The support and information that I’ve received from participating
in online forums has helped me toward my goals of weight-loss
and maintenance.

The majority of people in these online forums share a common interest
in diet, fitness, and related health issues. Matters of age, sex, race, size,
appearance, occupation, status, religion, and political affiliation tend to
become irrelevant as people join together to achieve their personal weight
and health related goals.

     I’ve found most of these people to be remarkably intelligent, articulate,
courteous, and kind. A member can share a personal feeling and opinion about a relevant issue,
and others will join in with comments on that topic. Whether I just read the forum comments
or choose to make a comment myself, as time goes on I become familiar with these people, and
begin to consider some of them as friends. Previously I wrote articles about this subject
in Online Friends and Imaginary Friends.

Over the years, a few of my online forum relationships with like-minded female forum members,
have progressed to e-mails, phone calls, and even personal visits, which has provided an
added dimension to the personal friendships in my life.
My entry into the online forum world was around January 2005,  when
I first became involved in the Monthly Challenges forum at Dietpower.com. This
was the only online forum where I chose to use my real name, Phyllis Collins,
and I did that primarily because I didn’t understand I could choose a different user name.
Since joining, I’ve posted in that forum every month, and today, I logged in
to reserve my spot in the March 2011 Challenge.

For those of you who might be interested in my real time weight-loss numbers,
and the process I’ve gone through since January 2005 and the present date,
you can see all of my personal DietPower Challenge Posts by looking at their
Challenge Forum Archives. I feature DietPower software at DietHobby, because
I consider it to be my most valuable individual tool. FYI, I have no financial interest
in DietPower..including any referrals or recommendations existing within this Blog.
Many diet book authors and diet gurus have forums on their individual websites.
One online forum that I’ve found extremely valuable is the No S Diet Forum.
I began posting there in spring of 2008, and I’ve posted there consistently
since that time…including this morning. My user name in that forum, as well as
other online forums, is BrightAngel. I’ve found the atmosphere at the No S forum to be
supportive and accepting of individual differences. It’s one of my favorite online places
..and contains some of my favorite online people. DietHobby has a link to Reinhard’s book,
“The No S Diet” and links to some of his “Shovelglove” Videos, both of which
I will be discussing at a later time.

The two forums mentioned above have been my primary individual forum tools.
Also worth mentioning is the 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community forum
which is quite a good forum resource. I first posted there in fall 2009, and still post
there rather inconsistently. Spark People also has some excellent forums, and I
will be providing you with more details about the Spark People tools at a later time.

I have also been involved with forums that won’t be individually named in DietHobby
due to the presence of heavy-handed moderators and restrictive posting rules
within those forums.

I find that I have much, much more to say about the value of online Forums,
and at some future time, I’ll continue on with more about this subject.
 

                                 

In a previous Blog, A Thousand Words AND Pictures,
I shared about my video adventures.
Those Videos are now all posted here on DietHobby.

In yesterday's Blog, When Life Takes You In A Different Direction,
I posted my Book Discussion Announcement Video.

My Cooking Videos are posted under RECIPES.
You can access them from the links at the right-side-top-of-the-main-page
or from the Recipes drop-down menu.

You can also find them under RESOURCES..... Videos.......Cooking Videos

Here's one of them.

                                
Someone who is still Fat recently told me that they didn't want Thoughts about Weight/Food/Exercise to "Rule their Life".

 I had no way to Help them toward that Goal of Mindlessness, because Thoughts about Weight/Food/Exercise have ALWAYS "Ruled MY Life."

I did not spend any less time Thinking about those issues when I was Fat than I do now. The difference is that when I was Fat my Thoughts were not accompanied by Action, while during my weight-loss period ...and now inside Maintenance... my Thoughts about those issues are now more positive and productive.

I frequently hear things like:
“I don’t want to THINK about my eating.”
“I don’t want to be obsessed with thoughts of food.”

Terms like Diet Mentality or Diet Head are commonly usedto denote the negative feelings people have abouttheir need to monitor their eating behavior for weight-control.
All of us tend to seek the easier, softer way. and almost all Diets promise us one.
Dieting is treated as a matter of “get in…get out”.Find the problem..fix it. ..and then “get on with your life:. which implies that once you’ve remedied the problemthat you can “leave it behind”.

Most diet book authors tell us that they have faced a weight problemeither themselves personally or as medical professionals,
…sometimes both………and that they have found a solution, and they are writing that book to tell you what it is.

Perhaps they are writing for their own personal fulfillment or perhaps for financial profit. Still, they want to tell you what to do to FIX your problem. …and in the dieting world, fixing your problem means getting rid of fat.

Do you have a physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual problem? No matter, despite the source, or the reason….
A Solution is promised.
A Solution is the answer to a problem.
A Solution resolves, finalizes, and eliminates the problem.

But Life IS continuous. The end of life is Death.
And eating will always be a major part of life, whether or not eating is a thoughtful conscious process.

