FOOD ADDICT needs advice!!!

[SelfEmployedDebtFree]

OK, this may sound REALLY stupid to some of you, but just hear me out. Ive done the "free dining plan" several times. The last trip was last Sept. I SWORE I would NEVER EVER do the DDP again. (If you search my posts you'll see a whole host of threads stating I'll never do it again, and why I wont.) OK, so I love making my wife happy, and SHE wanted to do the free DDP. (Yes, its NOT *REALLY* free... but thats another thread)
OK, so I'm once again signed up for the free DDP in Sept. I'm DREDDING it!!!! I have this little problem... I can NOT say no to food!!! If theres a plate of fresh crusted Salmon and Rice Pilaf.... I dont care how full I am... I have to eat every bite!!! YES!!! I have an eating disorder. I'm a LITTLE overweight... not much... but a little. So... My question is HOW do I stop myself from overeating? We all have our vices, and that one is mine.
It sounds simple... but its not.
I just LOVE good food!!! If its "just OK" food, I can stop. If its SOOOOOO GOOOOOD... thats another story, and as we all know... Disney food is SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD!!!
At home its not a problem. I just limit my portions. At Disney... thats not an option.
So whats YOUR advice?
Has anyone out there overcome this problem?
How did you do it???

I dont want to spend my whole trip in the bathroom again. Thats not vacation.

 

[Luv2Roam]

This is what I read that someone did in a restaurant when they were served food they should not eat:
They dumped a lot of salt on whatever the food item was. So much salt they possibly could not tolerate it.
That was the solution that worked for them. You could always give that a try.
However, I hope you enjoy and savor every last bite of your trip!

 

[gigi1313]

i've got some similar tendencies... what i did was share a lot of my CS meals so that i did not overeat by day and could polish off my TS meals w/out feeling guilty (or sick!)

i also took almost all my desserts to go...

plus, as much as i wanted things like beer cheese soup (so filling and rich) i ordered the caesar salad...

drinking a lot of water helps too!

good luck... the things we do for our spouses

 

[Cass]

Buy some Alli & a case of Depends

 

[Snow_White]

Force yourself to make healthy choices when you are ordering and JUST SAY NO to dessert if you are not hungry. Like the PP said, eat salads instead of creamy soups or fried appetizers. Fatty foods fill you up much quicker than healthy foods. I also highly endorse the recommendation of sharing all CS meals, for both lunch and breakfast. Those meals are HUGE and definitely enough for 2 people, in nearly all cases. I also think it's a great recommendation to "sabotage" your plate when you know you should stop eating. Sometimes I purposefully put trash (whatever I might have on hand--empty sugar packets, straw wrappers, etc.) on top of food that I would otherwise continue to munch on.

 

[eemmie1]

Buy some Alli & a case of Depends

Holy crap is that funny!

 

[SelfEmployedDebtFree]

I'm hoping my parents sell another house. They've promised to go with us if they can sell a big house between now and then. If so I'll give all my food away!!!
Which brings to another thought... but I'll post another thread for that one...

 

[Scornelius]

I second the idea of dumping a whole heap of salt over your food. This is a trick used by a lot of people who have had weight loss surgery, who CANNOT eat as much as they'd love to. Unscrew the lid and shake it on if you have to. Trust me, you wont be finishing that cheesecake.

 

[gigi1313]

along the same lines as the salt trick... the "wet it and forget it" method... at home it's just run your food under water or put it in the sink and run water over it... at a restaurant, just pour your water or soft drink over it and leave it soggy and icky on the plate... of course, this makes it trickier for the server to clean up... or you could do what my brother used to do so my mom wouldn't know he wasn't eating his veggies... stuff 'em in his milk glass

 

[MOOOFASA]

Holy crap is that funny!

If there is no pun in that then I give up.

Well you can stay away from buffets thats a good way to limit your intake.

I've also heard that people who read food labels are less likely to "pig out"... so maybe starting reading food labels, beging becoming conscious of how much your actually eating, and maybe this will give you second thoughts before finishing off someone elses plate.

 

[TxRabbit]

At a TS restaurant, as tempting as it is to order everything that you possibly can order, DON'T.

If you would normally split an appetizer at the table, then do that. But don't have everyone order one if that would cause you to overeat. You need to get your family's support on this one of course, but hopefully, they will support you.

If salad is an option. Order it. If a broth based soup is an option. Order it.

Ask for a second plate for your meal, and before you start eating, divide your food and make a pretty plate with decent portions on it. The plate you will eat from. You might taste everything to see if you can prioritize what you think is really great vs. what you would rather not eat, so that you have room for dessert because you'd rather eat dessert than the rice. Give the second plate away as soon as possible so you can't eat off of it!

For dessert, see if anyone will split with you and again, even though everyone is entitled to their own dessert, you all don't have to order it. If you know that you will be returning to your room after dinner, ask them to put dessert in a to go container and take it back to your room to eat for breakfast the next morning or for a later snack when you are really hungry.

The DDP is rough because you can get a buffet mentality where you feel like you have to get your money's worth. As if eating more and packing on extra weight and health problems is some how worth more money than just having a satisfying meal that leaves you full but not stuffed.

