July 18, 2013

Dinner at La Pita

Dinner at La Pita was great last night! I was a little nervous about meeting Kelly, simply because I'm kind of awkward when meeting people and I'm pretty shy until I really get to know someone. I'm glad Stephanie came with me, because she is about as social as you can get ;)

I picked Stephanie up on the way, and we got there a little early, so we chatted until Kelly got there. Kelly was very easy to talk to, so my nerves went away as soon as she got there. She's just as funny in-person as she is on her blog, and it was a fun dinner.

I've shown my favorite meal from La Pita on my blog a million times, so I figured I'd order something different this time. My usual chicken kabob meal is about 30 PP for everything, so I wanted to find something that wasn't so high. I ended up ordering crushed lentil soup and baba ghannouge. I'd never had baba ghannouge before, but it's lower in calories than hummus, and the description sounded very similar...


Hummus is 1 PP per tablespoon, and the baba ghannouge is 1 PP per 2 tablespoons. So you get twice as much for the same amount of PointsPlus. I thought it was worth a taste!

When our food came, I was totally ready to dig in, but I managed to let Steph take a quick picture.


The soup was fantastic; it tasted nearly identical to my Lemon Lentil Soup recipe. And holy smokes, I was in love at first taste with the baba ghannouge. It was amazing! It reminded me a lot of the hummus, only a stronger garlic flavor, and a little bit of a smokiness. I will definitely get that instead of hummus from now on. I ate all of the soup, half of the baba ghannouge, and three (1-ounce) pitas, for a total of 14 PointsPlus.

After dinner, we managed to snag a hostess to take a quick picture of the three of us outside.

Kelly, me, and Steph
We said good-bye to Kelly, and I took Stephanie home, then went to pick up the kids from my parents' house. I thought Jerry was going to be home at 6:30 to be able to get the kids, but it was almost 9:00 when he got home! He'd left at 5:00 in the morning for work. I felt bad that he was there so long, but he said they had to get some sort of tests done (he's going through orientation/training all this week and next week). He didn't seem to mind the long day, because he said it's been really interesting.

I decided to go ahead and switch over to the Hansons' marathon method. I'm really curious to see how I feel while doing it. I'm going to do the lower mileage (beginner) plan, because it'll start at about the same mileage I'm doing now, 30-ish per week. Someone had asked about what the speed and strength workouts were, and here is a list of some for the plan.

My knee was feeling back to normal today, so I think the two days off was just what I needed. Today was a five-mile run at marathon pace on the schedule. Since I'm not going to be "racing" in Chicago, I just chose my pace based on the McMillan Pace Calculator prediction (the pace that the calculator says I can run a marathon at).

First, I calibrated my foot pod. For some reason, it pretty far off on the last treadmill run I did. It's been a long time since I calibrated it, so I'm glad I got that done. I finished watching Pretty Little Liars a couple of weeks ago, so I needed a new show to watch on Netflix while I run. After watching PLL, I was in the mood for another teen show, and I ended up watching The Secret Life of the American Teenager. It's pretty good! Just another teen drama ;)

So I finished my five miles. Tomorrow would normally be my long run day, but since I'm switching over to the Hansons' plan, I'm going to try and follow that right to the letter; which means I'll be running my long runs on Sundays. Tomorrow is just four miles, then I do eight on both Saturday and Sunday. That sounds so much nicer than 14 miles tomorrow in this horrible heat wave we have going on!

23 comments:

  1. You might try Dance Academy next time you are looking for a show to watch. It is in Australia, but is a pretty decent show, kind of a team drama based in a very high class kind of a dance school.

    And, one of my favorite shows is Wild At Heart, based in South Africa. There are seven seasons of it on Netflix, so it will last a while. It is more of an adult show, though plenty appropriate for kids I think in most of it.

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  2. AnonymousJuly 18, 2013

    I thought Hemlock Grove and Orange is the New Black were both very entertaining! I just started The Killing - not sure how I missed that one, I really like it!

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  3. I've never tried Indian food before; looks interesting! Too weird...I just saw the Hansen training plan for the very first time about an hour ago! Good luck

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  4. I just got done watching Life on Netflix. It is a detective show, I really liked it and was bummed there was only two seasons.

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  5. AnonymousJuly 18, 2013

    one is the new black is a good netflix show...cant promise its a good running show though. more humor drama then regular drama.
    rookie blue has some good drama.

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  6. Your dinner looks delicious!

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  7. AnonymousJuly 19, 2013

    Secret Life was strangely addictive. I also enjoyed Switched At Birth (by ABC Family). It's super light with a decent story line, similar to Secret Life. La Pita looks so incredible! Every time you post a photo it makes me want to hit up my local Lebanese restaurant. :)

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  8. I give another vote for Orange Is The New Black. I loved it and can't wait for the next series!

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  9. If you are looking for a new show to watch on Netflix you should try out Orange is the New Black. Best show on Netflix hands down!! I didn't see the other comments above about this, but they are right about this show! It's awesome!

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  10. AnonymousJuly 19, 2013

    I finished PLL too so I have started watching Gossip Girl on netflix - another teen show but super addictive (and completely unrealistic) - makes my time on the treadmill go by quickly.

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  11. I'm a big fan of Downton Abbey (I've been watching it through amazon on my Kindle) and I also like Once Upon A Time (If you're a Disney fan, you will love it!). I'm considering doing my long run on the 'mill tomorrow because of the heat...and so I can watch the next episode of DA!

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  12. THANK YOU much for speed/strengh details :) <3

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  13. I love Downton Abbey! I just finished the third season last week....I recommend it to everyone lol. My husband even watched it with me ;)

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  14. If you calibration is going "off" you might want to switch out the foot pod battery. I was noticing the same thing and then I went out one day and the foot pod didn't work at all. The battery is the only thing you need to replace so it's a cheap fix!

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  15. AnonymousJuly 19, 2013

    Just an FYI if you get to the end of Secret Life DO NOT watch the finale. Just make up your own in your head and pretend that is what happened because the series finale was horrible. It made no sense and didn't even really give you an ending.

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  16. My daughter-in-law spent two weeks in India earlier this summer on business. We have asked her to take us to a local Indian restaurant and tell us what is good to eat, because we've tried it before and didn't like it at all. Although I have fallen in love with the Naan bread from Trader Joe's. It makes a great barbecue chicken pizza!

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  17. "I'm glad Stephanie came with me, because she is about as social as you can get"

    That made me laugh out loud!! :D

    I didn't realize the baba ganoush is half the points of the hummus! Next time I will try it!! I really enjoyed my meal, though...looking forward to go back there! Thanks for suggesting it!!

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  18. Hmmmm, considering I have my first ever 20 miler on the schedule tomorrow I might have to look into this Hanson method... ;)

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  19. AnonymousJuly 19, 2013

    sounds like a great dinner! love your blog!

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  20. If you want another teen drama, I vote for the Lying Game! It's pretty good!

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  21. Sounds like you girls had a great time at dinner. What fun! :)

    Re: Secret Life, I watched season 1 with my daughter and enjoyed it but then it seemed like every 3rd word was "sex" and it creeped me out to listen to teens be so carefree and casual about it (maybe because I have teenagers! haha) I kind of lost interest part way through season 2. My daughter still liked it and has seen every episode. I hope you enjoy it too!

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  22. Bun heads is cute too!

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  23. You three look great! How much have you all lost combined? I bet it is a big number!

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