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Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 21: I Hope My Reviews Won't Prove Too Costly

Posted by Ed Levine, June 6, 2008 at 8:45 AM

Don't get me wrong, I love reviewing restaurants. It's a dream job, really, but for someone like me, who loves food but puts on weight easily, it can pose all sorts of problems. Just tasting something and pushing it away because there's so much other food coming is incredibly difficult to do, especially if that something is seriously delicious.

How am I going to write a restaurant review every week and continue to watch my weight? That's the zillion dollar question.

Now that I've been doing it for a month I can see that this is not going to be easy, serious eaters.

These are the tactics I have been employing:

• Eat a reasonably substantial breakfast every day. That way I am not starving until lunchtime
• I try to eat at least one banana a day. They're filling, nutritious, and when they're perfectly ripe they are nature's gift to healthy, creamy, sweet deliciousness
• Bring people with big appetites with me. Let them do the heavy eating, or should I say lifting
• Limit my bread and butter intake. That's hard to do, particularly at a place like Scarpetta, where the bread basket is so great
• On days when I'm not on reviewing duty eat lots of fruits and vegetables
• Limit my empty caloric intake. That means no chips, no cheap cookies, and no generic candy bars
• Eat bialys instead of bagels. They have far fewer calories and need much less cream cheese
• Make a point to tell my dining companions that I am trying to watch my weight. That puts them and me on notice

I have followed most of these tenets this week, but the bread basket at Scarpetta, which I reviewed this week was a killer. I figure every week I'm going to have some trouble following at least one or two of these.

Any other advice from other serious eaters would be most appreciated. In the meantime, it's time to jump on the scale. Yes! I'm down a pound for the week and eight pounds in all. Maybe this reviewing gig won't be as disastrous as I thought.

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