The Scale is a weight-measuring tool

Body fat is only a part of the scale number.
The scale measures the weight of everything in the body,
including all our bones and tissues, along with the
water and waste products that the body contains
at the time that we step on that scale.

Eating salty foods will affect the body's salt/water/waste levels for several days.
So will bowel functions. There are other functions of the body that involve
the body’s water levels as well. This means that the scale will sometimes
register higher numbers than it will at other times.
It is the Big Picture that counts, 
rather than one’s weight on one individual day.

Here is an example of how the Scale can change from day to day,
This is a graph that shows my own daily weights from spring 2009
thru mid February 2011. This weight range is between 109 -128 lbs.




Weight bounces happen.
Everyone has salt/water/waste issues.
Some have them more than others.
It is a RESULT,
a function of the body that is essentially outside one's control.

I’ve been tracking my food and my weight in my DietPower food journal
for more than six years, which has given me an enormous amount of detailed
personal data. As part of my hobby, I play around with that data, making various
graphs and charts.

Weight bounces are so common for me,
that a perfectly consistent weight is unusual.
This morning a comparison chart I’ve been running,
showed something that, for my body, is remarkable.
This graphic shows my weights on 2/19, for the years 2008-2009-2010-2011.

Due to my frequent bounces, the fact that each of these 4 year records show me
in the same lb range on the same date is incredibly unusual.
I was pleased to see this specific evidence of successful weight-loss maintenance.

If you are interested in seeing examples of day-to-day scale variations
You can access a great deal of that data by going to my ABOUT ME page
and clicking the links to the charts and graphs contained there.

 Some of those links show my Maintenance numbers during 2006
through 2010 in detail, and show the differences between my highest weight of
each month, and my lowest weight of each month. This will show you that it is
common for me, during any one month, to have a bounce range of 8 or more lbs.
As I am over age 60, these weight fluctuations are not due to "female monthly issues".

These links will also show you my average monthly calorie intake,
and the gain/loss from the first day of each month to the last day of each month.
These numbers indicate that my bounce range is not explained by calorie excess.

I’ve posted my weights daily on the DietPower Challenge Forum for many years,
and shared my daily bouncing activity etc. After time, I got tired of "excusing" and
"explaining" my frequent gains and losses to new forum members,
and I now choose to share my weight on that forum by posting on a variable basis,
but normally at least once a week. This tends to show my "stabilized" weights,
instead of my extreme highs and lows. However, inside my links,
I still share that average monthly data.

 Weight Bounces Happen
Bounces are not EFFORT or BEHAVIOR
and therefore, are not under one's personal control.
...They are simply a RESULT, an OUTCOME,
which is not under one’s personal control.

There could be many reasons why one’s weight bounces.
One's Body Water shifts continually, due to salt and for other reasons.
Sometimes when one eats very low calorie, or low carb,
and engages in heavy exercise,
one drops a lot of water along with fat,
and one's body eventually replaces that water.
At times, one's intestines sometimes contain more than other times.
i.e. Salt/Water/Waste issues.

Although most of us know this in our Minds.
Our hearts …emotions… have difficulty accepting that Truth.
This is one basic reason why more people don't lose weight,
or maintain their weight-loss.

Losing weight or maintaining weight-loss takes an enormous amount
of Consistency and Patience, along with some Faith....
and personally, I often find Faith to be the most difficult.

                        
What about the Scales? 
Should I weigh? If so, how often?
Should I throw my scales away?

This issue is discussed frequently by those dealing with diet
and weight-loss. After a lifelong battle with food and
with weight (see ABOUT ME),
I’ve established what works for me.

Regarding the scales:
Over the years, I have had every reaction to them possible.
 I've eaten because they showed a loss,
and I've eaten because they showed a gain.
I've eaten because they didn't move up or down.
I've felt bad because they went up,
 I've felt good because they went down. 
Sometimes I've felt bad, and sometimes I've felt good,
when they didn't move at all.

Over time, I tried different variations to my use of the scales.
I tried weighing whenever I felt like it, even if it was many times a day.
I tried weighing once a day, and once a week, and once a month.
twice a day, not weighing myself, but having a club or doctor weigh me.
I spent several years not weighing at all.
I've bought many scales of various kinds,
and I've thrown away many scales.

The scales was never the problem.
I did not like the Reality of the numbers registered by them.
Like many overeaters, I have a strong tendency to lie to myself.
It's easy to lie to myself about how much I eat,
and I can also lie to myself about how much I weigh.

In order to face reality, I have to have an objective standard.
I weigh every morning after using the bathroom, but before I dress.
I write that weight down.
I then record that weight on charts and graphs that I keep.

I feel emotions during this process,
just like I feel emotions about lots of my other daily activities.
I can emotionally eat because I do or don't like the number the scale tells me
or I can emotionally eat over something I hear in the morning news.
............or over anything at all.....
Facts are facts, and emotions are emotions.

I continually work to avoid emotional eating, no matter what the cause.
Not facing the truth of facts isn't a solution to emotional eating.

Some mornings the scale shows me up 2-3 lbs from the prior morning.
I don't like that.
However, I KNOW I didn't really gain 2-3 lbs of fat overnight...
because I'm not a moron.

