Friday, January 29, 2010

The Twitpic Dinner Challenge - #i8this

(Photographic evidence of me going into a Dairy Queen during the Ride of Truth? It can't be!!!)

Talk about being held accountable! I can't imagine how people are going to respond to this challenge. It may be quite the eye opening experience to share a picture of your dinner with hundreds of your closest friends, every night, for an entire week! Will people eat differently than they normally do? Will they make some extra efforts on the preparation and presentation of their meals? (I know I will). I also think lots of the participants will have a lot of fun with this and will ultimately learn new things about their dietary approach. You'll be able to see how others are eating, share ideas, and discuss your choices.

This all started when I realized I was clicking (with interest) on @TexasDevin's dinner pics that he tweeted for a few nights. He's happy with his healthy diet and excited to share, while I'm inspired by seeing the healthy choices he's making. That got me thinking, what if a bunch of people did this at once? Pretty cool.

The responses were huge! I got more than 23 tweets @ me with only one mention of the idea. All in one night! Now I'm going to make a bigger announcement to get more people. We'll start on Monday, February 1st and keep it going through Sunday, February 7th. This is perfect timing for me because with my upcoming 3 weeks of training in Spain at Strong Like Bull I had planned to eat super clean to get myself ready. I now have the weekend to plan some meals and do some shopping. I know I won't eat all of my dinners at home in a week so you'll even get to see pics of how I order in a restaurant... I wonder if that will make me choose differently?!

When I work with clients I ask them to keep a temporary food diary as an exercise to look for food sensitivities, healthy and unhealthy habits, etc. One thing that people notice is that being held accountable leads to much fewer unhealthy food choices. For example, "If I have a handful of Doritos I'm going to have to log that". This is going to be an EXTREME food journaling experience! Eeeek!

The #i8this Rulez

  • 1. Tweet a pic of one meal per day (breakfast, lunch or dinner)
  • 2. Include a brief description of what it is
  • 3. Add the hash tag #i8this to your post so we can track them in one place
I'm going to blog about the challenge when its over. For other bloggers out there, it would be awesome if you share a link with me to your story so I can mention it in my post.

Lastly, for anyone who tweets #i8this for ALL 7 DAYS I'll add your name to a drawing on February 8th to win a free month of health counseling with me. I know, sounds crazy, right?

8 comments:

Meredith Brooks said...

I'm excited about this challenge - thanks for putting it together! Although I have to say up front that I can't be held accountable for what I eat on Super Bowl Sunday!

I guess that's what this is all about though. = )

Tammy said...

I've been doing this for weeks on Facebook! Great idea. Since you aren't one of my FB friends, I can't accuse you of stealing my idea ;)

HolisticGuru said...

M.

I didn't even think of Super Bowl Sunday! I guess it'll be a lesson in moderation. But this isn't a healthy eating challenge, remember that... I'm gonna purposefully have a less healthy meal or two just because I believe it's important not to be too strict :)

So, loaded nachos and beer next Sunday???

HolisticGuru said...

Coach Tammy,

It's awesome that you've been doing this already! It wouldn't be a stolen idea anyway... I see us more like partners in spreading healthy habits :)

lost78 said...

I have to admit that I've been snappin pics of my meals for a while, but more to remember the great meals or a great touch on a fancy dish. One tip I'd offer is find bright light and keep it behind you if you want to make your food look tasty.

Musing Runner said...

So cool! I can't wait. Maybe I need new dishes, better lighting in my kitchen, and some sexy napkins... Does this avacado make my salad look fat?

Amy (2for1) said...

Okay, I need to do this. If only to make me go back to eating better again. I'm in!

Molly said...

Man I totally missed out on this. I saw that you were preparing for it, it looked fun, and I tweet/fb my food all the time, but this week and last have been covered in work (day, nights - no sleep - bad diet - no exercise). Blah. I need a kick in the pants. :) great photos of the above food prep and stuff. way to do a fun thing with social food sharing. ahha.