Food For Thought

And now, for a little food for thought. It has been a while since I have shared my fun little nutritional food graphic that shows  you all the delicious foods I ate throughout the day. I know you were really missing it so I thought I would bring it out again just for fun and laughs and to also celebrate the end of Serving Size Summer. (I still have a few posts left in me to wrap things up.)

This Graphic shows what I ate August 23, when Elizabeth and I attended the American Idol show at Marymoor Park in Redmond. It was their last show and I won the tickets by calling into the radio station. I thought it was a fitting full circle event because Elizabeth auditioned for American Idol the last time they were in Seattle. It was quite an experience.

Here is the review for the show: It was a very big Karaoke performance... it was their last show and I think they were all ready to move on. It was fun just the same.

August 23 was a difficult day for me in the eating category. I started the morning nibbling on the Olaf cake that was left over from Courtney's birthday celebration. (This was a moment of weakness. It was also yummy.)

If we took the cake out of the picture, my food consumption was not that bad. I had three meals, two of which were restaurant food and the other was a super delicious meal prepared by my son-in-law, Russell, who is a fantastic cook.

His lunch sub was not dripping with grease like my breakfast.

The real diet killer was my restaurant prepared two egg breakfast with hash browns, bacon, sausage and a biscuit. I do not eat butter on my food, so that didn't get added in to my 1270 calorie breakfast. That is half of my entire day's calorie limit.

I put this graphic together to show how easy it is to get hosed up in our good plans by eating what should be a relatively harmless meal, like breakfast.

I could cook this meal at home, controlling my portions, eating turkey sausage or bacon, skipping the biscuit altogether and using pam to cook my food with would also cut down on the grease that was dripping off my over hard fried eggs.

Later, at the concert, I was prepared to eat healthier.

I packed flatbread and snacks. On the way to the concert, we stopped at Taco Time and bought two of their low calorie salads: the Fit Hit Bowl 301 and Chop Salad 250. We used our flatbread to make a wrap and then ate the rest of our salads. We also brought water bottles and filled them in the park.

This was a no guilt meal.

I have found that it is important to find places that will serve food compatible with dietary restrictions. Taco Time is one of my favorites because their salads have beans and rice, are tasty, and the sizes are reasonable and filling. Salsa is a great topping for salads, although we used a little ranch for flavor.

My total Calorie content for the entire day was way over the top.I doubled my usual counts. In my daily count I try to stick to under 2000 calories per day.

August 23, 2014 I ate almost 4000 calories.

I thought it was amusing that I gained only a few ounces the next day. But then I ate more cake the next day and then the next and before I knew it, five pounds had sneaked back on to my scale.

This is an example of how easy it was for me to slip back into my "not thinking" mindset and just shove food into my mouth, even though I really don't want to do it. I just do.

I mentioned before that August was a difficult month for me. I began August at 250.8. I ended August at 249.6. I spent the entire month losing and gaining and losing the same seven pounds. I feel like it is a success to have ended the month down almost one pound.

Today marks the end of my Serving Size Summer Experiment. I will posting a few more times to wrap things up and post some of the other pictures I have gathered. So stay tuned a bit longer...



And since you read to this point, you should get a prize! It is below.

"Such Fun!"

For a little comic relief, enjoy this clip of Miranda while you contemplate the joys of examining my nutrition food graphic.

For those of you who don't know, Miranda is a very funny comedian from Great Britain.

Enjoy this clip, compliments of the BBC.

If you happen to have Xfinity, you can watch full episodes from your Comcast/Xfinity account.
http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/watch/Miranda/6541727541970269112/full-episodes#episode=6541727541970269112

The End Is Near!

As I anticipate the beginning of fall, in 14 days, I am thinking about the end of Summer.

The end of Summer will also be the end of my experiment, Serving Size Summer and the accompanying blog. I thought I might continue with it but have decided there are so many more topics to write about than every bit of food I put in my mouth. I know, it's compelling stuff, but let's face it, I can only say so much about my meals.

This afternoon's excitement: Today I ate two English muffins with a tablespoon of peanut butter on each one.

"What," you say? "How can this be?" We all know that a serving size English muffin is one. (And everyone would know if they were reading product labels, that two tablespoons is a serving size of peanut butter.)

