Someone who is still Fat recently told me that they didn't want Thoughts about Weight/Food/Exercise to "Rule their Life".

 I had no way to Help them toward that Goal of Mindlessness, because Thoughts about Weight/Food/Exercise have ALWAYS "Ruled MY Life."

I did not spend any less time Thinking about those issues when I was Fat than I do now. The difference is that when I was Fat my Thoughts were not accompanied by Action, while during my weight-loss period ...and now inside Maintenance... my Thoughts about those issues are now more positive and productive.

I frequently hear things like:
“I don’t want to THINK about my eating.”
“I don’t want to be obsessed with thoughts of food.”

Terms like Diet Mentality or Diet Head are commonly usedto denote the negative feelings people have abouttheir need to monitor their eating behavior for weight-control.
All of us tend to seek the easier, softer way. and almost all Diets promise us one.
Dieting is treated as a matter of “get in…get out”.Find the problem..fix it. ..and then “get on with your life:. which implies that once you’ve remedied the problemthat you can “leave it behind”.

Most diet book authors tell us that they have faced a weight problemeither themselves personally or as medical professionals,
…sometimes both………and that they have found a solution, and they are writing that book to tell you what it is.

Perhaps they are writing for their own personal fulfillment or perhaps for financial profit. Still, they want to tell you what to do to FIX your problem. …and in the dieting world, fixing your problem means getting rid of fat.

Do you have a physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual problem? No matter, despite the source, or the reason….
A Solution is promised.
A Solution is the answer to a problem.
A Solution resolves, finalizes, and eliminates the problem.

But Life IS continuous. The end of life is Death.
And eating will always be a major part of life, whether or not eating is a thoughtful conscious process.

The dieting promises of a “Solution” are illusory.
The Goal of getting thin and arriving at a place where eating is primarily “unconscious”.is an very ineffective goal, because for a reduced obese person,unconscious eating invariably results in fat gain.

I’ve replaced that Goal with one less impracticable.My current Goal is to continue putting forth the consistent effort that it takes to maintain my weight-loss.Th...

I found the DietPower food journaling program in September 2004, while surfing the net.  I started using it.  I had good success, and still really like it.  

   I have logged all of my food into DietPowerevery day since 9/20/04, today, 2/21/11 makes 2346 consecutive days.

DietPower is my most essential tool for weight-loss and maintenance.……….However, like any tool, it won't be helpful unless………you make, and follow through with, a commitment to consistently use it.

Before using DietPower I tried many times to keep track of my food and calories. That was very hard to do using only paper, a pen, and a calorie dictionary, I was ne...

                   

The Scale is a weight-measuring tool

Body fat is only a part of the scale number.
The scale measures the weight of everything in the body,
including all our bones and tissues, along with the
water and waste products that the body contains
at the time that we step on that scale.

Eating salty foods will affect the body's salt/water/waste levels for several days.
So will bowel functions. There are other functions of the body that involve
the body’s water levels as well. This means that the scale will sometimes
register higher numbers than it will at other times.
It is the Big Picture that counts, 
rather than one’s weight on one individual day.

Here is an example of how the Scale can change from day to day,
This is a graph that shows my own daily weights from spring 2009
thru mid February 2011. This weight range is between 109 -128 lbs.




Weight bounces happen.
Everyone has salt/water/waste issues.
Some have them more than others.
It is a RESULT,
a function of the body that is essentially outside one's control.

I’ve been tracking my food and my weight in my DietPower food journal
for more than six years, which has given me an enormous amount of detailed
personal data. As part of my hobby, I play around with that data, making various
graphs and charts.

Weight bounces are so common for me,
that a perfectly consistent weight is unusual.
This morning a comparison chart I’ve been running,
showed something that, for my body, is remarkable.
This graphic shows my weights on 2/19, for the years 2008-2009-2010-2011.

Due to my frequent bounces, the fact that each of these 4 year records show me
in the same lb range on the same date is incredibly unusual.
I was pleased to see this specific evidence of successful weight-loss maintenance.

