Experiment with visual food diary
I promise I will NOT be listing what I eat every day on this blog. (YAWN) However, I did an experiment today based on that article in the Telegraph that I mentioned in a previous post. The article was about how people who take pictures of what they eat do better weight-loss-wise than people who just write down what they eat.
I think, from my experience today, it’s because it forces you to stop and think BEFORE you eat. Whereas with writing, you can just try to recall it later, often imperfectly. It doesn’t really interrupt the process.
OK, here’s how it went…
Hmm. Breakfast wasn’t so hot. Caffeinated!!! Diet Coke and Crystal Light Focus.
Late morning, not really hungry, but I’d better eat something. Cold beef patty with mustard on wheat toast.
Chocolate craving. This looks dangerous, but I’m satisfied by a baby -spoon-ful of low-fat Nutella a couple of times a week. A jar can last months.
Water and a Crystal Light Hydrate.
Um. I forgot to take the picture of the Nutella earlier. So I had to recreate the scene. Then, I didn’t want to put it back in, so I ate it. OK, that was kinda stupid.
Cucumber salad, veggie wraps with avocado — yum!!! Unfortunately, the avocado wasn’t quite ripe. Also, normally not so short on fruits and veggies during my day by this point. Need to fix that tomorrow.
Popped popcorn for my 3yo’s preschool class tomorrow. Had less than a cup. Had actually planned to have more, but just didn’t feel like it.
I’m a little hungry right now. I’m probably going to have a yogurt. Strawberry or peach. Hmm. Both sound good!
I like the concept of this visual diary. I’m wondering how I can do it quickly and efficiently. Not posting like this, obviously, every day — who has time for that? Perhaps I’ll just keep my camera in my pocket and shoot what I eat, then use that to confirm the quick notations I make in my planner.
Got any other ideas to minimize manual effort and maximize usefulness?
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Oh, man the nutella “re-enactment” now that sounds very suspiciously like something I would do. I am sure you were not too thrilled about it but I gotta say I laughed with you on that one. At least how you wrote about it was kind of funny.
I am with you it sounds like a good idea, but for the time issue. I can’t even imagine trying to put all the pictures together at the end of the day or something. I would imagine the only thing that would make it tollerable would be to have an online photo album that stuck all the pictures for a day on the same page. Sort of like a collage of the food you eat each day where you only have to upload the 6 pictures per day or whatever. Then each page is a day in the life sort of thing.
Aw heck who am I kidding, the only way it could work, for me anyway, is to win the lottery and hire a photographer to follow me around.
I know, Brian, I don’t think I can afford the calories of the visual diary — forgetful me would have to reenact any number of meals! Especially the yummy ones. Oops!