Eating More Than You Can Digest
Yesterday, I wrote about biting off more than you can chew (figuratively, of course). Today, I want to talk about eating more than you can digest (literally) or having eyes that are bigger than your stomach (back to the figurative again).
I’ll give you an example. So, I’m at this course all week and as it turns out, three meals and two snacks per day are provided. I don’t normally eat that much, so on Day 1 my plan was to work out during my free time, but that didn’t happen (not much time to spare). Today, I decided to sample just a little bit of everything, but even that felt gluttonous. On the plus side, most of the food is delicious. The downside is that my summer wardrobe is less forgiving than my winter clothing (i.e. no bulky sweaters), so I can’t keep this up!
I have heard from people who attend dinner functions on a regular basis that the trick is to only have one bite of everything, but that seems like such a waste. It also requires a great deal of restraint.
What stories do you have surrounding excessive food? Were you at a function or in someone’s home? Was the amount of food deliberate or accidental, e.g. miscommunication or someone ordered too much? Did you ever try to score a free meal by eating a 64 ounce steak or engage in a contest with high school buddies as to who could devour the most at the all-you-can-eat buffet? Share your anecdotes by clicking on the No Comments/Comments link below. I’m hoping your stories might act as an appetite suppressant for me. 
Today’s Jack Nation bonus code is TOOMUCHFOOD. It’s good until May 29th.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
It’s funny you should mention an all-you-can-eat contest with high school friends, because I have just such a tale.
Back in the day, my friends and I decided to hit Little Caesars after our Martial Arts class. They had an eat-in restaurant at Sheppard and Kennedy in those days. They also had an all-you-can eat special on Mondays. For $6.49, you got all you-can-eat crazy bread, spaghetti and Pizza.
So, imagine 4 starving teenagers fresh from an intensive workout! I think the four of us put that place out of business. We ate so much, and not just on that night either, we went back routinely. Ahh, good memories.
Haven’t tried the 64 oz steak test, though I don’t think I could eat something that massive now. My metabolism has diminished and while I’m still relatively slim, it’s more of a battle to remain that way.
-S.B.
PS: Summer clothes, winter clothes… you look fabulous in any situation!
Carly’s Note: Thanks, Sean. Ah, yes - the ravenous appetite of the male teen… And I do remember that Little Caesar’s special! I also recall that it used to cost $2.36 for a MacDonald’s cheeseburger and small fries. I would have that, plus a cup of free water, as a treat during my university days because I was on a tight budget.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I just love all-you-can-eat restaurants! I don’t get a lot of three different dishes though like I used to. I get one of each, like one chicken wing, one shrimp, one small piece of beef, etc. I figure that if I liked something a lot, I could always go back and get more. One thing I do load up on is sushi, especially if it’s good sushi. I do remember one time when I was a kid, we went to Mandarin, and I ate too much that I could hardly move. Now that I’m older, it doesn’t matter to me how much I eat, but how good the food is that I’m eating. Less of a good thing is better than a lot of an okay thing.’
Carly’s Note: Good all-you-can-eat philosophy!
May 28th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Hi Carly,
3 years ago during my physical my doctor said that my overall health was excellent except that my cholestrol was too high so she put me on a low fat diet and told me to exercise an hour a day for 8 weeks.
After 8 weeks my cholestrol was fine but i had dropped nearly 15 pounds and was feeling very weak.
My wife and i went on a trip to Mexico at an all-inclusive for 2 weeks shortly after and even though i tried to show restraint and exercised every other day i put on about 5 pounds in those 2 weeks because the food and booze were so plentiful.
Since then i have managed to find a happy medium but you’re right-it is a struggle to eat healthy when you’re on the road a lot like me.
Hope you’re enjoying your course:)
Carly’s Note: The booze is definitely a diet-breaker at an all-inclusive. By the end of the week, I’ve gone from a bikini to a one piece to try to hide the bloating from incessant margaritas.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Biting Off More Than You Can Chew!
