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April 15, 2009
steak tips in boston
I'm doing the whole Weight Watchers Online thing again. It's working out pretty well; I've lost about 7 pounds so far with no major lifestyle changes.
I did the program with some success quite a few years ago, and it's interesting to see how it's changed. For one thing, they now have a specific "For Men" program, which is a big improvement.
There are articles written to help you make better eating decisions and figure out how to avoid rewarding yourself with food, or using food as a coping mechanism, but they used to be heavily slanted towards women. Things like "celebrate meeting your weight goal with a manicure" or "if you're having a bad day, instead of ice cream, watch a movie about feelings" or "exercise by having pillow fights with your girlfriends" or typical girly stuff like that. Now they have more male-oriented articles like how to go out with your friends to a bar and make smart choices at happy hour or recipes you can make with leftover liquor and stuff like that.
They've also added the concept of "set points" which is where you can either estimate exactly how many points-worth of food you're eating, or you can give it a set value and eat as much of it as you want, within reason. It's only for relatively healthy foods that are also filling, like brown rice or grilled chicken. And the idea isn't "oh, I can just have 5 pounds of rice and only give it 5 points," but rather, eating brown rice until you feel you've had your fill of it isn't going to end up being that much, if you're honest about stopping when you're full.
I discovered that steak is one of those "set points" foods. Usually when I go out to eat I would get something on a bun, which is not very Weight Watchers friendly, and of course french fries, which, hey, you can eat, but you can't eat very much for the points (oven fries are a different matter, but they hardly ever have those in restaurants...I stick with a baked potato instead). So, I'm on a mission to try the steak tips in every restaurant around Boston.
It's been fun so far...it's better-tasting, usually, and certainly better for you. I'd rather have some juicy steak over some reheated frozen shoestring fries from the back of a Sysco truck any day.
I think so far my favorite have been the tips I had last night at Whiskey's Smokehouse down on Boylston. They were really tender and juicy, and came with an awesome big baked potato, which I topped with hot sauce, and some black beans, also topped with hot sauce. Harry's has some good tips as well, which are a little more conventional and very healthy, since you can get them with a side salad. I was disappointed with White Horse; they were overdone and kind of bland, but I have to give The Pourhouse credit for being one of the first places to actually cook them somewhat medium rather than medium-well, even though their flavor was only mediocre.
Posted by Mark at April 15, 2009 12:47 PM
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