Serious Eats
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 40: Yes, We Can!
I was hoping that two barriers would be broken though this week—the more important one of course was Barack Obama becoming the first African-American president we've ever had. Watching the election returns with friends Tuesday night, I have to admit I had tears streaming down my face at 11 p.m. Eastern time when CNN and others announced Obama had the requisite 270 electoral votes necessary to become our next president. My son, Will, called from college right then, and though he is just about as cool a customer as president-elect Obama, I thought I even heard a quiver in his voice.
The second barrier I hoped to break this week was seemingly much more mundane: my own personal 240 pound barrier.
I know in the larger scheme of things, breaking this barrier is not very important to many people. But it does really matter to me and the people in my life who would like me to be around long after Obama has served his two terms in office.
Here's the problem with these two barriers breaking at the same time. The election was both stressful and celebratory (at least for me), and those two conditions are not usually conducive to weight loss. Consider the week I had, after the jump.
On Monday, I hosted the ABC Benefit I posted about: New York chefs preparing many rich and delicious Thanksgiving dishes for a great cause. But I was careful and limited myself to a spoonful of Tom Valenti's soft polenta, which is more cream and butter than polenta and therefore a diet killer. I ate half of Thomas Keller's chocolate bouchons, and a single rib from Rack & Soul, one of the better New York barbecue joints. All evening the talk, of course, was about the election.
Yes, you can, Ed Levine. Yes, you can.
On election night, a friend had us up for grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, which my wife, Vicky, made from a recipe she found on Serious Eats. Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches made for perfect election night fare, and I tried to limit myself to a single sandwich. This soup was awesome, and luckily enough, there was also a great salad on the table. All in all, I thought I restrained myself pretty well given the high anxiety level at the party.
The day after the election, I wanted to bring something into the office to celebrate the outcome. I took the subway to the Doughnut Plant on New York's Lower East Side and ordered a dozen donuts: two peanut butter and jelly; two coconut cream; two roasted chestnut; two blackout doughnuts; two cranberry yeast doughnuts; and two tres leches beauties.
We nibbled on them all day. I only augmented the doughnuts with a cup of vegetarian mushroom bean soup. Did I limit my caloric intake by taking only small bites of various doughnuts? Who knows? I certainly didn't eat as many as I could have.
My daily weigh-ins during the week were not holding much promise. They had me fluctuating between 240 and 242. But when you're as focused as I currently am on losing weight, hope springs eternal. I knew I hadn't overeaten at any occasion, and that gave me cause to be optimistic. So here goes.
The Weigh-In
239. Yes, we can! Yes, we can!