So I took pictures of my food for a whole week and what did I learn:

1) My food is very repetitive
2) I really like foods that are brown and beige
3) You wouldn’t think it but it takes a lot of time to take a picture of everything you eat
4) Taking pictures of your food makes you think about everything you put in your mouth

There is a bit of reality here. I am very busy, and I enjoy life that way. I would love to have the time to cook full, well-balanced meals, but I just don’t have that time every day. (I hope to have that kind of time when I retire.) Still I try to eat reasonably healthy foods. I get in phases where I eat something often. For example I’ll go through a frozen burrito phase or a goat cheese salad phase. Eventually they will shift to a Caesar salad and a pasta phase. It’s easy and doesn’t take much thought for me to plan what I’ll be eating with some idea of the number of calories I’m consuming.

Where I try to be healthy is to buy foods that don’t have corn syrup or a lot of salt. When I do cook I cook in bulk and freeze it. My lomo saltado on day one had been previously frozen.

I’ll also go through phases where I record everything I eat in an excel spreadsheet. Eventually I stop doing this because of the additional time it takes. I felt the same way with the pictures. It would be very difficult for me to sustain photo shoots of everything I consume. Still, both are helpful because they show me exactly what I’m eating, especially the little things I’ll just throw in my mouth without thinking.

One thing I know is that my food did not look nearly as photogenic and Meg’s food blog. And having to post it for the world to see made a difference. It wasn’t just like recording the food in an excel spreadsheet. It made me want to eat better. It made me want to make my food look as good as Meg’s. Even with that desire, it never got on the top of my to-do list.

Eating healthy is a priority for me; cooking all my own food would be a joy, but it’s not the place I am currently willing to put my time. Plus I’m very lucky in that two nights a week I visit my family and they cook me a well-balanced meal. That helps.

I’d suggest try it for one week and see how it goes.