Hey Carly,
I had to chuckle when I read your email about the food available to you while on your course. I work in Marketing which means you can count on at least 4 to 6 large meetings per year with plenty of high carb and calorie foods served for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The funny thing is after a few of these meetings, you become blasé about the contents of the presentation and start to focus on what is going to be served for snacks to keep you from nodding off during your colleagues presentations.
Inbetween sips of cold coffee and warm water, the only thing that brings you back to life are the words “we are going to take a short break and reconvene”…woo hoo off to the coffee and danish station only to experience the sugar crash and burn 15 minutes later!
The hotels and conference centers have become a little more waist line friendly and now have lots of fruit, cereal and yogourt available at break time but I find it is still really, really difficult to keep the brownies, cookies and coffee cakes at bay!
There is also the post meeting syndrome to talk about. One of my colleagues was food obsessed at the best of times but really missed the mid morning and afternoon snacks from the meetings when back at the office…maybe the old saying a way to a person’s heart is through their stomach was not so far off…maybe a well fed employee is a happy employee? I guess the trick is not to feed them too many danishes or muffins so that they can still fit through the front door and don’t fall asleep at their desks from 9-5…LOL!
Hope you got a lot of valuable info at your course and had a great week!
Cheers,
Lisa Blinn
Burlington, Ontario
Carly’s Note: Thanks for the laugh, Lisa! You’re so right about the snacks. We become like pets - food is our entertainment of the day. I won’t be getting on the scale for at least a week.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Years ago, my 5 brothers and I decided to challenge ourselves by eating a VERY large meal. If eaten within 60 minutes, no charge. The meal included a 60 (or 64 I can’t recall) ounce steak, small bowl of beans, half a cob of corn and a small baked potato. 3 of my brothers chickened out. The other 3 brothers (me included) tried our best going in there with confidence.
Needless to say, none of us finished in time, the rest of the day was a right-off (feeling sleepy and rather unmovable), and we all had a nice sized left-over dinner for the next day.
The worst part of it was how sore my jaw was from all that chewing….
Carly’s Note: I never even thought about how sore your jaw would be! I watched one of those contests a few years back. The guy who won was done relatively quickly. The others tooks their time and you could see them becoming progressively more disgusted by all the food. Now THAT was an appetite suppressant.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
If you want to save money on Jenny Craig, go watch people at the Mandarin for the dinner seating on the weekend. Especially when they’re featuring crab legs. Nothing says gorging like melted butter running down people’s arms. What a sight to behold, like wee piggies at a trough.
While I love the Mandarin (B.F.F. Shelley & I go there the Friday of the Relay to fuel the tanks as it were) I try not to look around too much for fear of being forever turned off food. Another friend told me as she was leaving once, someone was actually giving back the food to the establishment in their parking lot….ewwwwwwwwww. And she’s someone who already has a dodgy tummy. Lucky it wasn’t a two-for-one-special.
Hope that helped curb your appetite. I know it did mine just thinking about it again. Sorry if I grossed you out.
Cheers,
Lee Ann
Carly’s Note: I love the food at Mandarin, too. They offer fantastic variety. The trick, as you say, is not to over do it. You still get “your money’s worth” by having a regular meal - there’s no need to gorge yourself. You’ll just end up spending extra money on Pepto Bismal later.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Hi Carly I find that buffets are sometimes an ordeal. I take a little(one or two bite)portion of everything i think i will like and then go back for what i like the best. Still full at end though. We went to mohawk racetrack with an all you can eat buffet and i ate dinner then dessert. The bread pudding(which i normally dont like) was so good i had 3 portions of it with cream. I thought id die i was so stuffed and getting home sitting in a car for 1 hour sucked. Wont be doing that again anytime soon
Carly’s Note: Good advice - don’t overeat if you have a long drive ahead of you!
May 28th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Well, there was the time I entered the spaghetti eating contest in college for homecoming week - no hands allowed! I started cracking jokes and made the girl beside me snort spaghetti out her nose.
My husband and I (before we got married) were having dinner at Kelsey’s with some friends. Back then they used to have this monster brownie sundae that I think was called the Fudge Monster or something like that. Hubby had just eaten dinner, and some other friends joined us for dessert. One of the guys challenged my husband to see who could eat this monstrous dessert the fastest. If I remember correctly, my hubby downed the whole thing in less than a minute.
