Visualization for Weight Loss -The Gabriel Method

Part I: The Principles

Jessie never went back to his pleasantly plump days. He stayed somewhere in the middle. The two opposing stresses balanced each other out. Buddy kept turning off his Fat Pro- grams, and I kept turning them back on. His body settled on an ideal weight so he was not too fat to run away from Buddy and not too thin to survive my next artificial famine. (Sorry, Jessie. It was all in the name of science. Anyway, girl cats don’t like guys who are too skinny. They want a mate with a little meat on his bones.) Applying Jessie’s Law in the Real World Today most of us don’t have to worry about dogs or tigers chas- ing us, or famines, but we have other stresses, such as nutri- tional famines, toxins, radiation, noise pollution, war, crime, mortgages, stock market fluctuations, savings and loan scandals, commuter traffic, rude customers, sick relatives, unemployment, not getting enough dates, getting too many dates, abusive part- ners, abusive family members, abusive bosses, abusive clients— the list goes on and on. And all of these stresses can trigger chemical reactions in our bodies that trick our animal brain into activating the FAT Programs. There are many reasons why your body can be deceived into activating your FAT Programs, and here’s a list of the most com- mon ones: Chronic Yo-Yo Dieting: If you’re constantly forcing yourself to eat less or denying yourself the foods that you’re craving, then you’re also causing your body to think that food is limited, that you are living in a time of famine, or both. Dieting is the act of forcibly trying to control either the quantity or quality of what you are eating. Any type of dieting is a form of starvation. This type of starvation can make your body think that it needs to carry around extra fat and, therefore, activate the FAT Programs.

Nutritional Starvation: You may be eating to your heart’s con- tent, but your body may still be starving nutritionally .

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