What is the nicest thing people have said about your losingwei...

Yeah, that's pretty much how I see it. To
me, "diet" implies things like giving up
certain foods snip

Then you have an unusual definition of
dieting, since consciously limiting the
amount of food is also considered
dieting.

Maybe it's just my bad childhood memories of being put on diets and all
the negative connotations that has to me (long, ugly story), but I still
hate the word and all it's come to mean in my life, and find it
difficult to think of the freedom of portion control as "dieting," as
most diets do severely limit or forbid *some* foods, or at least have
you stay under a certain, arbitrary daily caloric level.

Listening to and heeding your body's satiety signals accomplishes the
same thing - caloric limitation - naturally without obsessing over the
numbers or specific foods, and with the added benefit of learning to
trust your body's ability to tell you when it's hungry and when it's had
enough, which I know I lost when I was eating out of control, but was
still buried inside me, somewhere. When I started this way of eating,
hunger was a real revelation to me, as I rarely ever let myself get
there before.

Well, it is extremely unlikely that you
would be able to stay slim, without
consciously regulating what, or how
much, you eat.

Well, I have lost almost 100 lbs. so far, and I don't have to be all
that conscious of it too often, which is my goal as a "natural eater in
training" anyway, not to having to overthink and obsess over food (which
is another problem that typical diets promote, IMHO). It's becoming
second nature to me now, although once in a while I do catch myself
reaching for something when I'm not hungry, and I try to stop myself
before I do.

But if I succumb, I just try to do better the next day, seeking God's
help. When you think about it, that's pretty much normal eating - most
"natural" eaters have days where something drives them to that pint of
Ben and Jerry's, but they don't beat themselves up over it, they just
figure it's human nature, no harm done, and shrug it off. And I agree.

You have done a great job so far, and if
you do not want to consider it dieting, it
is your business. As a matter of
common definitions, you are dieting.

Thank you! And really, I guess it's just semantics, so whatever you or
I or anyone else choose to call our WOE, who cares? For myself, I just
know that the restrictive deprivation of typical diets doesn't work for
me - been there, done that, bought the 6X t-shirt

--
M-C
401/305/?

My Weight Loss Journal
http://community-2.webtv.net/magenta...htlossjournal/