Do You Over Eat While at WDW?

[brunette8706]

Hey All!

This isn't not a bash about eating, because, well, I LOVE TO EAT!!! LoL! Hey, I'm on vacation, RIGHT? Believe in me I can stand to lose a few pounds, and my philosphy is, if I want that Mickey icecream cookie sandwich I'll EAT IT! But then I try to budget my food intake for the rest of the day with healthier choices. If I had that dining plan I know I would gain 10 pounds easy! LoL! Why? BECAUSE I LOVE FOOD! Anyway, do you all have ways that you try to eat healthier? Do you bring in healthy snacks to the parks? Just curious. Would love to get ideas on what people eat. I wish I could go hog wild but I just can't.

Thanks All!

Brunette

 

[Princess.Neve]

For me the main problem is not while I am there, but once I come home. While there I pretty much just eat whatever I want because ultimately I walk it off. The last trip I only gained a pound or so and we were there for 10 days.

Once I get home however, I've gotten used to eating so much food, but I no longer 'walk it off.' So I just make sure to prepare myself to eat extra healthy once I get back and get rid of all junk food in the house.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We eat no differently at Disney than we do at home. We share most meals, Disney's entrées are huge, this gives us room for snacks. We don't do dining plans, no ADR's, don't like schedules and TS meals are over hyped, over rated and too expensive. Breakfast, we do food court, adult platter and split, enough eggs, hash browns and bacon for 2. Lunch, if we do one, pool picnic with grocery stop fixings, sandwiches of cheese, salami, ham, bologna, some chips and some beverages. Dinner for us is what we like from different resorts and park CS restaurants, example: we enjoy the meatball sandwiches from POFQ, might do a pizza at Crocketts Tavern in FW, MK we'll split something from Harbor House or Pecos Bill's. There are alot of places to get individual entrées, we usually stay at WL, and the hand made salads are huge and quite good and filling. So for us it's not about quantity but quality. We share, we make our own so we don't gain weight or have to really watch and wandering around in the Florida heat, our appetite is different than at home, and we don't eat food that we don't eat at home, nothing fancy.

 

[figmentgirl]

Great idea for a thread! It is so true that regardless of what we do in WDW, our bodies return home craving an overabundance of caffiene, sugar and much larger portions. SO no matter what you do at the park, I reccomend a detox diet when you get home. I usually plan a routine of walking and yoga for 5 days along with eating fresh fruits and vegtables, grains and legumes and very little meat and dairy and NO processed foods or restaurants at all. It's usually a very refreshing and peaceful time to restore after living off of restaurants and Dole Whips for a week It also gets me backto where I was before the trip, not just in weight but also in mind.


As to when I'm there, I am going to get fresh fruits and veggies delivered to our room from gardergrocer.com so DH and the boys get their vitamins in between meals and don't snack needlessly on junk, but we all order what we want at mealtime. It is a vacation. If you are trying to watch what you eat I reccomend not sitting down to dinner comepletely starving

 

[disney_dreaming_mom]

I know this sounds a little extreme but I do a workout in the morning before we start our day (usually a quick run around the resort). It gets me energized for the day and then I don't feel bad if I eat a dessert with my meal or have a Dole Whip. I eat a rather strict diet at home so I just make sure to get back on track eating wise when we return. So far this approach has worked for me.

 

[gokenin]

It may hard to believe but I find myself eating less when I am at Disney. When I go i basically will only eat one large meal a day for the most part there are one or two days that I will have breakfast as well as dinner. I dont eat alot when i am walking around Disney I definately drink more water. At home however i notice i drink alot more soda at work and i find myself nibbling through the day more often. heck maybe i should go to Disney more often in order to loss weight

 

[GovieMom]

Of course we overeat! lol Part of the enjoyment of our Disney trips is eating at their restaurants. We get the dining plan, and use our CS credits for lunch and TS for dinner. All that food, plus desserts and snacks here and there, adds up. However, we walk for MILES every day at the parks, and to and from monorails/buses, etc., from morning til night. All that walking burns up the calories, so that none of us has ever gained more than a couple pounds total during a week spent at WDW.

