DH and I are going out on Friday, and I'm a bit nervous about staying in my calories. It's an authentic Ethiopian restaurant, so I can't really even guess what the calories are, or even what the ingredients are.

I was thinking about just eating a light breakfast and lunch, and then not counting dinner at all - we don't go on many dates, and I surely don't want a salad when I can get delish ethnic food!

I can't post a link to the menu cuz I don't have enough posts...

I have heard good things about the Lentil soup, so I wanted to try that, but as for the entree, beats me - DH and I can't share cuz I'm a vegetarian and he is not.



Plus the movie we are going to see includes a large popcorn. My weakness! Maybe I can convince DH to just refuse it. Or throw it out....

I feel your pain! This weekend coming up is Mother's Day and my sons are taking me out for breakfast on Saturday to celebrate. I am just going to have to make what I think are the healthiest choices and go from there.

Make friends with your server, and ask him or her lots of questions. "What is in this dish? Is it cooked in oil? Is anything added to it prior to presentation?" That kind of thing. I've been to restaurants that automatically put a big scoop of butter on top of certain things, or a big puddle of oil on top of the hummus. If you ask in advance, you can give instructions to the kitchen ahead of time.

i also feel your pain..this past weekend we had 2 events, and then today we are going out for my sons birthday party, but luckly i was able to look online, see the choices, and the calorie value. and then on friday we have another party to attend to...1 week and eating out 4 times. BUt this is my pholisopy
1. to make the best choices possible
2. drink water with meal
3. Live, Live, and enjoy..just cause we are making a life style change..dosnt mean we cant go out and have fun.
4. my hubby has a bottomless pit, i give him some of my meal
5. i order extra veggies instead of pasta, rice, potato
6.share the dessert- also romantic
7. take and chew gum at the movie theater..gum and popcorn dont go good togther

but do remeber to have fun, dont stress about it, enjoy your date, and the food your eating!

have a great date night!!

I love ethiopian food!

It really depends on the place, I've had greasy ethiopian food and not so greasy food. I think your best bet is to portion control. The injera (the bread) is fairly low calorie as its basically wheat and water. Lentils are generally low calorie although they do add some oil.

The days I eat out I eat a light breakfast and lunch and when I go to the place I pick something I'd like and eat that. I don't feel guilty, if people get an appetizer I try it and savior the flavors

I allow myself a 'cheat day' every now and then! This is for life and you can't ignore events or going on dates for the rest of your life! Just make smart choices and eat light most of the day and try to eat best while out. And remember, ENJOY YOURSELF. One day over your calories will not do anything. Just don't let it turn into a week!

Ethopian and Eretrean (similar enough) are my favorite of all cuisines. Sadly, much like Indian, almost everything is made with ghee which is clarified butter. Even the stuff that doesn't seem greasy has a butt-ton of fat in it... sadly. You should look up recipes for what you think you might order if you really want to know but personally...

I haven't had any since I started losing this time, but when I do I am just going to eat a reasonable portion and not worry about the calories. One meal off plan won't kill you and this stuff is totally worth the very occasional splurge.

Mmm, ethiopian. Love it.

Unfortunately, I think the bread (injera) is actually fairly high in calories, and you generally end up eating quite a bit of it since there's no other way to eat your food. Also, if you haven't had it before, you're probably going to want to get the "vegetarian combo", which is usually like 9 different little scoops of each veggie entree. If you have had it before, you can get away with a single order of your favorite, which is much easier to control.

Is this a really special occasion? Like, you won't get to go out on another date with him for months because it's so hard to get a sitter? Or is this the kind of thing that might come up every week?

If I knew that this was going to be a really special night with my husband, then I'd have a light breakfast and lunch, try to burn at least 500 calories running or walking, and then just write down dinner and popcorn as 1,750 calories and move on. If this is the kind of thing you think you'll run into regularly, then I'd still have a light breakfast and lunch, still work out, skip the popcorn (bring grapes or something else instead), try to keep myself to one piece of injera (might have to ask for a fork), and one reasonable entree (like, maybe not the butter steak).

Good luck! It's not easy finding balance with all this stuff, but it's worth it!

I know how you feel, me and my boyfriend have just hit our 1 year anniversary Monday and he wanted to take me out to a nice restaurant in celebration. I told him we should just wait till I reach my 170 goal mark and make it a anniversary/weight loss celebration meal. He was cool with that.

as some of the previous posters mentioned, ethiopian food is deceptively oily, even if it doesn't seem that way. it is still delicious though. i think your best strategy is to plan for it, eat carefully for breakfast, lunch, and snacks, work out that day and then probably stick with something like the veggie sampler platter. most ethiopian places have them and they're delicious. while it's gonna be highly caloric, at least you'll be getting in your veggies as well.

My boyfriend is graduating next week and his family is taking us out to a local restaurant, non-chain, and there's no nutrition information online. I am debating stopping by beforehand to see if they have nutrition info available...

canadianangel's list seemed pretty good though. I always have water at restaurants, and I regularly share dishes with my BF. His parents are really into getting appetizers and desserts, though, which my family never did, so it's always a challenge eating with them. Hopefully I'll figure something out...

Good luck with the Ethiopian!

My favorite thing to do is eat lightly that day and then take half of it home. Even if the meal is 2000 calories if you package half of it up for left overs the next day it goes down to 1000. Of course that leaves me with a questionable count for 2 days but I think it balances out.

There is oil in it, but it isn't ghee or butter in ethiopian food, its vegetable oil. (Just FYI)

Well it went really well. I had a small but filling breakfast, just a snack for lunch and we left at 1 for our date. I did have a Starbucks on the way.
At the movies they did give us a large and I probably ate more than I should have but I didn't mindlessly stuff my face like I am used to. And they had my favorite water so I focused on that.

The restaurant was amazing! It was so good! We ordered an appetizer which ended up being deep fried, but all of them had meat (we requested some veg) so I didn't eat any. Then I ordered the veg sampler platter with lentil wat, split pea wat, yellow split pea wat, sauteed veg and collard greens.

I ate it all.
I am not ashamed.

I was full at the end but I was not overly stuffed. It was worth every bite.

We go out every 3 months or so and it was such a fun night. My scale went up but it was only one meal and it was awesome.

Thanks for the advice everyone

Sounds great!

I mean yesterday I went to soup plantation and had a large salad, a bowl of soup, and a small bit of dessert, it was delicious and I enjoyed it