Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Balance at the Buffet

I mentioned in my last post that we went to a wedding over the weekend. There was a huge dinner buffet with tons of delicious choices. If I were a good blogger, I would have taken pictures. But frankly, I was too busy trying to entertain the toddler (okay, and eating the delicious food!)...

I know that many people have "issues" with buffets and so do I. In fact, I have been avoiding any kind of a buffet for a long time. It's just very hard for me to find balance at a buffet. When I was young many, many, many years ago, I dealt with buffets by only eating a few plain raw vegetables. The strategy was neither healthy nor fun. Then there was a period in my life when I gave myself permission to eat EVERYTHING. Also not a healthy strategy. Plus I usually beat myself up afterward for "being bad."

At the wedding, I finally felt good, satisfied, and happy after eating! It's not that my meal was very healthy; in fact it probably wasn't. But here is what happened and why I felt good. Since I knew that it would be difficult to go back for seconds, I filled my plate with quite a bit of food. I took several pieces of sushi, some salad, a piece of chicken, a lot of yummy looking asparagus (which tasted awful), roasted potatoes, and a tomato stuffed with mozzarella. Yes, I know. It was a lot of food. I actually ended up not eating a lot of it. I hate wasting food, but I won't eat something if it doesn't taste good (or if it is too greasy because it will just give me gallstone problems). I therefore didn't eat the salad (too greasy and tasteless), the asparagus (just awful), or the potatoes (they tasted like butter but not in a good way). I ate all of the sushi (which was really fresh and amazing), the chicken (which was wrapped in black forest ham and filled with mushrooms - soooo good!), and some of the tomato with mozzarella (I usually love tomato with mozzarella, but this one wasn't very good.)

After eating the above food, I would have been okay without any additional food. However, hubby decided to go to the dessert table and brought back the most amazing plate of miniature desserts. They were sooooooooooo amazing (I know, I overdid it a bit on the "o's"). There was a one-bite mini fruit tart, a princess cake triangle, cookies filled with marzipan and dipped in semi sweet chocolate, cookies filled with hazelnut cream.... It was simply amazing. Not only did the desserts taste great, but they were sooooo pretty. I know, I know, I should have taken a picture... Since I had been craving chocolate and sweets for a while (it was that time of the month), I decided to treat myself and I ate most of hubby's dessert plate...

I have to say that I ate quite a bit of sweets. In the past, I would have beaten myself up for being "bad" and restricted food the next day. This could have led to "being bad" again and could have ended up in a vicious cycle. Not so this time. I rationally assessed how much and what I had eaten that day, and it really wasn't that bad. I had had a nutritious breakfast and lunch, and my dinner choices were okay. (I think it's key not to go hungry to a buffet!) So a bit too much sugar, white flour, etc. certainly wasn't the end of the world. The next day, I worked out but I didn't feel compelled to "make up" for being "bad" the day before. In fact, I truly don't think I was bad. So the next day I ate healthy meals but also enjoyed some wine. I felt like my life was in balance. And balance feels good!

Be well,
Andrea