My Behavior – my Effort – is my responsibility

A fundamental question is:
“What Behavior do I need to be Responsible for
to achieve weight-loss?”

 My Answer is, all General Behavior and all Specific Behavior.

General Behavior is controlling the food that one puts into one's mouth,
and the movement of one's body, i.e. Eat Less, Move More.

Specific Behavior depends on one's individual food plan.
meaning any personal behavior that causes less food to go into one's mouth.
One must make certain the food one eats contains less energy than one's body uses.

My eating behavior is always my responsibility.
I don't get a pass when my life becomes unusually busy or stressful.
I always choose my behavior....either consciously or unconsciously.

I Like that saying:

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail".

because it is true that choosing NOT to choose, is in itself a choice.
We always CHOOSE what we do.  Overeating is a choice.
That behavior is optional...even for those of us who have binge eating tendencies. 

I've had to establish many Habits of Behavior that help me meet my goals,
and how I commonly deal with Leftover Food is a GIANT behavior issue.
Here's a recent video I made about this subject.

                                
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.

                          

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).

Some things just take time.
This is true for Weight-loss and Maintenance of that loss.

 There’s an old saying that goes something like :

“The years know what the days never will.”

Focused self-control over one’s eating Behavior,
… when sustained over long-periods of time,…
will Result in successful weight-loss.
When that focused self-control over one’s eating Behavior continues,
the Result will be successful maintenance of that weight-loss.

Call it an Obsession with Dieting.
Call it a Lifestyle Change.
Call it a Diet Hobby.

No matter what you call it,
the underlying Truth remains the same.
There is no quick and easy way….ever…..
for those of us who have bodies that want to be fat.
Essentially: 

Being fat is hard,
Losing weight is hard,
Maintaining weight loss is hard.
Choose your hard.

I am sharing my "strength, experience, and hope" here with you,
and, as part of that, I've been telling you a lot about my involvement
with this site which is part of my dieting hobby.

While it is true that many people get tired of calorie counting, and many people don't manage to continue calorie counting under stress, this is not ALWAYS the case.

For example, in my own case, for the past six and a half years I have continued to consistently log ALL of my food into my computer software food log, DietPower, EVERY SINGLE DAY, and this program counts the calories and other nutritional values of that food. That computer program says that today is the 2364th day without any missing data.

This does NOT mean that I never overate or never binged during the past six years, It merely means that I ALWAYS entered ALL of my food into the journal. It became, and is, a HABIT.

This is the principle of ACCOUNTABILITY.
I am accountable for every bite I eat.... even on vacation days, sick days, stress days.
NO MATTER HOW HIGH MY FOOD-INTAKE, I LOG IT.
This has provided me with long-term success.

My life has not been stress-free during this process. I have all of the ongoing NORMAL stresses of life, both good and bad, and I have also had some EXCEPTIONAL stressing circumstances. I'm going to list some of them below, not to show myself as a "victim", but as an example of the stress one can go through while successfully counting calories.

  For Example:

I have two unmarried adult children. During my weight-loss phase, my son was severely burned in a fire, and spent over a month in a hospital burn unit in severe pain, receiving skin graphs.

During my maintenance-phase, my daughter was in the hospital in a coma, and upon physical recovery spent long periods in mental health facilities, which resulted in long-term disability SSI, making her mother (me) the one responsible for handling her ongoing income.

During my weight-loss phase, I was responsible for my aging mother, who had Alzheimer's, and was the one who had to place her in a facility, visit her daily, advocate for her, and witness her death.

During my maintenance phase, my father-in-law died; we were forced to place my disabled mother-in-law into a nursing home, where she was visited frequently until her death, about 6 months ago.

During my maintenance phase, the nephew with whom I had a close relationship, became a Marine, and spent a tour in Iraq, and after coming home safely, spent another tour in Afghanistan, which resulted in his receiving two purple hearts.

During the past 5 years of my maintenance phase, my husband has had eye surgery twice, as well as another unrelated surgery. My best friend for the past 25 years, was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and I spent time with her almost every day until she died 5 months later.Other beloved family members have also dealt with severe illness.

During my maintenance phase, three years ago, I developed a life-threatening medical condition, which resulted in emergency surgery and hospitalization for 10 days. During this time I lived on IV's, and was unable to log my food, but as soon as I was released from the hospital and returned home, I logged in estimates of the amounts of all the liquid food I received, during that past 10 days, and continued with my ongoing food entries.

During the past 6 years, I have also had numerous vacations, holidays, and celebrations...all involving food. I overate during many of those occasions,but NO MATTER HOW MUCH I ATE, I LOGGED IT ALL.

And So Life Goes.
During that time, I also brushed my teeth, combed my hair, got dressed daily, and used the toilet when necessary. I prioritize entering my food into my computer journal as equal to, or more important than, those activities.

I know for a fact that one CAN develop a HABIT of counting calories; and I know for a fact that one CAN continue counting calories under stress; and the truth is, IT ISN'T ALL THAT DIFFICULT.
Except to my family and friends, I'm not all that Special, and I think that there is a very good chance that this is something ANYONE can do, IF THEY DECIDE TO.