My Plan is to Say It Here

- POSTED ON: Feb 11, 2011

                                

I’m looking forward to an opportunity to “talk” about all of the aspects of diets and dieting that are of interest to me, without censorship by others.

Here, there will only be self-censorship, based on my own personal values and needs, rather than the values or needs of others. After a lifetime spent working to fit into the worlds of others, I find this to be a rather unique opportunity.

As I share my viewpoint about Dieting as a Hobby, some of the subjects I plan to cover here, although not in that order, nor in any particularly organized manner, are…

Weight-loss and maintenance of that weight-loss.
Individual Diets.
Dieting tools.
Dieting organizations.
Differences between Diets.
Food and its allure.
Exercise, or physical activity, as involved with dieting.
Therapy.
The concept of Eating Disorders, and those individual behaviors which are so labeled,
................................              including Anexoria, bulimia, binge disorder, chew and spit.

Writing has always been part of my life, even another one of my Hobbies.
Many years ago, I studied creative writing. I even wrote a couple of romantic novels,
which went unpublished, and a small collection of rejection letters to go with them.
I put that Hobby aside after careful consideration of a Thought that was threaded
through my many ‘how to write fiction’ books. That Thought was that the only reason
to Write was because one had something one needed to say.

After an inner search, I realized that there really wasn’t anything I needed to say.
So I stopped writing as a hobby, and basically limited myself to work-related writing.
Although, I must admit that as a family law attorney, some of my client Declarations
that were filed with the Court were rather fine examples of creative writing.

Now, at this time in my life, I do find that I have something to say.
I Plan to say it here.
 


Comments:
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Existing Comments:

On Feb 14, 2011 wrote:
I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say.


On Feb 26, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
             Hi Valerie, Probably not as much as I'm looking forward to saying it.


On Jun 06, 2017 oolala53 wrote:
Hi, Phyllis, Hope you're doing well. I don't know if you've commented anywhere on Bright Line Eating by Dr. Susan Pierce Thompson. She was influenced heavily by OA, though from what I can tell a higher power isn't essential. She uses neuroscience to defend why susceptible overeaters need her four rules, two of which are no sugar (or sweeteners, and probably no raisins or dates) and no flour. She's big on three meals, forever. I don't doubt that for nearly anyone who "surrenders" to her whole program, it would take weight off. I took her susceptibility test and found it interesting that she said a person should answer the questions from the perspective of how compulsive her eating was during her worst three months. By that standard, I should be a lost soul. I do sometimes consider a month of no sweeteners/no flour because I do still have occasional wild days that are starting to frustrate me enough to wonder. But the idea of giving up my stevia-sweetened coffee makes me sadder than the thought of no sweets on N days when I first started No S...


On Jun 06, 2017 Dr. Collins wrote:
             Hi Oolala, Things are going well for me. I’ve read quite a few things by Susan Thompson on “Bright Line Eating” and have some thoughts about it, but haven’t posted on that diet because it’s not particularly appealing or interesting to me. I’ve had some experience with 12 Step programs including 5 years of being an active member of Overeaters Anonymous, and so the “Bright Line” … i.e. ABSTINENCE issue is one with which I’m familiar. I took her online test as well, and it seemed clear to me that almost EVERYONE who has ever found it necessary to deal with being Overweight or Obese would get the test results of a “lost soul”. At this point, my own belief is that there are enormous differences between Alcohol and Drugs, etc. and food substances … including sugar etc. I think people who lump them together and say that our bodies respond in the same way are Really Overreaching. Maybe I SHOULD do a blog discussing THAT issue. Anyway, my own experience and observations of others tells me that while some people achieve diet success with …“bright line” behavior, aka Abstinence, the majority of people don’t. For ME, it seems like throwing out the baby with the bath water. No matter WHAT food choices we make individually, no matter how thoughtfully we make our personal food choices, there will always be more “experts” around who tell us we are wrong; that we aren’t doing Enough; and that what we are doing is unhealthy and will kill us. I have written quite a bit here in DietHobby about how all of Life involves “Trade-offs”. We have to judge and decide whether the personal “Benefit” we get is worth the personal “Cost”. With regard to giving up “reasonable amounts” of various food substances, including flour, sugar, artificial sweeteners etc. etc., my personal judgment is that the possible “Benefit” to ME is vague, unsubstantial, and unproven; while the “Cost” to me is very real and excessively high. At this point, I no longer experiment with “abstinence” type diets. They might be effective for some people, but they are not effective for me. Here at age 72, I’m no longer interested in trying out any diet that might “extend my life”, while making me wish I were dead.


On Jun 06, 2017 oolala53 wrote:
Thanks for your response. I sometimes get hooked by testimonial claims saying that all cravings went away for certain foods so there was no sense of deprivation. Yet I know it's very rare. I agree that lumping food with other substances is over reaching, though I don't doubt there are those who might benefit, if they were to become "believers" enough to follow through. Even with alcohol and drugs, some research shows that up front abstinence is not the most effective model. I also agree about the susceptibility test. I took it another time and lied, saying on several questions that I had no urge to overea, and saying it was very mild on most. I still came out a 3, and got a response saying that while I didn't have a pronounced problem, I might in the future so I should consider the program. I guess she's on a mission, to get sugar and flour out of most overweight people's diet, though at 500 bucks a Boot Camp, it casts suspicion on the idea that it's for the health of the nation. I guess I should assume it will run its course like so many others. (She claimed that it has 240x the efficacy of dieting, but given that she just started offering the course in fall of 2015, I don't see how she can claim that. Her dieters haven't even gotten to the 5-year gold standard benchmark, never mind the 2-year one.) She's apparently trying to be very protective of the franchise, but I don't doubt she can stop anyone from starting their own Facebook group on it, now that the ebook is published. Ok, enough whining on something that's of marginal interest to you. (You're just so knowledgeable that I take your complaints a little more seriously than the average dieter's.) Maybe No S will get some of her dropouts... yeah, I"m biased. But I hope they don't go off the deep end even more. Bye for now.


On Jun 06, 2017 Dr. Collins wrote:
             oolala, I always enjoy hearing from you. After all these years of many mutual posts at No S, Facebook, and here, I consider us to be old friends, and I love reading your insightful opinions.

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