Captivating as it may be, I ate one for breakfast and then later in the day after lunch, I had a hankering for the same thing... heart be still!

The thrill of reading about this is second only to writing about it. I do love a good blog, for sure, but to do a diet blog effectively, requires much more research. I have tips and ideas for how to be successful... most women trying to lose weight know quite a bit about dieting tips and hints. Send me a question and I will do my best to answer it or find an answer or find a way to help. There is just too much to talk about and not enough time.

Listed below are a few reasons why I will not miss Serving Size Summer when it comes to a close September 21, 2014.

1) I am tired of taking pictures of my food. I do this every time I eat, from one piece of candy to 10 chocolate chips to samples at Costco. I have thousands of pictures of food. (For the record, not eating sweets for the entire month of September.) You can thank me later for not posting every single picture.

This is just a fraction of the photos I have taken over the course of the last three and a half months.

At the beginning of the experiment I took several shots of any given food item to get the best light and angle. That got old very quickly. I rarely take more than one photo for any food these days.

I do take more photos if I add items to my plate, so of course, I must retake the image for accuracy.

2) I am tired of eating half a sandwich. On September 21, I am going to make a whole sandwich with two pieces of bread. Yes I will still be counting calories and for the most part, eating serving sizes, but with some things, like bread, you need more than one serving to make your meal. This photo depicts our lunch today. Half of a grilled cheese sandwich (made using butter flavored pam and garlic salt) and a cup of clam chowder. (Amazingly delicious, I might add.)

Actually, now that I think about it, I might stick to half sandwiches, because it was perfectly satisfying and I split it with my husband, so we both ate well. Hmmmm.

3) Taking selfies is overrated. Smile, don't smile, to the left to show my good side, or to the right to show my good side, hair forward or back... so many things to consider.

I know, I didn't have to take them, but more than showing other people the changes, it showed me the changes and I would study these pictures very carefully to see where the weight was coming off and most often being disappointed that it wasn't showing where I would appreciate the difference. But it shows and I have no real complaints about the project itself.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project and of course I like writing and photography... hey, new career path... food photographer... no, not going to happen.

I have received a few comments from people who liked my honesty and also from readers who became inspired to work on their own health. That is the real fun of something like this, knowing that it helped someone think about their choices.

I also had someone say "what? You told how much you weigh? What's wrong with you?" I still looked the same before there was a number attached to it. I have heard people tell funny stories about the fattest person they had ever seen "...and they were like 250 pounds..." At the time, I was 280 pounds and working my way up to 300.

Now we have a visual of what 250 really looks like on this person. I started this blog at 263, after losing weight over the winter. I am not the fattest person I have ever seen, but I was getting up there into frightening territory, often I was the fattest person in the room. The important point here is that because of my weight, I am often the most unhealthy person in the room.

What I will be doing, is continuing to work on this challenge of getting back to health.

So now I am on the home stretch of this project and I happy to report the end is near and even happier to say I can stop photographing my food!

In honor of all those photographs, I posted some of my favorites. It is either special because of the content or the quality of the photo itself. Yes! I am weird.

Take Me Out Tonight

My First Taste of Ethiopian

I do enjoy dining out. First and foremost, restaurant food is delicious. The flavors are more delectable and savory than the meals I prepare at home, the salt and seasonings used to create tastes that I find delightful are combinations that I don't use everyday. My cooking is fairly simple, as I am not a gourmet chef and the meals I prepare these days are more organic and plant based because of limiting saturated fats and added sugars.

Restaurant food should be more complicated, or different or interesting in ways I don't eat on a day to day basis or why else would I go out to eat? There is that wonderful part of being able to savor and enjoy the meal without looking ahead to the inevitable clean-up that is there waiting for me when I cook in my own kitchen.

My Favorite All-American Breakfast
This Version Was Very Greasy 

A few of my first choices for eating out are Thai, Mexican, Greek and American. These are my favorites and the go-to restaurant choices I make whenever I eat out. (I do not have the budget for superfine dining and I am not sure if I would appreciate it if I did.)

Lately, it has been more challenging and sometimes disappointing when I go out to eat. I like what I like and I often choose the same foods because when I buy these dishes, I know they are going to be delicious. I admit my choices prior to Serving Size Summer were rarely salad or plant based meals.

