Why photographing your food can help you to lose weight

Diet - the forbidden word. Because actually, everything you eat and every time you eat it is your "diet".  The dictionary definition of diet is "the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats" so that covers your three times too large bowl of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, your apple in the company of children and your vodka, lime and soda in the company of adults or no one.

And that is why you are not on a "diet" even if you are trying to lose weight.  You are changing your diet of course, or even changing your way of life (better) in order to lose weight. You are also "cutting out the crap" for want of a better phrase.  And this, however you want to label it, is hard work.

One thing I have recently discovered on my journey with WW, other than having like-minded people who fully understand what you are going through (and why it's so important to have bad days along with the good in terms of eating healthy), is to share what you're eating.  You're making yourself accountable to a whole new group of people looking for ideas and inspirations. And if you can be that person to post a picture of your salad, then you could be the one who has helped them to lose a pound this week.  And then, knowing that you've helped someone else with your photo, surely that would encourage you to help yourself.  Hence, my new trend for posting pictures of salads on my social media accounts.

The other benefit of this is that you have to think about what you're photographing.  No one really wants to see a bit of lettuce next to half a piece of chicken, that's not very exciting, but once you "throw" on your jewels of pomegranates, colourful carrots and a variety of green from your leaves, asparagus etc. you start to create a piece of art.  Art is attractive and enticing, whether you agree with it or not, if it catches your eye then you have noticed it. And if you notice it then you might look deeper into it.

As the creator of food art, you might then realise that the extra two minutes it took to put together the colour on your plate actually makes it much tastier, much more enjoyable as you sit down to eat the masterpiece before you.

Make yourself aware of the colours you have used, the different textures, and appreciate how once combined they actually make a great meal.  Then show it off to everyone else, and inspire them to do the same. In the same way that you might choose a meal from a photographed menu (especially on the beach on holiday) or a recipe book. You've gotta admit, it's much easier deciding a recipe based on a picture rather than the one created in your head when you've mentally put the ingredients together.

I have predominantly been photographing salad, as my evening meals might currently be a bit on the beige side (loving chicken and potatoes at the moment) but I'm working on that, and you never know, this might lead to my new enterprise of photographing my amazing salads and then selling them to auction houses and galleries for zillions of pounds.