Whoops, I did it again...

Weight Watchers, week 4.  I've been getting some compliments on looking fitter, which is nice. But it's hard not to detect suspicion in some of those compliments. I know some are surely wondering whether the Award Winning Eater may be losing his edge.

Yes, It's true that I've lost weight every week. In a big chunk at first and in smaller, steadier intervals ever since. I even managed to lose weight Thanksgiving Week. During that time, however, I have had the privilege to enjoy some of the finest food I've eaten in a long while, overindulging strategically--even exceeding my allowed WW "Points" twice.

First of all, Turkey really isn't my thing (readers of this blog know that I only recently returned to chicken). Pork, however, is very much my thing. Also very much my thing: Jess's brownies with chocolate chips, nuts, and dried fruit. I consumed both in abundance at my friend Rory's farewell smoke-off.

Picture the scene: I was confronted with a tub containing fifteen pounds of slow-smoked pork butt, dry rubbed and vinegar-mopped, not to mention a delicious pot of tortilla soup, and a tray of brownies stacked five high. Weight Watchers be damned, it was clear what I had to do. Rory supplied all the fixings for tacos of which I had two, and after which I just started eating the pork with my bare hands. Consensus guestimate on my pork consumption was 1.5 lbs.  Official count on my brownie consumption was 7.

A few short days later, we baked up our favorite Weight-Watchers unfriendly Thanksgiving side dish. Gouda cheese, eggs, brown sugar, melted butter, white flour, and lots of pureed carrots achieve greatness together in this savory baked carrot pudding (think dense soufflé). The browned crust on the edges is my favorite part. 

 Based on the ingredient list, and notwithstanding the health bonus of eating so much carrot, this dish costs lots of WW points for a relatively small portion.  Thus, I limited myself to two helpings on Thanksgiving day (with a few leftover portions scattered over the weekend). It's a variation on a super recipe for Boudin de Chicaros (savory pea pudding) over on the web site Mexconnect.

 Despite the bounty that our family table offered (candied squash and apple bake, citrus raspberry salad with pecans and shaved pecorino romano, homemade rolls, mashed VT Elba potatoes from High Ledge Farm cooked slowly in milk and butter instead of water, parsnip and carrot mash, green beans almondine, a generous cheese board and all-you-can-eat shrimp cocktail during cocktail hour, and an equally full dessert table)  I had actually managed to keep things under control through the main meal.

I was still well within my points budget when I arrived at my cousin Andrew's house for our annual Thanksgiving cousins' viewing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation a couple of hours after the main meal. There waiting was my Uncle Paul's maple pecan pie (I ate three slices), and a smorgasbord of movie-theater concesssions my cousin Andrew bought as party favors.  The place was swimming with swedish fish, mike & ikes, gummy bears, and endless bowls of buttered stovetop Jiffy Pop. I think there was some tequila in there too (4 points per 1.5 oz.). Again, there's only one thing for an award-inning eater to do in those circumstances.

Two points-busting foodfests. Two weeks of weight loss. So the critics surmise that I am starving myself the rest of the time. WRONG!

Exhibit A: Oysters. 6 medium= 1 point (For reference I get at least 37 points a day to work with not counting others I earn through exercise). I was already deep into Oysters before I started WW.  James Beard Award-winning food writer, Oyster aficionado, and fellow resident of central Vermont Rowan Jacobsen likens eating a good Oyster to "kissing the sea on the lips." Let's just say things have gotten hot and heavy between me and the sea since I learned how many Oysters, mussels, shrimp, and scallops I can eat under the WW system. Last night at Kismet, I ate twelve expertly prepared Oysters on the half shell before devouring a bowl of divine mussels steamed with garlic and pernod.

Of course you cannot lose weight if you give in to gluttonous impulses at every opportunity; around this time of year those opportunities abound.  As I write, I am nibbling furiously on a 0-point apple (remember most fruits and veggies are invisible to the WW points system) all to keep my mind off the fresh-baked, chocolate-dipped shortbread and chocolate peanut-butter no-bake cookies that we made for tomorrow's second annual holiday cookie swap (see photos from last year's here). Most people on Weight Watchers would probably not agree to host a holiday cookie swap, but I'm not sweating it.  I've eaten wisely so far this week and exercised often. Still, there's going to be a lot of cookies here...

I am only 3 pounds shy of my 15 pound weight loss goal. Will I still lose weight if I blow my points for the third week in a row? Stay tuned...