become very efficient at burning fat, just like a naturally thin person. And that's the real transformation -- to transform yourself into a naturally thin person, so that you can eat whatever you want whenever you want and still be thin, fit, and vibrantly healthy. After reading The Gabriel Method, you will learn: Your body has a reason why it's holding on to weight--and it's not your fault.Fat is a cushion--a protective barrier that our mind believes is helping to protect us. If you can change that belief, you can change your body; Stop the cycle of crash dieting and start eating what you want, when you want it.How to choose healthy, nutritious foods that nourish the cells in your body, not starve them.Delicious shakes and smoothies, and super-power supplements, that can jump start your success.The simple way you can train your mind and body to work with your goal of health, not against it.Eliminate the emotional and mental reasons your body holds on to weight in just 10 minutes a day. It certainly worked for Jon; he lost 225 pounds in two-and-a-half years, going from 409 pounds to 184, without suffering, dieting, or anguishing over his body. Unlike most people who lose an extensive amount of weight, his skin tightened up and now is indistinguishable from that of a person who has been healthy his whole life. |
|
 Effectively Presents a Diet-Free Way to Live |
| Review Date: February 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: O. Brown, Twopeas, WA |
*****
This book is essentially the theory and practice of a healthy, non-diet way of living that will actually lead to greater weight loss than even healthy diets. The main tenet of The Gabriel Method is that the body will not lose weight until it is ready; that is, until you (and it) feel safe. So it's really important to find ways to help your body feel safe, and then weight loss will naturally occur.
The author emphasizes visualization as a part of this; he strongly suggests (although it's not absolutely necessary) that you use his own CD for this, which is sold separately from his web site. He emphasizes lots of ways of eating healthfully, but stresses that these need to happen by following the body's needs and listening to your own body, as opposed to forcing anything. He also emphasizes things like forgiveness, and other types of self-care.
What I think is unique about this book is that it is a comprehensive approach to the anti-diet mentality. I am already following this, and have found it is the only way I can healthfully and sanely lose weight. However, this book was still of value to me as it added really good tips--like the importance of visualization, and reminders of noticing the life force of food, and much more. I liked the author's style of writing and found it encouraging and motivational.
For anyone who diets, please read this. Especially if you are a yo-yo dieter, I think you will appreciate this book. And if diets HAVE NOT worked for you in the past, and you don't know why, this book is an absolute MUST READ.
Highly recommended.
***** |
Surprised
|
| Review Date: March 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: J. Reich, Pacific Northwest |
| Mr Gabriel was interviewed on Coast to Coast radio towards the end of February 2009. I bought his book on February 25 and read it. There were some thoughts in the book that really stayed with me and I incorporated them into my daily routine. I decided to give my body the nutrients it needed before eating anything questionable and to do some visualization. I did not use Mr Gabriel's CD but just did it on my own. I did not think I was doing much different than I had been doing before reading the book, however when I weighed myself on March 23 I was very surprised to find I had lost 10 pounds. Thats better than I did when I spent over $300 on a well known food program that provided some really nasty tasting packaged meals and left me constantly hungry. I am rereading the book and plan to download Mr Gabriel's visualization too. |
Absolute life changer of a book!
|
| Review Date: February 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Gregory A. Dinkin, New York |
| The eighty pounds I've lost are only a small part of The Gabriel Method's impact on me. Jon's insight that many of us are "starving" and compensate with food has led me and several of my friends to look inside ourselves and become better people. At first I thought it was too good to be true, but it's all based on sound logic and biochemistry, and the real proof has been in the results. I have re-discovered my passion, which has led me to stop fighting the logic of my body and I've never been happier. This book is an absolute life changer. |
Excellent advice for those wishing to make major dietary and body changes
|
| Review Date: May 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Joanne of joanneunleashed-dot-com, Pennsylvania |
I've done my share in the past 30+ years of losing weight by dieting and gaining it back. The current advice to cut calories and exercise just hasn't worked well for us. At some point you have to realize that what you're doing isn't working. I finally gave up on dieting, and in the past two years I've lost over 30 pounds.
This isn't just a book about "thinking yourself thin." It's a fantastic compilation of advice that covers the mental, spiritual and physical aspects of body identity and nutrition. And it's all very simply presented and easy to execute.
Gabriel offers so many wonderful suggestions that include eating grass-fed meat and living fruits and vegetables; drinking water; consuming omega 3s; exercising like our ancestors; eating earlier in the day rather than later; chewing food; conscious eating; the role of enzymes and bacteria; and spending time in nature and in the sun. He discusses how the body uses fat cells to safely store toxins and how drugs and other items ingested affect our bodies.
Equally important to diet is understanding how our thoughts affect our body image and possible psychological reasons as to why we are fat, such as using fat as a barrier to intimacy or control by others, or consuming foods as replacements for love or security. No weight loss can be sustained without addressing these emotional factors.
