At present, I am involved in one of my ongoing Diet Experiments. The picture above describes how I'm feeling about that experiment this morning. Generally I choose not to discuss the details of any personal diet experiment here at DietHobby while that experiment is still ongoing.

After a diet experiment has ended, I spend time thinking about it, re-analyzing my data, and thinking about it some more. I usually reach some personal conclusions about that particular diet. Sometimes I share these conclusions here at DietHobby, and sometimes I do not.

Anyone can learn a great deal about me, personally, by reading DietHobby's ABOUT ME section; my F.A.Q.s; and looking at my Photo Gallery, all of which are found under the RESOURCES heading.

Treating Dieting as a Hobby is a way-of-life for me, but DietHobby isn't my "personal journal". DietHobby is a Scrapbook that I'm continually creating, made up of pictures, and videos, and ideas of others that I find interesting, together with some of my personal viewpoints.

DietHobby's ARCHIVES contain many timeless articles that provide me with ongoing inspiration. I'm always going back to read something that I posted months or years ago, and often, I learn something new, or re-learn something that slipped my mind.
I've made over 300 personal videos, involving recipes, inspiration, and information.   All of these can easily be seen here in DietHobby. I've also shared a great many videos made by others here in DietHobby. These are categorized and placed at different locations here in DietHobby, however, an easy way to see all of what exists is by going to Videos, under the RESOURCES heading.

The Books & Tools section is limited to only those that I find extremely interesting, helpful, or unusual. Both of these are also found under the RESOURCES heading. The DietHobby Links section provides an easy way to find many places of inspiration outside of DietHobby.

Personally, I find DietHobby to be an endless source of inspiration. Others tell me this is also true for them. Perhaps it will be true for you. I hope so, but however DietHobby works out for others, I'm helping myself, and having a good time doing that.

              

Many people are like the cat in this picture in that they become fearful and depressed when they are faced with small portions of food.

Dieting is "a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight". It is the process of eating fewer calories than we use as energy in the hope that our bodies will consume themselves and become smaller.

Our Culture generally finds Dieting to be positive and acceptable behavior.  It pours billions of dollars each year into the Dieting Industry, but strangely enough, everything is focused on MORE. Buy more. Get different and additional food, supplements, books, slimming club or gym memberships, personal trainers, equipment, therapy, medical treatment, etc.

MORE is the successful marketing message, but the secret of successful dieting is LESS. The truth is we have to eat less. To lose a lot of weight, we have to take in a lot less food than our bodies use up.

Our MORE culture says … eat less, but just a little bit less… and be sure to eat MORE of this, and do MORE exercise, and buy MORE of this or that.  Drag it out, take it slow.  Make sure it is a "HEALTHY" diet. Do what we say, we'll tell you just what to eat. You need to buy THIS and THIS... you need MORE. If you just eat less, it won't be enough AND it will be the wrong thing. "It's not safe; you'll starve; you'll throw your body out of balance; you'll lose your health; you'll lose your muscle; you'll get an eating disorder; you'll become anorexic; you'll die."

Starving to death takes a very long time for people who start out with a BMI of anywhere from ranges in the middle-of-normal, overweight, obese, severely obese, morbidly obese, or super-obese. Also, people simply don't develop a mental disorder known as "Anorexia" by going without food. The world is full of mirrors, everyone wears clothing, and almost everyone lives among other people. It would be very difficult for a normally functioning human being to be unaware of the fact that they have become underweight. If it happened, there is a quick and easy remedy.
Begin eating more. 
If there is food available, people who are not mentally ill, can easily start doing that.

The problem with dieting, and eating less, is that we like food, we like eating, and society tells us to do it…. together with those extra messages of: "don't get fat" and "you must eat THIS way".

My own small, inactive, elderly body doesn't require much food to maintain a BMI near the border of "normal" and "overweight".  It requires even LESS food to drop my weight anywhere below that number. So if I choose to work at accomplishing such a task, I have to eat very tiny amounts of food.

