One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words;

it is expressed in the choices one makes.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves.

The process never ends until we die.

And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

       I enjoy reading about many different people and their individual Diets, and am frequently interested, entertained, and/or inspired by them. Many of them like to avoid labeling their eating style a “Diet”. Some of them use terms like - Healthy eating / way-of-eating / lifestyle / non-diet.

This is merely a Semantic Difference, because EVERYTHING THAT INVOLVES EATING is by dictionary-definition a “Diet”. Even “overeating” involves a Diet.

A great many people choose to associate and attach negative connotations to the word, “Diet”, however, this is merely a psychological prejudice, and it doesn’t change the fact that the word “Diet” is an accurate label for EVERY TYPE of eating style. Diet is the label that I personally choose to use when I discuss the issues of eating.


I use DietHobby as a digital scrapbook.

See the ARCHIVES which are full of writings that entertain, inform, and interest me.  I frequently review them for personal encouragement and inspiration.

Today DietHobby features a recent article by a young woman, Kate (K-8), who first Blogged about her large weight loss, and now Blogs about having a “healthy” self-image and “healthy” lifestyle.

Her weight-loss appears to be due to the fact that she began eating less by adopting a vegetarian diet, that is relatively free of refined sugars and starches, together with quite an active exercise “lifestyle”.

At a height of 5' 9", she weighed 287 lbs in Jan 2009 and dropped to a low of 161 lbs in September 2011. Her records show that in maintenance, she bounced between and 164 lbs and 177 lbs between November 2011 and April 2012. Her last recorded weight of 168 lbs was in July 2012.  On October 7, 2012 she posted that her current weight was around 175 and that she was now thinking that her "initial goal of 180 lbs was the right one." She included a picture of herself in that Oct 2012 post which shows her size as larger than her 2011 picture (see below) but smaller than her 2013 picture.

After that time, she stopped weighing, and adopted the principles of the diet book: Health at Every Size (2010) by Linda Bacon.  From reviewing Kate's Blogs and Facebook posts, and using my own maintenance knowledge, my best guess is that she is currently maintaining her body weight somewhere near the 190 to 200 lb range.

I wrote an reflective article this past New Year’s Eve that included a previous article by Kate about her change of maintenance style, see: The End of 2012. 
Today I’m including another such post here in my Digital Scrapbook, DietHobby.

The Media Diet 
          by Kate - 4/13/13 - www. thisisnotadiet-itsmylife.com

I've been a larger person for the great majority of my life. I've never experienced being someone who has teeny little invisible-to-others flaws they pick apart in the mirror. In fact, for most of my adult life I thought it would just be fantastic to wear a size 14 so I could shop somewhere that sold clothes I liked. I never coveted a "thigh gap" or a stomach with so little fat you could see my abdominal muscles. I thought it would be great if my thighs didn't chafe when I walked from all the rubbing.

The closest I ever got to the nit-picking your body phase was at the end of my weight-loss and the year that followed. I flew past original goals, to wear that size 14 and be able to walk anywhere I wanted to without getting out of breath or chafing my thighs. I was wearing size 8, even 6 in some things. My thighs didn't chafe. In fact, they didn't touch at all. In clothes, my stomach looked flat. I lost most of my breast tissue and went from a DD-cup to a small C or even a large B.

While I was deep in the process of obsessively losing weight, I became a consumer of a type of media I previously never knew existed: fitness and health. I started looking at pictures of fitness models. I started following them and reading about their workout routines and diets. I worked out at least 6 times a week, for 1-2 hours each time. It was all very intense. No walks in the park for me! I weighed myself every morning and I adjusted my diet accordingly. I was the thinnest I had ever been in my life and I kept it that way with constant vigilance. But I still didn't look like the fitness models. There was a time when I thought I should, and could, look like them if I just tried a little harder. Why not? I lost 125 pounds. I could do anything. All it takes is enough "will-power" right? If I didn't get the six-pack, I must be full of lazy-excuses. That's what those fitness model types said, and look at them! It must be true...

