{"id":85863,"date":"2013-02-27T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=85863"},"modified":"2013-02-25T23:01:59","modified_gmt":"2013-02-26T04:01:59","slug":"goalvator-app-creator-jason-swenk-lost-50-pounds-by-photographing-his-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/02\/goalvator-app-creator-jason-swenk-lost-50-pounds-by-photographing-his-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Goalvator App Creator Jason Swenk Lost 50 Pounds By Photographing His Food"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Call it tedious, but it worked. Jason Swenk, 35, of Atlanta, Georgia lost 50 pounds by doing nothing more than taking pictures of his food. The process started after Jason saw a considerable weight gain once graduating college and getting an office job.<\/p>\n<p>Though he&#8217;d always exercised and stayed active, Jason admitted he was filling up on the wrong kinds of foods, relying on whatever was &#8220;<strong><a title=\"the fast food habits of men\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/06\/the-fast-food-habits-of-men\/\">fast and easy<\/a><\/strong>.&#8221; This led him to reach his highest weight of nearly 260 pounds.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/02\/goalvator-app-creator-jason-swenk-lost-50-pounds-by-photographing-his-food\/jason-swenk-before-and-after\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-85899\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-85899\" title=\"jason-swenk-before-and-after\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/jason-swenk-before-and-after.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/jason-swenk-before-and-after.jpg 600w, https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/jason-swenk-before-and-after-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But when he recognized his habits were causing a <strong><a title=\"fast food affects our moods\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/05\/fast-food-changes-mood-and-behavior\/\">change in his energy levels<\/a><\/strong>, always leaving him feeling tired and moody, Jason knew it was time for a change. &#8220;I also wanted to make sure I could be active and live a long life with my kids,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>To lose the weight, Jason started <strong><a title=\"food porn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/the-perils-of-food-porn-how-lustful-food-photos-affect-our-appetites\/\">taking pictures of everything he ate<\/a><\/strong> and then recording how he felt hours later. The act of taking pictures of his food spurred an &#8220;ah-ha&#8221; moment that led Jason to approach dieting differently. &#8220;One night I went back to keep snacking and kept taking pictures of everything and it clicked,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I was eating so much food and from then on, it changed.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Jason&#8217;s new diet approach paid off and he lost more than 50 pounds. This surprising success eventually inspired Jason to create a mobile app modeled after his approach, which he named Goalvator. He wanted to help others lose weight as effectively as he did.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/02\/goalvator-app-creator-jason-swenk-lost-50-pounds-by-photographing-his-food\/goalvator-app\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-85874\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-85874\" title=\"goalvator app\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/goalvator-app.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"385\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"goalvator\" href=\"http:\/\/www.goalvator.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Goalvator<\/a><\/strong> is a free app that allows users to take pictures of everything they eat, share their photos with friends, and most importantly, track how their food makes them feel afterwards. Jason believes this vital step helps users make the connection between food and how it affects our mood.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It allowed me to get a visualization of everything I ate. It also reminded me to share how I felt a couple hours later,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>For Jason, it wasn&#8217;t about losing weight, but rather, feeling \u00a0better. Along the way he discovered food was a major factor to improving his energy levels and mood, and he just happened to lose weight \u00a0in the process.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout his weight loss journey, Jason considers his biggest personal triumph to be when he finally discovered which foods gave him energy and ultimately, life.<\/p>\n<p>Besides losing the last few pounds to reach his ultimate goal weight of 200 pounds, Jason simply hopes to maintain his weight loss and continue tracking everything he eats.<\/p>\n<p>One piece of advice Jason offers to those struggling to lose weight? &#8220;<strong><a title=\"food journaling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/01\/food-journals-key-to-weight-loss\/\">Food journals<\/a><\/strong> are amazing, but you need to track how you feel related to your activity to make corrections to what is not working and keep repeating what works.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/slideshows\/true-weight-loss-stories\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/media\/slideshow_images\/true-weight-loss-stories\/TRLS-slideshow-player.jpg\" alt=\"View True Weight Loss Stories Slideshow\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Also Read:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"pocket yoga app\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/09\/pocket-yoga-builder-app-lets-your-share-and-customize-your-practice\/\">Pocket Yoga App Lets you Customize and Share Your Practice<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"fast food formula\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/01\/fast-food-formula-is-bad-news-for-students\/\">Fast Food Formula is Bad For Students<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"cardiio app monitors heart rate\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/08\/cardiio-mobile-app-monitors-heart-rate-with-a-quick-scan-of-the-face\/\">Cardiio App Monitors Heart Rate with Quick Scan of the Face<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Call it tedious, but it worked. Jason Swenk, 35, of Atlanta, Georgia lost 50 pounds by doing nothing more than taking pictures of his food. The process started after Jason saw a considerable weight gain once graduating college and getting &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/02\/goalvator-app-creator-jason-swenk-lost-50-pounds-by-photographing-his-food\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3687,3695,93],"tags":[776,9557,74],"class_list":["post-85863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adult-health","category-diet-and-nutrition","category-mens-health","tag-food-journal","tag-mobile-apps","tag-weight-loss"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85863"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85902,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85863\/revisions\/85902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}