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.
 

                                  
The construction of DietHobby website has been completed,
and today I feel very grateful for the opportunity to share
myself and my lifestyle here.

Thanks to my son-the-web-genius for his hard work and creative
talent; Thanks to my husband who has patiently tolerated the
(temporary) disturbance in his routine; and Thanks to each of you
for coming here and participating in this adventure.
I am grateful to the Universe, and to you.

I googled the words ‘Gratitude’ and ‘Thank You’ in an effort to find
some special words, some special way to say Thank you.
Mostly what I found were quotes on how important it is
to be grateful and to say Thank you.
Like….”Let’s be Grateful.”

I already knew that. Why would I even be interested in
finding words of gratitude unless I was feeling grateful?

One site wouldn’t let me see ‘Thank You’ and ‘Gratitude’ quotes
unless I gave them my cell phone number.
What’s that all about? I left without any quotes.
I did not give it my Thanks nor my cell phone number.

So I didn’t find what I was looking for.
But here is a quote that I liked:

“If you haven’t all the things you want,
be grateful for the things you don’t have that you wouldn’t want.”

I wrote this article in Word, and when I went to DietHobby to post it,
I discovered that the advertisements are now up and running.
My son and I had issues about this concept because I didn’t want any ads.
However, we arrived at a compromise, with my agreement to allow Google
to place one “banner type” ad at the bottom of the page, and one block add at the
bottom of the right side of the page. The site owner has no choice in the ad selections.

You might be amused to know that when I explained my personal aversion to ads to my son,
I told him that as an example, I didn’t want to see Jillian’s belly at DietHobby. But, never
in my wildest dreams did I imagine that my site would actually ATTRACT her ads,
….AND even IN COLOR. Evidentially each site page has different ads. You can imagine
the surprise and other emotions I felt when coming to this site and seeing her ads here
for the first time. That visit I went from page to page and counted six Jillian ads on the different
pages here...SIX !!!  I often watch The Biggest Loser, but her training style is not my personal
choice. Of course, MY belly wasn't firm and flat like that even when I was 16 years old.  
I understand that these ads are on some type of rotation and that they will greatly vary
from time to time. I've actually never paid much attention to that factor in my online travels.

Well...I promised to give ads a try, perhaps I’ll become accustomed to seeing them, who knows,
My philosophy is that each of us is an Experiment-of-one, and there are many different paths
that people can follow, so perhaps a few of these random ads will be helpful to some.

Anyway, despite my initial surprise,  I am maintaining my attitude of gratitude. Personally I’m
going to do my best to ignore the ads, and I hope you will feel free to do the same.

When life takes you in a different direction than the one you originally chose. You can fight against life, and keep trying to go toward what s no longer available to you,

Or you can pause to observe your new direction, Take a good long look; take it all in; Look for the positives in that new path, and learn to accept and enjoy the process of traveling.

With dieting, it can all be about just enjoying the process. If you can find a way to make that process enjoyable, so that it isn’t just one big exercise of self-denial and self-depravation, you can make dieting a lifestyle that works for you.I’m doing that with DietHobby.

In an earlier post I told you about a video my son made of meinforming people about the DietHobby Book Discussion on  Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes here on BOOKTALK

Today it went up on YouTube, and here it is.

                                
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.

The focus of DietHobby is the various aspects of Dieting.
However, since DietHobby is my site, participating here
makes you one of my online friends, so occasionally
I plan to share a bit of introductory personal information.

This is one of these times.

Here’s picture of me with my husband at our wedding.
FYI: I spent more than 6 months on a medically-supervised liquid diet
to drop down to 150 lbs, in order to fit into my wedding dress, but I still think it was worth it.

 We’ve been together now for almost 30 years, and I’m still very fond of him.
Here is a recent picture of us, and the card he gave me on Valentine’s day.

I have an adult daughter, an adult son, and an adult step-son,
who are now in their 30s and 40s, but my mind still sees my son and my daughter like this.

     

I'm an Attorney, retired after 25 years of Practicing Family Law.
Here are pictures of my sign and former office.

 FYI - I probably weighed somewhere in the 180s in this office picture.

When the construction on this DietHobby site is completed,
there will be a gallery, where I intend to occasionally post
relevant photographs – hopefully most of them on interesting topics.

Enough for personal details. 
I look forward to sharing the adventure of DietHobby with you.