If you are interested in seeing examples of day-to-day scale variations
You can access a great deal of that data by going to my ABOUT ME page
and clicking the links to the charts and graphs contained there.

 Some of those links show my Maintenance numbers during 2006
through 2010 in detail, and show the differences between my highest weight of
each month, and my lowest weight of each month. This will show you that it is
common for me, during any one month, to have a bounce range of 8 or mo...

                        
What about the Scales? 
Should I weigh? If so, how often?
Should I throw my scales away?

This issue is discussed frequently by those dealing with diet
and weight-loss. After a lifelong battle with food and
with weight (see ABOUT ME),
I’ve established what works for me.

Regarding the scales:
Over the years, I have had every reaction to them possible.
 I've eaten because they showed a loss,
and I've eaten because they showed a gain.
I've eaten because they didn't move up or down.
I've felt bad because they went up,
 I've felt good because they went down. 
Sometimes I've felt bad, and sometimes I've felt good,
when they didn't move at all.

Over time, I tried different variations to my use of the scales.
I tried weighing whenever I felt like it, even if it was many times a day.
I tried weighing once a day, and once a week, and once a month.
twice a day, not weighing myself, but having a club or doctor weigh me.
I spent several years not weighing at all.
I've bought many scales of various kinds,
and I've thrown away many scales.

The scales was never the problem.
I did not like the Reality of the numbers registered by them.
Like many overeaters, I have a strong tendency to lie to myself.
It's easy to lie to myself about how much I eat,
and I can also lie to myself about how much I weigh.

In order to face reality, I have to have an objective standard.
I weigh every morning after using the bathroom, but before I dress.
I write that weight down.
I then record that weight on charts and graphs that I keep.

I feel emotions during this process,
just like I feel emotions about lots of my other daily activities.
I can emotionally eat because I do or don't like the number the scale tells me
or I can emotionally eat over something I hear in the morning news.
............or over anything at all.....
Facts are facts, and emotions are emotions.

I continually work to avoid emotional eating, no matter what the cause.
Not facing the truth of facts isn't a solution to emotional eating.

Some mornings the scale shows me up 2-3 lbs from the prior morning.
I don't like that.
However, I KNOW I didn't really gain 2-3 lbs of fat overnight...
because I'm n...

I am very pleased by the positive responses I've received about the
DietHobby site,since my recent announcement that it is now operational.
I plan to post frequently in this ongoing blog, and also add more pictures
and videos, and recipes and links and other information here in DietHobby.

As with all technical things, some glitches don't show up prior to use,
so we are still working out some problems with registration and log-in,
which is supposed to be required before making comments. (to avoid spammers etc)

I hope to remain responsive to viewers, and make changes in my policies as needed.
Originally I was advised to exclude signatures because people's user names
are supposed to automatically appear.  Due to some technical registration and log-in issues,
that isn't yet operating perfectly.  So I made a change this morning and am asking people to
PLEASE DO put their signature INSIDE their comment.
Signatures. Please DO end your comment with your user name.

My understanding of the process here is:
people can access and view anything on DietHobby without registering or logging in.
However, before they can participate by making comments, they must register.
Registering is meant to be easy, and no data gets saved or published or sold etc.

After people fill out the short registration form, they are supposed to return to their e-mail
and click the link the web-site sends them. As soon as they do that, they are registered,
and from them on all they have to do is log in.
When someone registers, the site automatically sends an e-mail to me,
telling me that I have a new registration and who it is.

I've noticed that most of the websites I normally go to log-in with a user name,
However, my web-developer-genius (son) absolutely insists on using an e-mail address for log-in.
This seems to be mainly because so many people get locked out because they forget
their user names, and dealing with that issue is a hassle for the site-owner (me).
Your e-mail address is totally confidential and no one will ever send you anything,
including me, unless you give me special permission.

You can log on or off while you're on the site, but when you leave you are automatically logged off,
and will need to re-log each time you return and want to make a new comment.
I'm don't understand the technical reason for this, but that's the way my son says it's going to be. 
So, it will be helpful to me to have my online friends register, log-in, and make comments ...