How will I stay on track at Disney?!!!!

I have been really good lately about really knocking "bad" foods out of my diet.  I have been sticking to unprocessed foods, whole grains, lean meats/proteins and lots of fruits and vegetables.  My family and I are leaving for Disney World next Friday and I am terrified about what my food options will be :( 

Any suggestions on how to handle this?

Carry some 100 calorie snacks in a bag, it's really hard to stay on track but it is possible.  Hopefully you can get enough water in you that you won't be really hungry.  The trick to this is to know that you can have some foods that normally wouldn't fit into your meal plan just pay very close attention to your portions.  Portion control is just as important as what you are eating.  So keep an eye on how much you eat but don't beat yourself up over having something that you wouldn't normally have...

I was just at Disney.  On the park maps they now show which restaurants have healthy menu options.  I also found that with all of the extra walking I was doing it wasn't too bad.  Good Luck!

We went to Disney in December.  We purchased the meal plan which was a complete mistake for us because we just couldn't eat all the food. 

You can go on www.allears.net and view all the menus.  Then call the WDW-DINE number (not sure exactly what it is) to make your reservations. 

If you plan ahead and have reservations set, you may be less likely to grab whatever sounds good at the time. 

Good luck and have fun.  I didn't count while I was there, ate what I wanted and didn't gain.  The walking and even standing in line burns overtime.   

 

Good to know that others have been and did not gain.  It has taken so long for me to lose just 4 pounds (4 1/2 months), I would be heart broken if I had to start over again.  I didn't really think about how many calouries we would burn walking all over the place.  I will definitely bring some low-cal snacks to carry around and look for the healthy menu places.

Thanks!

I was so scared, my family and I spent 6 days in Disney at the beginning of January. I am a recovering anorexic, and my family purchased the meal plan, so there was a lot of food. I decided instead of trying to count calories, I would just let go, eat what I wanted, stop when I was full, make some healthy choices and some not so healthy choices, and enjoy myself!

I found that with all the walking (I was sooo sore), I did not gain 1 pound!!!

Have fun and enjoy yourself!

My mother works for Disney so we go for free all the time. I always bring 100 cal packs, or kashi bars. I always order off the kids menus - chicken salad with grapes - carrots. They have a fruit stand at MGM studios. and at some of those little carts with ice cream they actually have veggies with ranch dip and pickles. Oh and they also have sugar free candy. you just have to look. But deff. bring your own snacks into the park. You'll save a lot of $$$ too!

Share, a good way to watch your intake is by sharing, split lunch with someone or a funnel cake with the whole fam.

Thanks for the replies.  I think that the thought of how I will handle the 5 days was giving me a little stress that I wasn't noticing.  I feel much better about it now :)

i went there last year and was worried too- i even purposely booked a hotel with a gym. BIG mistake.. you will walk so much you will be sore! also, bring healthy snacks with you- i had some extra room in my suitcase and brought some fruit, crackers, granola bars etc or you could just stop a grocery store once you get down there!

I went in August 2007 and found that I managed to break even.  I took two boxes of Fiber One cereal, a ton of protein bars and then ate whatever seemed right, plus ice cream each day.  All the walking around kept me from going over.

we went last year, we stayed at a place that served breakfast. i took extra bananas and apples for snacks at the park and before dinner.  it took the edge off and i didn't worry about the rest of the meals.      have fun!

It is tough if you have the meal plan.  I went from from 280 to 240 a year ago then went to Disney and came back 253.  Looking back I would have just eaten a little bit of each item off the meal plan and probably totally skip desert.  If your not on the meal plan go for the little 100 calorie snack pack.  If you want to eat more things only drink water so your not drinking calories.  A strategy i use now is if my wife and I go to restaurants where they give hugs portions she takes some off my plate till it looks regular.  You might want to sneak in some oranges so if you feel hungry you can chow down on one of those instead of getting a high calorie snack there. 

 

Good Luck! 

You're stressed? I live and work here at Disney... it's really tough to find healthy eats (especially when I get off work and am starving) but they do exist. As Samantha1104 said, you can get grapes or carrots. Almost all quick service restaurants have the option of apple slices instead of french fries. All the parks have these little produce "markets" with all sorts of fruit (magic kingdom also has a great pineapple stand... just be sure the get the pineapple spears and not be tempted by the soft serve!!). If you go to epcot though, seriously consider going to the tangierine cafe (morroccan quick service).. I find that has the healthiest choices.. especially if you split a dish (ex. you can get the lamb platter which comes with yogurt sauce (you can ask to go light if you wish) hummus, couscous, tabbouleh and then you can toss the bread that comes with. It's heaven). But I've rambled enough...

good luck! 

When everyone else gets icecream, you can get a chocolate covered frozen banana.  A little trip, but not as bad as it could be, plus you are still eating a nice, healthy banana.  Also, there are a lot of fruit stands (and that is usually cheaper than a lot of the other snacks there anyway)

Keep in mind, even if you don't eat AS healthy as you want to, you will most likely be doing A LOT of walking.

Remember the size of all the parks.  You're going to be walking 5+ miles a day at them.  You can splurge a bit while you are there, it is a vacation after all.

Yeah! Walking definitely helps... if you go to hollywood studios (formerly known as mgm) and don't spend the whole day there, you can actually walk to epcot via the boardwalk.. it's a really nice walk. To the boardwalk alone, it's about a mile or so I think, then a little more to epcot. The distance around the world showcase @ epcot is 1.3 miles. Then you have to take into account the fact that you're not just gonna walk around that lake, but you're gonna explore the countries too. Then you gotta walk all the way back to the studios if you have a car. That's over 3 miles right there and not even half the walking of your day probably.