Jonathan Steedman (00:01.144)
Hey food groupies, let's talk about buffets. I've had a question come through from someone asking for some strategies to help manage, do I approach a buffet when I'm on holidays and things like that. And so that's what this episode is gonna be about. Side note, if you do have requests for topics, feel free to shoot them through, shoot me through a message, no promises, but always on the lookout for helpful nutrition topics to talk about here. So if you've got one, please feel free to shoot it through.

There's a couple of different strategies I'll take you through around how to manage a buffet. The first thing is to just make sure though, before we get into those, you want to be pretty clear on how you want to approach the holiday and the food at the holiday. And then also what your goal is. Now for a lot of people, so my world is weight loss. That's what I help people do. So a lot of these strategies are coming through that lens of weight loss, but I would say that it's still good to have an idea.

of how to approach food on your holiday, regardless of your body composition goals. A lot of the time, what drives my food decisions on holidays is how I feel, particularly if it's a big day or I'm going to be doing some traveling or some sightseeing or something like that. I don't want to feel crappy during that, you know, I wanna feel good, I wanna have good energy. So I'm not like avoiding certain foods because they're quote unquote bad for me. Sometimes I'm avoiding certain foods because I know that, yeah, look if...

all I eat for breakfast is hash browns. I'm not going to feel very good for an hour afterwards, right? Not to say I wouldn't have some hash browns, but I would maybe do that in addition to some of the other things I'm about to talk about. So that's the first thing. Go into each meal with a bit of an idea of what that meal means to you. Now on the flip side, maybe there's this buffet, this amazing restaurant that you've heard lots about, you've waited months to go, you've always wanted to go there and things like that. And so you might choose to ignore everything I'm about to tell you in that situation, which is also

completely fine. All I want is for it to be an intentional choice, not this like, I don't really know what to do. sort of, oops, I slipped and fell into the ice cream, right? So I would encourage you before you approach the holiday or before you get to this meal, let's just have a bit of a think about, right, what am I trying to achieve here? So if your goal is around,

Jonathan Steedman (02:20.257)
I don't think anyone's goal should be weight loss on a holiday, but let's say that overall in this period of time, your goal is weight loss and then you happen to be on holiday for a block in that weight loss phase. You probably want to minimize the amount of weight gain that occurs over the holiday, right? The goal being zero or at least keeping it to a smaller amount. So when you get home from your holiday and you decide to get back into chipping away at that weight loss goal, you don't feel like you've taken too many steps backwards, right? That would be

That's a very common situation that I take a lot of food groupies through. And these are the strategies that are gonna help you with that. So the first thing with a buffet is kind of like any other meal, you really wanna build your plate. So you wanna be thinking that, you know, that kind of healthy plate model, which you might've seen, it seems, it looks overly simplistic, but it's actually super, super valuable. And if you can build a plate that looks like that healthy plate model, similar, like not perfect, but close to that, each time you go up to the buffet,

going to be feeling heaps better, right? So that's where aiming for that loosely a quarter of a plate of a good source of protein. I guess, particularly for breakfast, that's going to be something like eggs, maybe some bacon or leaner sausages, or maybe there's some like yogurt, or maybe they've done like a tofu scramble or something like that. Other quarter of the plate. Wait, no, don't do that yet. Other half of the plate, ideally some kind of fruits or vegetables. It doesn't really matter what's

form they're in. And this is really important, particularly in this situation with a buffet. You're probably going to look and be like, but that salad's got lots of dressing on it. like those mushrooms have quite a bit of butter. It doesn't matter. It does not matter. Okay. In this situation, all I care about is are you getting your fruits and vegetables in? That's it. If they've got a bit of extra, a few extra calories on them from dressings and sauces and gravies and things like that, it does not matter. You're still going to get the vitamins and minerals in the

the polyphenols and all the good stuff in those plants. So you're get the fiber, which is gonna fill you up and help you feel satisfied and help you poop later on. the butter and the sauces and the dressings and the gravies don't detract or take away all of those benefits. So still please just aim for that third to a half a plate of that stuff and don't stress if it's got other things going on. And then the final quarter of the plate.

Jonathan Steedman (04:35.434)
you know, in the healthy plate model, it's starchy carbohydrates, know, whole grains, those sorts of things. But on holidays in particular, I just like to make that quarter plate like whatever you want it to be, you know, dealer's choice. And so that's where I would be putting my pancakes or my waffles or my hash browns or, you know, the foods that bring me joy. so every time I go up to the buffet, because it's pretty rare on holidays, if there's a buffet breakfast, it's pretty rare, at least for me, that I'm only going to get one plate.