 I know that it's the Big Picture that counts,
rather than one individual day or one individual weight.
Since it takes approximately 3500 calories above what I burn to gain 1 fat lb.
I know that the calories I took in the day before wasn't even half of that.
I also know that eating salty foods,
will affect my body's salt/water/waste levels for several days.
This means that I will register numbers higher on the scale.

Whatever the reason, when I see higher numbers on the scale,
I know that for the next few days
I will need to eat smaller amounts of lower calorie foods.

Do I feel frustrated by this?
Am I angry and disgusted?

I hate the Reality of the fact
that I cannot eat everything I want to eat, all the time.

THAT is what I feel frustrated by.
THAT is what sometimes angers and disgusts me.
The number on the scale just reminds me of that Truth.

My determination
to stay the course and view the numbers on the scale in a positive way,
and my determination
to accept the Reality of the fact that I cannot eat everything I want to eat all of the time,
is an ATTITUDE CHOICE, and that choice isn’t always pleasant or easy.

This is an ultimate Truth for me:
I must face Reality; Change what I can; and Accept what I can't Change.

       
Remember that old saying, “a picture’s worth a thousand words”?
Text people normally communicate by using words. I think of myself
as a “text person”. However, I am enamored with emoticons-
which are, of course, little pictures.

My normal lifestyle doesn’t involve cameras, except on special
occasions. I own a digital camera, with mega-memory,
that downloads or prints easily, but I seldom even remember
to take it with me when I go on vacation. When I do take it, frequently
I return from my trip with blank memory cards, because I was too
absorbed in experiencing the Now to record it for later.

Sometime in the 1990s, my husband gave me a video camera for Christmas.
I’ve used it less than ten times, and one of those time was at my daughter’s
college graduation ceremony. Although it still works, now it’s obsolete.

My-son-the-web-genius has convinced me to enter the world of pictures.
DietHobby has the capability to share Videos, in the link VIDEOS under Resources.
and it also contains a Gallery for still pictures.
I’ve already put up some videos that I find relevant to DietHobby,
and I’ll be experimenting with that section until I get a better “feel” for it.

Recently, my son came to my home with his professional camera, camcorder,
and lighting equipment. He took still-pictures of me, and filmed me cooking
some of my low-calorie recipes. I haven’t seen any of these pictures or videos yet.
It’s been years since I’ve seen a “home movie” of myself,
and I really have no idea how I will look or sound. He says I’ll see the videos
after he uploads them to YouTube. However he’s kind enough to let me see
the still pictures first so I can choose which ones I want to share here on DietHobby.

So, DietHobby will be A Thousand Words AND Pictures.
These will involve different aspects of Dieting, will be related to that Topic,
and most videos will be created by other people.

That said…here’s an Off-Topic video that I find fascinating.
Nora, The Piano Cat

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 

Dieting is engaging in a specific type of eating behavior. Most people look at dieting as….”a means to an end”. What does that mean?

The term “means to an end” refers to :
any action (the means)  ... that the sole purpose ofis to achieve something else (an end).

It often refers to an activity ……………(such as an undesirable job)
that is not as important as the goal you hope to achieve …………….(monetary gains for example).

When we say something is “a means to an end”, the term “end” is defined as our “results”, but the common use of the word “end” means the cessation or termination of a course of action, pursuit or activity …..i.e. to Stop.

So, if Dieting is the means, what is the end?
Ordinarily, people think of the “end” as a desired weight-loss result……such as achieving leanness or a normal weight,

However, achieving weight-loss, is only part of the challenge, and Maintenance of that weight-loss is merely an extension of that process. Therefore the “end”….meaning “result”…. isn’t the end (cessation) at all.

It is common to think in terms of “beginning” and “end”, so this misunderstanding runs deep within us.

A common saying is:
“Let’s get this weight off, once and for all.”

To “delay gratification”…. implies we get something “later”,
and “later” is when?

Usually we think of “later” as
..…after we become lean, ……after we lose the weight.

But if we engage in “dieting” behavior to become lean, and we stop that behavior, we will become fat again. This is what happens to more than 95% of all people who lose weight, and is what experts mean when they say that “Diets don’t work”.

However, whether we call it a diet, or call it a lifestyle. It still means we can’t eat as much of everything we want whenever we want to.

To remain lean, after weight-loss, one must remain on some type of continual diet,and guess what… Losing weight, doesn’t magically turn a body’s tendency toward fat into a tendency toward leanness.

The survival instincts of a reduced-weight body will work against the continuation of the type of eating behavior that is necessary to keep that lost weight off. This is a physical problem.

Yet, many experts imply that this is merely a mental or emotional problem, and that once we’ve learned the “proper” behaviors, over time eating less will become natural for us, and we won’t need to consciously “diet”.

This has not proven to be true for me.
I still have to consciously diet. This is a physical problem.
My body wants to eat more than it uses. My choice is to diet and be normal weight,or to “intuitively” eat and be morbidly obese.

I didn’t choose my body’s genetics. However, I get to choose my mental state.
I choose Acceptance. I choose to embrace the devil that is food and dieting,
and to make it an enjoyable part of my life.