This section entitled "Delicate, Dainty Meals for an Exquisite, Elderly Lady" is designed to demonstrate what tiny meals look  like. For more information about that concept read more of the posts within this Blog Category.

 I have recently begun an experiment with my own version of a modified 5-Bite Diet. I've found the unmodified 5-Bite Diet to be a bit too restrictive for my personal situation.

My own concept is to eat 3 tiny meals, each of these meals consisting of approximately the same small total volume. The amount of this total volume is approximately 5 normal bites, or between ¼ to ⅓ cup. These meals can consist of any food substance that appeals to me, but whether it is candy or cucumber, the volume remains the same.

Within this plan, outside of these 3 daily meals,  I drink only non-caloric beverages, such as water, black tea, up to 16 oz of crystal light, up to 2 diet cokes. I also allow myself up to 6 oz of tomato juice and 2 cups of clear bouillon for additional sodium and potassium. Artificial sweeteners are acceptable, and I allow myself up to 2 small containers of sugar-free jello, and up to 2 sticks of sugar-free gum per day if I wish.

I haven't yet decided how long this experiment will run, and while I will be sharing some of the dieting BEHAVIOR, I will not be sharing the dieting RESULTS here at DietHobby - including any weight-loss, or weight-gain - while the experiment is taking place.

Here are some specifics about a few of my tiny meals.

BREAKFAST TWO
Estimated calories 144

Contents and Calories
⅓ cooked original pork sausage patty - Jimmy Dean - 45
3 mini pancakes - frozen - Krusteaz - 55
1 tsp butter - 34
2 Tb Mrs. Butterworths sugar-free maple syrup - 10
…….Total = 144 calories

LUNCH ONE
Estimated calories 144

Contents and Calories
½ slice wheat bread - 45
2 thin sliced deli select roast beef - 30
1 tsp light mayo - 12
1/6 avocado - 40
1 Tb alfalfa sprouts - 1
1/10 oz plain potato chips - 16
…….Total = 144 calories

LUNCH TWO
Estimated calories 89

Contents and Calories
1 Teriyaki Chicken Wing - 48
1 bite Blackberry cobbler - 41
…....Total = 89

          

Here at DietHobby, I've decided to occasionally share some detailed information about the meals I choose to eat.

My food choices are exactly that.

.............MY food choices...............  

  I'm not you.  You're not me.

When I choose to eat something that you would NOT choose to eat, it is not an indictment of you or of your food choices.

I'm not a Michael Pollan fan, and I don't consider his advice to be the Gospel.

If any food has an existance outside of my own imagination, I consider it to be REAL food. 

I take a vitamin pill every day. I do not require my food to be "natural", or "unprocessed".  As far as I'm concerned, there are no foods forbidden to me.  I find Sugar acceptable as well as artificial sweeteners.  Wheat, corn, oats, rice, refined and unrefined, brown and white, are all just fine. I don't try to limit or restrict salt except as to conform to my own personal taste.  I eat fruits and vegetables in small quantities, and I don't try to make myself eat any particular food simply because someone thinks it is "good for me". There are spices I like, and spices I don't like, and I don't eat anything unless it tastes good to me.

 For the past ten years I've used a computer program every day to track all of my food.  This provides me with nutritional information, including the estimated calories.  I work to limit and restrict both the volume and the calories that are in the foods I eat.  

I am a short, small, inactive, reduced obese, elderly woman, and my body does not require very many calories. All excess calories get turned into fat.  My goal is to live the remaining years of my life at or near a "normal" weight.  The only way that I can accomplish this, is to eat the foods I like in very small amounts.

My eating preferences are mentally framed as: 
                        Delicate, dainty meals to nourish an equisite, elderly lady.

Here is an example of one such meal:


BREAKFAST One
        Estimated calories 189
 
Contents and Calories

¼ Meat Lovers Breakfast Bowl w/ eggs,
potatoes, Sausage, Bacon, Cheddar Cheese - 115
¼ oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese -28
¼ piece Good Seed Bread, Dave's Killer Bread - 33
½ tsp butter -13

…….Total = 189 calories