Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 16: The Tale of the Scale
I have a love-hate relationship with my scale. Check that. Actually, I have a hate-hate relationship with it. Every diet book and diet plan addresses the role the scale should or does play in your life as a dieter. At Weight Watchers, each member weighs in once a week. Other diet plans say don't worry about the scale, measure your progress in inches with a tailor's tape measure or by repeatedly trying on an article of clothing.
The point is that whatever role we assign to our scale, it looms large in a dieter's life. We want it to be our friend, to be the bearer of good news. I also use my scale (right), a sleek, trim black number with an actual name, Thinner, as a governor. If I have a bad diet day or two, I climb on Thinner to acknowledge the adverse effect those bad days are having on my diet. If Thinner tells me I've gained a pound or two I can then redouble my efforts to lose weight in the ensuing days.
But sometimes, when I've gone off the deep (or should I say "heavy") end, I can't screw up the courage to get on the scale. That's when my relationship with Thinner gets particularly complicated—or freighted, to use a bad pun.
Scale Avoidance
Saturday I went to a party where Mary Pat Walsh, a first-class cook and film producer whose food I had heard about but never tried, put out a particularly delicious spread: pieces of moist, succulent chicken with beautiful burnished brown skin, the first local asparagus of the season, a fregola salad, and here's the killer, oatmeal-raisin cookies and chocolate cookies that she served warm.
I don't know about you, but I find warm cookies of any kind impossible to resist. Mary Pat sent around platter after platter of these absolutely wonderful cookies that called out for an ice-cold milk chaser (I resisted). I had one of each kind (they were small, about the size of a raised silver dollar), but I knew right then and there that I was not going to be able to bring myself to get on Thinner on Sunday.
Sunday I decided to conduct my breakfast sandwich taste test, and that spooked me into not getting on the scale on Monday.
Monday I actually had two business lunch dates, and I decided to conduct a brownie taste test in the office (results to follow), so I avoided Thinner like the plague on Tuesday.
Tuesday I played squash (actually I also played Thursday), and my heart rate monitor indicated that I burned 500 calories chasing that little black ball.
Wednesday I had a business lunch at Del Posto, which was stupendous (have the spinach pasta with Bolognese sauce and the gnocchi), so a visit to the scale was out of the question on Thursday.
Yesterday I went to a new French restaurant in New York I was curious about for any number of reasons. I had the vegetables en cocotte as an appetizer and the roast chicken for my main course. I'm sure a more disciplined serious eater would have removed the chicken's crisp skin, but there was no way I was not going to eat the best part of what was otherwise an ordinary bird with dry white meat. I'm going to be writing about this restaurant, so I had to have at least one dessert. I shared a tarte tatin that was accompanied by a moat of crème fraîche.
Facing the Music
That meal takes us to this morning, when I have no excuses, when I have to face the serious eaters and Thinner. C'mon, my sleek black machine, be my friend. Don't make me have to knock you around my bathroom floor. If you give me good news, Thinner, I promise never to talk trash or get physical with you again.
I remained even for the week. My Thinner avoidance didn't end up costing me. I'll let you live, Thinner. Just don't get smart with me, or I might have to replace you with a doctor's scale.
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9 Comments:
i'm really impressed with your continued ability to be vigilant about what you eat in the face of so much temptation. i encourage you to find a way to exercise every day -- a combination of weightlifting and cardio, preferably interval training. i can't tell you what a significant effect a daily visit to the gym has had on my appearance and my health in the past four years.
can you find a gym buddy?
cybercita at 9:23AM on 05/02/08
i do the same thing (avoiding the scale). two nights ago, we went to visit a friend who's recently gotten an exec chef job at a place near us. he kept sending out plate after plate of food. it was hard to say no, and especially hard when he sent out a warm carrot cake (like you, Ed, warm cookies/cakes make me happy). yesterday morning i avoided the scale, i even avoided looking at it because it would make me feel guiltier.
but you did good! breaking even, even after indulging (a bit). and it's good that you kept exercising too. good job!
french tart at 9:26AM on 05/02/08
Ed you should be happy with yourself and Thinner!! After the last 2 weeks that you've written about, I would have gained 10 lbs minimum. You have shown alot of restraint and should be very proud of yourself! The best part is, you've eaten foods you like without gaining, which shows that when you've lost the weight you want to lose, you'll be able to maintain which is always the hardest part. Be proud Ed!! And as an aside, I lost 3 lbs this week, which means i'm back below 100lbs, so if you want to send me any extra weight I'd be happy to take it ;)
huney_bumper at 10:00AM on 05/02/08
You're doing wonderfully and I admire that! Mazel Tov!
I can't help but wonder however, if you named your scale after that really creepy Stephen King (Richard Bachman) book of the same name! If so, I hope you have a healthier outcome!!
RichardCrystal at 10:16AM on 05/02/08
I'm going to keep asking: What's your TOTAL count? How much are you down from your starting weight? I think after 16 weeks we've all lost track.
Adam Kuban at 10:50AM on 05/02/08
I love the name of your scale. I have a vintage model: a light pink number called "The Counselor." She keeps me honest too.
m0pngl0w at 11:22AM on 05/02/08
I realized that when I was at my best weight I drank Coke and smoked cigarettes instead of eating. Now I cannot drink the new coke with corn syrup and nobody smokes. What to do what to do?
JerzeeTomato at 2:02AM on 05/03/08
Love those photos!
There are, of course, those other friends of the weight vigilant: your clothes. How comfortable are they? Have you needed to loosen your belt?
And those other favourites: have you had to take indigestion remedies or eaten so much you need to sleep it off?
Hypnobird at 4:22AM on 05/05/08
Ed, methinks the subtext of your typical diet update is a little troubling. You extol the many virtues of the foods that make your diet difficult, and you minimize the behaviors that will, literally, balance the scales. Remember that your writing is both of reflection and a determiner of your mindset. Perhaps you should try to give some column inches to the joy of those squash games, or the joy of taking the skin off the chicken and seeing repeated losses on the scale. As long as food = good, scale = bad, exercise = meh, I think you're going to find lifelong weight maintenance even more difficult than it inevitably is. It's not an easy task for a food writer, I know. Good luck this coming week.
Harold Check at 1:33PM on 05/05/08