 

[BradyBz12]

For me the main problem is not while I am there, but once I come home. While there I pretty much just eat whatever I want because ultimately I walk it off.

Agreed! We definitely go with the "hey, we're on vacation" mentality when we're there, but we walk so darned much (literally MILES per day) that we rarely find that it results in a big weight loss - and we've been for 3 weeks at a time the past 2 years.

That said, there are definitely ways to eat healthy at WDW. I'd recommend doing a little menu research before you go. While we may overeat some while we're there, we do our best not to load up on burgers/pizza the entire time and it really helped to review the menus and find out the places where you could get some decent, healthier food too.

Some of my faves for counter service include...

MK:
Columbia Harbor House - excellent tuna sandwich
Cosmic Rays - chicken meal (even the green beans are good)

AK:
Flame Tree BBQ - split any of their platters, it's a TON of food
Picnic in the Park program - we had the sandwiches recently and it was a nice, fresh meal choice

EP:
Tangeriene Cafe (Morocco) - their Shwarma platters are super and plenty to share
Sunshine Seasons food court (The Land) - tons of great options here and food is usually pretty fresh

HS:
They just updated the menu at Fairfax Fare (over by ToT) and you can now get BBQ platters similar to Flame Tree here. Again, lots of food to share and an alternative to fried stuff.

You can find a section of menus here on the DIS site and also on AllEars.

 

[poeticdiabetic]

Well, when we go to Disney, we eat very well, and we actually LOSE weight. Why? Because we have a system. Wanna know our secret? OK, here goes:

When we look at our dates, and before we make our ADRs for dining, we check the schedule for EMHs... especially evening EMHs. During those days, I will make an ADR for a time between 5 and 6PM. If there's no evening EMH, then we eat dinner at around 4:30 or so. What I try to do is make sure that we have at least 4 hours of walking time after our last meal. And if we get thirsty, we drink water only until the next day.

Oh, and when there's a late Evening ADR (like at MK or EPCOT), we will sleep in a little bit. We might wake up at around 9 AM or so and fiddle around the hotel a bit. We will normally eat a breakfast bar, apple and juice box for breakfast, and not hit the park until 11AM or so. And we'll eat a nice-sized lunch on the DDP and wait until dinner to eat again.

Oh, and we normally have some snacks and a CS meal left over after our nights are done to eat on our last day. The CS will be our dinner, the snacks will be our lunch and snacks and we eat our normal breakfast of bars, fruit and juice boxes.

 

[Judy from Boise]

Wow, that is very close to what we do. I book a buffet ADR in whatever park has EMHs. So we really have a nice meal around 5 pm. Because we are out late we sleep in, and usually hit our first park in time to do a early CS lunch. In between we have snacks if we get hungry....we bring beef jerky and trail mix, and granola bars from home. At the parks we may grab an ice cream or adult beverage.
I hate overeating, makes me feel horrible. We get by just fine on 2 meals a day, and I love losing weight and saving $ at the same time!

 

[rubato]

I know this sounds a little extreme but I do a workout in the morning before we start our day (usually a quick run around the resort). It gets me energized for the day and then I don't feel bad if I eat a dessert with my meal or have a Dole Whip. I eat a rather strict diet at home so I just make sure to get back on track eating wise when we return. So far this approach has worked for me.

You're not extreme at all. Or, if you are, so am I. I run every morning on my vacation. I don't do as much as I do at home, but at least 2 or 3 miles to get me going. It helps me to relax. I'm very much on the hyper side, so my family can't keep up with me. If I run in the morning, I'm more likely to go with the flow the rest of the day.

