I like reading, and I especially enjoy reading Diet Books. Reading them is part of my DietHobby.

Diet Books are written by medical doctors, and psychologists, and trainers, and nutritionists, and journalists, and lawyers, and housewives, and people from many other walks of life.

Most diet book authors say that they have personally lost weight while following their recommended diet, and/or have seen their clients, their patients, their fellow members, or their friends lose weight while participating in the diet presented.

This is also true of authors who espouse diets that aren’t officially labeled “Diet”, such as diets which based on intuitive eating principles like: “Eat only when hungry; Eat what you like: Stop when you’re full.”

Books are work products that are normally intended to benefit their authors financially, and/or bring them into the public eye…i.e. provide them with fame and fortune. Honest and dishonest people both exist in this world. Some people lie.

Authors can exaggerate or actually fabricate examples of successful dieters in order to boost the credibility of their diets. Their motives vary.  Some of these do this for financial gain, and others do it to benefit humanity. For some, it is a mixture of both.  Except for that fact, initially, I have no reason to doubt an author’s claims.

While reading a diet book, I charge myself with the personal responsibility of doing my best to keep an open mind to the author’s concepts, and while I cannot keep myself from factoring in my own common sense, my prior knowledge, my own life experience, and my personal values, I work to temporarily suspend my personal judgments about the concepts presented.

After a lifetime of reading hundreds of diet books, my belief is that just about every diet works for someone.

Every diet book I’ve ever read has benefited me in some way. Even the worst of them usually contains some useful kernel of Truth, and most of them contain recipes that I find personally interesting.

Each diet book has provided me with information, and sometimes… the information I gained was not what the author intended.

Over time, it is my intention to write here about a variety of diets, and about some of the die...

                                             
                                 
A gastric bypass...or stomach reduction, is exactly that.
18 years ago, when I chose to take this option, it was still considered experimental
and there were only a couple of doctors in California performing it.
I was required to travel to San Diego, which is 6 hr drive from my home, for that surgery,
and stay at a hotel there for at least 10 days immediately following my hospital release
with another person.  My husband accompanied me.

In my case, over 18 years ago, this was before laser surgery was common,
and my body was cut open vertically from chest to stomach...somewhere around 12+ inches.
My stomach was then cut apart into 2 pieces.
The top piece being a relatively small pouch,
and the bottom being the majority of the stomach.
At the place of division, the bottom part of the stomach was closed off and stapled shut.

As Food intake comes in through the top of the stomach,
and leaves though the bottom of the stomach,
the intestine connected to the bottom part of the stomach was cut away,
then brought up to the bottom of the small top part of the stomach and attached there.
The bottom part of the stomach remained inside the body, unattached to anything,
while the small top part of the stomach became the functioning body part.

In some of these surgeries, ....but not in my case......,
the intestine is shortened before it is reattached to the smaller, top portion of the stomach.
This interferes with the natural digestion process, so that ALL of one's food
...both calories and nutrients....are not absorbed but therefore pass through the body more quickly.
HOWEVER, in my case, all calories and nutrients in food are still absorbed.

A gastric bypass is, of course, major surgery,
although now laser surgery is commonly done,
which avoids the long vertical cut through the body.

It is painful, but my San Diego gastric bypass surgeon felt
that potential complications from pain medication outweighed the benefits.
So he did not routinely prescribe it.
In fact, a day or two after my hospital release,  I lay on my hotel bed in such pain,
that my husband phoned the doctors office for a pain prescription and was given one.
My husband returned from the pharmacy with TWO pills....TWO single pills.
That was the only pain medication I received after leaving the hospital.

 As my stomach healed, for several days I could only tolerate small sips of water.
Then I added jello and broth for several days.
On about day 8 or so, I was able to eat 1/2 a poached egg and a couple of bites of toast.
Eating more was physically impossible.

In those days, bariatric surg...

I am able to determine my personal current calorie burn
because of my personal data that is now stored
in my computer software food journal, DietPower.

Every day, for the past  six and half  years
I've entered all my food-intake into that food journal.
I've also entered my morning weight each day.

The DietPower program has functions which allows me to see my diet history.
I can see this as a list; or I can see a day-to-day detailed accounting
of my food and nutrition; or I can easily access a summarized accounting,
for... the past week, the past month, the past quarter, or the past year.

Today, the program tells me that
my past year's average calorie intake was 1115 calories.
I can see the amount of my stabilized weight for one year ago,
....which is my Starting weight. for that one year time period....,
by looking at the list of my average weights during the week of one year ago;

I can see the amount of my current stabilized weight (stabilized meaning average)
...which is my Ending weight, for that one year time period....,
by looking at the list of my weights during this past week or so.
By subtracting my ending weight from my starting weight,
I can see exactly how much weight I lost or gained during that one year period.

So...since now I am the same weight that I was one year ago,
I know that the amount of calories that I ate this past year
is the number of calories it takes to keep my weight the same...
Therefore, I can see that my current calorie burn is approximately 1100 daily...
(as of this EXACT date, 1105 calories...but the next week or month...
this total could be a bit higher or a bit lower, so I rounded it to 1100.)

 Along the same line, another function that I find interesting about DietPower,
is that I can also access the program's calendar, and go back in time to a specific date...
and see exactly what I weighed and what I ate on that particular day.  

From that date, I can also access a summarized accounting for the week,
the month, the year prior to that exact date.
For example.....should I wish to do so.....I could revisit Christmas Day, 12/25/2008
and see exactly What and How Much food I ate on that day;
exactly what I weighed on that date; and access a summary of my calories
and nutritional data for the month or year prior to that specific date.

This personal data is valuable and motivating to me,
both my ongoing present data, as well as my past data,
and as I continue in my weight-loss/maintenance journey,
I continually find new things to do with it.
This helps me implement various behavior changes,
and has become an enjoyable hobby for me.

Since I've been doing this so long, and this Habit is so well-est...