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.

                                                      
Food and money have a great deal in common.
A specific amount of money goes into my bank account each month,
and that is the amount of money I have to pay my bills and
meet my needs each month.

If I want to save up for a trip or a treat,
I have to budget my money, and do without spending the amount I need to save.
Frequently I also feel like spending more money than I have in my bank account,
I have that choice. There are ways I can accomplish this.
But, making a choice to spend as much as I want,
will lead to negative consequences . . . making my life difficult to deal with.
That fact and that situation will not change, even though I may hate it.

AND

My body uses a specific amount of food each day/week/month,
that is the amount of food I need to put into it.
If I want to reduce my size,
I have to eat LESS food than my body uses to create an energy deficit.

I can choose to live within my energy allowance or not.
Frequently I also feel like eating more food than my body can use,
I have that choice.
But, making a choice to eat as much as I want,
will lead to negative consequences., i.e. even more stored fat.
The fact and situation will not change, even though I may hate it.

 As a mature adult human being,
I know that frequently I simply can't have my own way.
This is true of spending money, and of eating food.
There has to be some form of self-regulation...with both money and food.

If one chooses not to count calories, following a specifically defined
food-plan is a good way to self-regulate food.

However, even one Bingeing day a week,
can easily provide the body with more energy than one's body can use in that entire week.
To give any Diet, or food-plan,  a Chance, one needs to actually follow it.

I am not a fan of Intuitive Eating Concepts
and in future Blogs, I will have much to say about the idea 
of letting one's body tell one what, when, and how much to eat
based one's perception of hunger.

I am very familiar with the issue of  Hunger,
and I have found that  when dieting,
Appetite, not Hunger, is the most difficult problem to overcome.

Personally, I've found temporary physical Hunger to be the least important issue
in determining whether I can successfully follow a diet,
because one's stomach (and one's brain) quickly becomes used to
being fed a certain amount at a certain time,
IF the amount and the time are consistent.

There are "stretch receptors" in one's stomach,
and if one eats an equal volume 3 times a day,
one's stomach (and brain) will adapt to that amount and timing.
When one is overweight and not in danger of actual Starvation,
Physical Hunger is a problem that can be rather easily resolved,
and  rarely seems to be the primary cause of either Overeating, or Obesity.

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.

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.