[Flickr: anujraj]

After 182 weeks of sharing the highs and lows of trying to get a handle on my weight as a serious eater, I need a break from this column. This column has changed my life and my weight. Every time I see someone who hasn't seen me in a few years and they comment on how good I look, I realize what a force of good this column has been.

It has literally changed my life for the better in more ways than I even realize at the moment.

So I'm taking the rest of August off with the idea that I will use this month-long hiatus to recharge, rethink, and retool the column. I'm thinking the column could, among other things, tell the story of other serious eaters who have successfully embarked on their own caloric journey.

It could be a blogger, chef, restaurant critic or a mixologist or any member of the SE community who wants to share how they balance their love of food while leading a healthy life.

The column could even take different forms. It could involve a recipe, a photo, an illustration, or something else I haven't even thought of yet.

So I'll be back, and in the meantime you'll be hearing from me elsewhere on Serious Eats. See you in September.

[Flickr: Bonita Sarita]

Although I wouldn't wish what I have gone through this week on anyone, I have to say that five visits to a dentist in four days is certainly an effective caloric journey enhancer.

My teeth and gums had been hurting all last week, but I certainly wasn't going to go to the dentist before the Sandwich Fest. I didn't eat much there anyway, but not because of my sandwich fest planning. I was just too busy.

But by last Sunday my mouth was killing me, so I went to the dentist on Monday. I told him the roof of my mouth was swollen, especially on my right side. He gave that side of my mouth an ultrasonic cleaning. He told me to eat soft food, chew on the left side, and try to limit myself to room temperature foods. I had hummus and pita bread for dinner.

It hurt even worse on Tuesday, so I went back to the dentist Tuesday afternoon. I told him my lower right teeth were also hurting. He took some more x-rays and sent me on my way. I even stayed home from HQ on Tuesday. I wasn't taking any chances, so I ate very little on Tuesday. I mostly drank room temperature water.

My mouth hurt all through Wednesday, when my dentist's office was closed so that the whole crew could go to a seminar (I hope it was on patient pain management). It hurt so much at that point that I ate very little that day, because I didn't want to irritate the inflamed area by chewing or even drinking.

But all this didn't prepare me for Thursday.

I went back to the dentist for a third time on Thursday morning. He examined me yet again, and finally noticed that one tooth on the upper right side of my mouth was so sensitive he thought it might be an abscess that demanded treatment by a specialist, a root canal specialist.

I went directly from the dentist to the specialist (that would be four visits to the dentist to those of you interested in counting). He examined me and took some very fancy and expensive 3D x-rays (think Avatar for teeth), and determined that I indeed needed a root canal procedure on the damaged tooth.

His assistant told me to come back at 2:45 (visit number five) for the procedure. She also went out of her way to tell me to have a good, substantial lunch in the interim because I was only going to be able to eat liquids for the two days following the root canal procedure.

I had half a BLT from 'wichcraft, which would have been perfect with two more slices of bacon, corn salad with pesto, and a seriously delicious mixed berry mini-pie, and I do mean seriously delicious: berries were firm and not goopy, and the streusel crust was light and flaky.

I went back for the procedure, which went smoothly, and I spent last night recovering and in varying amounts of pain. I'm already feeling much better.

I had gotten on the scale on Wednesday, halfway through my dental nightmare, and I had indeed lost some weight while all this was going on. As I say, I wouldn't recommend it as a caloric journey any other serious eater should embark on, but it was painfully effective.

One of the sandwiches on my must-eat-first list: 'wichcraft's roasted pork belly.

Yup, tomorrow is our big all-star sandwich fest on Governor's Island. I'm really looking forward to it, but it is certainly going to be a challenge, caloric journey-wise. Why?
Because we are serving up so much seriously delicious stuff eating that everything in moderation would still be overeating.

So what am I going to do? I'm going to focus on the sandwiches I haven't had before: Kenji's sliders, Salumeria Biellese's culatello with roasted peaches on Sullivan Street stirrata, 'wichcraft's two sandwiches (a roasted pork belly beauty and a ricotta and zucchini number).

