Food and money have a great deal in common.
A specific amount of money goes into my bank account each month,
and that is the amount of money I have to pay my bills and
meet my needs each month.

If I want to save up for a trip or a treat,
I have to budget my money, and do without spending the amount I need to save.
Frequently I also feel like spending more money than I have in my bank account,
I have that choice. There are ways I can accomplish this.
But, making a choice to spend as much as I want,
will lead to negative consequences . . . making my life difficult to deal with.
That fact and that situation will not change, even though I may hate it.

AND

My body uses a specific amount of food each day/week/month,
that is the amount of food I need to put into it.
If I want to reduce my size,
I have to eat LESS food than my body uses to create an energy deficit.

I can choose to live within my energy allowance or not.
Frequently I also feel like eating more food than my body can use,
I have that choice.
But, making a choice to eat as much as I want,
will lead to negative consequences., i.e. even more stored fat.
The fact and situation will not change, even though I may hate it.

 As a mature adult human being,
I know that frequently I simply can't have my own way.
This is true of spending money, and of eating food.
There has to be some form of self-regulation...with both money and food.

If one chooses not to count calories, following a specifically defined
food-plan is a good way to self-regulate food.

However, even one Bingeing day a week,
can easily provide the body with more energy than one's body can use in that entire week.
To give any Diet, or food-plan,  a Chance, one needs to actually follow it.

I am not a fan of Intuitive Eating Concepts
and in future Blogs, I will have much to say about the idea 
of letting one's body tell one what, when, and how much to eat
based one's perception of hunger.

I am very familiar with the issue of  Hunger,
and I have found that  when dieting,
Appetite, not Hunger, is the most difficult problem to overcome.

Personally, I've found temporary physical Hunger to be the least important issue
in determining whether I can successfully follow a diet,
because one's stomach (and one's brain) quickly becomes used to
being fed a certain amount at a certain time,
IF the amount and the time are consistent.

There are "stretch receptors" in one's stomach,
and if one eats an equal volume 3 times a day,
one's stomach (and brain) will adapt to that amount and timing.
When one is overweight and not in danger of actual Starvation,
Physical Hunger is a problem that can be rather easily resolved,
and  rarely seems to be the primary cause of either Overeating, or Obesity.

There are people who think Portion Control is bad because it requires them to limit the amounts they eat.  Good or Bad, in most cases, is simply a Value Judgment. I like something...It's Good. I hate something...It's Bad.

And, we can always find reasons to justify all of our Value Judgments.  Many Facts of Life are not Good or Bad. They Just Are. They Exist.

By definition, an Obese person takes in More food intake than that person's body requires to maintain a Normal weight.
The Reason this happens is really still unknown. although Taubes presents a good argument in support of his Theory. See his book, "Why We Get Fat" being discussed here in BOOKTALK.

Some people say the Cause is physiological.. that Obesity is due to a Genetic dysfunction, or a "raised set point", or some other unknown physical factor, an obese person's appetite control system doesn't operate properly. Specifically, that person has a body with a defective fat regulation system, and one symptom of this condition is physical hunger for more food than the body requires.

Some people say the Cause is psychological...that Obesity is due to Gluttony and Sloth.. and that this behavior can come from ignorance, or from Cultural influence, or from some unknown deeply emotional Dysfunction.

Whether Obesity has a physiological or psychological cause..... the only way a person who is Obese can become normal weight is tosomehow manage to Eat Less.

The term "Portion Control" is simply a shortcut way to define the process of "consciously and actively monitoring the Amount of one's Food Intake"

The Obese person's Body does not want to eat less. ...(Usually, the Obese person's Mind doesn't want to do it either.)....

Eating whatever food substance one wishes to eat.... in an amount that will satisfy an Obese person's physical and emotional appetites.... won’t result in that Obese person becoming, or maintaining, a normal weight.

It's just a Fact.

Call it Good. Call it Bad. It is just a Truth of Life.

I find that in order to find satisfaction and peace in Life, I must reach the point of Acceptance of these, sometimes unpleasant, Truths. Once I Accept a Truth, I can choose how I'm going to deal with it.  But Denial of Life's Truth...and rationalizing it away from my consciousness... takes away my Freedom to control and change my behaviors in response to that Truth.

To reach peace of mind while refusing to Accept Life's Truth requires me to mentally Distort that Truth via rationalization. Holding on to a Distorted belief, or perspective, about the way an Obese body functions, can certainly keep an Obese person fat.

