Ed Levine's Serious Diet Week 10: The Zen of Eating Half
I was blown away by all the supportive comments on yesterday's post. For me, it really does help to be in this together with like-minded folks. Hillary Clinton famously said, "It takes a village" to raise a child. Maybe it takes a community of serious eaters to help some of us find an equilibrium when it comes to living/dieting.
Joy Manning, Serious Eats' Philadelphia correspondent, said a couple of things in her comment that have stayed with me:
One thing I thought was missing is the idea that the foods you eat don't make you fat—overeating makes you fat. As a someone who eats for a living, I've gotten pretty good at pushing things away. (Well, most of the time.) I also keep Anton Ego's memorable line from Ratatouille in mind: "I don't like food, I love it. If I don't love it, I don't swallow." It's a useful mantra!
This resonated with me, because I have redoubled my efforts to eat half (or even less) of what's put down in front of me. This past week was a zen exercise in eating half.
Coming off the week in Portugal and Spain, I really wanted to get back into the groove, eating-wise. Then fate intervened to make it a little more difficult. I strained my hamstring playing squash last Wednesday, so I haven't been able to exercise all week.
The inability to work out made my portion-control mantra even more crucial to succeeding on my program. Of course I had lunch dates at serious restaurants Monday and Wednesday and a television shoot about Todd English's pizza on Tuesday. Ah, the gauntlet that is my life. Oh yeah, I had also made a date to eat one of my favorite burgers in New York City last Thursday.
The burger challenge was last Thursday. Bill Telepan's burger at Telepan comes with killer fries, onion rings that would be just as killer if they were a little crunchier and more brown, and some house-made bread and butter pickles.
My dining companion started with salad, so I did, too (a beet and goat cheese salad). I carefully cut the perfect, delicious burger in half, moved half the fries and onion rings over to the other side of the plate. I ate the half burger along with a few fries and onion rings. I had two bites of apple fritter for dessert. I told my lunch companion that I was going to have the rest of the burger and fries wrapped up for my son, which would have been true if my son hadn't already gone back to college that morning. Ah, the lies I tell myself in the name of good food. I then decided I would take the leftover burger and fries home for Vicky's dinner. On the way home after work I couldn't resist opening the burger container. I threw the leftover burger and fries out, disgusted with myself for my lack of self-control.
I think I did OK eating Todd English's light, crisp pizza during the interview, but it's hard to know given how much I love pizza (enough to write an entire book on the subject). Why doesn't somebody invent a machine that tells you how many calories you're eating as you consume them? Memo to Steve Jobs: Get on that, right away!
Dinner with an out-of-town friend was at a new restaurant owned by a chef who lives in my neighborhood. I ordered two appetizers and gave half of each to my thankfully famished friend. The kitchen sent out one extra dish of dover sole with cauliflower purée. Sounds kind of innocent, doesn't it, until I realized the amount of butter that went into the dish. I didn't want to be disrespectful to the chef, so I had a couple of bites before sliding it over to my pal's side of the table.
Yesterday I had a business lunch at a really good restaurant where I successfully resisted the bread basket entirely, ate half my lasagna and a salad, and had two bites of a delicious cara cara orange almond cake with ricotta ice cream for dessert. Dinner was the leftover lasagna, which thankfully was not made with a béchamel sauce.
So where I am going to net out this week? I have no idea. I hope the lack of exercise doesn't cost me. Time to hit the scale: Yes! Yes! Yes! I'm down another pound. I have now lost nine pounds with the much-needed help of the Serious Eats community. Maybe it really does take a website.
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11 Comments:
Ed, you continue to rock. Congratulations on 9 pounds lost.
This week, I am down 1lb, for a total of 3. I have made an effort to eat more slowly and appreciate the textures of the food. I'm also working at looking at what I'm eating. I always pay attention to the better meals, but the functional meals need attention, too. Did you know that it is possible to eat your cereal and banana breakfast in front of the computer without ever actually seeing it? Scary.
In the coming week, my plan is to drink less beer and get some exercise. Operational definitions: in the next 7 days I will drink no more than 4 servings of beer, and will walk an additional 3 hours.
Kerosena at 10:15AM on 03/20/08
Hope your hamstring heals soon. I hurt my IT band (hip) last summer from running, so I started swimming a lot to rehab the injury and maintain fitness. If you have indoor pool access, swimming could do the same for you, too. Best of luck!
