How Eating Out at an Indian Restaurant Almost Killed Me...

NEVER go into an Indian restaurant when you're starving.  That was my learning lesson of the day.  What did I do? Stuffed my face with everything that looked good.  I ordered the combo- that came with 2 rotis, rice, pickle and 3 vegetables.  I wanted to sub out one of the veggies for Malai Kofta (my FAVORITE Indian dish- essentially fried vegetable dumplings in cream sauce.  Can it get more heart arresting than that?), but the Indian uncle tells me they're out. I say, OK.

Then 5 minutes later, I go to the bathroom (you have to walk through the kitchen in this place) and the chef, an Indian gentleman, asks me in a thick Indian accent, "You want Malai kofta?"  My hunger delusion made his eyes sparkled. "You have 10 minutes? It will be ready."

Now, how could I not want Malai Kofta?  A malai kofta being made fresh in front of my eyes. The chef stirred heavy cream into a vat of God-knows-what goodness and swished this way and that.  I was fascinated.  What spices did you put in, I asked.  "Oh, many many spices. I already added them.  Now, only garam masala is left."  And I stood there, and watched him make the rest of this fresh, heavenly malai kofta.

I go back up to the cash register to pay for the combo I ordered.  And of course I ask, "And can I have a malai kofta too?"  The sparkle is now in my eye.   By the time this transaction is done, I'm out 11 bucks, when I was hoping to make out under a cool 7.  No hopes here.

I now have a combo with Saag Paneer, Aloo Gobhi, Dal, 2 parathas and rice, PLUS a full serving of Malai Kofta in front of me. By this time, I was so hungry and so excited about the Malai Kofta, that nothing could stop me from devouring all of it-  I had made my own special Neelam's Combo Plus.  (Plus because it includes extra vegetables and because it's for plus size people!) Though, I have to give myself credit that I excluded the Dal, and only ate half the Aloo Gobhi, so yay! Now everything's OK. Right?

Wrong.  I go home, and calculate my meal (luckily WW is cool like that and actually has lots of Indian dishes pre-calculated).  Lo and behold, it's 24 points!  24 points out of the 31 points I have allocated for the entire day!

Luckily the brilliant architects of WW engineered a fix for these catastrophes.  It's called your "Anytime points." Specifically: 49 points to blow whatever way you want throughout the week.  Are you thinking how the hell do people lose weight? How can this work?  That's definitely what I was thinking when I first joined.

Now I know.  The points run out fast, and probably an entire day's allocation could go up in flames over a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake! (The typical American meal.  No wonder 2/3 of Americans are overweight!)  WW has developed a fool safe method, and I like it.   I may have unconsciously blown my extra points for the week (luckily I have enough extra to cover this snafu), but I will know next time NOT TO EAT AT AN INDIAN RESTAURANT WHEN I'M HUNGRY!