MaryAnnDVC
"Mare", DISing since '99; prefers being tagless
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2001
- Messages
- 14,950
Not sure this has been posted here, but just came across it. I don't even have time to read it myself right now (Heading out for water and batteries! 
) but thought it might be good to pass along.
http://atkins.com/Archive/2003/8/29-106865.html
Dining in the Magic Kingdom
By Janet Cappiello Blake
You dont have to wish upon a star to enjoy low carb eating at Walt Disney World, or wherever you travel. Just sit at Erica Freemans table....
You would be hard-pressed to find low carb and Disney World in the same sentence. But Atkins followers with an affinity for Mickey Mouse have an ally in New Yorker Erica Freeman.
Freeman, 57, fell in love with Walt Disney World some 11 years ago, when she reluctantly agreed to accompany her husband on a trip to the Orlando, Florida, theme park. Soon she was a regular at Disney, where food is as ubiquitous as smiling princesses and life-size Winnie the Poohs. Its a carb-filled atmosphereand therefore a potentially unappealing vacation spot for Atkins followers.
Enter Freeman, a.k.a. the Czarina. A Type II diabetic whose low carb eating plan has steadied her blood-sugar levels and allowed her to stay off insulin, Freeman has written an on-line low carb dining guide called Czarinas Royal Table for an unofficial Disney World information Web site (find the guide at www.wdwig.com/rev_lowcarb.htm). Named after the wildly popular Cinderellas Royal Table restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, the guide helps carb-conscious readers navigate Disneys vast menu of food choices.
After I started on low carb, I realized lots of people shared my problem of trying to stay on some diet or other while they were traveling, says Freeman, who regularly updates her column. Her mantra is Tell Your Server; that is, let your waiter know up front that you want to skip high carb culprits like bread, pasta, potatoes and dessert. Believe me, she says, this technique is much, much better than saying nothing and trying to find the willpower to push aside that creamy mound of mashed potatoes on your plate.
Practices like placing a simple note on a room-service order have helped Freeman get exactly what she wanted from her meals while traveling. For example, the Grand Floridian Hotel accommodated her wishes by presenting a perfect serving of strawberries with heavy cream for breakfast. They sent it up just as I asked, she writes. It was a lovely, legal treat. At a restaurant, the chef himself came out to discuss her meal preferences, and adapted a sausage-and-pasta entrée, adding julienned peppers and extra cheese and subtracting the ziti.
Freemans recommendations are not geared toward one specific low carb program. Instead, they adhere only to general low carbohydrate, high-protein principles, she writes. They are an attempt to show how enjoyable dining out, and the avoidance of sugars, bread, grains, potatoes and other starches, can be even during a [Walt Disney World] stay.
Freeman is part of a group of Disney enthusiasts called The Disney Babes, 20 women from across the country who correspond via e-mail and meet at Disney World once a year. The title of Czarina began as her newsgroup name and stuck. In her professional life as a theatrical director, she has a hectic travel schedule, visiting regional theaters across the country for months at a time, a routine that has undoubtedly helped make her a master of on-the-road eating smarts. She began writing restaurant reviews before she adopted the low carb lifestyle to control her blood sugar. (Although she has lost about 30 pounds and several inches, her primary focus is her health, not her weight or dress size.)
But as loyal as she is to her low carb lifestyle, even the Czarina herself occasionally gives in to temptation. Once in a while, you must have dessert or mashed potatoes, she says. But not both, please! When you do, enjoy every bite, convince yourself absolutely not to feel guilty and get on with your life. And they lived happily (low carb) ever after.
Janet Cappiello Blake is a health and nutrition writer who follows the Atkins Nutritional ApproachTM.
) but thought it might be good to pass along. http://atkins.com/Archive/2003/8/29-106865.html
Dining in the Magic Kingdom
By Janet Cappiello Blake
You dont have to wish upon a star to enjoy low carb eating at Walt Disney World, or wherever you travel. Just sit at Erica Freemans table....
You would be hard-pressed to find low carb and Disney World in the same sentence. But Atkins followers with an affinity for Mickey Mouse have an ally in New Yorker Erica Freeman.
Freeman, 57, fell in love with Walt Disney World some 11 years ago, when she reluctantly agreed to accompany her husband on a trip to the Orlando, Florida, theme park. Soon she was a regular at Disney, where food is as ubiquitous as smiling princesses and life-size Winnie the Poohs. Its a carb-filled atmosphereand therefore a potentially unappealing vacation spot for Atkins followers.
Enter Freeman, a.k.a. the Czarina. A Type II diabetic whose low carb eating plan has steadied her blood-sugar levels and allowed her to stay off insulin, Freeman has written an on-line low carb dining guide called Czarinas Royal Table for an unofficial Disney World information Web site (find the guide at www.wdwig.com/rev_lowcarb.htm). Named after the wildly popular Cinderellas Royal Table restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, the guide helps carb-conscious readers navigate Disneys vast menu of food choices.
After I started on low carb, I realized lots of people shared my problem of trying to stay on some diet or other while they were traveling, says Freeman, who regularly updates her column. Her mantra is Tell Your Server; that is, let your waiter know up front that you want to skip high carb culprits like bread, pasta, potatoes and dessert. Believe me, she says, this technique is much, much better than saying nothing and trying to find the willpower to push aside that creamy mound of mashed potatoes on your plate.
Practices like placing a simple note on a room-service order have helped Freeman get exactly what she wanted from her meals while traveling. For example, the Grand Floridian Hotel accommodated her wishes by presenting a perfect serving of strawberries with heavy cream for breakfast. They sent it up just as I asked, she writes. It was a lovely, legal treat. At a restaurant, the chef himself came out to discuss her meal preferences, and adapted a sausage-and-pasta entrée, adding julienned peppers and extra cheese and subtracting the ziti.
Freemans recommendations are not geared toward one specific low carb program. Instead, they adhere only to general low carbohydrate, high-protein principles, she writes. They are an attempt to show how enjoyable dining out, and the avoidance of sugars, bread, grains, potatoes and other starches, can be even during a [Walt Disney World] stay.
Freeman is part of a group of Disney enthusiasts called The Disney Babes, 20 women from across the country who correspond via e-mail and meet at Disney World once a year. The title of Czarina began as her newsgroup name and stuck. In her professional life as a theatrical director, she has a hectic travel schedule, visiting regional theaters across the country for months at a time, a routine that has undoubtedly helped make her a master of on-the-road eating smarts. She began writing restaurant reviews before she adopted the low carb lifestyle to control her blood sugar. (Although she has lost about 30 pounds and several inches, her primary focus is her health, not her weight or dress size.)
But as loyal as she is to her low carb lifestyle, even the Czarina herself occasionally gives in to temptation. Once in a while, you must have dessert or mashed potatoes, she says. But not both, please! When you do, enjoy every bite, convince yourself absolutely not to feel guilty and get on with your life. And they lived happily (low carb) ever after.
Janet Cappiello Blake is a health and nutrition writer who follows the Atkins Nutritional ApproachTM.