Then I will move on to sandwiches I haven't had more than once: Best Pizza's Meatball Sub, Peanut Butter & Co.'s Elvis (peanut butter, bananas, and bacon).

Then again it's going to be difficult not to have a bite or two of Gramercy Tavern's house-cured ham and cheese, or Locanda Verde's lamb sliders, or Taim's falafel.

I was thinking I could pass up Torrisi's turkey sandwich and Banh Mi Zon's classic banh mi because they are within walking distance of our office, but they are awfully good, so I'm just going to see how I feel.

I think if I just have a People's Pop for dessert and a spoonful of the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck's creation, I'll be okay for dessert, though how can I resist having at least one bite of a Bouchon Bakery's chocolate bouchon..

I think the heat is going to force me to fill up with lots of water, so that might be my caloric journey's saving grace tomorrow. And who knows, maybe the heat may curb my appetite.

For those of you coming to the fest, I'll see you out there. For those serious eaters who will be there in spirit, we'll hoist a glass and a sandwich in your honor and report back next week.

With the sweltering summer heat upon the city where I live, every time I emerge from New York's 72nd Street subway station covered in sweat, I'm thinking about what treat I can give myself to both cool off and help me recover from that awful experience.

I dispense with the usual suspects: a Mister Softee vanilla cone dipped in that achingly sweet chocolate dip; a Grom gelato cone or cup, preferably pistachio or lemon granita; or a pint of Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream that I would share with my wife. All would be a caloric disaster on a daily basis, and I do find I need a daily treat in the summer to get me through.

So this summer I have started to compile a list of calorically affordable treats, which I have decided must be 150 calories or under (figuring that if I'm trying to keep my daily caloric count at 1500 to 2000 calories a day overall, my treat should be 10% or less of my total).

Here's what I have come up with:

• A bowl of cherries: The white cherries I'm buying at Fairway Market, in my neighborhood, have been juicy and sweet-tart in just the right ratio.
• A perfectly ripe peach: I know the Gold Bud and Honey Crisp peaches I can find more easily on Martha's Vineyard are ridiculously expensive at $4 apiece, but I derive such pleasure from each sweet and juicy bite, I think they are worth every penny.
• Watermelon: A slice of cold, sweet watermelon is a caloric godsend and mighty tasty to boot. So is a bowl of in-season local blueberries or strawberries.
• Frozen, blended fruit: Sometimes I resort to the trick of putting a frozen banana in the blender with some strawberries, and I still get surprised by the always creamy results.
• Small creamy treats: I'll admit that sometimes I break down and buy a small cup of Grom chocolate sorbet (when I need that chocolate hit). They don't give the caloric information for each flavor in Grom, but according to myfitnesspal.com a small cup of Grom chocolate sorbet comes in at 120 calories. That's a true summer treat caloric bargain.
• Small chocolate treats: Another source of chocolate pleasure, augmented by another of my favorite treats, peanut butter, is a Justin's dark chocolate peanut butter cup. They come two to a package, and each one has 100 calories. Sometimes I even remember to throw them in the freezer to make them last longer.

Those are my calorically affordable summer treats. What are yours?

We've been up on Martha's Vineyard for eight days now, and I thought I would give you a caloric journey progress report.

At our friends and neighbors the Smith's annual July 4th wingding, which was held on Sunday the third this year, I managed to focus on the watermelon and feta salad Vicky made. I also had a lot of cole slaw, a couple slices of lamb, half a hamburger (no bun), and a few bites of dessert. All in all, a respectable caloric journey performance.

The next day, on the Fourth itself, our friends the Grands invited us over for raw clams and oysters, homemade gravlax, and Ann Grand's justifiably famous pulled pork. Ann's pork is amazing, but I managed to avoid both heaping seconds on my plate and piling the pork on the soft hamburger buns she provided. Again, though I could have done better, I also could have done a lot worse. After both parties I was not uncomfortably full, always a good sign.

As for the rest of the week...

