Photo Food Log - Posterous to the Rescue

sometimes it takes getting punched in the face

Photo Food Log – Posterous to the Rescue

by Micah

Ive been reading the book The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, which I picked up after Brad wrote a post suggesting reading Ian’s blog post about the book.

I havent gotten very far, but so far it makes a lot of sense. Yesterday, I stopped by Boulder Running Company to pick up a Garmin 010-00658-30 Forerunner 405CX GPS Sport Watch with Heart Rate Monitor (Blue). By now, I hope you have noticed that I am using Amazon affiliate links. I am doing this mostly because I think its funny. Why do I think its funny? I dunno, but it makes me giggle.

Being a lover of contrary behavior, I stopped at McDonalds on the way home. After all, I had just bought a super-duper heart rate monitor with the intent of working out more often. To add to the silliness, I broke out the End to Overeating book on my iPhone Kindle app (apparently you cant buy an iPhone through Amazon, so no link for you!).

I mean seriously, can you imagine? I just spent $350 on a heart rate monitor, was eating at McDonalds while reading a book about weight loss? Im high-lar-e-ous.

Anyway, a couple of pages in there is a short discussion about how food logs dont work, especially for overeaters, because they lie. That requiring dieters to photograph their food with a time and date stamp seemed to work better.

I thought to myself, as I ate my second apple pie, “thats interesting.”

Today, I struck out trying to find an easy way to make it happen. First, I decided I wanted to use Posterous. Why? Well, because I havent figured out a great way to use it yet, and I am a big fan of Garry and Sachin‘s.

All day I tried different things. I played with PicPosterous, the iPhone app, but it didnt do exactly what I wanted. (It needs the ability for me to write a short description of the photo).

I tried flickr and tumblr, but they werent exactly what I wanted.

Then I found this out about Posterous. If you send an email to the service name, it will only autopost to that service. For example, if I send a photo to flickr+twitter [at] posterous [dot] com it will only be posted to flickr and twitter (and posterous).

Which lead to to this solution.

I will email photos of what I am eating to twitter [at] posterous [dot] com. Since my twitter goes to my facebook, thats covered. It keeps food photos out of my flickr and tumblr, which is perfect. I will send one email per day, even though it will be multiple photos. You can comment on my food selection on my posterous blog.

Then I will use those photos at the end of the day to update my food diary in DailyBurn.

Finally, I will take a picture of my weekly weigh-in as well.

What do you think? Good idea?

Published: September 7, 2009

Filed Under: fatblogging, Weight Loss

bwyman

Yeah, it's an awesome idea — if it works for you. I think half of the effort is just finding the thing that helps create a better awareness in you of what / when you're eating and the other half is dealing with that info.

At the end of the day, it' a numbers game. A pound of fat is 3500 calories and however you do that less than your required caloric intake is a pound lost. Want to lose a pound a week? Net 3500 calories less than your required weekly intake either through eating less / exercising more / some combination.

And, perhaps the other most important half (yeah, it's 3 halfs) is finding the thing that lets you stick with it over time. It took time to put on the weight, it's gonna take time to take it off.
http://learntoduck.com micah

Bruce, I would imagine that you and I are very similar in that we have tried
multiple things over the years, some being successful, some not so.
For me, I just need to get into the range where being active is fun again.
So, if it takes photographing my food, I will do just that…
bwyman

totally — I think that's what I'm trying to say. If you enjoy it and you keep at it, then do it.
http://twitter.com/jolieodell Jolie O'Dell

Very good idea! Nice post, Micah, and nice work figuring out the intricacies of Posterous email semantics.
http://theoneinpink.com Sarah

I think it’s a great idea. I watch this show on BBC called “You Are What You Eat” and the nutritionist makes the subjects record everything they eat for a week, then she lays it out on a table in front of them. It is astonishing. Plus, making your diet and weight public may motivate you to stick with it… my coworker and I were discussing a weight loss program that would require people to make their default Facebook photo themselves in a bathing suit. Every week/month you can upload a new one. Fear is one of the biggest motivators… aside from money, that is. But until you can find someone to pay you to lose weight, I think this is your best bet. Good luck. I am 100% behind you.
http://www.michaelgalpert.com michaelgalpert

i might join u in this adventure of food intake photographing / dailyburning. b4 i strt im going to eat a cinnabon
http://www.derekscruggs.com Derek Scruggs

I think it’s a good idea. When I started boot camp I took a photo of myself every day for the first 5-6 weeks. I’ve been meaning to post them on my blog…
http://learntoduck.com micah

eat what you want. Just photograph it.
http://learntoduck.com micah

eat what you want. Just photograph it.
dot tilde dot

drink plenty of water. it will increase the amount of energy you burn and support all the functions of your body you need to lose weight.

all the best,

.~.
dot tilde dot

drink plenty of water. it will increase the amount of energy you burn and support all the functions of your body you need to lose weight.

all the best,

.~.

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