I'm probably going to go multiple times, but I'm still always trying to build that loose pattern of a plate because I know that it's going to fill me up. It's going to make me feel satisfied. It's not going to make me feel like really heavy and sick afterwards. And I know that it's going to give me kind of nice, smooth energy for, you know, a good portion of the day rather than a big kind of spike in energy and then crash in energy at like, know, mid morning. And so all of those same

rules apply. And I guess similar to the protein options as well, sorry, similar to the fruits and vegetable options, some of your protein options may be quote unquote suboptimal. Maybe there'll be slightly fattier cuts of things, or maybe there'll be some crumbed stuff, or maybe there'll be like, again, don't get too hung up on that. If you're building your plate in that fashion, you're gonna be pretty good. In between going up for your second plate, I would encourage you to maybe wait five minutes.

just to allow your body to, I guess, register that you fed it for starters, allow the food to hit your stomach, feel full, and then check in with yourself like, hey, do I need more food? Do I wanna go get more food? And sometimes the answer will be yes, and sometimes the answer will be no, but at least just take that second to check in, because it sometimes takes 10 to 15 minutes for all of the chemical signals from your stomach to reach your brain to say, hey, I'm full. And so if you go back for a second plate before those messages have reached your brain,

you're going to be feeling super hungry and you're gonna be like, I definitely need another full heaped plate here. And you might go back and finish that. And then all of a sudden you'll feel overly full and you probably have also consumed more than you really needed. The last thing I do, this is kind of all holidays to be honest. This isn't just a buffet thing, but I always try and travel with some kind of protein supplement, a protein powder if I can, cause that's the easiest and the cheapest, or I'll go and grab a few

Jonathan Steedman (06:58.539)
ready to drink protein shakes. like the Paul's ones, the Rockaby ones, the Dairy Farmers ones. I don't love the taste of those ones to be honest, but the Paul's ones and the Rockaby ones are fantastic. But give me about 30 grams of protein in a bottle. I like to down one of those on the way. Well, not perfect, but you know, like if I'm going to breakfast in 20 minutes, I'll have a protein shake now. And I love this strategy and not just for breakfast, I kind of do it for most meals for a number of reasons. The first is

Protein is probably the thing that is the hardest to reach in some of these situations. And so if I've had a protein shake before I go to the buffet, before I go to the restaurant, it kind of takes the pressure off of me needing to, you know, find a good source of protein. I can't really tick that box. And so that's helpful. And it means then that I'm still going to feel good and satisfied afterwards because I've still hit my protein target. So I'm still going to get that nice slower release of energy. You know, I'm looking at the spike and the crash and things like that.

And then the other thing that having that shake a little bit before I go does is it just takes the edge off my hunger. And so when I'm at the buffet or I'm ordering from a menu, I can probably, I can make some more considered choices because I'm not ordering from a place or piling up my plate from a place of utter starvation. Because if I'm crazy hungry and I'm at a buffet, of course I'm going to put

more on my plate than I probably need. That's human, that's biology, right? So if I can have some kind of protein shake, some I've had, I've had members use bars as well, protein bars. I personally fricking hate protein bars. I've chosen to never consume another one in my entire, that's not true. I'll probably have to at some point, but I hate them. I hate them so much. But if you like them, you could swap the protein shake out for a protein bar. But having that little protein, I guess, box ticker.

20 to 30 minutes before you go is so, helpful. And I know some people are like, that sounds pretty disordered. For some people, it might be disordered if you feel like you can't eat a meal without protein, right? I'm not doing it because I need to hit my targets or I've had a bad day. I'm doing it because it makes me feel better. And I don't mean to feel better mentally, cause I'm like a good boy who's done my job. I mean, feel better. Like my digestion feels better. My energy levels feel better. I feel, I don't feel like

Jonathan Steedman (09:21.78)
weirdly hungry and full or anything like that. I just feel nice and satisfied. And so that's my motivation for having that protein supplement before I go. And I would encourage you to have a think about it as well. Cause I would say if that's your motivation, then that's really positive and it's going to just result in you feeling better overall. Right? So anyway, I said this is going to be short and I rambled. I'm so sorry. If you're still here, build your plate, quarter protein, if you can, otherwise do the protein supplement before.

Third to a half plate of fruits or vegetables. Do not get stressed about what's on them. Like I said, if there's some sauces or gravies or dressings and things, it's so fine, they're still really beneficial. And then a quarter plate of fun weight in between going up to get another plate. So give yourself sort of five minutes. And then, and then of course, always at a buffet, pocket some extra bits of fruit to take with you later in the day. That's like, I think hotels just accept that you're gonna steal some stuff from the buffet.

if there's like apples or bananas or things that you can just slip into your bag or into your pocket. That's mid-morning done, or then you can add that to your lunch while you're out. Or maybe you grab another protein shake and the banana and the apple that you got from the buffet, that's your lunch for the day. And then you're all sorted and you've saved money and on you go. So yeah, always pocket some fruit at the buffet as well. Anyway, don't sue me. On that note, I'll chat to you guys next time. Bye.