Recently I've been reading several books about
Willpower and Habit, and thinking about those concepts
as they relate to weight-loss and maintenance of weight-loss. 

Information about Habit formation is now a major field of research
in neurology and psychology departments at manyuniversitities and
medical centers, as well as inside corporate labs. 

Computers have greatly increased the ability to analyze data,
and the push to understand how daily habits influence our decisions
is now one of the hottest topics in clinical research. 

Most of us are hardly aware that our habit patterns exist,
but a study from Duke University estimated that habits,
rather than conscious decision-making, shapes 45 percent
of the choices we make every day, and recent discoveries
have begun changing the thinking about dieting, as well as
treatments for anxiety, depression, and addictions. 

Although Habits can be ignored, changed, or replaced,
once the loop in our brains is established, and a habit emerges,
the brain stops fully participating in decision-making. 
So unless one deliberately fights a habit 
- which means finding new cues and rewards -
the old pattern will unfold automatically. 

The book on habit that I'm currently reading is:
"The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" (2/28/2012)
by Charles Duhigg.

This morning I posted a new Diet Wisdom video,
What is Food?  
which is located at DietHobby, under DIET WISDOM,  Basics.

Recently I've been thinking about the concepts of Personal Worth,
and or feelings of Worthlessness as they apply to me and to my own
endeavors with food, weight-loss, and maintenance of weight-loss.

I'm rather fond of the psychological concepts of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT),
and also of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT).

One of the concepts of REBT, is that
...if intrinsic value exists at all...
we get it because we CHOOSE, we DECIDE to have it. 
It exists because of our own definition.
We are "good" or "deserving" because we THINK we are,
and not because anyone awards us this kind of "inherent value". 

When persons can call themselves "worthwhile" just because they decide to do so,
they will tend to lose their desparate need for the approval of others. 
If we reduce our need for the esteem of others, 
we will find it easier to stop rating ourselves as persons,
and will come to value ourselves simply because we are alive. 

A philosophy of "worth" and "worthlessness" leads to disturbed feelings
of guilt, shame, and self-loathing, and we'll be better off with the concept
that we are not "worthwhile" because of our effectiveness,
or "worthless" because of our ineffectiveness. We merely EXIST. 

Self-acceptance means fully accepting oneself,
one's existence, and one's right to live and to be as happy as one can be,
--- no matter WHAT traits one has, or what acts one does. 

Self-acceptance doesn't mean self-esteem, self-confidence, self-respect,
or self-regard, because all of these terms imply that one accepts onself
BECAUSE one does something well, or BECAUSE other people like one. 
Unconditional self-acceptance means that you accept yourself
because you are alive and have DECIDED to accept yourself. 

Unconditional self-acceptance makes several minimal assumptions 
about people's intrinsic worth or value. These are:

• You exist
  
  
• By continuing to exist, you can probably achieve more pleasure than pain,
  thus making it desirable for you to keep living.
  
  
• You can help reduce your pain and increase your pleasure.

• You decide that you will try to live and make your life as pleasurable 
  and as unpainful as you can make it...  You can choose to strive for achievement
  and approval, but not to prove your greatness as a person, but only because
  you PREFER to achieve and to be loved. 

For those interested in learning more about these concepts, 
I recommend reading "A Guide To Rational Living" (1997) &"
"The Art & Science of Rational Eating" (1992) by Albert Ellis, PH.D.

This is the beginning of a new video series which I call "Diet Wisdom".  

My plan is to begin with some short videos explaining simple diet concepts,
with a length of about 1 to 3 minutes, and then develop out from there
to more complicated issues and perhaps a wider time range.

This video series will be indexed at the top mid-page of the DietHobby website,
and divided into sections.  
At present, I've named those sections: Basics; Motivation; and Reviews. 
The bottom section will be a listing of all videos falling under the Diet Wisdom topic. 
I've placed 4 older videos into DietWisdom, since they seem to fit into that category. 

These videos will, of course, reflect my own philosophy of dieting, 
which some may embrace and others may find controversial. 
Each video will have a comment section here at the DietHobby website,
but the comment section at the DietHobby YouTube Channel is disabled,
because I choose not to become involved in discussions about these issues at that location. 

My current plan is to make and post a new video in this series
perhaps on a weekly, or on alternate weekly basis,
so if you are interested...watch for them.

This ia  picture of one serving of food from my new cooking video,
Cheesecake Sugar-Free
which is located at DietHobby, under RECIPES,  Sweet Tastes.

Mindless eating is consuming food without awareness.

Some examples of this are:

• Trance-lke eating, which is eating while absorbed in another activity.
  Like when zoned out in front of the TV, or while reading a book,
  or while surfing the internet, or chatting with friends etc.
  This sometimes involves standing in front of the refrigerator
  with the door open, not really knowing what we're looking for.
  
  
• Munching while distracted like driving the car or doing work at our desks.
  
  
• Eating when we aren't really hungry.
  
  
• Eating in repetitive or habitual ways,
  like at the same times every day no matter what;
  or snacking during a favorite TV show, no matter what.
  
  
• Grazing on food, or picking at food.
  
  
• Using food to comfort or soothe ourselves
  when we are stressed, bored, or anxious.
  
  
• Eating portions that are too large for our individual bodies.
  
  
• Eating without really tasting food.

Most of us know we shouldn't do this, and we usually intend to avoid it,
but still we find ourselves sometimes engaging in that behavior.
Some of this compulsion is from our automatic habits and unconscious behaviors.

Eating is such a routine task that it can be done with little or no thought or effort.
When mindless eating only happens occasionally, it might not be a problem,
but when we eat mindlessly on a daily basis,
the weight can begin to pile on.