buffet line, please

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone,

We went away as a family for a few days, and I learned some things

about myself. Kind of gross, in some ways, but I learned some things

about my eating habits and some of the traps I fall into.

It was a family resort, it was 'supposed' to have buffets, but

apparently they only pull out the stops for the weekenders.

Breakfast and dinner were included in the package price. We are always

struggling with finances, and I've learned how to make a dollar

stretch and scream with everything from clothes to food to trips.

When someone hands me a plate full of heavy food, including too much

carbs, and I get it cheap or for free - I make sure I ate all of it.

Even if I don't like it much, even if the server was rude, even if i

know I'm stuffing myself with food that is not my usual fare.

Lunch was not part of the package, so we had chips/salsa and

pistachios, both of which I love ... but they're not meant to be

lunch on top of a heavy breakfast. But we didn't want to spend extra

money for lunch because everything there cost twice as much as it

should have.

Physically, I'm not sure we were hungry. Psychologically, lunch comes

between breakfast and dinner -- so we ate.

Dinner was more of the same - we were given menus offering an

appetizer, a salad, a soup, then dinner, then dessert ... all part of

the package. How could we refuse so much food??? So we ate!!

By Friday, my husband and I both felt like stuffed pigs that were

force fed, and then Friday night, the buffet opened up.

I ate much less at the buffet. Then I realized something -- give me a

buffet, give me options, and I'll eat only what I want to eat. Stick

it all on my plate and hand it to me, and I'll feel guilty for not

finishing my food because wasted food is wasted money. And my husband

is killing himself with work because we need the money, so I work hard

to make money stretch, so I wasn't about to waste the food.

I took a few options from the buffet line, then stopped. Felt odd to

me not to be gorging myself when there was so much food - but the food

was there for EVERYONE, not only me, so the pressure was off. Also,

psychologically - food being there for everyone, and some trays going

empty quickly, triggered me to bypass my options because I didn't want

to take too much food, leaving others not to have any of it.

Next morning, same thing - buffet breakfast. I took what I wanted -

much less carbs - and ate that, and stopped. Had a whopper of a

headache the rest of the day, still do (think it's the barometric

pressure), but my stomach felt better.

The other psychological trigger with me and buffet lines is that I

don't want to take 'too' much because then other people might see my

plate and think, what a pig! So I take less for that reason also.

Yesterday morning, I remembered some of 's techniques for

choosing foods [okay, so it took me a few days to do this, but I was

away from home, stuffed into activities with 'intimate strangers', so

I didn't exactly have quiet time for conscious food choices], and

realized that on my own, I rarely ate any of those foods.

I also got to use the treadmill at the fitness center where the kids

could roller-skate and play miniature golf. I liked the treadmill, and

it didn't kill my legs or joints. My in-laws have a treadmill that

they're not using, so we're hoping to bring theirs to our house. I got

to watch a Pilates video-podcast, and then there's the aerobics class

I just joined that is two evenings a week.

And we're back home now, so once again I have control over what foods

I cook, in what portions, and what I do with the leftovers

It was a sobering experience to realize that at this time I am heavier

than I ever was in pregnancy, but I'm not pregnant. Part of that is

due to my heart medication, but I think the rest, I can work on.

It's good to be back ... four days is a long time for me

Kim