To my surprise, visualization worked stunningly well. It seemed that as soon as I started practicing visualization for weight loss, a subtle shift happened inside of me. I just wasn’t as hungry. I started to crave healthier foods, and I started to become more active. I had more energy and less appetite. In just over two years I lost 220 pounds without forcibly restricting the quantity or quality of the foods I ate, and without forcing myself to exercise. In fact I lost the first 75 pounds without doing any exercise at all. It’s as if my body all of a sudden wanted to be thin and was actually helping me lose weight. Here are some of ways visualization helped me achieve the body — and life — I always wanted. As it turns out, picturing clear, vivid images is the perfect way to communicate to your brain. Research has found that when your mind enters the state of deep relaxation brought on by visualization and other mind-body practices, it becomes primed for suggestion. Many people unconsciously use weight as a barrier when they feel threatened, but I found that I could use visualization to create a proactive barrier that helped me feel safer. I would imagine being engulfed in a column of light that was impenetrable. It created a safe barrier around me that others could enter only with my permission. Yes, this was all in my mind, but when I created this barrier using visualization, I was able to convince myself that I was safe and didn’t require the excess weight to insulate me from the world. Once I felt safe, the fat began to melt away very quickly. I discovered the power of using visualization to activate the Get Thin Or Get Eaten Adaptation by accident. One day while I was riding my bike a dog started chasing me, barking ferociously. Before I knew it I was at an all out sprint with this canine snapping at my heel. I escaped, and then discovered over the next two weeks the weight just melted off my body. I never got chased by that dog again, but while I was biking I would visualize that I was being chased. I imagined the dog was chasing me, and I would experience the same surge of adrenaline, and then I would imagine myself outpacing the dog with a smile on my face. This worked really well and my weight loss continued to accelerate. Sometimes I wouldn’t even exercise, I would just imagine I was biking really hard and the dog was chasing me and that still yielded results. That’s because our survival brain doesn’t know the difference between a real and imagined experience, so when you visualize yourself being chased, to the body it still feels real. If being chased by a predator feels too threatening, you can achieve the same effect by imagining yourself being chased by a friend in a game of tag, but still running really fast to escape. In these various ways I was able to use the power of my mind, through visualization to help address the real issues that were causing my body to hold onto weight and get my body to once again want to be thin, naturally and sustainably, from the inside out. Then on September 11th 2001, Jon received a wake-up call. He was scheduled to fly from Newark to San Francisco that day, and it was only by chance that he was not on the United Airlines Flight 93 that was hijacked by terrorists and crashed in Pennsylvania with no survivors. Jon realized that life was a precious opportunity not to be wasted. He realized that his weight would eventually kill him and decided to do something about it. Over the next two and a half years, Jon lost over 200 lbs without dieting, pills or surgery. He also stopped feeling stressed and overworked and started living the life of his dreams. His book The Gabriel Method is an international best seller, translated into 14 languages, with over 350,000 readers worldwide. Learn more at TheGabrielMethod.com
