[Wannabenormal]

Hi all! First this isn't a book review --- I know lots of us out here do a lot of reading and research --- trying to find our answers and help.....but this book I found really has some true wisdom here.

I'm not sure where I found reference to Jon Gabriel .... but I do remember seeing something here at 3FC. It may have been an ad or a reference that a poster mentioned.... anyway, I looked at his web site and listened to the testimonials and then ordered the book (2nd Hand) from Amazon, "The Gabriel Method".

I've read lots of diet books, almost as many books as I have been on diets... it's been far and few between books and diets for that matter that have made me stop and really and go, "Wow, this makes sense!" I'm about midway and was wondering if anyone else has read the book?

Sometimes I think I'm grabbing onto something in an effort to find and explain my fat. Did I want to punish myself? Did I feel needed to be fat? Why? Why? Why? I did my soul searching and came up with first She-Devil rage and then gut chilling fear and anxiety. Thinking at times that I need some intense psycho-therapy!

Then here comes this book and it touches on just the very things I've been thinking or beginning to explore the very edges of my own fear as the root of being overweight.

So I'm just curious --- anyone else read this book? What did you think?

[petra65]

I haven't read this book but you have sparked my curiosity. I'm a psychiatrist so obviously I've spent a lot of time thinking about what the roots of my obesity are and to be honest I think it is multifactorial. Not sure I want to share all my dirty laundry on a public forum but I suspect for most people it is the same and the issues are a little different from person to person although there are a fair number that many obese people have in common. In the end, there are things we can change and there are things we can't change. We have to focus on the things we actually have some control over and do what we can with those.

[Wannabenormal]

Well I've gotten into the book --- It's still making sense. Mostly I've been reading and thinking about some of the theories. One is that the body is a primative machine and it "thinks" in very primative terms. That life is all about being safe. It turns on these FAT programs Famine And Temperature when it "thinks" it {the body} is in danger.

Gabriel writes about "Jessie's Law" -- a cat who is a plump happy kitty with no worries in the world. Fed his choice of kitty food and treats. His sole entertainment is strolling over to the neighbors where a big bull mastiff lives indoors and lolling in the grass where the dog can see him. The dog barks and barks and Jessie grooms then strolls off when he gets bored. One day the dog gets loose and heads straight for Jessie! The cat has to run for his life --- only he doesn't make it without injury. After his trauma, plump happy Jessie begins to lose weight. No amount of tasty tidbits will make Jessie gain weight -- his body has learned:
Stress = big mean dog
Interpretation = if big mean dog gets me -- I die
Reaction = so RUN for your life!
Adaptation= get thin and fast, so next time I can outrun the big mean dog and I will be safe!

Rather simplified.... but it makes the point.
The stresses of life trigger these chemical reactions that trick the body into "thinking" we are somehow in danger and need to protect the body and one way is to store fat. Strict dieting further convinces the programs that there's a famine going on because there's no food and it further converts everything into fat for when times get better. I thought that was interesting.

I remember telling my doctor a few months ago -- I must have a neanderthal body because if I was living out in the Savannah having to run down my food and constantly be moving and in search of my meals, I'd be thin. Sort of follows along the same lines as Gabriel.... I continue to read.

[Wizzie]

That book sounds interesting.

[ICUwishing]

Going to have to look that one up - I too have been wondering about the head game. I think I've made personal peace with the nutrition side of things after a hundred different variations, but when I lapse ... I go big. There is NOTHING physical at work there - it is a purely self-destructive force that comes from somewhere unknown. Keep us updated!

[Wannabenormal]

Hey all! Well I read the book and am now re-reading it. The concepts are really very interesting and I'm giving it a try. My husband was recently diagnosed with diabetes and he's having to eat a whole different way --- so I've gone with the food plan he must stick to in order to get his blood glucose to normal ranges. I'm "pre-diabetic" so best to begin now and hope I can keep diabetes at bay for as long as I can.

I downloaded the CD (free) from the site and listen to it every night ---- I don't know what's all in there but the brain it taking it in. I found myself in the vitamin section of the local Wal-Mart picking up the flaxseed oil, acidophilus, enzyme-probiotics, and vitamin packs for women and trying to drink as much water (as recommended in the book and the CD) --- so whatever subliminal messages are there, they seem to be making an impression on my "prehistoric brain".

There are visualizations and other exercises that are interesting and even a link to kinesiology that is truly facinating! I continue to be intrigued and have gone to the website to look further at the information there. I think I found a book --- a theory that I can deal with, rather than it being restrictive and limited, it goes on the idea that being fat is not because you have no control, or you're lazy --- and that food (or certain foods) are "forbidden" and everyone else can have this food except you because you're fat and have no control over your self.... it's a biochemical program in the primative brain that has somehow gotten the message that you need to be protected and kept safe and the only way is to store fat, every shred of fat and KEEP it until you are out of harms path. That the primative brain doesn't understand, job stress, frustration, depression, anger, or having an emptiness inside that is not being filled or not being fullfilled --- it only understands these as being a physical THREAT. So if you feel stress from a crappy job, or you have financial problems, or are overwhelmed by life in general it thinks, "Uh-oh, the body is in stress --- something is not right, there must be no food! Time to store everything as fat until the famine is over, Send out the hormones to crave foods that we can easily convert to fat and store it. The body must be protected."

So now the primative brain must be convinced that it needs to be thin. Where before it was thinking of physical threat of starvation and freezing to death and had to store every fat molocule, it can now be thin. "There is no famine, no physical threat of any kind --- it's time to turn off the FAT programs and begin to burn the extra stores of fat..... to me it makes perfect sense -- simplified sense, but I get it and I think I can now find out what LACK is in me and work with my body to turn off my FAT programs and let the body that is being protected under the shield of fat emerge and live the life I am intended to live.

Off to listen to my visualization CD! G'night all!

[lambchop]

Wanted to give you a welcome, a hug and a bit of a

I just recently got OFF of diabetic meds....losing weight, exercising - great things can happen!