Here at DietHobby,
I like being able to establish my own Guidelines,
and I plan to keep them flexible for convenience.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Today I’ve decided that sometimes I will allow
one of my Thinspiration Moment Videos
to stand alone as my initial daily post. 

Feeling Lucky often takes effort.

Directing one's Focus on the Positive is hard work.
Old patterns, old thoughts, old behaviors
will come up again and again.
In order to be healthy, we must learn to accept this fact,
and let them surface precisely so we can let them out

 Sometimes I mope, worry, and cry a few times,
and write my feelings down.
Up and out and gone. Until next time.
I work on Acceptance and Gratitude.
Life is a continual awakening and a continual letting go.

Years ago, these experience were much different.
I would have had all these feelings, with no awareness.
I would have stuffed them down with food 
and then I would have felt guilt and shame.
The pathetic cycle would continue,
and I would have no idea why.

Sometimes we believe that once we:

• lose the weight
• succeed at the physical feat of our choice
• haven’t binged in X days or weeks or months or even years!
• wear a certain size clothing
• haven’t eaten the food we individually perceive as “evil”
• have bariatric surgery
• (choose some other measurement of perceived perfection)

…we believe that we’re immune. 
   But, this is never true.

It’s not about “never again”
it’s about catching ourselves sooner!

Extreme obesity is defined as
having a body-mass index (BMI) of 40 or greater.
BMI is a statistical measure of whether a person is
normal, overweight or obese
based on whether weight and height are in proportion.

For those who don't know:

At my highest weight of 271,
I had a BMI of 53.
My current BMI is 22.5
And....I didn't grow taller.... 

Like Thomas Edison - Words of Wisdom from DietHobby on Vimeo.

The Thinspiration Moment video that I posted here today
best expresses my day's Thoughts.
  

I have a specific goal in my mind,
and I'm continually working toward it.

My goal is to maintain my weight-loss for the rest of my life.
That's my destination, and during my journey 
sometimes I take different routes.

Some diet plans work for me and some don't.
So far, I haven't found one specific diet that I feel I can follow forever,
and sometimes think that my own permanent Way of Eating
will be to continually experiment with new diets,
which I, personally, don't see as a bad thing.
I do believe the best diet plan is the one you can live with,
and I agree with the following quoted article:

"I really don’t care which diet plan you choose to follow.
Nor should I care which diet plan you choose to follow.

All I want is what’s best for you, and chances are,
what’s best for you is to lose some excess body fat (just guessing)
So if you find a comfortable way to accomplish this, who am I to judge?

Now, I have a big issue when it comes to false statements about a diet program
.. or false statements about physiology and health in general
(especially when these false statements are being sold for a profit)
But your personal choices? Those are none of my business.

Here’s an analogy (keep in mind, I’m known for really bad analogies)

4 employees drive into work.
One drives a 2001 Celica.

The other drives a leased Ford Escape.

The other drives a brand new Audi A6
that her daddy bought her for her 21st birthday.

The last employee drives a fully loaded Escalade
that he absolutely can not afford.

Now, regardless of the car they drive,
the important thing is that they all get to work on time.
That’s it.

Now, the Guy who drives the decade old Celica may think the guy driving
the Escalade is crazy for spending 2/3’s of his income on a car each month.

The person driving the Escape may spend every day
loathing the girl driving the Audi.

The person driving the Audi may be self conscious
of what people think of her car.

And the person driving the Escalade may
be perfectly happy with his financial decisions.

But again, none of this really matters if they all make it to work on time.

Focus on what’s important.
And what is important is what works for you,
in your current life situation.

In our car example, each person may have their own perfectly logical reasons
for the vehicle they drive. Or they may not. But in the end, it doesn’t matter.

Leaving our analogy and returning to diets, it’s all about the end goal.
The end goal is overall Health & happiness.
Being lean and muscular is the means to this end,
and your diet is just the process.

The process you choose can be super complicated or dead simple,
but no matter what any one else thinks,
if you are using a process that you enjoy
and that gets you results, then you are using the right process.

While everyone will have an opinion on how you decide to reach this goal,
remember it’s no more important then their opinion on what you drive
or what clothes you wear.

Besides, chances are their opinions are formed on anecdotes,
sleazy marketing and quickly made assumptions.

Do what works for you and remember the diet isn’t the end goal,
the health and weight loss is."

.   .    .  .January 2011 Article by Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat,