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Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 46: Holiday Gauntlet Report Card

Posted by Ed Levine, December 19, 2008 at 8:55 AM

"As Albert King sang in one of my favorite blues lyrics, 'Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die'."

The holiday party food gauntlet is a rough one. How many mini-sliders can one serious eater resist? How many slices of good, really good pizza go uneaten? How many pieces of slow-cooked beef cooked in lard can a man turn down? The answer after the jump, complete with a bite by bite breakdown of the past week.

The holiday week from diet hell started last Friday. My friend Liz's idea of festive holiday fare is unlimited amounts of pigs in blankets, Jeno pizza rolls, and hundreds of slices of dried sausage, cheese, and pepperoni. This year, in my honor she added tater tots to her menu. I ended up eating two tater tots (just to be polite) along with one pig in a blanket chaser. Temptation Resistance Grade: A-

I got a brief respite on Saturday before the party winds grew to gale force on Sunday.

The first party on Sunday featured slices of rare prime rib, 15 fancypants passarounds, and a cookie and candy bar that I had to pass through to leave. The one good thing about this party is I ended up being so late to the next party most of the meatballs and holiday cookies were gone by the time I got there.
Temptation Resistance Grade for the entire evening: B+

Monday, Robyn and I went to the Sullivan Street Bakery and bought sixty dollars worth of food to sample for a future review. Who knew that an Italian bread baker could make such buttery, perfect apple turnovers?
Temptation Resistance Grade: B-

Tuesday was the Serious Eats bowling holiday party. You may have read about the delicious pizza from Fornino, but Erin neglected to mention the mighty fine cheeseburgers and fries we had as appetizers from Williamsburger. I even had one beer at the lanes, an extremely rare occurrence for me.
Temptation Resistance Grade: B

On Wednesday, Adam, Nick, Robyn and I visited City Burger, where they are serving the mighty fine Black Label burgers. We also ordered a regular cheeseburger there along with an order of fries, and a shake. I ate half a six ounce Black Label cheeseburger, two or three fries, and one sip of shake.
Temptation Resistance Grade: B+

Thursday, we had dinner at a friend's house. She promised special victuals and boy did she deliver. Ridiculously tender and seriously delicious slow-cooked beef that had been cooked with many pork products, beans, brussels sprouts with hazelnuts, salad, and a Balthazar Bakery coconut cake. I put a little of each savory dish on my plate and took a bite of Vicky's coconut cake.
Temptation Resistance Grade: B

But you know what? I'm really proud of not using the holidays as an excuse to pig out, because that's the same kind of cop-out I have indulged myself in for years. I desperately want to lose weight, but I don't want to eat less during the holiday season. As Albert King sang in one of my favorite blues lyrics, "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die."

I'm sure I ate a little more than I should have this past week, but it could have and should have been much worse. But the proof is about to be on the scale. We'll see how accurate my self-grading has been.

The Weigh-In

234. Down two pounds for the week. I'll give myself an "A" for losing weight in a holiday party-filled week. Albert King, I hear ya.

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Tags: diets, Ed Levine's Serious Diet, health, holidays