Except that it's not true at all. My body is my body. I first gained weight in the third grade. My adult body had never been so small. I have been so many sizes in my life, from 6 to 24. I have yo-yo dieted, losing and gaining 20-40 pounds at a time. I even lost 100+ pounds, gained it all back and lost it again. I bet I have lost close to 500 pounds in my life if you added it all up.

The reason I do not, and never will, look like one of those headless ab posters actually doesn't have anything to do with laziness or excuses. It's just not the way my body is due to my genetics and personal history. It took me a long time to recognize and be able to accept that, especially with all the messaging telling you that if you just Tried a Little Harder, you could make all your perfect body dreams come true.

The fitness and health world is not at all what it seems to be. At my heaviest, I would have killed to be the size 14. Visible abs were never on my radar. My outlook on myself was far healthier before I ever started reading about health and fitness. Isn't that just backwards? Shouldn't the health industry be promoting actual health and fitness, not obsessive body re-composition?

I had long ago stopped looking at fashion magazines and models. I knew they were underweight and that it was crazy to think I would ever look like them. But the fitness look seemed so "healthy" and that's how it was promoted. Anybody can do this, they tell you. You just have to want it bad enough. Just eat a "clean" diet, lift weights, and wake up one day looking like Jamie Eason!

Fast forward to now. My outlook is totally different. I'm never going to look like Jamie Eason. I'm me. I look like me. Kate. Hi! Nice to meet you. My thighs touch and my belly is not flat. I am strong and healthy.

The 2013 picture was taken a few months ago. I'm wearing the same outfit today, so I must be a similar size. I don't weigh myself anymore though, so I can't say for sure.

I went on a new type of diet, you see. I went on a Media Diet. I already didn't watch much TV or read magazines, but I do spend a lot of time online. Throughout my changing lifestyle I had managed to build up quite the repertoire of places to consume other people's tight, toned, surgically and digitally enhanced bodies online and read about their endless nit-picking of their imperceptible flaws, Facebook being the most gluttonous.

The most important tool of the Media Diet for me the Facebook UNLIKE button. Does the page post fitspo? Unlike. Does it go on about counting carbs after 3 pm to get the flattest belly? Unlike. Does it tell me I'm not good enough the way I am? Unlike. Does it send me the message that if I don't look like the model in the picture, I'm a lazy, full of excuses waste of space? UNLIKE at the speed of light!

If it does not lift me up and support actual health and actual fitness, I don't need to consume it.

We are bombarded with messages about not being good enough every single day. You cannot completely escape this. I can't stop going to the grocery store and seeing the headlines about which celebrities are too fat and which are too thin. But I can take an active role in many parts of my life. I can choose.

You do not have to buy those magazines or follow those pages to be healthy. If you're like me, you might be a lot saner and healthier without them.

My New Years Resolution this year was to stop reading weight/health/nutrition books. I am proud to say that in 2013 I have only read fiction and art books.

Come to think of it, ever since I went on my Media Diet, I am doing a lot of things I enjoy that are important to me that I wasn't doing before. I'm not working out 6 days a week anymore. I am walking in the park. I am hiking. I am practicing yoga. I only go to the gym 1 time a week, for BodyPump, which is just plain FUN. I have drawn in my sketchbook almost every day this year, something I kept telling myself I would do that I never did. I guess I needed to free up the mental space for it. When I get sick or am too exhausted, I do a crazy thing: I REST. I do not worry about what it might do to my weight the next day.

I don't track anything anymore, except my menstrual cycle. When I exercise, I do it for myself, for my mental and physical health, and because I want to, not for calories burned. I don't do it to earn my dinner. I'm going to eat dinner either way. And sometimes it's going to be pizza.

I have allowed myself time and space to think about what is really important to me, how I really feel about my body, and to stop comparing myself to anyone else. Comparing yourself to other people is stupid. A person with my body and my history is never going to look like someone who has always been thin. That's a great big "DUH." right? But I think a lot of people still don't get it.

