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.