Day 13

Today I intentionally took it easy, so nothing very eventful occurred. I had my usual lemon/ginger/hot water concoction, a carrot-apple-beet juice (I strained mine today because the beet adds a lot of pulp that texturally I can't stand drinking), and a chocolate-strawberry juice to which I added a handful of leafy greens and some cinnamon (now it tastes like a cold Mexican hot chocolate!). I am being mindful of my body and drinking whenever it tells me of its hunger or thirst. The one exciting happening was we got our copy of The Gabriel Method book in the mail, and I began to read it out of curiosity.

To preface, I first saw Jon Gabriel in the documentary Hungry for Change, in which he gave a brief summary of how he's lost over 100kg switching to a plant-based diet (diet in the general meaning of the foods we eat and not in the meaning of the torture we put ourselves through to lose weight). He looks amazing now compared to his old self, and I was intrigued by his story and his intelligent speaking skills. My mom did further research and found his website (linked above). She then showed me a video that, to me, came off as one of those scam videos: You hear Gabriel's voice explaining how he's sold so many copies of his book that now for the month of June he's giving it away for only a $1 for shipping and handling. Plus, you get a month's free access to his online support group; a $39.95/month value! Act fast, only 300 copies are being given away like this!

Despite the sleazy marketing, we decided we might as well see what he's peddling and paid the dollar. We've been enjoying the fitness section of the support group (that's actually where we learned about the Tabata method of exercise), but neither of us see the value in paying $39.95 a month for the information past what we'll gather and copy/download this month.

The book, however, is a revelation. I may be young, but I have battled with my weight all of  my life. I tried to maintain a diet on willpower alone in high school (at my skinniest I was 165lbs and stayed in the 170-180lb range for two to three years), but a bad breakup and the emotional stress leading up to it added about 30lbs back. Then over the course of the next few years, leading up to now, I've dieted to lose a few pounds only to gain them back plus extra because of stress.

Jon Gabriel lived through the effects of yo-yo dieting, so he really understands everything I've gone through with my weight. Not only that, but he went above and beyond to understand the science behind why our bodies wanted to gain weight. While getting a masters degree, he took multiple courses on biochemistry to really get to the bottom of what signals our bodies to gain weight and came to the conclusion that because of our ancestors' lives our bodies are wont to gain weight in times of famine and lose weight when threatened by large predators.

In the modern world, our bodies interpret dieting as a time of famine, so naturally when we end up bingeing or indulging our bodies hold onto the food in the form of fat. In addition, whenever we are stressed, our brains send out some of the same chemicals as when our bodies are starving, giving our bodies the message that it needs to store fat to protect itself from famine. At the root of it all is the distinction between mental and emotional obesity; the underlying psychological reasons why we are subconsciously telling our bodies to stay fat and gain more weight. Once you address those issues, then you can truly start to lose weight permanently.

A technique Jon Gabriel is a proponent of using daily is visualization. Visualization is how we can talk to our subconscious and tell it what we want. If you can visualize yourself healthy and thin before exercising, in the mirror before/after your shower, and before bed, then you are determining your success. The trick is to rewire your brain into wanting to be thin and being satisfied with you. If you are ever negative to yourself, you are only sabotaging your progress. I find a lot of his visualization techniques to be a little cheesy, but I am willing to try anything to improve my self-esteem and encourage my body to want to be thin. In honor of that I am including a picture of myself that I use to tell my body how I want to look.

Low quality because I haven't found the original file yet

I recently came across the tube top I'm wearing in the picture in my move and decided to keep it. Here's to fitting back into again with confidence!