A Peek Into My Life - POSTED ON: Feb 20, 2011
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.
A DietHobby Benefit - Book and Diet Reviews - POSTED ON: Feb 16, 2011
I like to think about the different aspects of Diets and Dieting,and the benefits this brings to my life.
I've experienced a great deal of weight-loss through dieting, but dieting has been beneficial to me in other ways as well.
As part of my DietHobby, I engage in various activities which includes: reading many diet books; experimenting with many diet plans; participating in various online forums; reviewing the blogs of others; and reading various diet and health nutrition articles. Many of these activities provide me with interesting facts, and some of them provide me with intense amusement.
In my Blog here on DietHobby, I will discuss, in no particular order, various articles, books, and diet concepts as thoughts about those subjects occur to me.
I like hearing about the experiences of others, and I look forward to receiving ideas and comments from you. I’d like to hear your slant on things. I want to hear your opinions, whether you agree with me or not. I’m hoping this site will help establish and nurture an online friendship between you and me, and also friendships between those of you who make comments.
Welcome to my World - POSTED ON: Feb 15, 2011
I am very pleased by the positive responses I've received about the DietHobby site,since my recent announcement that it is now operational. I plan to post frequently in this ongoing blog, and also add more pictures and videos, and recipes and links and other information here in DietHobby.
As with all technical things, some glitches don't show up prior to use, so we are still working out some problems with registration and log-in, which is supposed to be required before making comments. (to avoid spammers etc)
I hope to remain responsive to viewers, and make changes in my policies as needed. Originally I was advised to exclude signatures because people's user names are supposed to automatically appear. Due to some technical registration and log-in issues, that isn't yet operating perfectly. So I made a change this morning and am asking people to PLEASE DO put their signature INSIDE their comment. Signatures. Please DO end your comment with your user name.
My understanding of the process here is: people can access and view anything on DietHobby without registering or logging in. However, before they can participate by making comments, they must register. Registering is meant to be easy, and no data gets saved or published or sold etc.
After people fill out the short registration form, they are supposed to return to their e-mail and click the link the web-site sends them. As soon as they do that, they are registered, and from them on all they have to do is log in. When someone registers, the site automatically sends an e-mail to me, telling me that I have a new registration and who it is.
I've noticed that most of the websites I normally go to log-in with a user name, However, my web-developer-genius (son) absolutely insists on using an e-mail address for log-in. This seems to be mainly because so many people get locked out because they forget their user names, and dealing with that issue is a hassle for the site-owner (me). Your e-mail address is totally confidential and no one will ever send you anything, including me, unless you give me special permission.
You can log on or off while you're on the site, but when you leave you are automatically logged off, and will need to re-log each time you return and want to make a new comment. I'm don't understand the technical reason for this, but that's the way my son says it's going to be. So, it will be helpful to me to have my online friends register, log-in, and make comments as soon as possible, because that is the way I can discover any problems of the DietHobby site. Please send me an e-mail if you have any difficulties so I can get them fixed. My e-mail address is drcollins@diethobby.com which is also posted here under CONTACTS.
All my blogs reside here in my HOME link -- including the posts re books under discussion in BOOKTALK. My oldest posted Blogs, which are numbered from 1-22, are my "Why We Get Fat" Summaries and comments. The easiest way to read and comment on these first 22 posts, is to click the link BOOKTALK. This will take you to a list of links of all those Chapter Summaries and comments making it easier to read and comment on them. My regular ongoing comments start AFTER those first 22 "Why We Get Fat" chapter summary posts, The starting date is February 7th, and Including this one, I have 9 such blogs posted so far, and will be continually adding to them. So, if you are here, and you travel backwards to read prior posts, after the February 7th post, it will be easier to leave this area and go to BOOKTALK area.
