Middle Eastern Dinner

I did great!!!! Was satisfied and had everything I wanted without feeling deprived, including a coffee with lots of milk foam for dessert :)

We got in a good 30-minute walk before dinner *thumbs up* -100 more calories!

My plan was to have lentil soup and 1 whole pita with 1/4 a cup of hummus. I almost met my goal, but of course I nibbled a lot more than I wanted to.

Our hummus plate (that rim is all made of hummus!)



My first pita:


My second pita:



Not pictured: About 1/2 of another pita triangle with 1/2 a tbsp hummus, picked!

My lentil soup (which was pretty runny) with pita chips, which were very dry and basically just the toasted version of the pitas above. I ate all of both and logged the soup as only 100 calories because it was small and thin.



Here's my last bit of hummus plus a few samples of my fellow diners' kabobs (lamb and a second chicken not pictured):



Here's the husband's plate - what I could have ate!



I also had 2 tbsp rice and 1/4 of one of the falafels. And two sips of husband's beer :)

Here's how I estimated the calories:

• 6 tbsp hummus: 158
• 1 whole pita bread: 200
• Lentil soup, cup: 90
• .33 oz each of lamb, beef, and chicken (x2): 75
• Falafel, .25 patty: 15
• Long-grain white rice, just under 1/2 cup: 41
• 2 fl oz skim milk (coffee dessert): 23
• 1 fl oz of New Castle: 11

= ~600 calories

I also ate an olive and some marinated veggies, but I'm not counting these b/c they were so small.

So I think I did pretty well! I could have had wine (or two), more rice, more pita, more of everything! But I didn't because I'm smart and know that I didn't need more to fuel my body.

Snack:

At 4:30 I had a dried apricot half and 5 almonds to tide my hunger for the walk. Worked like a charm!! I wasn't even that hungry after the walk when we sat down to dinner.



When I got home I also ate 1/4 cup Kashi Heart to Heart (pure boredom eating) and about 10 baking chocolate chips.


Ending the day: 1885 calories

-687 through exercise

=1198 net

I know I could be off by +/- 100 calories here, but I'm not too worried about it! The weight has just been FALLING OFF this week. I feel fabulous in my skin again and my stomach is regaining (or re-losing?!) it's flatness and firmness. Two more weeks of this near-perfect eating and I'll be back on track to maintain. I feel so much better now that I've been eating so many good-for-you foods. I can list on my hand the "bad" foods for the week:

• 2.5 oz of wine last night
• 1 bite of chocolate on Tuesday
• Jello pudding 2 nights ago
  
• Maybe a little too much hummus/pita tonight?

Other than those I've had perfect eating. And you know what? I loved every bite of it. Eating well makes me so happy. I'm so much happier without the guilt of splurging, so why splurge in the first place? I sure hope I can keep up this motivation!

At the coffee shop we got Snickerdoodle coffee and I got some of the Sugar-Free Vanilla Syrup you see everywhere. I think it'll be great in both coffee and oatmeal. I wish I could live without sweetening things, but I just can't. Sorry! I can't wait to try these both together in the morning when I DON'T HAVE TO GO TO THE GYM!!!! WHOO HOO!!