Prologue

Welcome, I'll assume, for the moment that most of you know me. If this blogging attempt hits the "big time," I'll fill in more details later. Hopefully, if that happens, Amy Adams can play me in the ensuing motion picture.

The basics: Mike Schottey, victim of self-imposed bad eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle. Lifelong obese American. Failure at fad diets and even gastric bypass (more on that at a later date).

The mission: achieve a sustainable lifestyle--a true "Diaeta"--by changing the way me and my family shops, cooks, eats and thinks about food as well as exercise.

The inspiration: As a erstwhile "foodie," my hobbies of cooking, food shopping, and eating have been long misused. Food Network host, Alton Brown, recently lost 50lbs--not by going on a diet but by changing his diet. America, there is a difference. His episode "Live and Let Diet," on 1/4/10 was truly an inspiration.


The key is not to think about diet in terms of "Grapefruit Diet," "Cabbage Soup Diet," "Atkins Diet," etc. The key lies within my wealth of Latin knowledge. Diet comes from the Latin, "Diaeta" which means "way of life."

People often use the word diet in that manner only when talking about wildlife or indigenous tribes. Americans only go on diets when they have to. Expect more on "diets" at a later date.

My hope is that, as I have been inspired, this blog may also inspire at least one other. This space will house not only my completely narcissistic musings about food and exercise but also knowledge I've gained in my search, recipes, tips, and much much more. Eventually, I hope to have enough followers to actually get some discussion going.

Bon Appetit!