Visualization for Weight Loss -The Gabriel Method

Emotional Obesity

important . An important person is a “big” man—the Big Chief, the Big Cheese, or the Big Dog. Policemen, for example, often feel safer being bigger because size and weight carry the illusion of authority. Self-Punishment We may want to be fat to punish ourselves because we don’t feel that we are worthy of success, a beautiful body, love, or the respect of others or ourselves. If we are angry with ourselves or if we don’t like ourselves, being fat is a method of punishment. I read a story in the New York Times about a 400-pound man who trekked across the United States to lose weight. He hadn’t always been fat; in fact, he had once been a fit marine. How- ever, fourteen years before this walk, at the age of twenty-five, he had killed two people in a car accident. The people who died had gotten off a bus at a bad intersec- tion, and the man couldn’t see them. In terrible remorse over the months and years that followed, he gained more and more weight. The extreme, chronic stress had activated his FAT Pro- grams, and fat was his self-inflicted punishment. But perhaps his cross-country walk was a sign that he had punished himself enough, that he had “paid his dues,” and that he was now ready to move on. Rebellion If your family is preoccupied with health and fitness, gaining weight may be a form of personal rebellion. You may be com- municating to your family: “I am depriving you of the satisfac- tion you would derive from me being thin.” Rebellion is always about power and control. Everybody wants a healthy level of control over their own lives, so it’s not surprising that some people will use obesity as a way of assert- ing themselves. If somebody else wants you to lose weight or is forcing you to lose weight, you may want to stay fat just so that you can reassert control over your life. Dieting has always been an issue in my family. My father was heavy as a child and so was my brother (I was actually skinny as

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