I HAVE AN OBSESSION

I have a habit that drives some of my family and friends a little nuts: I take pictures of almost every meal I eat. While it might look like a strange obsession from the outside, I actually have a very practical reason for doing it.

About a year ago, following a hospital stay, a nurse suggested that I find a consistent way to track my daily food intake to ensure I stay within my recommended range of 1,600 to 2,000 calories. Instead of writing everything down by hand, I discovered a much easier method. I started taking a photo of my plate and uploading it to AI programs like Gemini or ChatGPT, asking for a calorie estimate.

Oatmeal, with blueberries and a drizzle of honey and cinnamon

To my surprise, I found the results to be incredibly accurate and fascinating.

The level of detail the technology can pick up is truly amazing. It doesn’t just look at the main course; it detects the dash of pepper on my food or the sprinkle of cinnamon on a dish. It even correctly identified that I had drizzled honey over my yogurt, and it can accurately estimate the amount of Ranch dressing on my salad.

This has been incredibly helpful. When I take a picture of a restaurant meal, the AI’s calorie count comes remarkably close to the official numbers listed on the menu. It has really opened my eyes to how much higher restaurant calories are compared to home-cooked meals, strictly due to the massive portion sizes we are served.

In preparing for this blog post, I spent some time looking back through a whole year’s worth of these food photos. Seeing them all lined up brought a couple of things to light. First, I realized I eat a lot of the same things over and over again—specifically eggs and sweet potatoes. I never really noticed how repetitive my diet was until I saw the visual proof. It made me realize that it might be time to start branching out and trying some new recipes.

I purposely avoid posting these pictures on social media because I know people would get tired of seeing my meals, and I’d feel a bit self-conscious about it. But today, I wanted to share just a few examples of my daily plates to show you how it works.

I would love to get some feedback from you. Do you ever take pictures of your meals, or do you have a specific way you like to track what you eat? What are some of your favorite go-to foods? Drop a comment below and let me know!