I made the "Why We Get Fat" Chapter Summaries and comments first, and lumped them all together, for easy access, because those Blogs will be highlighted for a very long time, probably at least a year. Some of my online friends from the No S Diet forum have already read my basic summary because although a primary reason for I briefing that book was to use it here in DietHobby, I first posted it in a No S Diet forum Thread for a discussion between me and a fellow No S Diet forum member,
Again, I want to remain responsive to you, my online friends, by addressing issues that will arise as we take this DietHobby journey together. Here is a link to my newly revised Comment Guidelines
Happy Valentine's Day - POSTED ON: Feb 14, 2011
The creation and use of this website feels like one big present to me from the Universe. This is one of those happy, grateful times that I work to fix in my memory to offset those times that are less pleasant. All of us have lives that contain both the good and the bad, .....and for me.....today the good is predominant. For me, Valentine's Day has always equaled Candy. Flowers, jewelry, lingerie are all good....but a box of candy, preferably heart shaped, is my focus. My lifetime position has been that other presents are nice extras, but I really want that candy. Those chocolates usually come to me every Valentine's day....even if I have to buy them for myself. This year I told my husband that I didn't want that heart-shaped box of chocolates. Normally if I make that statement to him, I don't really mean it. What I mean is: "I know eating that candy will cause weight-gain and I don't want to be fat." and my true belief is..."If you don't get me candy, you don't love me, and you think I'm too fat."
This year feels different. This year I really meant it, and the only reason I can see for that is my current low-carb experiment. I've been working on this since New Year's, sometimes successfully, and sometimes not. For more than a week I've had no refined carbs, and...in fact...no complex carbs except specific vegetables. I find that I don't crave candy the way I normally do...although I do allow myself tiny amounts of artificially sweetened candy at times. This "sugarless" candy is still high-calorie, and is full of artificial ingredients. It certainly isn't "real food", and is probably bad for me. However, it's value to me is that it tastes sweet, without causing me to crave more...plus a lot of sugar-alcohol is known to have a laxative effect. That potential for immediate gastric distress encourages me to eat only very, very small amounts of it. I'm planning to have one Russell Stover sugar-free Strawberry cream chocolate today.... maybe two...because after all,....it is Valentine's day. My web-designer-developer-genius is my son, and he has been busily working to get this site operational. There are still things that need to be done, but I just couldn't wait to start posting here, Please excuse any temporary glitches, and tell me about any problems that you experience. My son also writes, produces and shoots videos regularly and I've decided to share the following Valentine's Day video with you, although it wasn't intended for me or for this site. I find it amusing, and relevant. Since every chocolate contains about 100 calories, I was interested in whether or not the actress was concerned about that. My son told me that when off camera, she spit most of it out. I was pleased because that is the definition of "chew and spit", which is officially defined as an eating disorder, and is something I'm going to discuss here in detail...along with anorexia, bulimia, and bingeing....at some later time.
Disclaimer here: I love my son, but we have very different lifestyles. I do NOT normally watch his "Exotic Jess" videos. It is my understanding that they are a bit suggestive, but they are not "adult" videos. I've seen only a very few of them and if you choose to access any that are not posted on this site, you're probably watching videos that I've never seen.
Imaginary Friends - POSTED ON: Feb 12, 2011
Recently I posted about the advantages of Online Friends. Online friends is the term I use for people online with whom I actually communicate via the net. I know who they are, and they know who I am. There are also people online, rather famous people. People I know, but who don’t have any idea who I am. I call these people “my imaginary friends”.
Here I mention three of them, who I find are imaginary friends worth having.
One of my imaginary friends is Gary Taubes, the science reporter who has university degrees from Harvard, from Stanford, and from Columbia….and not just easy degrees, but in Physics, Aerospace Engineering, and Journalism. I’ve read his two books, Good Calories Bad Calories (2007) , and Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It (2011), plus I’ve watched his university lectures on YouTube. As a result of this, I’m convinced Taubes is an intellectual Genius.
Another of my imaginary friends is Tom Naughton, the comedian and writer who produced the movie “Fathead”. I got it from Amazon and watched it several times; watched his YouTube lecture; and have read his blog. As a result of this, I know that Naughton is both intelligent and amusing.
A third imaginary friend is Brad Pilon, a bodybuilder who wrote the e-book, Eat Stop Eat, about the subject of Intermittent Fasting. I bought that book, and read it. I’ve also watched all of his YouTube videos, and read his blog. As a result of this, I think Pilon is articulate with muscles.
So, recently I saw an online connection between these three people. Tom Naughton did an excellent interview of Gary Taubes. For those interested, it can be found at:
Tom Naughton’s Interview With Gary Taubes
Then, imagine my surprise when Tom Naughton wrote a blog about Intermittent Fasting and mentioned that he had Brad Pilon’s YouTube video.
I suddenly realized….My Imaginary Friends are playing together.
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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