Mid-bite, I suddenly turn to my friend and say, “Oh shoot! That was close. I almost forgot to take a picture of this!”

No one knew what I was talking about. Blank stares galore.

As I took out my camera phone and started snapping away, I explained to them what I was doing and why I was taking pictures of my partially eaten food. What they responded with exactly what you’re probably thinking right now:

“Seriously? Hometown Buffet?!”

And with a grin on my face and a sparkle in my eye, my reply to that is, “Yes, HTB baby… HTB.”

Because sometimes, you can eat a buffet and still walk away feeling good about yourself.

Here’s how…

This is meatloaf, spinach souffle topped with gravy sauce, fish with tartar sauce, salsa, sour cream, tomatoes, and diced onions.

Okay, it seems a little bit fatty. Or a lot of bit fatty rather. But I’m hungry and sometimes you just gotta let loose. And frankly, sometimes I just don’t care. I’m not too worried about getting fat, I just try not to overdose on the artery clogging “sauce.”

Here’s a snapshot of “Round 1” zoomed out. That’s right, I call it “Round 1” because there’s gonna be a “Round 2” and a “Round 3” and maybe even a “Round 4″…

On the right is a side of fresh raw blues with no dressing. And above are fried fish chips. Wait, wait, wait! Before you judge, allow me to explain this one and how I eat it =).

I know I shouldn’t be eating the fish chips at all because they’re fried and they contain a ton of free radicals due to being boiled in excessively heated oil BUT I eat them anyway. However, when I do, I cut off the perimeter with a knife and only eat the middle. There’s still a little bit of fried covering enough to give flavoring but not too much where I’m regretting it. My theory is that most of the sides contain only fried crumb siding while the middle contains more fish and less of the fried crumb siding.

You got to live a little, and this is my way of cheating the “system” a bit without going overboard. None the less, I’m eating so many blues and antioxidants on a normal basis that I’ve buffered this little “cheat” enough. You have to remember, this is my choice though, and if anything happens in the future, I take full responsibility for trying to find a loophole and eating fried foods. My reasoning though, is that mild preservation of my “sanity” goes a lot further than eating a few pieces of fried fish with the crumb sidings cut off.

WHY I CHOOSE TO EAT THESE FOODS

I’m actually not allergic to dairy, and most of the time I don’t eat much of it. Again, it provides enough flavor for my food without doing too much damage to my system as compared to sweet foods, refined grains, and excessively fried foods (with the exception of the fish chips).

That’s why I top it with tartar sauce and sour cream. Why tartar sauce? Because I just can’t eat fish without it. Plain and simple. When it comes tartar sauce, I’m willing to make the sacrifice. Please be warned though, you don’t want to eat foods too heavy in fat too often because you will put yourself in danger of suffering from clogged arteries or a heart attack.

The spinach souffle contains mostly eggs and spinach so it’s not too bad and it’s extremely delicious (to me at least) whether I put sauce on it on not.

The meatloaf contains a little bit of sugar so I usually eat it last to use all the other foods that I’ve eaten before it as a buffer. It doesn’t contain too much and it’s still… well… delectable.

THAT PLATE OF GREENS THAT YOU “MUST” HAVE

With these foods I also eat plenty of fresh fiber. That’s what that plate of blues on the right is. I don’t put any dressing on it because there’s enough flavor I got going on with the spinach souffle topped with gravy dressing and fish with sour cream and tartar sauce.

HOW MUCH DO YOU EAT?

I might eat a total of 4-5 plates of this stuff over and over again.

Yes, I eat a lot.

I’m not really big on diversity, I like what I like and I pretty much stick to it. Not only that, the other foods there are either fried chicken, mash potatoes, or other foods that I’m either not really into or are too bad for me to eat all together.

I’m not recommending that everyone eat as much as I eat. That’s not what this article is about. And you must know that for the amount that I do eat, I also exercise a great deal. What this article is about, is even going to a place like Hometown Buffet, you can have a pretty decent meal.

Because sometimes you might end up at a place that isn’t perfect for nutrition.

Sometimes you might have to eat fried fish.

And sometimes you just want to stuff you face.

So I’m letting you know how I eat.

And how you can too. =)

Is this part of the acne diet? No, because if you have acne, you’re going to want to stick to the Acne Free Diet.

So where I find that?

NEXT STEP:

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I hope you all have gotten a kick out of reading this article as much as I have writing it. Please let me know if you have any thoughts, comments, or would just like to leave a funny pun (because I love those too ;).

-Ray