Portion Control...which is defined above...involves self-denial.
It requires one to deny one's Obese, or Reduced Obese, Body the Amount of food it requires for complete satisfaction.  It takes much Effort. It is work.

If I'm blind because I've lost my eyes,  but choose to believe they'll regrow themselves soon, I probably won't do the work it takes to learn Braille.

If I believe that somehow, through some magical process, I can give my Obese or Reduced obese Body all types of food, in the amounts that it takes for that Body to always register Satisfaction, I'm not going to do the work it takes to control the amount of food I eat in order to reduce my Obese body, or keep my Reduced Obese body a normal weight.
However, I am going to be working.Because it is going to take a great deal of Mental Work to find some way to sustain my irrational belief system which every day must face the Reality of Life's Truth.

                                
Choosing the right words to fit a concept takes thought,
and the dictionary is a useful tool for me.
Sometimes I'll start by looking up a word,
and then move on to looking up a word that
defines the first word, and on and on.

 Progress is defined as:
A forward or onward movement
as toward an objective or to a goal...;
to advance...; a gradual betterment. 

I'm clear on the definition of the word "betterment",
and I know that the word gradual sounds like "slow".
In fact I looked up "gradual" and found that
gradual is "moving, changing, or developing by fine or often imperceptible degrees.

The term "Making Progress" is a positive one.
It implies that we are putting Effort into something,
and that this Effort is causing us to advance toward our objective or our goal.

Much of the time, while Dieting, our weight-loss Results are almost imperceptible.
That's where Faith, Patience, Perseverance, and Consistency come into play.
So...you know what I'm trying to say.

IT TAKES TIME.

While I'm on this subject,  progress is being made on this web-site,
You might notice a few slight changes here and there at DietHobby,
as my son-the-web-genius adds some final improvements.
My video making skills are also gradually increasing.
This is my latest Cooking Video.

                             
    As part of my dieting hobby, I visit many different online forums, and I sometimes receive inspiration from posts written by other forum members who are dealing with the same issues that I deal with.

While Blogging here, I will sometimes quote some or all of a post by another. In doing this, my intention is to give appropriate credit to the authors of copyrighted articles, while protecting the anonymity of other sources quoted.

I agree with this thoughtful post from a fellow forum member and think that it deserves special attention here.

 QUOTE:

Every Bite Counts.
I had a huge light bulb moment last night as I was reading about "cheat days," which is what some people call it when you plan a day to go off your eating plan and eat whatever you want.

The theory is that if you PLAN a day like that every so often, it makes it easier to stay on plan the rest of the time. Whenever you are craving something, you just tell yourself that you can have it on your cheat day, but you have to wait until then to have it.

The problem is that for some people (like me), a cheat day turns into a cheat week or a cheat month and it's really hard to get back on track. Or if you have problems with bingeing, it isn't any hardship to ingest upwards of 4 or 5 thousand calories on a cheat day (yes I have done that), and it really messes up all your hard work you did eating right all week.

Anyway, it hit me.
Every bite counts.
EVERY.

Now, maybe this sounds obvious, but how many times have I gotten up, started a healthy eating day, and then at lunch "slipped up" and had pizza? Then I would tell myself, "oh well, I ruined my day, so I may as well have candy bars and burgers and fries for dinner and start over fresh tomorrow." Isn't that something a LOT of people are in the habit of doing?

We look at our eating aka "diet" in terms of a UNIT.

One good day  (eating the right number of points or calories or whatever your plan is) is a Unit of Success,

and a Bad Day (eating over your limit, not counting calories, eating junk) is a Unit of Failure.

Sometimes we even try to string days together, as in "I will start on Monday" or the first of the month
or after Christmas or whatever, which is an excuse to eat badly and not count anything until we "start again" on that special date.

WHO came up with this idea???
Why is a "DAY" the unit of success or failure??

Who decided that if you eat badly for lunch, you can just eat whatever you want for the rest of the day and start over in the morning? It's as if we think that "one bad day" is a single unit of failure, whether we ate 2000 or 5000 calories, that it's the same because it is just ONE bad day. It makes no sense!!

EVERY BITE COUNTS, whether you eat a Hershey bar on a "bad" day because you are bingeing or eat it on a "good" day and add it into your calorie count, it is STILL 210 calories going into your body. You HAVE to stop looking at it as good and bad days.
It is your LIFE.

