This picture is my most recent recipe posted: Tofu Chocolate Brownies.

I enjoy doing recipe videos, but DietHobby is not a cooking blog or channel.
The Recipe section of DietHobby is simply to share with you
the amounts and types of foods I normally eat,
and the ways that I prepare and handle those foods.

In order to quickly share many of the recipes that I commonly use,
I've made and posted a great many cooking videos here within a very short time period,
I feel that I have now established a good base of personal Recipes here at DietHobby,
so I will soon begin posting cooking videos less frequently,
My ultimate practice will probably be to post a new cooking video once a week or so.

  I’ve found that goal setting helps me focus
on the areas in my life that are meaningful to me.
rather than be guided by what other people
want me to be, to do, or to accomplish.

First I need to clearly identify what I want.
“What is my Goal?”

The next question is
“What kind of BEHAVIOR is needed to take me there?”

The very last, and most Unimportant issue,
is the question of timing. Timing is essentially:
”When will that behavior bring me the desired RESULTS?”
or "When will I reach my Goal?"
and timing is an issue that is outside my direct control.

I’ve spent a great deal of time in my life thinking about
my various weight goals and my food-intake and my exercise goals.

Today, I’ve been thinking about my goals for this website, DietHobby.
I’m really glad to have discovered making videos.
It is such a convenient way to share the way I do things
with people who might be interested.
This whole website has become a very interesting project for me.
It is a great deal of work, but I’m having a really good time with it.
  I've just started making some very brief videos entitled "Moments of Thinspiration",
which I plan to post frequently.  These are located under RESOURCES in the Video Section.
Every video I make is designed to be part of DietHobby;
to reflect my basic philosophy and vision; and to provide encouragement and support.

While I understand the values and motivations of “marketing”
and “social networking”, I don’t really enjoy making efforts  
in those directions. “Social networking on Twitter, Facebook,
and YouTube takes away from the time that I want to use writing
quality articles about the diets and tools etc. and viewpoints that
really matter to me. And from the time that I want to spend finding
and reviewing quality articles of others.

I do understand that I need to take steps to let people know that DietHobby exists
and to make it easy for interested people to find it,
and I am willing to make some small efforts in that direction.
However, I'm hoping that somehow, through my normal activities and connections,
without extensive "marketing" efforts,
DietHobby will become known to the people who need it.
It certainly helps that I’ve no interest in becoming a YouTube or blogging “star”.
I just want a simple and friendly place where I can post my own viewpoints and
share with other people who are interested in the same things as I am.
I don’t need to make money. I don’t want to “convert” the world.
I don’t need to change anyone’s mind,
and I don’t feel a need to make thousands of strangers like me. 
As my goals for DietHobby's "Success" are simple, 
I think it is reasonable to believe that I can achieve them.

 I recently heard someone say:

"I  plan on making the most out of tomorrow’s holiday.
Even if that means I'll be shoveling plain sugar into my mouth
and eating until I vomit."  

The above-quote is a good description of binge behavior.

Some people are only joking when they say that they are going to eat sugar until they vomit or feel like it. This may only mean they will actually have a few pieces of candy and/or cookies which will seem like a lot to them. 

But, some literally do Binge on a regular basis, and this means they  actually do eat a large amount, such as one or more family size bags of candy/and or cookies and these people...despite a great deal and time and effort.... are not able to overcome this "addiction-like behavior".

People are mentally and physically different. One-size-does-not-fit-all.

I think there can be no doubt that Taubes, author of  Why We Get Fat is correct when he says that sugar is a special kind of food,  because it seems to "hijack" the brain.

Sugar seems to be an issue with almost everyone, however the definition of "bingeing" seems to differ between individuals.
For some, "bingeing" means "giving in" to a piece or two of cake
and for others it means eating the entire cake."
Most people equate "bingeing" with "Emotional Eating",  but perhaps Taubes is correct when he says that this isn't merely a mental or behavioral issue. 

Maybe there's actually a large physiological issue ... maybe our respective bodies are different in more ways than size.

Some of us seem to be more sensitive to carbohydrates than others. There are some people for whom even "healthy" complex carbohydrates ... such as baked potatoes and whole kernal corn... can trigger binge behavior. 

