Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 26: Portland and San Francisco, We Have a Problem
I'm writing this from a hotel room in San Francisco, where my wife and I are wrapping up a six-day working vacation that included stops in Portland, Oregon; Bolinas, California; and San Francisco. Yesterday you read about my visit to the awesome Apizza Scholls in Portland. In the coming days I'll be sharing the results of my nonstop food forays in Portland, which included stops at the extraordinary Portland Farmers Market; a fantastic brunch at a catering company's kitchen that opens its doors on Sunday for breakfast; a visit to a very fine sausage-maker in the shadows of my brother's alma mater, Reed College; an early morning visit to a rock-and-roll doughnut emporium; and what might have been the most exciting restaurant meal I have had in years.
I ate all this in 36 hours in Portland. My two days in San Francisco have been even more food-packed. Portland and San Francisco, we have a problem. When I am food-exploring in places I don't often get to or I'm visiting for the first time, I launch into a manic, headlong dash to gluttonous, life-shortening oblivion.
I think to myself, What if I don't get to Portland again for a few years, and then all diet hell breaks loose. I try to just taste, to just eat a few bites at most of any one thing, but when you're eating 25 to 50 delicious things in a day, practicing portion control is an exercise in futility.
So I won't even tell you today, right now, about what I've eaten during my stay in San Francisco. I will tell you that the lovely Harbor Court Hotel (where we have a room overlooking San Francisco Bay) is only steps away from the Ferry Plaza Building, where there are more ways to get into diet trouble than any other building I know of in America. I will cop to delving into San Francisco's burgeoning ice cream culture in a four-hour blitz that included four stops.
Anyway, I know you think I'm copping out this morning, that I'm being a diet coward, but I'm not weighing in this morning. I didn't bring my scale, and though I could go next door to the beautiful YMCA and find one, I'm not going there.
There's nothing worse than letting a hungry man loose in one great food town, not to mention two. So you're just going to have to wait until next week, when I hope I will jump on the "everything in moderation" horse.
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11 Comments:
hehe Ed you have my symapthy and my envy! I do hope you ditched the diet long enough to include some awesome chocolate ;-) as long as you dont have to go buy new "fat pants" for the trip home, you done good!
huneybumper at 9:00AM on 07/25/08
I spent a week in San Francisco, enjoying all that the American food capital had to offer. But I didn't gain an ounce, because walking (climbing!) in San Francisco is better exercise than walking in any other city. Is there still time to do some climbing before you go?
juliec at 9:21AM on 07/25/08
Stand on a street corner and compare yourself to all the fatter people you see. You'll feel downright slim.
Once you get home, stand on a street corner and compare yourself to all the slim people you see, and get back on your diet. ;-)
PerkyMac at 10:18AM on 07/25/08
You could go next to door to the beautiful YMCA to exercise. It would make you feel better about yourself, and you just might work off some of the stuff you ate.
simon at 10:25AM on 07/25/08
Ed, let me know the next time you're in town and I'll take you to my favorite neighborhood restaurant, right after we visit my favorite local gym. Can't wait to read your reviews from SF.
Harold Check at 11:26AM on 07/25/08
Whenever I'm traveling and know I'm in a town where I'll want to do a lot of eating, I scope out the gym scene - ask the hotel people downstairs where I could go to work out. If you've got a Y next door, use it! (And don't even worry about the scale). If no gyms are around or their one time use prices are too much, I'll make the time for a morning run or make sure we're getting a lot of walking in during the trip. If losing (or at least not gaining) weight is really important to you you're gonna have to sacrifice a little. If you don't want to skimp on the food, that's totally understandable, but you might have to wake up a bit earlier to get in some exercise and make up for it.
sarahlucy at 11:33AM on 07/25/08
I worked out once in Portland, and went on a really strenuous uphill hike in Bolinas, but I never made it to the Y next door in SF, which I really regret.
Today I jumped right back into really watching what I eat. And I biked down to SE World HQ.
Ed Levine at 12:56PM on 07/25/08
Good for you Ed! sometimes the hardest thing in the world is getting back into the swing. Don't beat yourself up, I doubt any but the super fitness buffs would have worked out either, I would have used that time to eat ;-)
huneybumper at 9:32PM on 07/25/08
Where did you eat your "most exciting meal in years"? As a Portlander, I'm curious.
PestoGal at 2:09PM on 08/01/08
I'm curious, too! Will you have a writeup of your Portland stops?
wrighteats at 7:07PM on 08/10/08
also curious about portland! as well as the details of your 4 hour ice cream blitz in san francisco.
skim at 3:37PM on 08/20/08