“The essence of bravery
is being without self-deception."

Self-deception is a trap for us all.
Yesterday I shot my first "Thinspiration" video,
and, as I planned,
it was of my entire body…fully-clothed, of course.

I found that I needed courage to do this.
I see myself in the mirror all the time, and I like what I see,
…..especially when I take off my glasses… 
but in the past, I've been surprised at my appearance
when I saw photos of myself.
I wondered if this would happen today
when I saw my full-length body size in a recording.

I believe it is important not to deceive oneself,
not to exist in Denial.
However, the task of seeing things clearly
doesn’t mean that we need to have a negative view
about the things that we see.

I’ve found that I can choose my attitude.
And I have decided that I like myself as I am.
Imperfect is Good Enough.

I don’t have to “Strive for Perfection”.
I don’t have to “Excel”
I still have flaws even though I’ve done the best I can do
And that’s okay. I’m the best ME there is.

  So, I saw myself clearly.
I saw my flaws, and I’m sharing myself with you anyway.
Here’s the video.

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.

                             
My Height is 5' 0", and my highest weight was 271 lbs.
I don't know how tall you are,
but for me, OBESITY STARTS at 154 lbs,
and OVERWEIGHT STARTS at 129 lbs.

To  be only OVERWEIGHT at 200 lbs, one would have to be 5' 11" tall.
For a 5' 11" female, 200 lbs is just inside the OVERWEIGHT category,
and only 1 lb below the Low Border of OBESITY.

Here is a Chart I made, based on the BMI percentages,
showing the High Borders of Normal weight,
and the Low Borders of Overweight, and Obesity.

                                  
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.

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.