 

Personal Diet Modifications have their place,
but making any Food Plan into a Habit,
requires Consistency and Patience.

It is impossible to successfully make a Food Plan into a Habit,
if one changes the Plan every time one fails to meet its Guidelines.
No one is successful all of the time.

 To build a successful eating Habit it is necessary to:

Recognize a failure,
Accept that failure,
Resolve to reduce future failures,
Continue working to follow that Food Plan.

We have to overcome obstacles one at a time
Goals don't come easily,
but there is no accomplishment without work,
and no "win" without something to beat.

It's natural to get discouraged when roadblocks appear.
We invest time and emotion into creating the perfect plan,
and then something comes along and screws it up.

  Sometimes all we have to do
is to get back up and move forward again.
Obstacles are like that Wizard behind the curtain—
--once we see them up close they are much less intimidating.

Next time we take a step backwards,
let's not pile up guilt.
All we have to do is take two steps forward
and we'll still be further along than we were before.

It doesn't matter how many obstacles we face.
We only have to beat the most recent one.

Nobody’s Perfect.
I’ve spent much of my life trying to fix my various flaws.

One of my life’s dynamics has been thinking
that if I could fix everything that’s wrong with me
it would make everything else around me okay too.

Finally, insight came that instead of focusing on fixing my flaws,
I need to Accept them…even love them.

For a long time, I thought that if I Accepted the things I felt were wrong with me,
I’d never be able to change them.
But really, love is what leads to real healing and transformation,
and ultimately it is the only thing that can actually create changes in us

 In truth, all of what each of us perceives as personal “flaws”
is a subjective value judgment, based on our own interpretations
our own perspectives.

We can obsess about certain aspects of our bodies:
on our appearance; on our personalities; on our lives or work circumstances,
and judge them to be “bad” or “flawed”.

But in truth,
they are what they are.
We are the ones who place the “bad” meaning or interpretation on them.
It is very human to experience a sense of feeling flawed
in certain aspects of our lives and at particular times in life.
There's nothing wrong with us for feeling that way.

However, feeling flawed can rob us of our energy,
our passion, our happiness, our confidence and our lives.

It's one of the most painful ways we can allow our egos to run us,
and it can have devastating consequences if we aren’t conscious of it.

Here are some ideas about how to move from feeling flawed
to a place of acceptance, peace and love.

Acknowledge what's true for you, personally. The first step is telling the truth.
Trying to avoid, run from or pretend our flaws don’t exist doesn’t work..
Admit and express the underlying emotions. If we can identify,
acknowledge and ultimately express the true emotions we feel about
these perceived flaws, we can create a real sense of freedom for ourselves.

Forgive ourselves. Self-forgiveness is something that some people
don't have much experience with. Many of us have been trained
to be hard on ourselves, and to believe that forgiveness must come
from someone or something outside of us.
However when we are able to forgive ourselves,
we create the space for real change and healing to take place.

Appreciate. To appreciate means to recognize the value of something.
Sometimes dealing with our personal flaws teaches us a great deal about ourselves.
When we learn to appreciate and be grateful for what our difficulties have taught us,
we can move away from self-pity,
because It's impossible to experience gratitude and victimhood simultaneously.

Love. The ultimate antidote for all suffering is love.
Our ability to bring love to our flaws, to care for them with kindness
and compassion …like we would care for a child, a pet or a loved one,…
is what will ultimately cause the transformation we're looking for to take place.
When we love our flaws, we create an environment where we're either able
to make the kinds of specific behavior changes we truly want,
or able to learn to love and accept ourselves,
whether any change in the “flaw” takes place or not.

All of these things are much easier said than done.

Admitting the truth to ourselves, expressing our real emotions,
forgiving ourselves, appreciating our flaws, and loving all aspects of ourselves,
both the positive and the negative, gives us the opportunity to actually transcend our flaws.

Doing this takes a great deal of intention, support, compassion and patience.
It’s easier to take a pill, to get busy and distracted, to whine and complain, or to
pretend things are fine or continue with the other avoidance techniques we are good at.
But this is the way to can genuinely heal ourselves and end our cycle of suffering.