Gabriel also discusses the role of physiology and the reptilian brain inherited from our ancestors that controls the level of fat we retain based on inherent survival needs--the classic fight, flight or freeze.
And the icing on the cake is the New Thought use of the mind to change physical reality, popularly known as manifesting. Visualization of the desired body and faith in its eventual manifestation not only affects reality but prompts different choices. If you're sitting in front of the TV getting depressed thinking you'll always be a fat slug, you'll be much more inclined to eat a bag of potato chips in resignation than if you're looking at a picture imagining you're thin and active. Using our mind to imagine our future is a powerful tool for change.
Forget low-calorie diets, shakes, pills and procedures, and get to the root of your weight problem by following the advice in this book. Highly recommended. |
The Gabriel Method and I Can Make You Thin: Ongoing Review
|
| Review Date: July 5, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Jon Zuck, Norfolk, VA United States |
NOTE: Final update now posted.
THIS IS AN ONGOING REVIEW of "The Gabriel Method" and "I Can Make You Thin". I will update this review every month until I stablize (not just reach) my target weight, or until I give up on this method.
* START June 1, 2009: 219 lbs, - 99.3 kg - BMI 32.3
I decided to do "The Gabriel Method" and "I Can Make You Thin" together, because while they're basically the same approach, it seemed their different emphases would compliment each other synergetically. In particular, I love the simplicity and radiant confidence and enthusiasm of McKenna's book and CD, but also the more nuanced approach of Gabriel's materials. McKenna has worked with thousands of people directly and millions indirectly through television and his books, while Gabriel has worked on himself and writes from a different kind of experience.
I decided to listen to both CDs every day, Gabriel's at night before going to bed as recommended, and McKenna's in the morning. This is a minor time commitment as both CDs are about 25 minutes long, but Gabriel's is very effective at helping you go to sleep, so I can't really think of it as an extra time investment. Sometimes I get a late start and my miss my McKenna listening, but not too often; McKenna's is invigorating and inspiring and I thoroughly enjoy hearing both, daily.
The major difference I find between the two approaches is in regard to McKenna's second rule, "Eat Whatever You Want." Gabriel's book echoes that, but with useful suggestions on eating a minumum of healthy foods (and THEN whatever you feel like, if you really want anything else), as well as Omega-3's, etc.
Gabriel also goes into much greater detail about the why's of emotional eating... What are the "benefits" we're seeking by being being fat? What are we escaping from? One of possibilities he suggested really opened my eyes, and I committed to overcoming and facing that fear directly.
* July 5th, 2009: 213.5 lbs - 96.8 kg - BMI 31.5
A slow, healthy rate of weight loss! However, the numbers don't do justice to the difference I feel. I already feel thin. I've lost an inch or, so, and I know I'm still fat, but something subtle changed on the inside about a week ago. I really feel much more energy, I feel MUCH happier with my body even as I'm helping it lose weight, and I'm enjoying food more. As they said, I never feel deprived, I just (try) to stop eating as I begin to feel full. (I've had numerous slip-ups in that department, but I'm getting better about it.) And indeed, the pounds are coming off. I'm not doing any strenous exercise, but I'm biking and walking a bit. I recently took up geocaching and it gives me a fun excuse to get out.
* January 20, 2010: 225 lbs - 110kg - BMI 33.2
I should've updated this earlier when I was obvious I no longer following the method. I really wanted this to work, and was very enthusiastic. I delayed writing this entry largely because I was always half-hoping to "get back on the wagon" and have fantastic success with it. That didn't happen... this is what did:
Around the end of July, I stopped listening to the CDs as frequently. Earlier, I described the CDs as a minor time commitment, but by this time, it was feeling like a major time commitment. Neither McKenna nor Gabriel seem to envision anyone listening to their CDs everyday for the rest of their lives, so I didn't expect much would change, but it did. For me, the mindfulness required for this conscious eating was very difficult without the daily reinforcement from the disks. Bad habits returned, especially when faced with some unexpected and long-lasting stresses in late summer and throughout the fall. I fell off the program.
I can't fault the conscious eating program in these books, I dropped it, it didn't fail me, but I can say this is something that takes enormous self-discipline for the long haul. My only gripe with either book is McKenna's "eat whatever you want" rule, (which was by far the easiest for me). However, it pretty much guarantees failure if self-discipline slips. In retrospect, I need a certain amount of restriction, to compensate for the fact that my self-discipline pretty much sucks.
I believe the principles are sound; they're followed by countless millions of thin people. And I do still try to eat only when hungry and stop as I become full. In the end it required too much self-discipline for to stick with this style of eating in the long term. I wish success for everyone who uses this approach, be but aware, it's not quite as easy as it sounds. (For those who are interested, I will begin a similar review of "The Alternate-Day Diet" very soon.)
|
|
No video reviews found for this product.