After discovering the fantastic breakfast sandwich made with housemade sausage at my new favorite spot on the Vineyard, 7A, formerly Back Alley's, on my first day here, I managed to avoid going back for another one, though I found myself passing by 7A every morning going to and from my daily tennis game at the Grands. I did also have one slice of 7A's extraordinary coffee cake, which I shared with a couple of other folks.

Breakfast the rest of the week was a bowl of this amazing locally made yogurt, with some fruit salad and a couple of spoonfuls of Linda Alley's New Lane Sundries strawberry rhubarb jam and a couple of tablespoons of 7A's granola.

Lunch the first couple of days involved trying just about all of 7A's sandwich offerings, which are quite special, actually: a transcendent short rib sandwich, a meatball hero featuring Next Iron Chef finalist Marco Canora's great meatballs (7A's Dan Sauer worked for Marco for quite awhile), a killer roasted eggplant and feta combo, and a fine pulled pork sandwich made with succulent hot-smoked pork butt.

I resisted going back to 7A everyday for lunch and instead opted for a great Applegate Farms hand-tied maple ham and Alpine Lace or pastrami turkey sandwich on whole grain bread with low-fat mayonnaise and/or Dijon mustard, accompanied by a 100 calorie bag of reduced fat Cape Cod chips.

For dinner on non-party days we had grilled meat or fish with salad and fresh corn (that I put no butter on).

I mostly limited my snacks to Pink Lady apples, bananas, and ridiculously expensive but crazy good Honey Crisp peaches and nectarines that for some reason they sell all over Martha's Vineyard.

I did manage to avoid my usual trips to John's or the Bite for fried clams and to Mrs. Blake's pie stand. This is the first time in a long, long time that I have managed to be up on Martha's Vineyard and not have one bite, much less a slice, of a Mrs. Blake's pie.

I will be interested to see how I fare when I jump on Thinner when I get home, but I would say all in all, I would give myself a B for this stage of my caloric journey. Caloric journies, I am learning, are filled with victories and defeats small and large, and like any 12 step program, I just have to take my journey one meal, and one snack, at a time.

Talking pants! [Doodle: Robyn Lee; Original image: menslinenpants.net]

Now that I'm not hitting Thinner every week for my weekly weight confessional, I find myself slightly disoriented. Because for all the problems associated with compulsively weighing myself daily, I at least had a consistent measuring stick to mark my progress.

I still weigh myself at least once a week, and even more importantly, I've found other checks and balances to use to keep me on the straight and narrow caloric journey-wise.

There's nothing revelatory here, just some common-sense stuff that I'm sure most of you know. In fact some of you have suggested these things at other, earlier points on my journey.

Now that it's summer I have a favorite pair of shorts and linen and cotton pants—they're reliable barometers for my weight. Each time I put one of them on, I can tell how I've been doing.

If they are tighter, if I have to reach just a little bit further to close the clasp, I know it's time to increase my fruits and vegetable quotient. If they are looser, and that clasp meets little or no resistance when joining its mate on the other side of my pants, all is right with the world.

I also think I'm listening to my body more, and better. Some (but not all) days I will realize about15 or 20 minutes into a meal that I'm full. Often there is food left on the plate. Wow! What a concept—eating responsibly until I'm full. After that, no mas.

I have to say there are still times I do mindlessly go past full on my stomach-ometer, but more and more I have learned when to say when. That's big, and I'm not talking about the size of my pants.

What do other serious eaters use instead of the scale to measure their progress? I'd appreciate other suggestions.

It's a good time to be eating salad! Note: this one isn't Vicky's.

I've never thought of myself as a salad person, but my wife seems to be turning me into one. Take last night, for example. I biked to and from work yesterday—that's ten miles round-trip, and I didn't get home until 8:30 p.m.

It was the kind of day that usually ends up with me ordering a pizza for dinner and trying desperately to limit it to one and a half slices. But Vicky had other ideas. She's much more interested in eating healthily than I am, so she's far less inclined to give in to the "let's just order a pizza or Chinese food from the new Grand Sichuan" impulse than I am.

