Posted by hanlie | Posted in Book Reviews | Posted on 09-06-2010
I was first introduced to The Gabriel Method by my fellow blogger and good friend (although we’ve never met in person) Kat. Her endorsement prompted me to order the book. While I was waiting for my copy to arrive in the post, my friend Terri, who had introduced me to Vilma, my fairy-godmother biochemist/healer, sent me a text saying, “OMG, I have just found this amazing book and you HAVE to read it.”
So, I did. It blew me away.
Jon Gabriel used to weigh over 400 pounds and he lost the weight without dieting or depriving himself in any way.
We have all heard it said a thousand times: Diets don’t work. In his book Jon Gabriel explains exactly why they don’t work and it makes perfect sense to me.
According to Gabriel our weight is controlled by the most primitive part of our brain – the limbic or animal brain. This system does not care whether you want to look good on the beach this summer or at your high-school reunion. It doesn’t know what about beaches, bikinis, reunions and cannot conceive of the future. Its main concern is to keep us safe in the moment – from starvation and predation – and insulated in cold weather. Those were the threats that faced our ancestors. In times when food was scarce and before central heating their bodies had to preserve fat to keep them alive. But they also needed to be able to escape predators, so the body would always be maintaining a balance between too much fat and too little fat.
Our lives are much different now, but our bodies don’t know that. When we starve/deprive ourselves emotionally, mentally or physically through dieting, the body turns on what Gabriel terms the “FAT programs”. Stress, fear and distress, whether emotional, physical or mental, can also turn on the FAT programs.
The Gabriel Method is about beating those FAT programs. Gabriel explains how to convince the body that it’s safe to be thin and to make it want to be thin. The primary tool here is a CD that places you in SMART mode (Super Mental Awareness Re-education Training Mode) and reassures the animal brain that it is safe to lose weight.
The nutritional chapter of this book is unlike any other and I highly recommend this approach. It’s all about abundance, not lack (remember deprivation will turn on the FAT programs).
The exercise advice is geared towards turning OFF the FAT programs. My husband has been practicing these principles with great results these last few months.
The book concludes with an Appendix about the chemistry of the FAT programs. It is fascinating!
I’m about to start following The Gabriel Method myself and will definitely keep you up to date. As for the book, I highly recommend it!
Here are two short clips of Jon Gabriel. In the first one he introduces himself and The Gabriel Method and in the second he tells an amazing story about his cat, Jessie, whose FAT programs got turned off dramatically one day.
There are many Jon Gabriel videos on Youtube, so you can probably get the gist of the book from them, but if you’re interested you can also get the first chapter from Jon Gabriel’s website.
Oh, and another reason why I love this book so much? Gabriel says to stay off the scale!

I’ve been reading about and researching healthful living for years. I know what to do to be healthy. I know why I need to do these things. Yet, making these changes have always been difficult for me and I have failed many times in the past. That pattern is by no means unique to me – I see it all around me.
Okay, it’s not really the end. Even though I’ve been a lazy blogger all week, I’ll tell you a little but more about “