Susquehanna at 10:22AM on 03/20/08
HOORAY!!!! Even with the hurt hamstring you are proving you can do it! Keep up the GREAT work! As always you make us proud!
huney_bumper at 12:35PM on 03/20/08
Ed,
My latest effort to break your diet can be found here: http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2008/03/deadly-reuben.html
Gastronomically yours,
Kevin
Kevin at 1:47PM on 03/20/08
Great job, Ed. Dieting is hard work.
One option to consider--if you haven't already--is a site called Fitday. You can use it to track calories taken in and calories expended. I found that it made me much, much more aware of what I was eating, and helped create a sense of accountability--if I eat this piece of cake, I'll have to enter in in Fitday. I lost thirty pounds in two months, and it's stayed off, because I'm now much more conscious of calorie content.
Anyway, best of luck!
impeh at 2:20PM on 03/20/08
@Impeh: Had to respond to your exceptional feat of losing thirty pounds in two months. That's 3.75 pounds per week! Wow. I'm not familiar with Fitday, but it sounds a lot like the website I used, called SPARKPEOPLE. Just like WeightWatchers Online -- tracking food intake and exercise -- but free. That site helped me drop seventeen pounds in three months.
Susquehanna at 3:49PM on 03/20/08
Congrats, Ed! I think it really does take a lot of willpower to push food way when you eat out. If I know I can't take it home, I feel pressed to finish my plate because I don't like the thought of waste. I really wish restaurants would get into the habit of cutting down quantities, though I think that would carry cost implications that I don't have the answer to.
OneWallKitchen at 4:01PM on 03/20/08
Nine pounds is great! Eat in moderation; lose weight in moderation. Steady as he goes, you know?
As further encouragement for those times when you're beating yourself up for not exercising enough: I'm always amazed by how much difference is made by even the smallest amount of exercise. I do 15 minutes of simple strength-training three times a week (lunges, squats, and a couple of Pilates core-strengthening exercises) and it helps immensely. I mean, sure, it'd be great if we all did cardio for 45 minutes 5 times a week and 30 minutes of strengh-training 3 times a week, but there's nothing wrong with just doing what you can.
sarahbeam at 9:35AM on 03/21/08
Ed,
Way to go. I've been away for a bit as well, so I'll skip the weeklies and go straight for the overall: I'm down 16.5lb in 9 weeks. Back to weekly numbers next week.
daveinfred at 11:36PM on 03/21/08
Hey,
I have been a reader off serious eats since it's inception. As the readership of this blog has grown so has my waistline. My recent move to Texas hasn't helped anything, now that I can just get in a car and drive everywhere. It got very bad lately with a lovely potbelly, I got lasik on Thursday, and promised myself that if I was going to blow 3 grand on vanity, then I will actually look good.
Now that I can see, diet starts now. I am reading your back columns on this subject for tips.
SkinnyFatty at 6:03PM on 03/24/08
Congratulations on being able to box up half of a delicious meal. I don't know how you do it. I'm going to go on the record here with the only diet that's worked for me, even though everyone will attack me for it: being hungry for a bit of time each day, but having a really good meal during the "not hungry" part of the day.
My thinking goes like this: the concept of modern nutrition came about in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. This timing corresponds with everyone becoming fatter, less healthy and more tired. Clearly what they are telling us to do does not work.
Why would the body burn fat when it isn't hungry? I know what they say about eating five times a day leading to weight loss, but it's illogical at a basic level, at least to me - and I admit being pretty twisted now and then.
So, now I go out and have a great, massive lunch - usually a soup and a large entree, and desert, and then have at most a few pistachios nuts or a piece of bread (and plenty of fluids) to hold me over the rest of the day. By the time I'm going to sleep, I'm becoming a bit hungry. While I'm off in dreamland being assaulted by my peers and mentors, my body is burning its stored fat reserves.
I started to lose weight with this almost immediately. I can see the result when I cheat and get back on the program within one to three days. I feel better than I have in years, and my self esteem has taken a huge boost. If anyone out there is feeling adventurous, try it out for a week. You've got nothing to lose.
p.s. Nice site Ed. It seems really well put together in the little details. You may remember my name: we worked together in the late 90s on a web project similar to this that fizzled.
tlack at 2:29AM on 03/25/08