But these days, I have found that when I choose the foods that fit my plan, I am happier than when I choose the foods that have added to my weight problem.

My first "Dining Out Challenge" occurred shortly after June 21st, the beginning of this experiment. A friend and I from work had developed a weekly habit of eating out, sometimes two or three times. Subway, Branks BBQ and Puerto Vallarta were our go-to restaurants. Surprisingly, Branks BBQ was the least harmful to me because we always ordered their Schooner Salad with chicken, dressing on the side. 

Subway also seemed like a fairly good choice, even though I really love their tuna sub and don't choose it because of all the mayo. Subway is safe, right? After all, Jared lost so much weight eating subway that it seemed like we were doing ourselves a favor by eating there. Never mind that I always ordered my sandwich with a bag of chips.

Thirteen tortilla chips and two
tablespoons salsa are serving sizes.

No, the real challenge was my favorite Mexican restaurant, Puerto Vallarta. 

An example of what I think is the best dish at the Puerto Vallarta Mexican restaurant I enjoy with friends is the chicken chimichanga meal. This oversized burrito is a deep-fried flour tortilla wrapped chicken and bean ball of deliciousness and wonder. Very few establishments get this dish wrong, which is why I like it so much.

These dinners are usually served with cheese-topped refried beans, salad and rice. Add guacamole and sour cream and it is heaven on a hot plate. (Just writing this makes me want to make refried beans for lunch. A serving size, of course.)

June 25th we went to the Puerto Vallarta restaurant, I remember feeling very anxious about how I was going to make the huge dish of food into a reasonable serving size. I had only been eating serving sizes for four days. Blowing my plan in the first week wasn't an option, but I didn't want to cut the chimichanga in half and the better way to go would have been to order something to share, but I stubbornly stuck to my favorite. 

Luckily the chimichanga wasn't one of those gigantic ones that we all are so happy to see on the plate but that really do some damage to the ol' arteries. So, I cut the beans, rice, sour cream and guacamole in half and moved them to another plate. In doing this, I felt like I was tricking myself into thinking it wasn't my food and I didn't need to eat it.

This is a very good way to do it, I have decided. If I only deal with the food on my plate, it feels very satisfying.

The wait staff was very curious about what I was up to because I kept taking pictures of my food as well. But, this worked for me at the time. It was the first of many attempts to navigate the very difficult task of eating out and still feeling satisfied. I like to think they thought I was some fancy schmancy food critic.

One of Our Shared Lunches... My Contribution

Because dining out is so expensive, calorically and financially, my friend Nannette and I devised a plan that has been fun, economical for us both and saved me many tough decisions about eating serving sizes at restaurants. We make lunches for each other. It is almost like going out to eat because someone else has prepared the food for you. We just alternate days of brown-bagging, which gives us each every other day off meal prep.

Nannette is very good about making sure I know the nutrition information and will text me a picture of the packaging while she is preparing lunch at her home. This is an awesome instance of gathering people around myself who are totally supportive of my efforts to improve my health. She makes it very easy.

After working at this project for two months, I do try to make better restaurant choices. The last time I ate Mexican, I chose a taco salad and left off the sour cream. The plate was still way more than one person should eat. I am not such a good dieter that I took part of it home to finish at another meal. 

When faced with these difficult choices, made more challenging because I am a food addict, I can't promise to make the best decisions, but I always try. 

I have several events coming up in the next week that are going to be tricky. I know what the consequences are for not staying to my plan of serving sizes, and not choosing "no seconds." I spend a week or two trying to get myself back to my lowest weight. As much as I try not to focus on the weight, I have to keep diligent and remember I gain weight so quickly that it takes two extra bites over my calorie limit to cause an immediate gain of a few pounds the next morning.

I am not so nervous about eating out as I was in that first week. I have a better idea of what works for me and what doesn't and I also have a choice of sticking to the plan or eating the restaurant serving size and not beat myself up if it wasn't a perfect choice. I will have a chance to make a better decision at the next meal or the next day. It has to be no pressure. And it is all okay.

Yoda said "Do or do not. There is no try." He got it wrong. None of us are perfect and some days all we can do is try. If we can't "do," we try again.

So bring it on and take me out tonight!