The term, “Character” refers to the traits, the distinguishing qualities,
that make up and distinguish an individual.

Each of us has many personal character traits, both positive and negative.
One of my own character traits is Determination,
a fixed intention to achieve a desired end.

Determined and Stubborn, are two words that describe a similar trait.
The word ‘Determined; has positive implications,
while the word ‘Stubborn’…sounds a bit negative.
Those who approve of my behavior would say that I’m Determined.
Those who don’t, would say that I’m Stubborn.
My daddy used to call it “Bullheaded”.

There are many areas in my life demonstrating this character trait.
The events of yesterday provide an example.

 My son-the-web-genius persuaded me to make videos a part of my site,
and to cooperate with him by letting him film a few videos of me cooking.
He believed that I would enjoy the process and therefore want to learn
how to make videos so I could post them here. He was right.

My first contact with a camcorder, and with the Mac computer
was last Friday afternoon, and I’m writing this early on Thursday morning.
Yesterday was my first attempt at making a video totally alone.
….well…except for instructions by telephone when I got totally stuck.

I wound up shooting that cooking video five separate times….
thank God that I’m doing very simple, easy recipes…
and I can’t even begin to describe my many technical difficulties with the Mac,
I-Movie, Safari, and YouTube…..all of which are quite new to me.
But I’ll tell you about my first error with the camcorder.
 To me, red means stop, and green means go.
So, I thought the green light on my camera meant that it was recording,
and the red light meant that it had stopped recording.

My camcorder’s instruction book didn’t correct this fundamental error.
So, the first time I shot the video, I filmed my set-up,
stopped the camera during my actual “shoot”,
and turned the camera back on after I ended cooking.
I first discovered my error when reviewing the film in I-Movie.
When I realized this, I recalled that my DVR uses a red dot for recordings,
and understood that this is probably basic knowledge for (almost) everyone.

As I write this article on my desktop windows computer,
my new MacBook Air is uploading that video to YouTube.
When that has been successfully done, I plan to put it here on this page.

So…what is the point?
That same characteristic of determination needs to be applied
to the Behavior processes that result in weight-loss Results.
I’ve discovered that successful weight-loss takes a great deal of
personal determination, and maintenance of that weight-loss takes even more.

Below is that Cooking Video.

I am following through with the plan to
make informative and entertaining Videos for this site
by taking the steps that are necessary to accomplish that.

My new equipment arrived on Friday,
and I spent the weekend familiarizing myself with it.
This process included learning how to use a Mac computer,
and until last Friday afternoon, I’d never touched one.

Previously, my computer experience has all been with Windows.
I also am now learning how to operate a movie-camera…
which I now understand, is an old fashioned term,
and “camcorder” is the operative word.

I’m new to the Mac computer, and I’m also new at video recording.
As I shared previously, I seldom even remember to take photos on vacation,
and I can barely operate the DVR installed by the cable company.
But I can still learn, and I’m working hard to do so.

Yesterday was my tutorial on making videos.
My son spent the day at my house providing me with
hands-on instructions for each long and complicated step

The cooking video posted below is the result of that process.

                                           
The following quote states a common point of view
frequently heard within weight-loss circles.

 
“Our bodies have a better idea of what ideal is for us than our brains do.
There’s no point in dieting down to one’s “ideal” weight,
because it will always be a struggle to maintain it.”

That quote SOUNDS like wisdom, and it might apply to the
bodies of "Normal" people who have just put on a "bit of weight".
However, it does not apply to the body of a "Reduced Obese" person,
A "Reduced Obese" person's body will continue to want to be Obese.
Almost every "Reduced Obese" person will always have to struggle
to maintain even a 10% weight loss.

In my own case, both before, and after, my WLS 18 years ago,
even when weighing in the 190s, it was a struggle for me to maintain my weight.
In fact....although of course I eat less here at my 115 lb goal weight,
than I did when weighing 190 lbs,.... the intensity of my struggle
with my body to keep from gaining is about the same.

My own viewpoint about working toward one’s ideal goal weight
is that since I'm going to have to intensely struggle with my body
to maintain my weight, in order to weigh less than 200 plus pounds,
 I might as well do it from inside the weight range
that is normal for my 5'0" height.

Since the Struggle is Endless, 
I choose to be Thin...a "normal" weight... instead of Fat,  during my Struggle.

                             
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 following video, "So You Want To Lose Weight?"is an amusing depiction of a conversation between a Dietitian and an Client seeking weight-loss advice.

It contains the obvious message, which is intended, which is that people don't want to do the work of changing the way the eat and exercise, and expect weight-loss Results without making an Effort to change that Behavior

together with a totally unintended additional message.

This video contains an excellent example of how the Health Care Industry continues to distribute erroneous information about low-carbohydrate eating which is based on "bad Science", and which has now been refuted. 

Which part of the conventional wisdom provided by the Dietitian is incorrect? The statement that the Atkins diet (low-carb eating) causes kidney damage in healthy people has definitely been proven to be wrong. 

How about the rest?  What is true? and What is untrue? I don't really know for sure. 
You'll need to judge that for yourself.

For more information on the low-carb issue, review the discussionof "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes located at BOOKTALK, and if you feel like making some comments in that discussion, please do so.