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Ed Levine's Serious Diet: Week 3

Posted by Ed Levine, January 24, 2008 at 7:00 AM

I have to say that dieting in public, digital fashion has been kind of motivating. The community of Serious Eaters has been so supportive and so helpful I feel like I've been thrown into some kind of Weight Watchers–like situation, which is most definitely a good thing.

I regard my Thursday-morning weigh-in with the same mixture of dread and excitement that used to pervade my actual Weight Watchers experiences when I actually went to that company's meetings many years ago.

But the digital weigh-in does function as an online Serious Dieters meeting. In fact if anyone wants to join me, I would really appreciate other folks weighing in on Thursday morning and reporting the results by commenting on these weekly posts. If no one else finds this idea motivating, appealing, or attractive, that's cool, too. Just knowing we're all in this together helps.

This week's challenges: chocolate, hot chocolate, macarons, an almost perfect baguette, Vermont farmstead cheeses, diner breakfast.

I actually took my first weekend off since we launched Serious Eats a little more than a year ago. We went to Woodstock, Vermont, where there was much good food to be had:

A world-class chocolatier named William Winand: I will post separately about him in the near future, but this guy is the real deal: great bonbons, hot chocolate, and French macarons.

A very good local baguette accompanied by many terrific local farmstead cheeses I found at the Dartmouth Food Co-op in Hanover, New Hampshire.

A terrific, low-key, super-simple Italian restaurant, Osteria Pane Salute. I ordered the grilled vegetables and the chicken legs braised in garlic and wine.

A classic 12-seat diner, Wasp's, where the chef-owner whips up a mean plate of hash, fine plate-sized pancakes, and killer grilled sweet potato maple muffins, all served with a side order of major sass. More to come on Wasp's as well.

In short, there was a lot of temptation everywhere I walked or drove.

But I did practice portion-control as best as I could, and what I hope will save me when I get on the scale is the amount of exercise I got. On Saturday morning I worked out on the elliptical trainer for almost an hour. On Sunday I went snowshoeing for almost two hours up and down these incredibly gorgeous trails at Mount Tom. I brought my heart-rate monitor with me, and I was amazed at how many calories I burned. I ended up expending more than 900 calories in my snowshoeing adventure. Further proof of how strenuous snowshoeing is: My parka, pants and long underwear were drenched in sweat.

All right, all right. The time has come: Yes! Down another pound! I am on a three-week losing (or should I say winning) streak.

Next week's challenge: My birthday is coming up this Sunday, and I have three days of eating with friends and family planned. Stay tuned.

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