The Atkins diet allows for a fairly wide variety of food choices. There are limitations, however, especially when you are still in Phase 1 of the diet. I found it was much easier to eat at home, then to try to stay on Atkins while dining out. Going to a buffet can be challenging, but it is manageable.
I was on the fourth week of the Atkins diet when my husband and I decided to eat at a buffet. This was something we did on occasion before I started the Atkins diet. I believe it was me who suggested it. I was still in Phase 1, the Induction Phase, of the diet, because I felt as though I hadn’t lost enough weight to make me want to move into Phase 2 yet. The problem was, I was starting to get bored with the food, and I missed going out to eat once in a while.
We went to what is called HomeTown Buffet where we live. This is a nationwide chain of buffets that goes by different names in other parts of the country. The one by you might be called Old Country Buffet, or Country Buffet, or Granny’s Buffet or some other name. It is my understanding that they all serve pretty much the same food.
In my experience with the Atkins diet, it is much easier to eat at home than it is to dine out. Even going to the local Farmers’ Market for dinner required me to have to hunt around for food that I could eat without cheating on the diet. Buffets bring their own challenges to dieters, but I did learn some tricks that were helpful.
When you are at the cash register, the cashier will ask if you wanted to pay for a drink. If you say no, you are handed a colored glass that you are only permitted to put water into. This is a good way to avoid the temptation of having soda with your meal.
Start with the salad bar. Grab some iceberg lettuce, or go for some spinach leaves. I’d avoid the mixed Caesar Salad because it is loaded with an indeterminate amount of dressing. How could anyone be certain how many carbs of dressing were in that?
The salad bar has plenty of things that are acceptable foods for the Induction Phase of the Atkins diet. I found tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, broccoli, shredded cheese, and hard boiled eggs that were cut into little pieces. I put a tiny bit of Ranch dressing on my salad. There were peas, but I didn’t remember that I was allowed to eat those. I added carrots, which are not allowed in Phase 1. Oops!
The buffet also had a lot of baked meats that were not coated in breading. I had a baked chicken breast, (which I found to be rather dry). The baked fish was really good. They also had cut up pieces of Polish sausage that were very tasty! If you go during dinner, there should be a chef carving ham, beef, turkey, or chicken.
Skip the dessert bar! There isn’t anything there that you are supposed to be eating while doing the Atkins diet. There are “sugarless” cookies, but I don’t think that means that they are “carb-less” as well. To be honest, I did eat a tiny piece of a rice-crispy bar, (but I wasn’t supposed to).
Image by Aranami on Flickr