Then there was the time we went to a pub when they had “all you can eat” mussels. He had 12 dozen mussels after having eaten a small meal. The kitchen ran out of mussels!! He can’t eat that much anymore, but if he is eating just the mussels, he can probably still handle about 10 dozen.
<em>Carly’s Note: You couldn’t pay me to overindulge on mussels. It’s bad enough to pig out on regular food, but seafood is iffy. Your hubby must have an iron stomach!</em>
May 28th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Dear Carly,
I was always told that you should get pretty full on the low cal foods, i.e. the salad bar, that way, you’re tummy will only be able to handle a few bites of the many choices you might want to make, as this goes for example when you go to “The Mandarin”. I’ll start with a bit of salad and a small cup of soup and I’m already full, so I barely fill my plate with anything else and I’m done!! Another tip is to put down your knife and fork after every bite chew your food quite a few times before you swallow and you’d be surprised how full you’ll get as you tend to eat more slowly and therefore the signal from your brain tells you that your stomach’s full, whereas those who shovel food into them, won’t get these signals as they eat too fast to get them and only feel bloated and sometimes sick afterwards!!
Good luck my friend, but if you are the type of person who works out all the time on a regular basis, then I would just enjoy whatever you want as how often are you faced with such amazing food, so what if you gain a few pounds, when you leave and get back into the swing of things, you’ll drop the weight in no time, so ease up on yourself, eat what you can and deal with it in the gym after, as you only live once!!
Good Luck and have fun Carly,
Aprill
Carly’s Note: Great advice, April! It will be good to get back to the gym next week.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Hi Carly, unfortunately I don’t have any food anecdotes, but I’m glad to hear your training is going well.
Carly’s Note: Not having any food anecdotes is probably a good thing!
May 29th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Hi Carly
Nice to hear you are having fun at your conference.
I had a similar experience on a manager’s training course. It was for 2 weeks and it was very intensive at times with evening training included. But the food was incredible and plenty. We stayed at the conference centre and all meals and snacks were provided. We had a break every two hours and the snacks were never the same and they were so tasty. They also provided 3 meals a day which I was not used to having. And then there was the hospitality suite after with whatever you wanted to drink. It was a great 2 weeks of food and drinks….but it took me a month to return to normal.
In that two weeks I put on 20 pounds and it took me a month to lose it. I hope that is incentive for you to refrain from too many sweets…as good as they are.
I have missed that sexy laugh of yours on my drive home. Have a good time at the rest of your conference and bon appetit.
Your No 1 Admirer
Gary
Carly’s Note: Thanks, Gary. It’s funny how you can pack on those pounds much faster than you can lose them.
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Carly,
Sorry to say that nothing works for me at when the temptaion is on. If I want it and don’t get it I go crazy till i have it. I have found that the only way I can handle it is eat it if I want it (that way I satisfy my cravings) and then work out harder the next few days. I have to say this has worked for me and is continuieing to work as I have dropped 15 lbs in 3 months and I am still going need 10 more to go. Unfortunatly the only thing that has helped me is exercise which is a four letter word in my vocabulary.
Carly’s Note: It’s kind of like punishment, isn’t it? Congrats on losing the weight, though. That’s awesome!
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:18 am
Hi Carly,
There used to be this place on Yonge Street back in the 80’s called the Chicken Thief and for $8.99 you could eat all the wings you wanted. Back then i was playing a lot of sports and had a fast metabolism(i was in university) so one night i ate 60 wings, some fries and a couple of beers and was hungry a few hours later.
Back in my teens i uesed to eat those big square “New Orleans” pizzas too and washed it down with those “big boss” cokes.
But the funny thing was we were so active back then that we never got fat. If we tried that today we’d be huge!
Have a great day and love your show.
Carly’s Note: I remember those crazy wing night days. There was a place in Ottawa called Alfie’s that had 5 cent wing night. My budget was so tight, though, that even at that price, I couldn’t afford to overeat. Still, you can’t complain when your average-priced soft drink costs more than the food portion of the bill.