Vicky had bought a head of romaine lettuce, walnuts, and gorgonzola cheese to make one of her favorite salads the day before, so she was determined to serve it for dinner last night. While I watched a replay of the Yankees game (I had forgotten that it was an afternoon game, so I never checked the score during the day) Vicky made the salad. It was seriously delicious, a perfect June meal, and one that I never would have thought to make myself.

While I was eating it, I started thinking about how much salad I've been eating, both at restaurants and at home. Yesterday I had lunch with a friend and we shared a watermelon, mint, and feta salad. The day before that I had ordered a salad as a starter at a great meal we had at The Beagle.

I know that not all tasty salads are particularly healthy (adding bacon, for example, is often the culprit) or low-cal, but overall it's gotta be a good thing that I'm eating more of them.

With my local farmers' markets about to be filled with things like vine-ripened tomatoes and just-picked corn, I'm actually looking forward to a summer filled with salad. Who'd have thunk it? What's your go-to summer salad?

It's not going to be all about the number on Thinner anymore.

All right, fans and occasional naysayers of my caloric journey. I am going to take this journey down a different path for awhile. It's my journey, so I determine the route.

I read everyone's comments last week with great interest, both the positive and the negative ones. Of all the comments last week I found Teachertalk's to be the one I couldn't stop thinking about. This is what she said:

"I reread the comments last week and feel badly that they hurt your feelings. I think they were suggestions made out of love and concern, and not at all meant to be harsh. Have you considered reframing your weekly column to be more general? If you continue to make it all about Thinner, you will continue to elicit personal comments that might sting. If you instead make it about making sensible choices (maybe even not weighing yourself every week, but every 2 or 3 weeks)--and include a recipe of something delectable and dietetic that you made or someone else made for you to eat--you would reach the same audience (those of us watching our weight or trying to lose weight) but with a less personal focus. Perhaps you could include a few lines about others' efforts to avoid pigging out on the samples spread on that gigantic, calorie-laden table of yours! Or talk about low carb dishes that were delicious and didn't sidetrack your weight-watching. Just a suggestion, of course. Widening the scope of your column would widen the range of responses, yet still keep you "on track" since Thinner would be the bottom line when you include those readings."

I am going to reframe by caloric journey in the following ways:

I'm not going to weigh myself every week for the post. I think Teachertalk is right. If I weigh myself publicly every three weeks or so I will take the focus of the post off the number and still keep me on the relatively straight and narrow.

So what will the serious eaters find along the side of the road of this journey instead?

• Mini-epiphanies and a few Eurekas! thrown in for good measure.
• Observations and experiences that might help me and others.
• Tricks, big and little, to help maintain my current weight loss and bring it down even further.
• Specific attainable goals.
• Recipes that are seriously delicious, healthy, and promote weight loss.
• Observations and tips from other serious eaters at World HQ who are subjected to the same temptations I am.

Towards this end I want to share a few things with all of you:

• I do exercise quite a lot. I play squash three times a week, swim twice a week, and try to ride my bike to work (10 miles round-trip) and/or to squash as often as the weather and my schedule permit.
• I have been on medication for the past six months that does have an unfortunate side effect of weight gain for some people. I am now off that drug.
• I have started to go back to eating half of what's presented to me in restaurants. I think it will really help.

Carey suggested I keep a food journal for at least a week or two just to see how much food we really eat at SE Headquarters, at home, and at restaurants. I bet the results will be eye-opening.

One problem that I face that the other SE'rs at HQ don't is that (especially lately) I have been having almost daily business lunches and dinners outside the office, so adding those two meals to the array of food we are constantly trying on the groaning board that is our conference table, makes it that much tougher to lose weight. This week, for example, we had a margarita taste test at the office (that I didn't participate in), a creamy peanut butter taste test (that I have also resisted to date, but may try the finalists today), not to mention the daily sandwiches, candy, and soda that invariably finds its way to our office.

That's it for now. I am excited to have made this fairly sharp turn on my caloric journey. I hope many of you will come along for the ride.

Salumeria Biellese sandwiches regularly contribute to the daily carb fest. [Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Although I didn't much care for some of the comments on last week's caloric journey post (though I'm sure they weren't meant to be, a couple of them felt personal, judgmental, and overly harsh—after all I am trying, and I've managed to keep a lot of weight off for a long time), I have to admit that some folks were right. I am at an inflection point on my caloric journey.