The dieting promises of a “Solution” are illusory.
The Goal of getting thin and arriving at a place where eating is primarily “unconscious”.is an very ineffective goal, because for a reduced obese person,unconscious eating invariably results in fat gain.

I’ve replaced that Goal with one less impracticable.My current Goal is to continue putting forth the consistent effort that it takes to maintain my weight-loss.This means I plan to keep using my mind to control my body’s food-intake.

I choose to think Differently about the dieting process. I don’t use negative terms like Diet Mentality and Diet Head.
I’ve chosen to make all those issues part of a positive DietHobby.
 I changed my mind…from negative to positive.

       
Remember that old saying, “a picture’s worth a thousand words”?
Text people normally communicate by using words. I think of myself
as a “text person”. However, I am enamored with emoticons-
which are, of course, little pictures.

My normal lifestyle doesn’t involve cameras, except on special
occasions. I own a digital camera, with mega-memory,
that downloads or prints easily, but I seldom even remember
to take it with me when I go on vacation. When I do take it, frequently
I return from my trip with blank memory cards, because I was too
absorbed in experiencing the Now to record it for later.

Sometime in the 1990s, my husband gave me a video camera for Christmas.
I’ve used it less than ten times, and one of those time was at my daughter’s
college graduation ceremony. Although it still works, now it’s obsolete.

My-son-the-web-genius has convinced me to enter the world of pictures.
DietHobby has the capability to share Videos, in the link VIDEOS under Resources.
and it also contains a Gallery for still pictures.
I’ve already put up some videos that I find relevant to DietHobby,
and I’ll be experimenting with that section until I get a better “feel” for it.

Recently, my son came to my home with his professional camera, camcorder,
and lighting equipment. He took still-pictures of me, and filmed me cooking
some of my low-calorie recipes. I haven’t seen any of these pictures or videos yet.
It’s been years since I’ve seen a “home movie” of myself,
and I really have no idea how I will look or sound. He says I’ll see the videos
after he uploads them to YouTube. However he’s kind enough to let me see
the still pictures first so I can choose which ones I want to share here on DietHobby.

So, DietHobby will be A Thousand Words AND Pictures.
These will involve different aspects of Dieting, will be related to that Topic,
and most videos will be created by other people.

That said…here’s an Off-Topic video that I find fascinating.
Nora, The Piano Cat

The creation and use of this website feels like one big present to me
from the Universe. This is one of those happy, grateful times that
I work to fix in my memory to offset those times that are less pleasant.
All of us have lives that contain both the good and the bad,
.....and for me.....today the good is predominant.
For me, Valentine's Day has always equaled Candy.
Flowers, jewelry, lingerie are all good....but a box of candy, preferably heart shaped, is my focus.
My lifetime position has been that other presents are nice extras, but I really want that candy.
Those chocolates usually come to me every Valentine's day....even if I have to buy them for myself.

This year I told my husband that I didn't want that heart-shaped box of chocolates. 
Normally if I make that statement to him, I don't really mean it.
What I mean is: "I know eating that candy will cause weight-gain and I don't want to be fat."
and my true belief is..."If you don't get me candy, you don't love me, and you think I'm too fat."

This year feels different.  This year I really meant it, and the only reason I can see for that 
is my current low-carb experiment. I've been working on this since New Year's, sometimes
successfully, and sometimes not. For more than a week I've had no refined carbs,
and...in fact...no complex carbs except specific vegetables.
I find that I don't crave candy the way I normally do...although I do allow myself
tiny amounts of artificially sweetened candy at times. 

This "sugarless" candy is still high-calorie, and is full of artificial ingredients.
It certainly isn't "real food", and is probably bad for me.  However, it's value to me is that it
tastes sweet, without causing me to crave more...plus a lot of sugar-alcohol is known
to have a laxative effect. That potential for immediate gastric distress encourages me
to eat only very, very small amounts of it.
I'm planning to have one Russell Stover sugar-free Strawberry cream chocolate today....
maybe two...because after all,....it is Valentine's day.
My web-designer-developer-genius is my son,
and he has been busily working to get this site operational.
There are still things that need to be done, but I just couldn't wait to start posting here,
Please excuse any temporary glitches, and tell me about any problems that you experience. 

My son also writes, produces and shoots videos regularly and I've decided to share
the following Valentine's Day video with you, although it wasn't intended for me or for this site.
I find it amusing, and relevant.  Since every chocolate contains about 100 calories,
I was interested in whether or not the actress was concerned about that.  My son told me
that when off camera, she spit most of it out.   I  was pleased because that is the definition of
"chew and spit", which is officially defined as an eating disorder, and is something
I'm going to discuss here in detail...along with anorexia, bulimia, and bingeing....at some later time.

Disclaimer here: I love my son, but we have very different lifestyles. I do NOT normally watch
his "Exotic Jess" videos.  It is my understanding that they are a bit suggestive, but they are 
not "adult" videos. I've seen only a very few of them and if you choose  to access any 
that are not posted on this site, you're probably watching videos that I've never seen.