Many people would look at my body and find things to dislike about it, but I am not them, so it's okay. My hips? They are glorious. My stomach and thighs that touch once more (but don't chafe)- so nice, so comforting, so warm and soft. Fat is not an enemy, it is part of my body. It gives me my hourglass shape. It gives me my fabulous D-cups. I gives me warmth. I am no longer constantly cold. I don't feel dizzy. I have a lot more energy. I am more comfortable sleeping. I feel more attractive and less self-conscious.

Contrary to what I thought, being the thinnest ever didn't make me happier. It didn't make me better. It just made me look different. I remember how I felt when I took the middle picture you see above, and I kept staring at it thinking "Wow, I am actually thin." It was strange and intriguing. It was an out of body experience for sure. When I look at the picture of me now, I see me. It's not weird, it just is. Living the life I want to live naturally returned me to the body I was meant to have. The funny thing is, this is the body I probably would have had if I had never dieted at all. If I had just let my body mature as it was meant to. But everything told me I wasn't okay the way I was, and I believed it. I don't believe it now. And anyway, it's not for anyone else to say.

You shouldn't consume things that make you feel like crap. That includes food and media. Are there people in real life or online in your life who treat you like crap? Do they talk down to you? Do they act like they know you better than you know yourself? Do they make you doubt yourself? Cut them out. You deserve better. And make sure you're not one of them.

 
Even siblings consuming similar diets may respond to calories differently, let alone people of different age, shape, gender, and lifestyle.

One calorie for one person is often more, than one calorie for someone else, and this is one reason why weight-loss diets, and weight maintenance diets, can fail.

AGE DIFFERENCE. Younger women of the exact same shape, weight, height, and even genetic background will always lose weight faster on the exact same diet as older women.

You are not your 20+ year old daughter. She is at the peak of her procreation mission with a metabolism to match. She is still learning about the world around her and has an incredibly busy brain, which is a large consumer of glucose. Her body may still be growing. She is healthier. She may be taller. Her body has more muscles, even if she is the exact same size and shape as you are. She has only half of your genes; the other half is from her father. She is more active simply because she can be. She sleeps better than you, even if she sleeps less. She needs more calories simply because she is younger. As the body ages, it needs less and less calories to maintain the same weight.

SMALLER MUSCLE MASS. The female body contains significantly less muscle than males of similar shape and weight. Women experience faster loss of muscle throughout pregnancy, breastfeeding, and natural aging. Since muscles are one of the most demanding users of energy, their age-related loss reduces the rate of energy uptake, and, correspondingly, increases the gain of body fat.

GLUCOSE UPTAKE BY MUSCLES. Along with the brain, central nervous system, and blood, muscles are the most prolific consumers of glucose. That is why most men on a low-carb diet lose weight faster than women and don’t gain it as quickly with a larger intake of carbohydrates.

Women require fewer carbohydrates than men, yet at the same time improperly structured ultra-low-carbohydrate diets can be inappropriate for older women because these may tend to accelerate muscle wasting.

GREATER FAT MASS. Women have a higher ratio of body fat to total body weight than men. Body fat is essential for reproductive functions, healthy pregnancy, and nursing. As body fat falls below a certain level — around 10% to 15% — infertility and amenorrhea (the absence of a period) set in.

Because body fat plays such an essential role in female reproductive and overall health, women gain fat faster than men on similar or smaller amounts of foods.

THERMOS  EFFECT. As one gains fat, the body lowers the internal rate of energy metabolism (i.e., produces less heat) because the internal organs are cuddled in the warm blanket of one’s own fat, or, as doctors would say, adipose tissue. That is why overweight people are far less sensitive to cold than skinny ones. Unfortunately, this effect has a profoundly negative impact on the ability to lose weight because the rate of metabolism is so much lower, and this has little or nothing to do with thyroid or adrenal glands that one might think are “underactive.”

HEIGHT. A person’s height is an important factor in energy metabolism and, correspondingly, in obesity and weight loss. All other things being equal, taller people lose weight faster because their “lengthier” bodies expend more energy to support cardiovascular, respiratory, and thermogenic (keeping itself warm) functions.

