39 Years Later - POSTED ON: Apr 15, 2011
"Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble, it's a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself, it is still a beautiful world.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams it is still a beautiful world.
Ever Have One Of Those Days? - POSTED ON: Mar 22, 2011
Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up feeling good, but then someone steps on your plans and dreams for the day?
As I watched this recent video which was created, produced and filmed by my son-the-web-genius,
I realized…for most of us.....
Some days are just like this.
Determination - POSTED ON: Mar 10, 2011
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.
Online Forums - A Useful Dieting Support Tool. - POSTED ON: Feb 26, 2011
The support and information that I’ve received from participating in online forums has helped me toward my goals of weight-loss and maintenance.
The majority of people in these online forums share a common interest in diet, fitness, and related health issues. Matters of age, sex, race, size, appearance, occupation, status, religion, and political affiliation tend to become irrelevant as people join together to achieve their personal weight and health related goals.
I’ve found most of these people to be remarkably intelligent, articulate, courteous, and kind. A member can share a personal feeling and opinion about a relevant issue, and others will join in with comments on that topic. Whether I just read the forum comments or choose to make a comment myself, as time goes on I become familiar with these people, and begin to consider some of them as friends. Previously I wrote articles about this subject in Online Friends and Imaginary Friends.
Over the years, a few of my online forum relationships with like-minded female forum members, have progressed to e-mails, phone calls, and even personal visits, which has provided an added dimension to the personal friendships in my life. My entry into the online forum world was around January 2005, when I first became involved in the Monthly Challenges forum at Dietpower.com. This was the only online forum where I chose to use my real name, Phyllis Collins, and I did that primarily because I didn’t understand I could choose a different user name. Since joining, I’ve posted in that forum every month, and today, I logged in to reserve my spot in the March 2011 Challenge.
For those of you who might be interested in my real time weight-loss numbers, and the process I’ve gone through since January 2005 and the present date, you can see all of my personal DietPower Challenge Posts by looking at their Challenge Forum Archives. I feature DietPower software at DietHobby, because I consider it to be my most valuable individual tool. FYI, I have no financial interest in DietPower..including any referrals or recommendations existing within this Blog. Many diet book authors and diet gurus have forums on their individual websites. One online forum that I’ve found extremely valuable is the No S Diet Forum. I began posting there in spring of 2008, and I’ve posted there consistently since that time…including this morning. My user name in that forum, as well as other online forums, is BrightAngel. I’ve found the atmosphere at the No S forum to be supportive and accepting of individual differences. It’s one of my favorite online places ..and contains some of my favorite online people. DietHobby has a link to Reinhard’s book, “The No S Diet” and links to some of his “Shovelglove” Videos, both of which I will be discussing at a later time.
The two forums mentioned above have been my primary individual forum tools. Also worth mentioning is the 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community forum which is quite a good forum resource. I first posted there in fall 2009, and still post there rather inconsistently. Spark People also has some excellent forums, and I will be providing you with more details about the Spark People tools at a later time.
I have also been involved with forums that won’t be individually named in DietHobby due to the presence of heavy-handed moderators and restrictive posting rules within those forums.
I find that I have much, much more to say about the value of online Forums, and at some future time, I’ll continue on with more about this subject.
Maintaining an Attitude of Gratitude - POSTED ON: Feb 25, 2011
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.
Mar 01, 2021 DietHobby: A Digital Scrapbook. 2000+ Blogs and 500+ Videos in DietHobby reflect my personal experience in weight-loss and maintenance. One-size-doesn't-fit-all, and I address many ways-of-eating whenever they become interesting or applicable to me.
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