On Saturday afternoon I was lying on my bed with my laptop,
feeling a bit out of sorts about the interruption to my activities
due to my broken wrist, along with a bit of self-pity for my physical discomfort. 

I decided to seek some online words of comfort and inspiration,
and I did an advanced Google search of the words:

“Inspiration, motivation, comfort, recovery broken wrist”.

On  Google's search results, page 2, I found MYSELF here at DietHobby
…one of this week’s articles. 
I was amused, more than comforted, but perhaps that was actually what I needed.

I also found an article that told me to nurture my spirit.
It told me to take care of myself and remember what makes me feel good:

“Comfort comes in a variety of ways and uses some or all of our senses:

the touch of feather pillows and a soft comforter while resting on an overstuffed sofa;

the sight of the stunning beauty of the colors of creation;

the smell of freshly cut lawns or flowers;

the sound of birds singing, wind chimes, relaxing music, or a phone call from a kind friend;

the taste of favorite comfort foods.”

 Okay…the taste issue got my attention. It seemed to be the most immediately appealing.
However, in my past I’ve frequently experienced the taste issue, and doing that made me really Fat
…so I chose to direct my Focus toward a different way of comfort and distraction.

                                 

To maintain one's current weight,
energy input needs to match energy output.

To lose weight,
energy input needs to be less than energy output.

Despite occasional contradictory statements of a few health food gurus,
and the understanding that any person's calorie numbers are estimates
depending upon many factors--and not a cut-and-dried issue--
the established scientific principle is still: Calories in, Calories out.

Each of us burns a different amount of energy (calories),
This is based on our heights, our weights, our sex, and our ages.
A smaller part of this is also based on our activity level.
Due to each of these factors most of our individual metabolisms differ.

I am a short, small, older female.
Within the past couple of years, I took a medical Resting Metabolism Rate (RMR)
computerized breathing test at a Hospital Facility.
It showed that my metabolism is NORMAL or AVERAGE for my height, weight, age, and sex:

That my "normal" "average" RMR is around 1000 daily calories, and
after adding an 1 hr or more, for 7 days a week, of intense low-impact exercise
(plus strength training) my normal daily calorie burn should be about 1400 calories.

Unfortunately, my personal calorie records do not verify this test’s results.
My own food data indicate that my entire calorie burn is a bit under 1100 calories.
and this includes both both my RMR and the activity factor together.
However that discrepancy is not the point of this discussion.
In this discussion, we can assume that these Metabolism Tests were accurate.

Looking at the food I would normally choose to eat
if I were allowed to eat 3 normal sized dinner plates of food each day,
or the equivalent of a similar food exchange program,
my calculation of the calories in 3 normal sized dinner plates
of whatever food I might like to eat is around 2000 calories daily.

 2000 Plus calories
is what some larger people need to maintain their weights.
However, 2000 minus 1400 calories equals a 600 daily calorie excess.
3500 calories = 1 fat lb.
Therefore every six days of eating in that manner
would cause me to have a fat gain of 1 lb.
365 days a year divided by 6 equals 60,
so I could gain around 60 lbs in one year by eating in this manner.
(It would actually be a bit less since this simple calculation
ignores the slight MR increase that would occur due to a weight gain.)

There are diets that use various meal size limitations,
along with other rules, as a substitute for calorie counting.
There are also many  diets that use “food exchange” charts for the same reason.
The intention is that eating in this manner will cause a "natural limitation"
of the food we eat, and result in us eating less (or at least the same) calories
as we burn up in energy.

Eating less food is good.

However, I frequently caution people who restrict calories in this manner
of this simple Truth.

 We are NOT All the same.

Although almost everyone needs to exercise conscious portion control,
How much food to eat is an individual call.
One that is based upon our sex, our age, our height, our weight,
the activities that we engage ourselves in….and our other genetic data.

We cannot all eat the exact same amounts of food
and expect to maintain our weight or to lose weight.
It simply is not physically possible.

Never completely TRUST a diet program that sells food.
I've belonged to many such diet programs,
and have benefitted from those memberships.

But in Physical matters ...(as opposed to Spiritual matters),  
Trust based on blind faith is unproductive.

It's good to take information from everyone, 

process it all.

...Then ....

use what works, and discard the rest.

Check out the mini-meals section of Recipes for
a newly posted video: Chicken Waldorf Salad,
one of the several recipes I shot before breaking my  wrist.

The Fantasy of  Intuitive Eating  is alluring.

"Eat when you're hungry."
"Eat what you like."
"Stop when you're full".

However, for most people, these instructions are totally ineffective.
These concepts of Intuitive Eating involve letting one's BODY tell one how much to eat.

While a "slightly" obese person can have a similiar MENTAL state to a morbidly obese person, the BODY of a person who has spent a few years a bit over the BMI Obesity Border, is far, far different from the BODY of a person who has spent much of their lifetime far over that border.

New HABITS can be learned, and one can gain a new MINDSET, however, the PRIMARY PROBLEM with INTUITIVE EATING ... for those who've spent lots of time  far into the weight range of Obesity or are now "Reduced Obese"
...is the difference in their BODY's Physical Responses due to their condition, or former condition.

The body responds and changes as a result of Increased weight, and many of those inner changes are not eliminated by weight-loss, or evidently....(based on the experience of myself and others)... by maintaining that weight-loss for 5 to 10 years.

One Example of this is that Fat cells are not simple storage deposits, but each one actively relates to the body continually.

Anyone who has ever been morbidly Obese, has far, far more fat cells than someone who has never been less than 50 lbs overweight, and with weight loss, fat cells shrink, but NEVER disappear.

Body changes were addressed in the research of Dr. Rudolph Leibel, M.D. who assessed the reasons for the frequent regaining of weight by reduced-obese patients. Results of that research were:

"The mean individual energy requirement of reduced-obese subjects was less than that for the control (normal-weight) subjects, despite the fact that they still weighed 60% more than the controls.

In order to maintain a reduced weight, some reduced-obese or even partially reduced patients must restrict their food intake to approximately 25% less than that anticipated on the basis of metabolic body size."

Intuitive Eating is a MENTAL process of teaching oneself to rely on the BODY's NATURAL hunger and appetites.

However, the NATURAL BODY RESPONSE of a reduced obese person provides hunger and appetite cues that are intended to return that person to their former weight.
 My position is that ....perhaps... Intuitive Eating principles MIGHT work for those who have spent a brief period of their life in the BMI "overweight" category, or even slightly over the BMI "obesity" category, but as a weight-loss, or maintenance of weight-loss tool, Intuitive Eating principles are totally ineffective for those who have spent long periods of time well into the BMI category of "Obesity".

How do I explain the Examples used by Intuitive Eating Guru Authors? My personal opinion based on my personal research is that most of those Examples are a result of wishful thinking, wild exaggeration and outright untruthfulness.

 
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.