It's not just that I have plateaued, though that is certainly concerning. It's more that I feel that I'm at one of these moments where all my progress is at risk, that I feel myself slipping back into "well, it's OK that I started this week at 230 pounds" mode, where as before I always drew the line in the sand at 225 pounds.

Well, I really don't want to go back to 260 pound land, so it is time to start looking at some new approaches, ways of looking at what I eat when. Here's what l'm thinking.

The hardest part of the day for me is the time I spend at SE World HQ. Why? Because between the regular Sandwich a Day runs to Chris' pizza forays, to the staff's candy runs, to all the taste tests, it's a veritable carb festival virtually every hour of every day.

That might be OK if I wasn't also eating business lunches and breakfast too. But I do, so tasting all that food on top of eating even sensible lunches becomes problematic.

So what am I going to do? I'm going to severely limit my carb intake the rest of the day and the rest of the meals. That way when I won't end up carb loading when I taste what's on the tasting table.

I had this realization earlier in the week, so I am no expecting miracles on Thinner today. But I am optimistic that this will be the first of many changes I will be making in my caloric journey.

The Weigh-In

Unfortunately I had this carb epiphany on Wednesday, too late to effect this week's weigh-in. I have been trending downward all week since that nasty 230 pound reading on Monday. I was at 227 yesterday. Here goes: 227. A pound more than last week. Hopefully I'm taking the right turn at the crossroads. We'll see.

Have you ever noticed that some weeks are so fraught with peril (food-wise) that you don't know if you are going to survive them? Serious eaters, this week was one of those seven day periods chock full of caloric minefields. Consider these:

Friday night we went out with friends to one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants, Telepan. I ordered carefully, but the kitchen ended up sending out calzones, housemade pierogis, and a plate of seriously delicious cookies.

Two seders on Monday and Tuesday filled with matzo ball soup, charoset, gefilte fish, brisket, macaroons, flourless chocolate cake.

Two review meals on Wednesday and Thursday filled with calorie-laden comfort foods of every stripe imaginable: cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, tater tots, tacos, ribs, chicken wings.

A Slice Corner review featuring three different pizzerias on Eighth Avenue between 30th and 31st Street. On top of that, intern Chris brought in three slices from a really solid place in Morris Park in the Bronx.

Kenji brought in three lamb preparations on Thursday. Then Thursday night we went to a screening of the first two episodes of the new season of Treme, which was of course followed by a huge spread featuring short ribs and roast chicken.

Trouble city, right, serious eaters? It could have been a give-up and give-in week. But I couldn't, so I didn't. I don't know how it's going to turn out, but I certainly didn't throw in the proverbial pizza-stained towel.

Nope, I hung in there. I got on Thinner every day to face the possible consequences of the day before. I don't think I am going to lose any weight this week, but sometimes you can feel triumphant in not giving in and giving up.

Weigh-In

Okay, here we go: 226. Same as last week. Given the potential damage that could have been wrought this past week, I'll take it. Sometimes you don't have to lose to win.

Peekytoe Crab Toast from ABC Kitchen. [Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Here was my situation last night.

It was a gorgeous New York early spring evening. The birds were chirping, the forsythia were blooming, I was headed to an important business dinner at one of my current favorite restaurants in New York City, ABC Kitchen. I started thinking about how nice it would be to have a couple of nice fruity drinks when I got there. You know, the kind that have a colorful umbrella hanging out.

I started fantasizing about ABC Kitchen's toasts, the open-faced sandwiches that chef Dan Kluger has consistently hit out of the park since the restaurant opened (the crab sandwich toast is my favorite). I started thinking about the fried chicken, which a friend of mine had raved about a couple of weeks ago.

Smiling broadly every step of the way, I was thinking about all this seriously delicious food I was about to eat. Then reality hit.

It was Thursday, and my weigh-in was started weigh on me. What should I do, I asked myself. Should I just say WTF and go for it, eating and drinking everything I craved? Everyone's allowed a day off on their Serious Caloric Journey, right?