What I mean is this. Say you are aiming to eat 1500 calories per day to lose weight (substitute WW points or whatever other unit or plan you are using). Now, say your week looks like this:

Monday: 1500
Tuesday: 1470
Wednesday: 1460
Thursday: 1520
Friday: 1460
Saturday: 3200
Sunday: 2900

You slipped up on Saturday and told yourself you would start over on Monday. You had only 2 bad days. But now you have eaten 13,510 calories for the week which averages out to 1910 per day... way over your limit. And you wonder why you haven't lost weight.

Because every bite counts, and the unit is not a day, or even a week.
It is a lifetime.

When you eat something you shouldn't have, it's over. Stop, and eat right from that very moment on. Have a healthy dinner. Keep going. A bad meal is way better than a whole bad weekend.

You want a cheat day?
Every bite you take counts, because it still goes into your body, counted or not. Every bite either helps you get closer to your goal or slows you down from reaching it.

So the question becomes, how badly do you want it? Do you want to lose weight more than you want that cookie? Then put it down.

Every time you eat something unhealthy or go over your calorie limit, you are effectively putting a speed bump... or even a roadblock... in between you and your goal.  Every bite you take determines whether you will reach your goal weight in 6 months, 12 months, 3 years, or never.
What do you REALLY want?

                          

The term “portion control” actually means:
“a precise amount of content to control usage”

That precise amount could be any amount,
and actually could consist of a portion…or precise amount…
of food far more than one might desire to eat.

This can be true of any food, presented in any way.
For example, bulk commodies (such as salt) can be divided
into individual packages that are a more suitable size for individual households,
however, this doesn’t mean that one must consume the entire package at any one sitting.

A common definition of “portion control”
is understanding how much a serving size is.
If one is counting calories…this would include
how many calories a serving contains.
A serving size could be ANY amount,
therefore “portion control” does not automatically limit size of a substance.

 Nutritionists, and other “experts” like the USDA,
have devised simple formulas
to define a “portion” …or precise amount....of a specific food
for easy mental reference…and to provide a “common definition” for society.

Those common definitions are then easily used
by people to determine individually, what amount of specific foods
would be optimal for a person of that particular size
in order for that person to keep from gaining weight, or for weight-loss.
These simple formulas are used by many people to easily “eyeball” their food,
and consciously choose the proportions that will benefit them personally,

The existence of common portion definitions doesn’t necessarily limit food-intake.
It merely defines a specific size of food as a specific number of servings.
A definition doesn’t limit food-intake,
it merely provides a tool of knowledge.
One can still eat whatever amount of food they choose to eat,
but portion definitions bring Intellectual Awareness to the process.
The term “Control: merely means
to have power over, or to direct influence over…
So “portion control” is merely having power over
or directing influence over the specific amounts of food one eats.
EVERYONE necessarily does that every time they eat.

Assuming one has access to unlimited amounts of food,
one controls one’s food-intake portions
via the body’s physical reactions…such as discomfort, nausea etc,
or one can choose to control one’s food-intake portions
via their intellectual knowledge of what their body requires.
In modern civilization, most people use a combination of both methods.

 COMMON DEFINITIONS OF SERVING SIZES
For examples of the Definitions of common serving sizes:
According to the USDA, one serving equals:

• one slice of whole-grain bread
• 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta
• 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes
• three to four small crackers
• one small pancake or waffle
• two medium-sized cookies
• 1/2 cup cooked vegetables
• 1 cup (four leaves) lettuce
• one small baked potato
• 3/4 cup vegetable juice
• One medium apple
• 1/2 grapefruit or mango
• 1/2 cup berries
• 1 cup yogurt or milk
• 1 1/2 ounces of cheddar cheese
• one chicken breast
• one medium pork chop
• 1/4 pound hamburger patty

 Other common definitions translate the abstract information of serving size
into visual images that can be easily remembered.
For example, a single serving of:

• Vegetables or fruit is about the size of your fist.
• Pasta is about the size of one scoop of ice cream.
• Meat, fish, or poultry is the size of a deck of cards or the size of your palm (minus the fingers).
• Snacks such as pretzels and chips is about the size of a cupped handful.
• Apple is the size of a baseball.
• Potato is the size of a computer mouse.
• Bagel is the size of a hockey puck.
• Pancake is the size of a compact disc.
• Steamed rice is the size of a cupcake wrapper.
• Cheese is the size of a pair of dice or the size of your whole thumb (from the tip to the base).