As far as food, we don't overeat at Disney. We have a very healthy, hotel room breakfast. Eat a light lunch, TS dinner and only drink water. With our meals, we may have iced tea or coffee, but no soda. I'm on the dining plan for the first time, so I'm going to get snacks that we can bring home. I don't want to waste the snack credits on food when I'm not hungry. I really think that is the key to not gaining on vacation. No matter what is offered to you, if you aren't hungry, don't eat. If you are hungry, eat what you want, but stop when full. There is also a ton of seafood available at almost all TS restaurants. If the portions are too big, I'll probably box it up and eat it the next morning, or another day (I love having a refrigerator in my hotel room).

 

[Ty_Ty]

Actually we do the opposite, except my mom. I end up skipping breakfast ( I don't know why ), eating a CS lunch and dinner, and don't eat as many snacks. We have never had ADRs or even eaten at a resturaunt that wasn't CS at the world, we would rather spend our times riding and enjoying the park than eating. That's just my opinion though.

 

[plucky]

With all of the walking, I find that I lose a little weight at Disney! We eat cereal in our room for breakfast, hit a counter service place for lunch and have salads or sandwiches, and eat a sensible table service meal for dinner. Portions are so big, we can never finish!

 

[Tiger926]

Nope - I don't overeat at home, so why do it while on vacation? I don't get that whole way of thinking. We don't eat fast food, drink pop/coffee, nor eat junk food while at home, so we don't do it while on vacation either.

Tiger

 

[ols386]

I admit it. I overeat at Disney World, and I don't worry about while I'm there because, for me, that's part of the whole WDW experience.

 

[mrodgers]

I don't care what I do if I'm on vacation.

I like to eat, I like food and good food at that. I have a grill at home and I cook through most of the summer and plan on doing much of the cooking through the winter (ran out of propane the other day out grilling some chicken breasts in the balmy 29 F temperatures...) My wife cooks on the stove the rest of the time.

At home I am trying to cut down on any snacking. It's hard to do with 2 young ones in the house. We currently have oreos, oatmeal cream pies, chex mix, gold fish, scooter crunch bars, cookie dough ice cream, pretzels, nachos cheese and salsa among many other snacks laying around in the kitchen. It's hard not to eat snacks. I use to drink a lot of pop (soda? I think "pop" is a western PA kind of thing, isn't it?) at work and have recently decided to get off the Pepsi kick. It was my coffee, my source of caffene at work since I don't drink coffee. I decided to quit drinking it and feel much better.

I normally drink a ton of water all day at work too. It's tough to sit and eat a meal and just drink water when you probably drink about 6 gallons a day throughout the day every day. It's currently in the high 20's outside, but still about 90-95 F at work. Summers it is 115-120 at work with usually a measured 97% humidity. I drink a lot of water!

What I wonder about is the June heat when we go. We are on the dining plan, but are we going to even want to eat with the heat and humidity? Heat and humidity tends to make one not want too heavy of a meal. I'm wondering if we will wish we didn't spend the money on the dining plan.

 

[yankeeGLEEgirl]

NO, I dont. at CS meals i try and get veggies or fruit in lieu of dessert, and dont drink soda, and walk a lot.
I will eat a mickey bar, and suck it down like it was my Last Supper, but that is it.





I thought i heard that food eaten at the World was calorie free. wasn't that on Oprah or Maury????

wait, maybe Jon and Kate said that............nope- it was The Donald. (trump)

 

[FigNewton]

I might feel rather stuffed after I eat, but compared to how many calories burned while I'm there, I'd have to say no. I come home weighing generally about the same as when I left.. sometimes less.

 

[Micca]

We don't overeat at WDW like we used to. Just got tired of being so full I could bust with so many things to do there. We do eat *plenty* but not to gorging levels.

 

[garanorymom]

We definitely eat more at Disney, I think it is hard not to. That said, we usually don't walk 9 miles a day at home either. I usually come home 1-2 lbs. lighter.