I really blew it.... Last night we went out with another couple to a nice restaurant. We have been there a lot, but not sense my surgery. They changed their dinning style on Friday nights to a Seafood Buffet. It was $40.00 a person.... I just felt sick. I knew I couldn't eat more than a very small portion. So I made the decision to not eat. I did not handle it right... I guess, I shouldn't care about the money. But it is hard to pay $40.00 for a cup of soup.. What would you do?

I probably would have done what you did. However, you may have been able to talk to the hostess and privately explain you had just had surgery and were unable to eat more than a cup of soup, so could you just purchase that? It's hard to know how much of a fuss to make, but I know we stay away from buffets because there is no way we can eat enough to warrant the cost. If I were caught unawares like you were, I probably would have just said I wasn't eating either.

I also would have said I'd had an operation and asked for a small serve of something. Or another option would be to take a little off your partner's plate and put it on a butter plate. Most people probably wouldn't even notice that you did that.

I wouldn't say you blew it, if anything you did really well not to eat... I know while I don't have too much restriction it would have been easy to pay for it and eat more than I should.

Edited September 14, 200817 yr by Sades

I did talk to the manager and asked if I could do that and he said for the price of the buffet. I feel so , oh I don't know dumb is not the word but for a better I don't know.

I am sure that before you were banded, you ate more than you paid for at a buffet. Consider this the universe balancing everything out.

The $40.00 was not the price for JUST food. It is the price of an evening out with friends.

Congratulations on getting banded

I say KUDOS to you for not eating. It could have been $40 wasted, with chance of over-eating!! As far as what I would have done, it would depend. But more than likely, I would have doen the same as well or asked my friends to go elsewhere (if they knew).

My husband's loves a local hotel's Sunday brunch buffet. But I just can't see going for $30 each, not for my small 1/2 cup. And if he ever insists, I know it wold be a full cup to make it seem worth a little!

Why would you think you blew it? I think you handled yourself just fine. Blowing it would be paying the $40, trying to overeat to compensate for that, and end up throwing up in the bathroom. You saved yourself $40 and potential embarrassment. Congrats

I really think I would have asked my friends and hubby if we could have gone elsewhere.... if they are your friends they will understand. I wouldn't pig out on crab legs in front of a dear friend who couldn't even eat dinner. I'd feel like a real a$$ if I did.

Maybe, to avoid this in the future, you could let your friends know that you will no longer be able to go to Buffet restaurants? If you have not shared the fact that you're banded, perhaps you can just tell them you're changing your eating lifestyle and would prefer not to do the buffet thing. Honesty is always the best policy. But, I would have probably done and felt the same.

I think you did great!!! You are $40 bucks thinner for it too...

This thread caught my eye because I was invited out to a chinese buffet yesterday for lunch. I really wanted to go for the outing more than anything and I was able to find some things that I could eat at the buffet. However they must use a ton of MSG in their cooking because as little as I ate I was a swollen mess today.

The $40.00 was not the price for JUST food. It is the price of an evening out with friends.

Wise, wise words.

Getting out of the habit of getting the most pounds of slop per dollar is one of the habits that many of us need to break.

I'm still trying to get over CHARGING $40 for a buffet!!!! Holy Moly!!! Where do you live? I would pay that for an exclusive restaurant with a full wait staff, and a fancy menu, but NOT for a buffet. Living on the coast, a seafood buffet here is usually pretty inexpensive, so I'm bowled over. But even in an exclusive restaurant, a "top shelf" menu item is rarely more than $35.

There is a steakhouse in St. Louis that is $40.00 for their buffet. We go there every year during our annual marriage retreat with our church. My hubby and I will be eating somewhere else this year. There is no way I would feel comfortable about spending $40.00 for such a tiny amount of food.

I will be just as happy picking a different place and starting a new tradition....a tradition of being healthy and thinner.

Good for you for not eating. My big question would have to be about the support of your husband and friends. I would think they would have all offered to go somewhere else where you would be better able to eat with them.

My friends like to eat at the buffet at the casino once in awhile. I refused to pay and eat there. They wanted to go anyway and someone else insisted on paying for me. I got sick in the washroom.

Never again.