"The best way for me to put the brakes on runaway holiday overeating is to keep a holiday eating diet scorecard."

Dim sum on Saturday. [Photograph: Robyn Lee]

If you like food as much as I do (and I presume many serious eaters feel the same way) then the holiday season is a source of great pleasure and great worry. Pleasure because there's so much seriously delicious food to be had between Thanksgiving and New Year's. And worry because there's a chance I will just pig out at every party and dinner this time of year and gain five or ten pounds as a result.

I'm confident I won't do that this year, thanks to the support I get from all of you in writing my diet post every week. Because I would feel embarrassed and humiliated that I had let all of you down. And because I decided to keep score during the holidays because keeping score always keeps me honest. Do any of you try diet scorekeeping during the holidays?

The best way for me to put the brakes on runaway holiday overeating is to keep a holiday eating diet scorecard. Laying out all the temptations that have come before me and how I have fared in dealing with those temptations should help me keep my worst impulses in check. So without further adieu, my holiday eating scorecard for the week.

Last Friday night I hosted a white truffle dinner cooked by Andrew Carmellini and Karen DeMasco of Locanda Verde that had been auctioned off for my favorite charity, the Association to Benefit Children. I was particularly touched that Andrew ended up doing the benefit dinner because he is right in the middle of trying to open his new restaurant The Dutch. I also have to mention that John Magazino of Primizie Foods generously donated the small mountain of white truffles we went though in the course of the evening.

The meal was insanely, ridiculously delicious: risotto balls with white truffles, two kinds of filled pasta topped by white truffles, Nantucket bay scallops with white truffles, A beef dish that featured short ribs, gorgeous dry-aged ribeye, and brussels sprouts, wheels of perfectly ripe Vacherin Mont D'or topped with white truffles, gingerbread birthday cake with lemon curd frosting.
Grade for the day: F for the diet, A for the serious deliciousness. How could any serious eater resist this meal?

Saturday I had dim sum with friends in Chinatown, always a dangerous diet move, but I tried to offset the deleterious effects by riding my bike to Chinatown. That's six miles each way. Saturday night I had dinner with good friends at a new restaurant run by someone I know well, so we were fed extra-well.
Grade for the day: C

Sunday I watched the Giants game, unbuttered popcorn in hand, before going to a party in Brooklyn Heights that featured much good food from the favored local restaurant Noodle Pudding. The short ribs called my name, and I responded, as did the foccacia. I think I did okay by practicing portion control, but you never know.
Grade for the day: B-

Monday was relatively uneventful except for the fact that Adam brought back cheese and sausage from Wisconsin and SE contributor Lucy Baker brought in lots of gingerbread for her taste-test. Oh yeah, Erin was conducting hot chocolate tastings.
Grade for the day: B

Tuesday's menu for a lunch meeting featured phenomenal turkey, mozzarella, and brown gravy heroes from Salumeria Biellese. These sandwiches vie with the Torrisi turkey sandwich as the best turkey sandwich not just in the city, but in the whole damn country.
Grade for the day: B-

Wednesday featured a comprehensive bread tasting with our new gifted Bread columnist, Andrew Coe. We tried a dozen breads from Eataly along with a half dozen from Sullivan Street Bakery. That night we had an incredible cheese and wine and beer pairing session with our cheese columnist Martin Johnson from the Bedford Cheese Shop. I didn't partake in the wine and beer, but I couldn't resist the ridiculously good cheese he brought. The Australian feta was life-changing.
Grade for the day: B

Thursday, Alaina brought her mother's incomparable peanut brittle in and Kenji conducted a holiday ham tasting. The peanut brittle's siren call was irresistible, though I did fare better with the ham. I only had two slices.
Grade for the day: B

Exercise Scorecard for the week: Two 45 minute sessions of squash and two six mile bike rides. Grade: B-

The Weigh-In

So how did I do? We'll see. Interim weigh-ins were reasonably promising but inconclusive. C'mon, Thinner. Help me out here. 222. Down a pound. The holiday eating diet scorecard worked, at least for this week. Stay tuned.