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.

  Here's my Ask Grandma Valentine's Day video.  

  I really want some patience RIGHT NOW !!!

Many of us struggle throughout our lives
because we want to be the best,
all the time.

The best wife,
the best mother,
the best daughter,
the best friend,
the best employee,
the best boss.

But we can't please everyone all the time,
and we can't be best at everything all the time.

Due to financial or emotional needs, sometimes our focus has to be our jobs
Other things will suffer: friends, family, and health efforts.
Other times, we will have a different focus.

I'm going to do the best I can today.
Tomorrow, I'll also do my best.
It will never be perfect,
but when we learn to stop demanding perfection of ourselves,
we will stop ourselves from being our own worst enemy.
We are all human.
We're all trying our best.

My struggle with food also involves this issue.
My mindset frequently is:
"I want it all, and I want it right now." 

Regarding everything in life ... including food...
We can have it all, just not all at once. 

It’s frequently difficult to please the people around us,
especially when those people are the ones that we love dearly.
Although Life is more than just pleasing others,
I've always found it difficult not to try to make other people happy,
even when it results in feeling like life has been drained from me.

For many years of my life,
I felt like I was never a good enough person,
never a good enough daughter,
never a good enough mother.

This is a problem shared by many people.
We often feel driven by the need for approval from those we love.
It is easy to allow the expectations of parents or spouses or children
or teachers or friends to control our lives.
Many adults are still trying to earn the approval
of unpleasable parents...
…or even unpleasable adult children.

There are many keys to success, but one key to failure
is to try to always please someone else.
It is impossible to do everything people want us to do.
If we don't know our own purpose,
we will always try to do too much,
and that causes stress, fatigue, and conflict.

In order to develop the inner resources
that are required for us to give to others,
we have to survive,
and to figure out how to make ourselves thrive.

It is important to always keep in mind that our goal in life
can't be to simply please others.
It is not a bad thing to do good things for the ones we love,
but our primary goal must be to figure out a way
to take care of ourselves.

Like in an airline emergency,
we have to put the oxygen mask on ourselves first,
in order to be able to help another person with theirs.

Here are some things that I've learned.

It’s okay to have my own thoughts and opinions. 
I don’t have to agree with the views of everyone else. 
This doesn’t mean I have to be in conflict with others over differing ideas. 
There’s a lot of value in the ability to “agree to disagree”, and
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
 
My feelings are important. 
It isn’t necessary to always downplay my feelings in deference to others. 
This doesn't mean that I ignore the feelings of others. 
It means that I have a right to my feelings, too. 
We often think of feelings as “good” or “bad”
when they just are what they are. 
 
There’s nothing wrong with allowing our own needs to be a priority. 
Sometimes we can think that we are weak to even have needs,
but that isn’t true. 
Having needs merely means that we’re human. 

Just because we recognize our needs
and try to find ways to meet them doesn’t  mean that we’re selfish. 
Some people are selfish with their needs,
but if a person has a strong tendency to please others,
that isn’t likely the case. 
 
It’s impossible to please everyone. 
I do my best to accept that and allow myself to be me. 
I am n...