Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Buffet anxiety

It's another post about life and learning today - I was wondering if anyone had ever experienced what I am going to call "buffet anxiety"? As part of our holiday we were fortunate enough to stay at a 5 star hotel, thanks to DH's conference and part of the stay included buffet meals at breakfast and dinner.

"Buffet anxiety" is what I call being totally overwhelmed at the choices of food available, coupled with stress of how you feel if you overdo the eating, mixed in with the sensation of "entitlement" - ie there are 10 types of dessert here, it's imperative I try them all....

I started the week feeling rather anxious about what foods lay ahead of me in all their glory. Being full of PMS didn't help my cause either but then I decided to stop and analyze the situation. There was no way I would know *exactly* what I was eating, so being anxious about what the meals comprised of was not worth my worry. Rather it was time to bring in the more intuitive side of my eating - I told myself that "I could have it if I really wanted it, but did I really want it?" I really listened to my body. Surprisingly it didn't take long to feel satisfied at all, though I had a few hits and misses along the way - some dishes I had taken a mouthful of and had decided that they weren't the taste sensation I was seeking . I was perplexed for quite a while to be hankering for fresh Vietnamese Pho Soup rather than dessert. I had tried a dessert or two and had been underwhelmed. I was worried that DH would think I was crazy to be craving Pho instead of smoked salmon but by the end of the week I had embraced my inner "Pho" princess and left feeling inspired to grow more coriander etc.

Training wise I did a rather sharp 40 minute run and trained my upper body Mike style. Mike refers to the actual strength training as "iron work"- he's not wrong - I upped all of my weights today and actually face pulled the entire cable stack, yea me :)

6 comments:

Magda said...

Hi Liz,

Buffets are like the ultimate torture for me. I have NEVER eaten with control and stopped when I've had enough. This will be my ultimate challenge on my journey to embrace healthy clean eating as a lifestyle and not a diet now/binge later cycle.

I'm not ready to tackle one just yet but look forward to it some time down the track.

Thanks for a great post which is (again) very helpful.

Cheers

Magda

Flea said...

I agree, we have a restaurant here at the Hillaries Boat harbor called Jetty's and the buffet is enormous. I try to do the asking myself, is there fiber in this, what and how many vitamins and so make good choices. I try to talk myself into that it will only taste good on my tongues' taste buds but after that it will only slip down into the gutt and be worthless apart from the fat gain. It sounds totally stupid but it works for me. LOL

Sienna said...

What a beautiful place! I personally loathe the goldcoast, far too many fake boobs and sales pitches, but the resort looks gorgeous! Thankyou for sharing that you have anxieties too. It's really comforting to know that even someone like you (as in, fit, and gorgeous) worries about what they put in their mouth. Hope you and Hubs and the girls had a wonderful trip!!

Kaddy said...

uhh definite hand up here; i try and avoid buffets at all costs!

but i have come to realise; generally on buffets things look better than they taste as i think they keep things quite plain to suit most people...hmmm will ponder that one!

CONGRATS on training achivements!

Em said...

Sounds like Liz is on fire :)
I have decided i cannot be trusted around food so put myself in sitiations i know i can cotrol, so when i go to the next all females next year i am booking into a serviced appartment with a good kitchen :)
Keep up the great work hun:)
Em:)

little rene said...

This post brought back fond memories for me from my Honeymoon. If you are ever going to eat with abandon and thoroughly enjoy yourself, that should be the time and I certainly did!

I have a "potato" addiction so I couldn't tell you just how many hash browns I ate every breakfast from the buffet! I LOVED every bite though ;)

Naughty girl!