Sometimes I find that I learn as much
from a "Bad Example" as I do from a good one.

One of the things I do here in my Dieting Hobby
is follow the online sharing of various people
who are engaged in the pursuit of weight-loss,
as they try this diet or that one, or follow no structured plan.

Watching others teaches me things,
and reinforces things that I've already learned
from my own experience.

For several years I've been following the journal
of someone who shares her daily thoughts and activities
as it relates to her weight-loss attempts.
She is the same high weight now,
as she was when she began the online journal.

She appears to be incapable of grasping and holding on
to any type of dieting plan .. even for a one month period.
As soon as she has a failure, she rethinks everything
and starts a different plan.

The thing that becomes apparent to anyone following her
for any length of time, is that every single one of these plans
is the same … in that … she doesn't want to deny herself anything.

She wants to eat what she wants, in the amounts that she wants,
whenever she wants to eat it.

Despite all of her experience, and a multitude of evidence to the contrary,
she desperately holds on to the unfounded belief
that she doesn't need to sacrifice anything she wants.
That her obese body is going to begin acting like a "normal" body
and tell her how to eat to become smaller. ..
And, of course... it doesn't.

I have personally observed that her body hasn't done this
for at least the past several years,
despite hundreds of good intentions and well-thought out plans,
even though she has put forth an enormous amount of mental energy,
and given her body many opportunities to do so.

This example of failure … though sad for her ….
is helpful for me.
I, like many others, have that seed of fantasy within me;
that desire to believe those misguided Intuitive Eating Gurus.

I'd like to believe that my body will guide me to normalcy;
that all I have to do is listen carefully to it,
and my own body will tell me what, and when, and how much to eat
in order to leave the state of obesity, and
reach and maintain inside a normal weight range.

The thought is alluring. Such a pleasant one.
But, unfortunately, it is based on little or no truth,
even though it is frequently promoted by (sometimes) well-intentioned people,
who tell outright lies in order to support that baseless Theory…
…which is no more than a hopeful wish.

The "bad" examples of those obese people
who choose to embrace this thinking
are helpful to remind me of the Truth.

I can be normal weight.

  I'd like to be a person of value.

Here at DietHobby, I've been having a lot of fun with new designs.
Some technical aspects of this website are attracting me today,
and I want to start playing with them.

Still, I need to continue to eat reasonably,
and I want to write something encouraging this morning.
However, I find myself distracted by my current tasks
and am having trouble thinking of anything
motivational or inspirational to share this morning.

Life continues to happen to us all.
Somehow in order to lose weight or maintain weight-loss,
each of us needs to keep our focus
on how, what, and the amount of food that we eat
… throughout and despite ...
life's multitude of events and occasions.

Every day is just one more day in life.

Each of us chooses, every day, where to put our focus,
and chooses whether or not to follow through with what it takes
to sustain the kind of consistent behavior
which is necessary for us to achieve
our most important personal goals.

Each of us has the ability to choose our attitudes.
We can be positive or negative, it's up to us.

When my attitude is positive and upbeat,
it makes my day brighter and more pleasant.

I choose to work toward having a positive attitude.
I will fill my mind with happy, inspiring thoughts,
by reading and watching things that encourage and inspire me.

I will either surround myself with happy, pleasant people,
or choose to spend my time engaged in pleasant activities alone,
and will avoid and ignore negative people who complain and whine,
and choose to wallow in their misery.

A positive attitude will help me succeed with my goals,
and will help me survive the many difficulties
that each of us experiences during our lives.

 
I started DietHobby in February 2011,
so it has now been in existence for 1 year.

Today, I'm taking a step back from the day-to-day involvement,
to look at the big picture, re-assess my progress, and perhaps
make adjustments to the project.

 I began the DietHobby website as an extension of my
diet forum involvement in order to provide a place of my own

that was under my own management and control,
to store my Thoughts about dieting and related subjects,
as it applies to my own Maintenance Progress.

I purchased my own Domain, DietHobby.com.
My web-genius-son wrote the code for this DietHobby website.
He brought it into existence and taught me how to use it.

People can easily learn about me and my dieting history
by reading the About Me page.

I've written frequent articles and stored them in the Archives
for easy accessibility for anyone interested.

I've made many recipe videos and put them in the Recipe section
to easily share them with others.

I've included some personal pictures in the Gallery section,
for those who would like to see my family or my stained glass projects.

I've completed a thorough summary of a best selling diet-book
and placed it in the BookTalk section.

I've organized and provided links to helpful sites,
and relevant videos in the Resources section,
including a Playlist of my Words of Wisdom video series
which is intended to be used as a positive motivational tool.

 DietHobby's companion channel on YouTube
began as a place to store the Recipe videos,
and the 30 second Inspirational videos
that I made for this website.

However, YouTube also has a community of its own
who view videos, make comments,
and subscribe to be notified of future videos.

This YouTube community includes all ages, from children through the elderly.
These are people of different tastes, interests, cultural backgrounds, education,
nationality, religion, race, sex, and political affiliations.

Although the YouTube DietHobby's primary viewers are in the United States,
there are also DietHobby viewers in Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany,
the Netherlands, India, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand,
Turkey, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines, as well as other countries.

My web-genius-son suggested that I begin a third video series,
to better address the many needs and interests of the YouTube Community.
This video series is entitled "Ask Grandma", which answers questions from viewers.