I keep an ear/eye out for scams, frauds, come ons and general bad deals. (I am also a fan of mixed metaphors which is why the one in the title is still there - I swear it was an accident - they make the best ones). When the bottom fell out of the housing market, my favorite one, and how this all got started, the predatory house lending offer, has pretty much disappeared fortunately and I have to look elsewhere.
What gives me hope for humanity are the ones that hold up to scrutiny. The ones that accidentally made themselves look like scams by their choice of advertising such as AM Radio commercials and Facebook advertising. (Examples are Laurel Langmeyer's The Millionaire Maker, and James Lehman’s Total Transformation Program for dealing with your kids - use Google to learn more - this isn't about them)
What this is about is Jon Gabriel and The Gabriel Method.
In 2001, Jon Gabriel weighed over 400 pounds and in his words had tried every weightloss method there was and got a handy dandy wake up call by being scheduled on the ill fated, and famous 9/11/2001 United Airlines flight 93 to San Francisco - a flight he actually didn't make, and which lit a major motivational fire under him (funny how nearly dying does that to us mortals - never mind that if we're dead it doesn't matter anymore). So he set off to figure it out himself and things started to click. Fast forward to 2004. Garbriel now weighs 184 pounds and is maintaining that loss. We're talking a 220 pound weight loss and he has no extra skin (http://www.gabrielmethod.com/about-jon-gabriel). What he describes is convincing his body that it wanted to be thin. This is very much in the "the mind is a powerful thing" category.
The fact that his mind could influence the cell programming of his fat cells to reset to a lower preferred level is what is catching my attention. As many know (I should get a ref but well, I know you know :) your body has a preferred size, making weigh loss difficult. If you try to starve it off, when you stop paying attention, your body will shift into a super efficeint mode to horde every calorie and you could well gain more weight. This happened to me. I carry an extra 10 pounds got sick of it and got impatient and decided to just starve it off (it's only 10 pounds for heaven's sake). I got half way there and then the holidays happened and I stopped paying careful attention. Shazam. I regained the weight plus another 3-5. Boy was I peeved. I'm now back to my usual weight and am wondering whether Mr. Gabriel's approach might be perfect, but I digress.
Full disclosure I don't own the book though I may get it since his methodolgy is very intriguing, but what I really find interesting about him is what he's not doing, and he's showing incredible restraint in doing so.
Here's the deal. For $25 you can buy his book (I'll skip the link since it's certainly not benefiting me :) which describes his story and approach. Fair enough. And after you read the book you can get a CD of his with visualizations (Sounds to me like self hypnosis). Right. And how much is that? Zero. It's free with the purchase of the book. It's what? What kind of guru is this guy?
Oh wait I see a "limited time offer" in fine print so he may not be the complete financial golden child, either that or a business advisor had given him a talking to about giving out free advice that could easily make him more money.
And according to this website: http://www.womens-health.com/boards/weight-loss/7103-gabriel-method.html he's been giving free advice over the phone and there is a whole bunch of him on You Tube (I can see his business manager slapping him around right now). I have some You Tube links below.
Doing the research on this amused me. The cons to his method were listed as (my comments in []):
- holistic, not specific [because I need to be told exactly what to do]
- gradual, too slow [I think it's been proven over and over again that successful, non-surgical weightloss is gradual, and look at the dates on the pictures on his site - it was pretty dramatic.]
Refs:
http://www.gabrielmethod.com/
http://www.dietsinreview.com/diets/the-gabriel-method/
http://redesignedmom.com/2009/04/11/the-gabriel-method-new-article-series/
http://www.womens-health.com/boards/weight-loss/7103-gabriel-method.html
Gabriel has over 10 videos on You Tube. Here are just 2.
Visualizing Your Ideal Body:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFYBtzirD3Q
The Mind-Body Commection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knc8Qzf6COs&feature=related
12 comments:
Thanks for this post. I have actually been following the Gabriel method with some success--at least as much as I ever achieve. I echo all your thoughts about Jon Gabriel.
Earl Nightingale, in his record, the Strangest Secret, said, "If you want to make money, go to work for the Mint." Otherwise, if you want to make money, earn it by giving value.
Gabriel is earning his money.
Thanks for writing this honest and straight forward article on the Gabriel Method and for giving me the ref.
After many months and a lot of personal struggle, this is really starting to work for me. Ooh, the excitement is building...
Cheers!
the method appears nice, but scams are not something that is easy to spot, how this method works ,remains to be seen , will try out once and appears a genuine solution,
regards
weight loss
jim
Gabriel and his book is not a scam. I bought the book by mistake (yes, I don't know how it ended up in my cart, but I got it). I don't really need it (just maybe 10 I'd like to drop, but not necessary--I'm a size 4... I just have a little gush in places I don't want it); at any rate, his approaches and theories make sense and do work. His audio recording is great--I conk right out when I listen to it (I didn't have access for a while--no computer, whatever), but now that I am using it again I sleep like a baby (although that is not the real purpose). Like anything, you do have to apply the principles, but they work. I think he rocks.
Jon Gabriel did follow a diet!! He won a Fat Blasters competition so he must have used their products and program. The strange thing is that he changed his name from Jon Abrams to Jon Gabriel around the time he began heavily promoting his book and himself/his program on the web, and at the same time all references to his being a Fat Blasters winner disappeared from the Fat Blasters websites along with the photos - the same photos that he uses to promote "The Gabriel Method" - so.......did he really lose all that weight without following a diet? You decide!
Does anybody know more information about Jon Gabriel / Jon Abrams and how he (really) lost his excess weight? In particular, the Fat Blasters connection? If so, please contact me at otherjacko@gmail.com.
His real name is Jon Gabriel Abrams. So it's not like he changed his name...he simply started going by his middle name...not all that uncommon really. Maybe the Gabriel Methis just sounded better to him. Also I have seen articles about his book and system where he is referred to as Mr. Abrahms.https://holisticprimarycare.net/topics/topics-a-g/chronic-disease/434-sustainable-weight-loss-understanding-famine-physiology-and-the-psychology-of-obesity.html Also in the first chapter of his book he does mention entering a competition...it was probably about half way through his weight loss journey. He didnt specify the competition so cant be sure its the one you are referring to. He did say he didnt win the competition. I dont really see where hes trying to hide things from people.
Hello ...
How about KETO method that eat only meat instead of Carbohydrate ?
regards
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