Thinking Out Loud: 2011

04 October 2011

Whining and Dining in NYC

This blog post originally appeared in The Huffington Post

NYC is home of the best restaurants in the world and Advertising Week is another excuse to meet with partners and talk shop over seven course French cuisine at Per Se', savor a decadent Italian Gourmet at any one of Mario's restaurants or sneak out for a slice of Ray's, a burger at Shake Shack or my go-to favorite, a Hot Pastrami Sandwich bigger than the size of my head at Carnegie Deli.
But wait... there's Less!

For some logical and responsible reason I decided to go on a diet, errr actually change my lifestyle on June 23rd at 3:52pm while finally winning a staring contest between me and a slice of my 6-year old son's birthday cake. I decided on the spur of the moment that then was as good a time as any to back the fork up! I am an all-or-nothing, extreme type of guy and I have since been extremely disciplined (or as my wife calls it, "ridiculous") with my eating regimen.

Since I am a results guy in business, I am excited that my "Manorexia" is working. And it's working fast (pun intended). In the past 3 months I've lost over 40 pounds. People who haven't seen me don't recognize me at first. My stock one-liners on how I lost the poundage include:

• Shake Weight, as seen on TV
• Zumba
• I've gone from a Size 9 to a Size 3
• Stripper Pole

I am not following a specific diet, though I have been inspired by Novak Djokavic's ascension in tennis since he went Gluten-Free (but for the record, my tennis game still sucks). I have cut out bread, red meat, dairy (I do drink Soy); have only 1 or 2 alcoholic beverages a week and also stopped watching Man vs. Food.

Below is the desert menu at Red Cat I refrained ordering from (even though we went out for my Birthday today):

2011-10-03-Screenshot20111003at11.31.29AM.png

2011-10-03-Screenshot20111003at11.31.29AM.png

I travel a lot for my job. In the past three months I've been to NY, Vegas, LA and the Bay Area and haven't strayed. Even though I could have given him a good run, I won't be challenging Joey Chestnut for the Nathan's hotdog eating contest and I will refrain from one of those ginormous slices of cheesecake at Stage Deli.

So if you see me during Advertising Week at Craft, Blue Hill or Del Posto, I'll be the guy ordering the steamed veggies and grilled chicken. Sorry Rocco, please don't take offense if I don't partake in your amazing cuisine . While most of you are rightfully making a mental note to avoid me or not invite me to your party (I am a walking buzz-kill), for the one or two folks out there that are dug in, stubborn and want to commiserate, shoot me a DM to my twitter handle @sethg. I'll meet you at Fresh & Company.

Follow Seth Greenberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sethg