Here is the thing, you don’t eat like I do without gaining weight. That’s what I keep in mind on Fridays as I finish jogging 4 miles and prepare to do some strength training, because I’ve put on some weight in the last year. I used to be a lot more fit, but living in Brooklyn and living with a boy who eats anything he wants to, manages to put on like 5-10 pounds, and is still considered skinny… well… get’s a little hard.
Since January, I’ve been working out at New York Sports Club before or after work 2-5 times a week. It’s been slow. Finally, I am beginning to see and feel some improvement. I’m sure it would be faster if I weren’t eating lobster rolls dripping in butter, and then following it with Crif Dogs (get the salty red neck) like 2 hours later or making bacon, crispy hash, and two eggs for brunch every weekend. And although I am still eating like I do and seeing some improvements with ridiculous amount of exercise, with age, it’s kind of down hill from here, eh?
This is why Sam Sifton’s article in an April NY Times Magazine and his blog is so interesting to me. Look at that calorie count on his blog… 3,600 calories in one day? It’s actually not such a frightening number to me, because I HAVE done something like that. I am not even talking about my 3 hour lunch at Momofuku Ko. I am talking about one day during my grad school times… I ate an omelet breakfast, large spaghetti and meat ball lunch, with a large salad at work, then had a large muffin later in class, finished off with a large subway sub and soup… then some beers after class. That was quite simply OVER 3,000 calories. I think I was even smaller then, because I was regularly jogging like 6 mile loops in Central Park. Seriously. What made me eat like that that day? Well, I felt like the ridiculously large pasta at work and I worked in IT with a bunch of large boys carrying large computer equipment from labs. I’m a social eater and I will eat anything they wanted… like their Tsunami pizza with extra sauce and super extra cheese. (Coincidentally the structural integrity of that pizza was weak weak weak) Later on, I had that subway sandwich, because my friend Rob invited me and wanted to chat and spend some time before class. Eh. I think recently, I had a time where I had some lunch at work and my friend Sophear invited me out to a later lunch with hert at an Indian place. I ordered something, you know?
One thing that caught my eye is that he doesn’t only run to fight off the occupational hazard of being a food critic, he runs during the day so that he can get hungry and work up an appetite to each 3-5 different meals a day, in order to work. I hope the Times pays for a nice Equinox membership.
The reasons I do the latter in order to continue the former are about my health, of course. But they are as much about professionalism. No one wants a restaurant critic who isn’t hungry when he sits down at the table, who is still feeling the effects of the Bresse chicken from lunch when he takes in the fried chicken at dinner. (That was a difficult day.) The best restaurants surprise and delight. A restaurant critic ought to be open to both possibilities. He should not feel sluggish, logy, fat.
That really actually must be tough. It’s one thing to eat ramen, because you’re me and always dying for it. It’s another thing entirely to be a normal person ramen after some ribs because it’s your job. I would think that is something that would make you lose perspective, you know? Like for example, at work… producing interactive/online materials for marketing, you eventually lose your fresh eyes to spot mistakes, copy errors, and other little slips that your anal self normally should catch. Or like Ryan when he was listening to edits of his recording, you start to hear mistakes when they aren’t there. You start to argue with you pianist about the different things you hear or don’t hear. You lose perspective. Unlike Sifton, I can pace myself. I’m trying to be better at that now.
Of course, no one is forcing me to eat high caloric food and I can very well pursue some good wholesome healthy good eating… or something… but if that means NOT going to the new pork broth-y new ramen place full of fatty meat and lovely noodles… forget it. Even at work, during lunch, I try to get a salad. Occasionally I am too busy and have to hunt around my vending machine. However, if my lunch buddies happen to be free and invites me to Indian food or Vietnamese Pho… I can’t turn it down. I guess my point is that it’s not that I “can’t” eat healthy… it’s simply that I don’t want to limit my eating experience to just “fueling up.” I also don’t have the heart or will-power to say “no” to food when I am in a social situation. I also like to binge late at night. :P And I probably swear and drink way too much… oh wait… this is like becoming a confessional.
Either way, eating is a lovely experience that I associate with affection, love, and satisfaction. And this kind of means that while I drool over Banana Republic’s recent silk dress sale (where everything was down to $75), I would rather save money to go to WD-50 than spend it on clothes (that will get too tight – HAR HAR HAR). Is that f-cked up? This also means that I will suffer through jogging 10-20 miles a week. (And I will say that during grad school, I used to jog 25-30 miles a week when I didn’t have a job.)