This doesn’t mean that tall people don’t become overweight or obese - They DO. Still, on the exact same diet they will be losing weight faster and gaining it slower. This observation becomes important when determining portion sizes.

When foods are plentiful,
satiety is portion-oriented, not need-oriented.
In other words, we don’t eat as much as we NEED,
but we eat as much as we WANT.

Portions nowadays are designed to accommodate an “average” person’s capacity to ingest foods until his or her stomach is totally loaded. When there are more tall/large/overweight people in a society with larger stomachs, short/small/skinny people inevitably overeat.

The shorter a person is, regardless of gender, the more attention that person must pay to portion sizes. Shorter people also face the greatest difficulty during weight loss because their stretched out stomach and mental perception of satiety are preconditioned to eating larger portions of foods.

INNATE RESPONSE TO REDUCED CALORIE INTAKE. The body doesn’t really know the difference between weight loss and starvation. All it knows is that it is under duress from undernutrition and facing extinction. That is why a scarcity of nutrients during weight loss diets, or even from poor nutrition, instantly lowers the energy and structural metabolism, throttles down weight loss, and speeds up the accumulation of body fat. In females, this is partly in order to protect a female’s reproductive health and milk supply for potential offspring from the possibility of starvation-related death.

ENERGY REQUIREMENTS. With all other things being equal  - temperature, level of activity, age, height, and weight  - the female body still has a lower demand for energy from proteins, fats, and carbohydrates than the male body, due to not only substantially less muscle but also smaller lungs and a smaller heart, less blood volume, and an inherently less physically demanding response - flight instead of fight -  to external stress. This difference is particularly significant in the reduced uptake of energy from glucose by the blood, muscles, and central nervous system.

An identical piece of cake for one person may represent twice as many relative calories to a similarly shaped person. In other words, when eating cake, a female body will use a portion of its calories for energy, and the balance goes right into making body fat, while a similar male body will use the entire allotment of calories from the exact same cake exclusively for making energy, with nothing left for fat.

The same can be said about fats and proteins, though the difference may be not as drastic as with carbohydrates because a larger portion of these nutrients is used for structural metabolism. The demands of structural metabolism in women may be greater than in men (with all other things being equal) because female reproductive functions demand a greater deal of nutrients.

The dietary requirements for a woman’s energy, particularly from carbohydrates, are substantially less than a man’s. When it comes to losing weight, the situation is stacked against women, who need to decrease their caloric intake considerably more than men to accomplish the same amount of weight loss in the same span of time.

REPRODUCTIVE HORMONES. The reduction of estrogen related to age, pregnancy, lactation, stress, undernutrition, and contraceptives may lead to gradual weight gain typical for middle-aged women and diminish the rate of weight loss. Since adipose tissue (i.e., body fat) produces estrogen in parallel with the ovaries, some believe the female body compensates the age-related decrease of ovarian estrogen by lowering the rate of energy metabolism in order to accumulate more fat, thereby allowing it to produce more estrogen.

FOOD PREPARATION. Usually, women spend more time in the kitchen while cooking for their families. Unfortunately, the continuous exposure to food comes with an increase in appetite, hunger, cravings, and, in many cases, inevitable overeating. For many people, food preparation is a definite obesity hazard.

EATING OUT. Restaurants don’t provide a gender-specific menu. Identical steaks are placed in front of a petite woman and an oversized, bodybuilding man as a matter of course. Women, who dine out often, must be mindful of this Truth and demand half portions or split main courses with their companions.

CHRONIC DIETER SYNDROME. Women have a propensity for recurrent dieting. Each consecutive diet cycle, especially one low in fat and protein, can compromise the body’s essential endocrine functions, slow the rates of metabolism, and stimulate the over-consumption of carbohydrates, which leads to the accumulation of more fat and reductions of muscle and bone mass

SOME people believe that a weight loss diet is like an antibiotic in that … if a pill is taken, one needs to finish the full course; otherwise, antibiotic-resistant bacteria that may harm you later is created. According to this THEORY, … the more a person diets halfway, the more resistant that body becomes to weight loss and more accommodating to weight gain.