I’m an emotional eater if there ever was one, and a binge eater as well. The last thing I ever want to do is let people in to every little thing I’m eating.

But then I read Foodie’s blog.

First Foodie asked if you (general public ‘you’) would ever be willing to put what you eat on display. Keep a photo diary of your eats and show them to the world. Not feeling so great about everything I had been eating lately, I found the idea intriguing. Could I really let people in?

One of Foodie’s friends remarked that what you eat is private, and Foodie wondered if exposing what you eat is like exposing your privates (hence the title of this post).

Personally, I think what you eat is as private as you make it. Hanlie mentioned in the comments on the blog that she has been a sneaky eater in the past – so have I. I’ve felt the need to hide much of my eating, thus my eating has always been private. And usually unhealthy.

Foodie has stuck by her word and created What Foodie Eats, full of lovely fotos of food. (Was that clever letter stuff or just silly?)

I’ve decided to follow the lead and expose myself to the world for a while. I think it will help me, though in what ways I don’t yet know. Will it stop me from making bad choices? Will it help me with portion control? Will I get some oysters and disgust some people who don’t appreciate oysters’ deliciousness?

Who knows. No matter what, I knew this wouldn’t feel real to me unless I made a promise right here on the blog to myself and to you, the readers. Here goes…

I solemnly swear to you and myself that, from 12.01am Monday July 12th (+10 Time Zone) to 11.59pm Friday July 16th, I will take photographs of everything I put in my mouth. (The pictures will be taken before I put the stuff in my mouth, I promise.) Every food I consume will be captured on my digital camera.

I promise to try to put up the pictures of the day’s food intake every night before I go to bed. If I am unable to do so, I will put up the pictures as soon as I am able.

There will be no sneaking, cheating or otherwise tricking the camera. I acknowledge that to do so would be lying and would take away any benefits I hope to achieve from this project.

The challenge is a short one because not only will it be easier for me to stick to, it encompasses the times when I have the most problems (when I’m alone during the day). While I realize that just taking the photos will be enough to show some benefit, I want to put them up here as well. It’s an added layer of accountability that will give me more benefit, I think.

You’ll have to excuse all the photos that go up this week. If they start slowing down the loading time for the site, let me know and I’ll put them after the ‘read more’ tags. I’ll still have my usual posts up, so there will be more content than usual this week.

Here goes nothing…