The ARCHIVES here at DietHobby show that I do lots of personal experimenting with different types of diets and ways-of-eating.  Because reviewing my previous posts is helpful to me, I use DietHobby as a digital scrapbook, where I post and index - in a way that I find artistically satisfying - my thoughts, as well as writings, pictures and videos that I consider interesting or helpful.

Although interested viewers are welcome, all posts at my DietHobby website are first and foremost for me, personally.  As part of my dieting hobby, I belong to various online diet groups, and sometimes I share relevant DietHobby posts with fellow members, but I don’t “promote” my website.

DietHobby sells nothing, and does not promote any specific diet; way-of-eating; lifestyle; non-diet; books; clubs; supplements; foods; or memberships.

I address various issues in a one-size-does-NOT-fit-all way as they interest me or apply to me, and I frequently conduct experiments-of-one with a variety of different diets and ways-of-eating.  These experiments can last several months, or only a few days.   I’ve found that the more public I make my personal details in an ongoing experiment, the less effective that experiment is for me, so I am picky about what I share and what remains private. 

This past year or so I started recording pictures of some of my various meals in the Photo Gallery section of DietHobby (look under the heading RESOURCES) to record various meals that I’ve actually eaten as part of various experiments-of-one.

To date, the categories are:

Petite Meals

5-Bite Meals

3-Bite Meals

 Eleven plus years of working to maintain my weight within my goal weight range has taught me that the only right road in Maintenance is the one I create for myself. 

I research dieting issues, listen to dieting advice from others, and do various short-term-diet-experiments, but ULTIMATELY,  What, When, and How, I eat involves a continual personal evaluation and balancing of my own Values.  

DietHobby is my digital Scrapbook. It advertises nothing, sells nothing, charges nothing, and accepts no donations.  It is my own personal website which exists to help me further my own personal Dieting Hobby, and it reflects my personal experience in weight-loss and maintenance.

One-size-doesn’t fit-all, and I address many different ways-of-eating whenever I find them interesting or applicable to me.

For me, Dreams and Goals need to be based on REALITY, which means they need to be based upon a sensible and practical idea of what can actually be achieved or expected.

I have a clear idea of my own personal weight goals, and have an image of how I want to look and feel at my Ideal Weight Goal.  I also have an intense desire to BE there - not only Reach that Goal, but Stay there Forever. 

However, what I’ve learned is that ...
Life involves Balance and Trade-offs which are based on what each of us “brings to the table” (genetically & otherwise), as well as what each of us values the most. 

There are many different definitions of what is individually “beautiful” and also of what is “healthy”, and ….for many people here on earth,….. a BMI number doesn’t define either beauty or health. 

Not only do people define Beauty & Health differently, there are many differences in how highly various Food and Eating issues are valued within each individual life. 

Advertising, the media, and the Diet Industry tells us that “thin” is the most beautiful and healthiest body type. Most people who reach a weight at the bottom of their BMI range would be considered “thin”, and some might even consider those people to be the “healthiest” that they could be, because of their low weight.  However, there are others who define “Beauty” and “Health” differently, and THOSE people would prefer and choose different weight-goals.

Here is a picture showing my own personal ideal Weight Maintenance Range.



As part of m...

For more than 10 years, I’ve maintained a very large weight loss. It took effort to lose the weight, and it still takes effort to maintain that weight-loss.  For detailed info see “My Petite Meals”.

My weight went up over the Holiday season, so now I need to work hard to get it back inside my acceptable maintenance weight-loss range.

I frequently experiment with various “Diets”, “Lifestyles”, and “Ways-of-Eating” randomly depending on my current interests and mindset. I’ve previously experimented with the 5-Bite Diet. For early 2016 detailed info see “Intermittent Fasting via 5-Bites”.

Sometimes I choose to share about my personal diet experiments here at DietHobby, and sometimes I choose not to do so.  Whenever I do share personal information publicly, I limit it to what I feel comfortable with sharing at that time.

For my post-holiday 2016 season… early 2017…, I’m modifying that previous plan. Instead of 2 meals of 5 bites each, I’ll be having 3 meals of 3 bites each.  Instead of “2x5”, I’ll be calling it “3x3”.   I’ll be working to: 

• Eat any kind of food I want, ignoring exact calories.  Take only 3 normal or small size bites each meal.  “My hand goes to my mouth three times and I am done.”  One bite should equal about 1 swallow.  If any meal serving contains food in addition to that amount, throw it away or store it for future meals.

I am posting some photos of my future 3-bite meals here at DietHobby, see: RESOURCES, Photo Gallery.
My Photo Gallery also has a file showing some of my past 5-bite meals.

This 3x3 plan is very much how I ate during the year immediately following my gastric bypass 25 years ago, EXCEPT for the fact that at that time my tiny amounts eaten seldom included sweets or fatty foods because my recovering body couldn’t tolerate them. During that post-surgery year, even a bite or two of those foods made me feel “lie-down-ill” due to “dumping syndrome”. 

During the months immediately after WLS, because of “dumping syndrome”, most of the time my tiny meals consisted of about 3 to 5 bites of some combination of foods like: meat, chicken, fish, egg or cheese; raw or cooked easily digestible vegetables and fruits; bread, potato, rice, pasta with a tiny bit of dressing, butter, or sauce. Occasionally I would have a bite or two of: fried food; sauce or gravy; candy; cookie; pastry, but I tried not to do this unless I had an hour or...

As part of my dieting hobby,
sometimes I take pictures of my “Petite Meals”
and post them in various online groups. 

You can see some of those photos here at DietHobby
at RESOURCES, Photo Gallery.

Here’s a Comment from a member of one of those groups,
and my Response to it.

  Forum member comment:

“Wow that is so incredible.  Perfect portion sizes.

Phyllis, one question.
The small meals you post show they are often only around 500 calories total!
And yet you say they are near your own maintenance calories?? 
That is so little.

When I think of the holocaust victims they had so little food
which is really not much less than what you are having.

I can't get my head around this with so little calories
why you wouldn’t be losing at least bare minimum one pound each week. 

I am intrigued by your life journey with your eating and weight loss pattern.”

  My Response:

“Right now, my ongoing maintenance calories appear to be a bit under an 800 calorie daily average, so eating the small portions that I've been showing here is not a great deal below my maintenance average.

I think the holocaust victim scenario is inapplicable, since the majority of the survivors started out as rather healthy-and-fit young-to middle-aged men and women who had bodies that were able to tolerate severe physical conditions. It is my understanding that very-few-if-any small, inactive, elderly ladies survived the holocaust, at least partially because they were considered useless and therefore killed in gas chambers near the beginning of their captivity.

I have attempted to explain my understanding of how this works for ME, PERSONALLY, in many of my past posts here, and I've written tons about this stuff over at my website, DietHobby, but I'll try again to explain it as clearly as I can.

The normal weight management perspective considers the CURRENCY of weight to be “calories”. 

Although excha...