- Chicken Tikka
Day 60 of the 20 lb struggle
To get into the spirit of our book selection, The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar, the book club decides to meet at Punjab Indian Restaurant in Boca Raton. The book is about two women from different social classes living in modern Bombay (Mumbai). Like the movie, Slum Dog Millionaire, the book takes us into a world beyond the comprehension of most Americans. It also demonstrates that despite even vast differences in culture the every-day struggles of families can be quite similar.
Don’t get me wrong. I like Indian food. BUT. I associate it with rice, naan (bread), creamy sauces and fried dishes. Not exactly diet friendly. How can you meet the challenge of a weight-loss diet when you want to indulge in ethnic foods that are not only big on taste but also high in calories?
Well, you can do what I did. You can thank your lucky stars that you live in an age when any kind of information is available to you on the internet. How did people ever manage before? The first thing I did was find a website that lists all kinds of ethnic foods by type, Italian, Indian, Greek, etc.
For each kind of ethnic restaurant it tells you which items are ok for a weight-loss diet and which are to be avoided. In the case of Indian food, the website recommended Chicken Tikka, which I learned had 155 caloris per 100 grams.
I also went on the internet to check out the restaurant’s menu to make sure that they had Chicken Tikka on the menu. Yes! They did.
Yet, when it was time for me to order, I inexplicitly ordered garlic chicken instead. WHAT??? That’s right. You can lead the horse to water but you can’t make it drink. To my credit, and in my defense, I must say that I ate carefully. I had a little rice and no Naan, I also leftover about 1/3 of the garlic chicken, which I am proud to say I DID NOT take home to eat as a bedtime snack.
Will I pay the price? Or will I get away with it? Tune in on Saturday for my next weigh in. We’ll all find out together.
Copyright © 2009 Maxine Schackman
hi! You ROCK! Congrats! Only 7 more pounds to go! You can do this! I hope you have lost some ponds this week!
Great! You are doing a fabulous job in your endeavors.
Wow Maxine. You are really serious about this diet!! Not even using book club as an excuse to pig out! Sounds like you are doing a great job with the diet. I’m not surprised. Congrats!