There are weekends when hubby has a full singing schedule, it it becomes almost impossible to do "fun " family weekend things, so we have to get creative. Hubby loves to sing and is a great asset to the congregations he serves, we have chosen to live with one vehicle and do not do the traditional kid's sports kind of thing for several reasons. So weekends wind up a lot of errand running between commitments. One thing that we used to do on the weekends for fun is go out to eat. There are pitfals in that choice, but it was something that we could do on our own time schedule and have other ways of controlling. When we began the weight loss journey we stopped doing this, but the rest of our life kept up in the same way. Result was kind of boring. Everyone needs some kind of psychological break from the routine , or things become kind of cagy. The weather has turned cool and hiking is not very appealing again , so we decided to adopt our old habit of going our to eat Sunday afternoon. We planned to go to Golden Coral, but when we got there it was very crowded, so we decided to head to Old Country Buffet instead.
In my brain, I thought this would be a really good choice for us all. Salad, meats, veggies abounding. The guys could stick to their calorie based program and I could stick to my low carb program, and everyone would be fine. It's funny how you forget specific details with time . It has been over 10 months since I set foot in an OCB. Once we paid and I faced the buffet, I was reminded of a few things.
1. A lot of the meat is breaded (no no)
2. That which is not breaded is often in a sugar based sauce ( no no for me)
3. I have an allergy to fish and seafood ( I have gotten attached to breathing, so a no no)
So I wandered around the tables, considering my options, and settled on some baked chicken, green beans, salad of baby greens and something called Spinach Marie ( other than a bread crumb topping, low carb). It was good, but I felt really limited as to my options. We had considered going to Sweet Tomatoes, but once you finish with the primary salad bar there are no low carb options, and eating salad only on a cold day is not my idea of fun.
I think I need to go back to the drawing board as to fun options. Oriental buffets are not a good choice because of hidden sugar in the sauces and breaded meats ( and the fish thing for me). Normal restaurants are going to be a better option for us in the future it seems. Just another change in life, but worthwhile. expanding horizons is a good thing after all ! Just hold that bread bowl, please ??
2 comments:
Buffets are definitely tough. So many options and there often isn't the possibility to "special order" for allergies or special diets :(
I eventually gave up on buffet restaurants. Like you found, although there is an abundance of food, the foods that were there just weren't what I really needed to be eating.
We rarely go out now, but if we do it's usually Italian!
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