Evoe "Cocktails de Paris" event with @Daisy17 & @Cocktailspirit followed by red sauce dinner at Bread Tribeca; First Skype to Skype call (free! yay!), workout, "The Foodie's Dilemma" Times Talks panel with Mom, featuring Bobby Flay, Daniel Humm, Alex Guarnaschelli and moderated by Frank Bruni, the 11th Annual Epicurian Dive Bar Crawl; a run in Astoria with Sara, tasting cocktails at Blue Hill, a quick nap, dinner at Choptank with @Cocktailspirit, and much-needed laundry.

To start your Monday off right, a cocktail recipe from Friday's event: the Twentieth Century Cocktail.

1 1/2 ounces Beefeater gin

3/4 ounce Lillet Blanc

1/4 ounce creme de cacao

3/4 ounce lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Serve with a lemon twist.

#drop10beforetri I've told some of my friends and family in person, but I have another goal to hit before the triathlon.  I'd like to drop 10 pounds.  These 10 pounds have crept on over the past 10 years, an average of one pound per year, which isn't bad, but I figure if I have the discipline to do a triathlon for the fourth year in a row, I can probably get rid of ten measly pounds.

But most of you know me, and know my love for food and drink.  And not just food and drink — tasty, high-quality, non-processed, but often high-caloric food and drink.  And I'm not one to eat light or "lite" anything (the one exception is that I gravitate to skim milk and fat-free yogurt, and I can tolerate part-skim cheeses in certain contexts); I go for the foie gras, the butter, the bacon, the cheese.  I don't plan to give these things up completely, but indulge in them less frequently and in limited quantities. 

I'm following Weight Watchers Online, where every food/drink item gets a limited number of points.  You are allotted a certain number of points per day based on your height — being a small person, I get 18 points.  When I did my cocktail column last week, I meticulously looked up the calorie count for every ingredient and was horrified to learn that it had a value of 5 points — almost a third of my calories for the day!!  The good news is that I exercise a lot, which gives me more wiggle room, as you earn points for exercise. 

This week was hard. VERY HARD.  Brunch with the beach house girls at Bar Artisanal was like a mini exercise in torture (no cheese? no fondue? I settled on the pork belly hash w/poached eggs and hollandaise ON THE DAMN SIDE and a green salad with dressing ON THE DAMN SIDE, nursing my prosecco to make it last longer), and I struggle every day to get the recommended servings of calcium and fruit/veggies.  At Roman's on Sunday I split some dishes with my brother and had a delicious, but small meal.  I went out for a great meal Tuesday night at Marlow & Sons and luckily, the brick chicken sounded more appealing to me and my dining companion than the rib eye, but there was still chicken liver and sopressata involved.  I balanced it out with some kale, and likely ate less of everything than I normally would.  Each day I dutifully tracked in the points values, even when I realized I'd be over my limit for the week.

But, I weighed myself this morning and  . . . drumroll please . . . I'm down 3.8 pounds.  No joke.  And that's really only a week and a half of being more mindful about what and how much I eat and drink.

Lessons learned:  1) pack in the fruits, veggies and water.  They're filling and they help keep the system running smoothly.  2) you can eat the indulgent stuff, just less of it.  A LOT less.  Some of you have heard me say that I am a little person and I need to learn to eat like a little person — this is in full effect at the moment, but feeling deprived isn't going to work, at least not for me. 3) This is not easy for me, but every single meal means choices, and if I know I big meal is coming later in the day, my breakfast and lunch need to be adjusted accordingly.

Why am I telling you all this?  Because I need your support.  Don't look at me funny when I behave strangely in a restaurant — for me this means that I don't order the foie gras or the bacon.  I may even order a dish and ask them to wrap half of it before they serve it (and this hasn't happened yet, but it might; I'd rather just convince you to share an entree with me).  Say yes when I ask you to meet up for a run, bike, or walk before our meal.  You've all supported me so much in my life, I know that I don't really have to ask, but I'm just letting you know what's going on.

This could be harder than the triathlon, at least for me.  Seriously.