On Monday, right after I posted about it, I started taking pictures of my food BEFORE I ate it. I’m using my iPhone to take the pictures so the quality of the photos are not very good, but I have to say the quality of the food I am eating since I started this little experiment has gone way up.
When you take pictures, you want the presentation to be pretty— I’m not a great photographer to begin with, but I try— and that means colorful food. What is the most colorful food you can think of? Why fruit and veggies of course!
I’ve only been doing this for two and a half days now, and I will admit I ate my dinner last night (weight watchers pizza) before remembering to take the picture, but even without the picture, I was way more conscious of what I was putting in my mouth.
I have needed a new way to be accountable for what passes for food with me for some time now, and at least for these first few days, this seems to be working.
The trick is to take the picture and actually look at the picture before eating the food. I’ve also found that looking back at the pictures at the end of the day gives me a good snapshot of what’s still missing in my diet (as in the nutritional things I’m consuming, not the weight loss version of the term diet.) I’m finding that I’m making some much better choices with food now that I have this little extra bit of accountability. It’s only accountability to me, since I’m not posting the photos, but hey, if it works, then it’s worth the few seconds it takes to snap the photo. I’m also tracking points again, and food photos make this process a little easier too.
Knowing I’m going to take a picture is prompting me to plan my food better, and when we plan, well, we just eat better in general, or at least I do.
I’ll keep snapping pics of my food, and maybe even sharing a few of them, like the 3-point egg (mc)muffin I’ve got going on in this post. That’s right kids. Three points. A real Egg McMuffin is 7 points at last count.
How did I ditch 4 points you ask?
2 egg whites, a high-fiber Thomas’s Better Start multi grain english muffin, 1 slice of WW American cheese and 1 slice of Hillshire Farm’s ultra-thin sliced honey ham. And it’s yummy. Really. Yummier than the fast-food version. 
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I used to make something very similar–but I used EggBeaters for an even lower calories breakfast. It was tasty too!
That muffin looks delicious. Great that this is working for you. Sometimes visualising is what we need.
Hi! I just found your site recently and would like to say how impressed I am by your motivation and positive attitude! Definatly keep taking the photos- I read a study recently (can’t remember where!!) That showed that you use a different part of the brain to look at a photograph than you do to look at an object directly in front of you. When looking at the photograph it was easier for subjects in the study to be more objective. I thought it was very interesting information…..and may explain why the photos seem to be so helpful- good luck and continued success on your journey!