Photographing breakfast is a simple thing to do. Prepare whatever it is that we intend to eat. Grab a camera. Capture a few images. The interesting part of photographing breakfast comes afterwards when we examine our images. Documenting what we decide to eat gives us insights on the choices we make every day.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

Like many people, I’ve had periods in my life when I did not use all of the knowledge that I have in my brain about what contributes to good health.

Maintaining a healthy weight, or losing weight if needed, isn’t rocket science. We all know that eating nutritious food and exercising regularly are key. To lose weight we need to consume fewer calories than we burn.  Pretty simple stuff.

And yet we struggle. The reasons for that vary by individual. We may view certain foods as a reward. Perhaps specific foods have become medications for how we deal with stress in our lives.

What we choose to consume may be habitual patterns of behaviour. Snacking while watching television was one of my habits in the past. We may have a ‘weakness’ for certain types of consumption items. I know I would salivate every time I walked by the salty snacks at the grocery store.

My wife’s temptations are with sweets. I’ve never had a problem with walking past cakes and pastries with nary a twinge. We’re all different.

The various lock-downs and restrictions that we’ve faced due to COVID-19 have been difficult. They have also be extremely valuable as sources of self reflection and self understanding.

For me, some foods were reward items. Others were simply habits that developed over time. Becoming aware of these factors is the first step to eliminating them. It has been over a year since I bought a bag of potato chips. At first it was a monumental exercise in self-control. Now I don’t even think about it.

Earlier in the spring I wore out my current exercise bike. I did some research and bought a combination recumbent bike/rower. As a part of every day life it is something I use twice a day, regardless of any other exercise that I may also do. It’s in my office so I have no convenient excuse not to use it. Since I enjoy watching music videos I combine that with using my bike/rower.

I don’t have any kind of target weight, as in the past I’ve found these types of goals to be counterproductive. Instead I try to use the knowledge in my brain about how to live a healthy lifestyle. My weight will be whatever my body chooses it to be based on my behaviours… for which I hold myself fully accountable.

I still have some coffee in the morning… but I’ve been drinking it black for quite a while. Throughout my life I’ve never needed to take any medication on an ongoing basis. For being an old fogey approaching my 7th decade of life, my blood pressure is quite good. Yesterday it was 101/65/69. It was a bit better than that this morning.

Each of us can assess where we are at any given moment in our lives. Where we find ourselves today isn’t nearly as important as the choices we decide to make today. Those choices today create our futures. As the Grail Knight said in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade… “Choose wisely.” I hope we will all continue to meet here for many years to come… and be safe and healthy in the process.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured hand-held using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files using my standard process.

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