How to survive the Wedding Buffet

(or any Buffet!!!)

Bingeing at Buffets

We’ve all been there and every time it comes as such a surprise.  You’ve been invited to a wedding or some special occasion and you find yourself waiting in line at the buffet.  And you suddenly start to feel impatient.  “Whats taking so long?”  The buffet was supposed to be at 8:00 and it’s 8:30 already and a long line of people are waiting between you and the buffet.  “What are those people doing?”  The queue doesn’t to be getting shorter.  You start to wonder if there will be enough food left.  The people in front seem to be taking ages stopping at each pile of food and slowly deciding whether to eat something or not and you suddenly realise that you are starving and really need to eat and you need to eat NOW. Slowly, the queue moves forward and you start to see the food.  Well, there seems to be plenty, lots of sandwiches and rolls with various fillings, ham, beef, and egg salad.  Lots of pork pies, samosas, onion bhjais, spring rolls, chicken legs, bowls of potato crisps and yippee a big bowl of chips (fries if you are American).  Oh yes there is a small bowl of salad and some cold pasta salad and beyond that are the desserts.  Gateaux, chocolate cake, lots of smaller individual cakes and a large jug of cream.  Oh look there’s cheese and biscuits, for those without a sweet tooth

The Plan

You think to yourself “I’m only going to eat what I will really enjoy.” You tick off that you would like a ham sandwich a chicken leg and a piece of pork pie and some salad.  You can decide on desert later if you are still hungry.

The Reality

That’s the plan but somehow, you find yourself eating crisps while you are still waiting in the buffet along with a ham sandwich and all the time you are eyeing up the chips, wondering if they will be enough or maybe they will bring some more freshly fried chips by the time you get there. Finally, you go back to your seat and look at your plate, somehow you have managed to fit 3 sandwiches, 2 chicken legs, 3 spring rolls and 3 pork pies along with a small mountain of chips on your plate.  You begin to wonder, what happened?  But not for long, as you concentrate on eating, faster than normal and wondering if there will be enough for seconds. There is and you eat a second plate of food, “it would be rude not too and it would be a shame to waste that food.”  And shortly after you realise you have demolished 2 groaning plates of food, 2 portions of cake and cream and are presently finishing off your cheese and biscuits.  How did that happen? You have no idea but your waist band straining and you are feeling slightly sick – again.  What is up with you? Well the answer is ‘there is nothing is wrong with you’.  It’s not you, it’s just you have without thinking about it, set in place a series of actions which resulted in an unintended consequence – bingeing at buffets.  When you repeatedly do things you don’t want to do, it is a good idea to look for the pattern which leads up to it.  Once you spot the pattern, you will be able to tweak it and change what happens.  In this case, you don’t binge at buffets.  

Make visible the pattern that makes you binge at buffets.

Just ask yourself 2 key questions…. Question One: When you are at buffets, do you eat the way you normally do? Do you normally decide what you are going to eat and mysteriously find yourself suddenly eating far more food? Even if you are not hungry and not particularly enjoying the food.  If the answer is ‘No’, then ask yourself this, ‘What am I doing differently when I go to a buffet?’Question Two: what did you do differently before the buffet? How did you eat on the day of the wedding buffet?  Most people answer something like this. ‘When I got up and was looking forward to the occasion with the buffet.  We weren’t invited to the whole of the wedding just the evening party.   Well I thought I would be overeating at the night so I just had a light breakfast at about 7:30am.  I just had a sandwich for lunch around 12:30 and around 5:00pm started to get ready for the wedding party.  We didn’t have our tea that night because we would be eating at the buffet.  About 7:00pm I went to the party.  The rest you know.’

Recap

Do you usually eat like this when invited out in the evening? ‘Yes.’ And every time there is a buffet you binge? ‘Yes.’ But when you eat normally do you ever binge? ‘No.’ So why don’t you eat normally during the day, before you go to a buffet?  ‘Because, that would be greedy and I wouldn’t enjoy the buffet.’ Ok if eating normally is not an option, lets have look at why you binge at buffets.  You get up have a light breakfast and a baked potato for lunch at 12:30 and then nothing till 8.30pm or later. That’s over 8 hours without food.  Would you ever normally eat this late?  ‘No because I would be starving.’ And when you are starving are you in a good place to make sensible decisions around food?  ‘Perhaps not.’

Top Tip: How NOT to binge at wedding buffets

How about, next time you are invited out in the evening, try eating normally throughout the day and have a snack or sandwich around tea time.  Just think of it as having one of the buffet sandwiches a little early. This way you will be ready to eat when the buffet comes out, but not starving.  And more importantly you will be in a better position to choose what to eat and really enjoy what you choose. Try this small tweak, you will be surprised at how you will not only survive the wedding buffet but really enjoy it. If you found this tip useful just let me know.