Holiday Greetings

The purpose of posting articles and videos here at Diethobby is to place them in a central location that is easily accessible, for both present (HOME) and future (ARCHIVES) review. This is one of the methods I use to encourage and support myself and any others who are interested, and it is part of my Dieting Hobby.

DietHobby isn’t intended to be a planned lecture series for others, or a well-plotted self-help book. It has a common theme, and I often repeat myself. Here I write and post from day-to-day about the things that are on my mind at the time. When I run across an article or video that I find interesting or meaningful, I include it. For more understanding, re-read  the Disclosure section of my Terms & Conditions.

The following article is interesting, amusing, and thoughtful. I find it especially valuable because many of the author’s personal weight-related experiences are similar to things that I’ve experienced as well. At present, the author is one-and-a-half years post-bariatric-surgery, while I am now twenty years post-op, however, in many ways her point of view closely resembles my own.

I Once Was Obese and Now I’m Not. Please Don’t Applaud.
           By Shannon Chamberlain | Posted Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012, www. slate.com

I Once Was Obese And now I’m not.
Please don’t applaud me for losing the weight.

I am a veteran of weight-loss support groups and 12-step programs, in-person and online. So I know well that the only acceptable way to do this is to make my confession up front: Only by admitting our problems do we have any hope of overcoming them. And when it comes to obesity, there’s only one confession that anyone has any interest in hearing.

I once weighed 352 pounds.

Or 356. The trouble is I don’t really know my starting weight. When you cross over from merely obese to morbidly obese, it’s hard to find a scale in the bath part of Bed Bath & Beyond to accommodate your girth. Even many doctors’ offices don’t carry a scale large enough for the truly fat. This usually ends in a nurse whispering, “Well, how much do you think you weigh?” as if you, the nonmedical professional, were a better judge of this than anyone else—despite the fact that according to many medical professionals, you are lazy, unattractive, stupid, and stubbornly unwilling to comply with treatment.

One thing about not knowing your starting weight: In those early days of weight loss, when you can reasonably expect the numbers to diminish rapidly, you may not have any accurate way of accounting for them. So you miss out on that Pavlovian spur to greater feats of diet and exercise when you need it the most.

Now that I’m merely on the chubby side of normal (size 12) and weight loss is considerably mor...

 
Here are links to a couple of DietHobby articles that I think are worth reading ... or re-reading.

• The Essence of Diets - Part One
• The Essence of DIets - Part Two

Life has taught me a lesson that applies to many different areas.
I’ve found that this lesson holds true even with regards to
Dieting, Weight-Loss, and Maintenance of Weight-loss.

Inspiration can come from many places.
The video below inspires me.

We all have dreams.
Some are for tomorrow, some are for next week, and some are for years from now.

 Dreams and hopes live in the heart.
They are uniquely us, and have the potential to result in who we become.
It is within our ability to realize many of them by listening to our heart and completing some necessary steps. Reality today was a dream or hope sometime in the past.

A dream and a goal are two different terms that help in our task.
The dream is the final destination and the goal is the path leading to it.

One dream can have many goals or directions and strategies that help us accomplish it.
Each goal is a small step toward the finalization of the dream.

Maintaining our focus on the dream   
instead of the short-term goals will enable fulfillment and satisfaction.
While achieving goals offers a sense of satisfaction, it doesn’t provide ongoing motivation.
The real power of each goal comes from its connection to the appropriate dream.

We have the ability to take many of our dreams out of fantasy and convert them into eventual reality by setting realistic goals and constantly reviewing our process to stay on track.

 
One of my dreams is
to maintain my body in the "normal" weight-range
for the rest of my life.

We all have dreams.
But in order to make dreams come into reality,
it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.

We can choose to Hold on Tight to our Dreams.