I don't understand "all you can eat"

            I used to love restaurants with the “all you can eat…unlimited refills…buffet…unlimited trips to the salad bar” advertisements. I’m not going to lie, I used to love those restaurants, but now I’ve moved into a new realm of thinking.

            I know it’s a marketing ploy to get people into the restaurants, but with all the emphasis on being healthy why would the restaurant do this? I know that every answer leads back to profits and sales, but I would like a different response. Every day on the news you hear more and more about obesity and health related problems due to weight. Then you see commercials for restaurants offering healthy options, low cal menu items, and then they throw it in there that they have all you can eat deals! It just drives me crazy!

            I don’t eat at restaurants very often these days so I shouldn’t really care, but I do. That’s just me. I think I get a little jealous of people that can go out for big, huge, giant, calorie full dinners and they don’t gain a like 3 pounds immediately after! I would gain 3 pounds after eating a huge dinner! My dinner is always my smallest meal so going out to dinner is nearly impossible.

            This has really just been a rant and has no real purpose. I just saw a commercial for Denny’s about their $4 unlimited pancakes and they are 24 hours, so you can get them all times of day and night! My first thought was, “Damn, I want pancakes,” then it switched to, “Who could eat that many pancakes?”

That kid is clearly shorter than the sneeze guard.

            Also, on a kind of related note, I hate buffets and salad bars, and it has nothing to do with having all that food at my disposal. I hate buffets and salad bars because kids are shorter than the sneeze guard. They have small, dirty hands that touch all the food and whenever you see a short kid at a buffet they always manage to sneeze all over the food! Ewww…it just creeps me out and makes me feel dirty! 

We can't eat there...I can't find the nutrition information!

           I love to go out to eat. I love to try new restaurants. I love to try new food. I am not a picky eater, but I feel like one now.

            These days it is harder to go out to eat because I need to know the calorie content of what I’m eating. In most instances I can find out pretty easily, but many of my favorite restaurants are small, locally owned, non chain restaurants. (On a side note, I’d rather support local business than big chain restaurants. The food is always better too.) These little restaurants don’t tend to have their nutrition information posted on their web site, so it makes it hard to pre plan. Don’t get me wrong, some of them do and some of them have the information available at the restaurant or on the menu.

            Last year when all of this began, I would not eat at a restaurant if I couldn’t find the nutrition information, but now I have a good idea of how many calories are in certain foods and cooking oils. I can usually pick what I need off the menu. Plus, eating the food slowly helps. I know when I’m full.

            It’s also hard to go out to eat because I have to special order a lot of things. I hate to special order. When I would see someone special order I would think to myself what a picky eater they were. I couldn’t understand why you would come to a restaurant, pick something off the menu, and then make a bunch of changes to it. (Excluding people with food allergies; I know why they special order!)

            I’ve turned into one of those special ordering people that I hate. I usually have them hold the cheese, sour cream, and anything else that might be delicious! Before I order, I apologize to the server and tell them I’m really not that picky. One time I looked at the server before I ordered and said, “Ok, I want the chicken fajita burrito, but…,” then she cut me off and was like, “Oh here we go.” I was a little taken aback by that. I wanted to punch her in the face and tell her that she just lost her tip for that comment, but I managed to keep it together and finish my order and tell my special orders and then I said, “I’m not picky, really. I would love all the cheese. I just can’t have it right now.” She just smiled and said it was ok. I still wanted to hit her. It’s her job to take my order and be non judgmental about it. I did tip her, but not very well.

            I miss the days of ordering straight from the menu and making no changes. It’s not even because the food was better. It’s just as good the way I order it now. I miss it because it was easy. I’m sure there is deeper meaning behind all of that, but I’m just not going to explore it! Superficially, I hate being the person that I used to make fun of at the restaurant!