Actually, in this case I couldn't, because the rest of the week had been so bad, caloric journey-wise, that a bad Thursday—compounded by that bad Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday—would end in caloric journey catastrophe. My biggest problem this week? I didn't get on the scale until Wednesday, which for me (and I know everyone's different in this regard) is a huge mistake. I need to jump on Thinner six days a week, every day except Saturday, to know where I stand on any given day. Even given the fluctuations due to retaining water, it's really important to my caloric journey to get on the scale and face the music.

So what did I do at ABC Kitchen? I ordered sensibly, a salad and two vegetables, and lived vicariously through what my dinner mates had. I did make one of them order the fried chicken, and he was more than willing. It was insanely delicious, crispy on the outside, and yet remarkably juicy inside. Dan sent out a ramps toast ('tis the season), which was killer, and a date pizza, which sounds weird but most assuredly wasn't, and his warm house mozzarella. I book bites of all three and even had my friend cut off a small piece of the fried chicken to me. I stayed the course, but man did I have to overcome some truly base impulses.

The Weigh-In

Given my awful five days of not getting on the scale I am not optimistic about the news that Thinner will bring. Even the remarkable restraint I showed at the restaurant and the decent Wednesday can't make up for the Thinner-less rest of the week. Anyway, let's do it. 226. Up another pound.

Simon's right. Time to change my approach. I'm getting on Thinner every day, even Saturday. That should help.

After my 40 pound weight gain last week (all right, it was an April Fools' post) I needed and wanted to have a good week, caloric journey-wise. There have been a few hurdles at Serious Eats World HQ. We had an entire carton of Cape Cod Potato chips delivered to our door that I can assure you we did not order. Then Kettle Brand sent us a bag of their new tortilla chips, and somehow Sun Chips appeared.

Maggie brought back some almond brittle from her trip to Paso Robles, California. Ingredients sinfully simple: almonds, butter, sugar. Pure pleasure and pure caloric excess.

Finally, Alaina came into the office today (alas, without Malcolm) and though it was so great to see her (we all miss her calming presence and many talents so much) she also brought a bag of her mother's incomparable peanut brittle from North Carolina. It was a particularly good batch to boot. I urge Alaina's mom to package and sell her peanut brittle online!

Nuttery, buttery, chippy speed bumps at every turn in my caloric journey.

I also contributed to the bumpy ride this week by bringing an array of baked goods from the Blue Smoke Bake Shop back to the office after I had a meeting a few blocks from Blue Smoke. Jen Giblin's baked goods are homey, sophisticated, and seriously delicious. The mini apple crumb pie and the coffee cake are stellar.

But you know what? It's just another week at SE World HQ.

There's always going to be seriously delicious stuff floating around the office. After all, that's what we do, that's our raison d'etre. So I just have to learn to live with constant temptation by taking small, single tasted. It ain't easy, but it's absolutely necessary.

Weigh-In

I was at 224 two weeks ago. Here goes: 225. Up a pound (Or I guess I could say I'm down 40 pounds from last week:). Can't hide behind April Fools' jokes any more. More work to do during my caloric journey.

I knew this week was going to be a rough one on my caloric journey, but I had no idea how rough.

Last weekend I decided to do a solo taste test of every Häagen-Dazs flavor out there. I tried to eat only one spoonful of each variety, but I ended up eating two pints of Dulce de Leche, by myself. Where were my wife and son when I needed them most?

Then on Monday we decided to taste every Ben and Jerry's flavor on the market. Again I tried the Julia Child method of eating everything in moderation, but since half the tasters called in sick, that was hard to do. So I ended up eating two whole pints of the new Late Night flavor all by myself. I don't know what came over me. I do like salty and sweet ice creams, though. Don't you, serious eaters?

Believe it or not my week got worse from there.

On Tuesday I took my son to M Wells to try the burger one more time. After I ordered it my son announced that he was no longer eating red meat. Now he tells me. I was so annoyed I ended up eating all 40 ounces of that burger by myself. (I did skip the onion rings, so I was more than a little proud of that.)

