Tracking your eating habits is a fantastic way to stay on track with your weight loss or maintenance goals, manage portion control and clean up your diet for the long haul. Healthy eating is about consistency and awareness. You have to know what you are eating before you can assess and make positive change.
How many times have you thought back over the day and realized you don’t remember what you had for breakfast or that you skipped lunch? I’m with you! Diet journals are a bore and get left in your day planner to rot. There is a much more interactive Gen Y approach to tracking what you eat throughout the day. Take it’s picture! Most cellphones have camera’s now so it’s super easy to pull and snap.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed that taking pictures of meals was even more effective than journaling. Why is taking pictures so effective? Because it’s more fun and shows really what you are eating. When participants went back to journal about a meal hours later they often perceived what and how much they ate very different. Photographs don’t lie.
I started my photo food journal today and will compile it all for your viewing pleasure (or disgust!) at the end of next week. Join me in finding the holes in your epic nutrition plan by starting with me today. At the end of the week I’ll discuss what I found in my own habits and answer any questions you have about integrating more whole foods into your day. Sound good?!
If shooting every meal is too much, aim to photograph the unhealthy junk. Then when you look back over the week you’ll know exactly what you need to work on. Plus it’s the greenest way to journal! No trees killed. Are you with me?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This idea is BRILLIANT. It really would make me pause before eating something unhealthy, and also like the lazy person’s food journal. Just point and shoot… no writing down required.
Haha I was *just* scrolling through pictures on my cell phone and nearly everything is food I have eaten. Of course I rarely photograph the crap I eat, that should be an exercise I try out. Not this week, but soon.
@Karen- Lazy person’s diet journal for sure. Technology makes everything a little too easy. So easy we can’t live with out it! And you’re right, it would definitely make you rethink what you eat since you’ll be reviewing it..haha your own critic comes out.
@La- ya interesting how the junk gets pushed under the rug. We don’t like to see that stuff that’s for sure. Yet another experiment!
What I like best about this idea is it’s so damn simple! Good thing I heard about it after I had ribs for dinner!
@David- haha. start today…you didn’t want to document that massive rib dinner anyway
Terrific idea! One super iPhone app to do this is called EatWit.
wonderful Chris! thanks for the update