Wednesday we ordered an upside-down Sicilian pie from Pizza Suprema at the office. I vowed to eat a single slice, but I ended up having four instead. I was really hungry.

Then last night Locanda Verde's chef Andrew Carmellini invited us to be guinea pigs for his spring lamb feast, Lambarama. I said yes even though it was a Thursday, because I really love Carmellini's cooking, and he sent over the menu in advance, and boy did it sound good.

He pulled out all the stops, lamb-wise, and made 12 courses of lamb along with one sheep's milk ricotta panna cotta dessert prepared by Locanda Verde's extraordinary pastry chef Karen DeMasco. I tried to eat only one bite of each lamb dish, but there were 12 of them. What's a lamb-loving serious eater supposed to do? Damn you, Carmellini.

The Weigh-In

I'll admit it. Interim weigh-ins have been problematic. On Wednesday I thought I had broken my beloved Thinner. Well, I might as well get to it. Here we go: 265. Up more than 40 pounds since last week. I ask you, Simon: could one bad week wreak such havoc with my caloric journey? Maybe it's time to return to my serious diet.

Deliciously porky lunch at Trestle on Tenth: it ain't diet food. [Photo: Robyn Lee]

I don't think Thinner is going to be kind to me this week, mostly because I was totally out of control this past weekend. I was just too anxious and stressed out to control my worst eating impulses, and by the time Monday rolled around and I got on the scale, I was in serious trouble for the week.

And yet I don't think the week has been a waste at all. Why? Because the rest of the week was filled up by many events that could have forced me over the edge, caloric journey-wise, and yet I managed to stay the course.

Monday night? Tuesday I had lunch at Trestle on Tenth, where I managed to control my worst impulses when it came to the best dishes there, the rosti and the apple turnovers.
Wednesday I had lunch with a friend at a Thai restaurant I quite like, ordered my favorite pork dish with lettuce with brown rice and left most of the rice. Wednesday morning I had a business breakfast at The Lamb's Club, and though the ricotta pancakes were calling my name I opted for the fresh berries and the egg sandwich, which I ate less than half of. Wednesday night we ate at M Wells, where the food is breathtakingly good and exciting and loaded with fatty deliciousness. (Tomato soup with grilled cheese and foie gras sandwiches, anyone?) Yesterday I went to Martha Stewart's pop-up pie shop and managed to leave an hour later having tasted two bites of pie.

The Weigh-In

So I am actually feeling pretty good about how I handled a lot of these situations, though my awful weekend may preclude any caloric journey progress. Let's see. Here we go:
224. Up a pound. Neither calamitous nor triumphant as a week on my caloric journey. This weekend might be better. We'll see.

Yesterday we had a doughnut tasting at SE World Headquarters. On a Thursday, no less. The day before my weigh-in.

Now I know full well that doughnuts are not on the path to weight loss, or even weight control. Doughnuts are one of the big holes in my weight control game. But what would you do if you were confronted by an entire conference table filled with doughnuts: big ones, small ones, doughnut holes, yeast doughnuts, cake doughnuts?

Well, I know what I did. I tasted a bunch then left the room.

The doughnuts were the only thing I ate all day, and all I had for dinner was a cup of cooked rice with some grated Romano cheese sprinkled on top for flavor. So, I actually think I did a decent job of mitigating the doughnut damage.

The problem is Doughnut Day came two days after I returned from a mini-vacation on Captiva Island in Florida, where I ate too much fried food and too many Yucatan-style barbecued shrimp, which were drenched in a spicy butter sauce spiked with lime, cilantro, and chilies. I always seem to let my caloric guard down on vacations. Don't most serious eaters?

So between the doughnuts and the vacation, my caloric journey this past week was filled with bumps in the road.

The Weigh-In

I tried to mitigate the overall damage by merely tasting many things and leaving food on my plate at every meal. We shall see if I succeeded. Here we go: 224. Up a pound from a week ago. Given the doughnuts and the vacation, I'll take it. I feel neither triumphant nor defeated. Just another week on my caloric journey.