I have this same issue. I can over eat and think that I am getting my money's worth. And I have a hard time leaving anything on my plate. So, divide and conquer. Get someone in your family to help you divide or do it yourself with the extra plate. If you leave WDW without starving and without gaining undue weight, then you gained as much value as you can from the DDP, especially since you are going during free dining. I wish you the best.

 

[nanadeb]

My DH comes from a family with 7 kids. His father was Air Force enlisted and money was always scarce. Sometimes all they had to eat was bread and milk for dinner. The amount at any meal was limited, so whoever finished first got to grab seconds. That, and spending 7.5 years in the Navy gave him some terrible eating habits.
Since he came down with Diabetes Type 2, I've had to help him get over that ingrained eat-it-fast and eat-it-all mentality.
When we eat out, I encourage him to eat about half of his meal and take home the rest for later. Food boxes that are marked with a person's name are off limits to everyone else.
I tell him that veggies like green beans and brocolli are "free" and he can eat to his heart's content, as long as he leaves off the butter. To make it simpler, watch the carbs and the fats and the rest will take care of itself.
It helps if you look at the menus before you go and decide what would be the healthiest choices and stick to them.
Healthy can taste really good.
Good luck with your free DDP choices.
BTW, we'll be there in September with free DDP, too!

 

[maggiew]

Maybe ask for a To-Go box right when they bring your meal and put half of your meal in the box before you even start to eat??

Order things that you know come in small portions or go to places that have smaller portions (see the food picture thread for ideas).

As others have said, don't order an appetizer for each of you. Share your dessert.

Order an appetizer and then get a entree salad for your entree. (This is what my DH does. He always orders a salad for his entree - like a salad with slices of steak on it or a chicken caesar salad. He knows I won't finish my meal and he will usually finish it for me.)

It sounds like your issue is finishing everything in front of you, so do whatever you can to limit what they put in front of you by not ordering a full meal (apps, entree, dessert) or ordering smaller portion things.

Hope that helps.

Maggie

 

[SelfEmployedDebtFree]

Theres been some really good points made here!
This one sounds especially good!

Ask for a second plate for your meal, and before you start eating, divide your food and make a pretty plate with decent portions on it. The plate you will eat from. You might taste everything to see if you can prioritize what you think is really great vs. what you would rather not eat, so that you have room for dessert because you'd rather eat dessert than the rice. Give the second plate away as soon as possible so you can't eat off of it!

I also like the idea of asking for a doggy-bag beforehand. But sometimes you dont need to take the food, because theres no need to. If its OK to save it in the room we can keep it for the trip back.
Last year we cashed in our credits on the last day and STILL had a FULL SIZED garbage bag FULL of stuff to take home!!! It barely all fit in the trunk.

Last year we took the desserts that were portable with us after the meal and ate them for breakfast.

This year weve made some changes as well. We already have all our ADRs made. We are eating a couple of our TS credits for the character breakfasts. The rest we have booked are all EARLY lunches. You tend to overeat more at a TS restaurant than CS, so we will have more time to walk it off, if we do eat too much. We didnt book but one evening TS all week, and it was Ohana.

 

[mzliza3]

Why not go a diet before your trip? Be good for a month or a couple of weeks before your trip, then you can have the luxury of pigging out. This is what I always do before a trip because when I'm on vacation, I want to enjoy myself & not worry about what I eat.

 

[beroh2253]

Why not go a diet before your trip? Be good for a month or a couple of weeks before your trip, then you can have the luxury of pigging out. This is what I always do before a trip because when I'm on vacation, I want to enjoy myself & not worry about what I eat.

Close to my thinking. Last year Me and DW started walking 4-5 miles each or every other day starting on June (thats when we booked the trip)so when Sept. rolled along I was down about 30 lbs.
When we got to Disney We just ate and ate and didn't care about gaining weight, I did gain 10 lbs back at Disney that week but so what the food was great.
This year doing the same thing but booked in April and started walking then, got to make room for all that great food last week in Sept.

 

[shondad]

My question is HOW do I stop myself from overeating? We all have our vices, and that one is mine.
It sounds simple... but its not.
I just LOVE good food!!! If its "just OK" food, I can stop. If its SOOOOOO GOOOOOD... thats another story, and as we all know... Disney food is SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD!!!
At home its not a problem. I just limit my portions. At Disney... thats not an option.
So whats YOUR advice?
Has anyone out there overcome this problem?
How did you do it???

I dont want to spend my whole trip in the bathroom again. Thats not vacation.

Sorry if this has already been said, but, just ask for half portions when you order your meal, whatever it is, Instead of messing up your food. I would think it would be harder to look at a plate of 'slop' knowing you cannot eat it. That just seems like torture to me knowing you wasted good food. Out of sight out of mind, just don't have it come to the table at all. JMHO.

 

[djblu883]

ok another suggestion would be to get a to go plate with your dinner and have the left over portion for your breakfast the next day...with the DDP you get 2 meals and a snack...skip dessert and save leftovers for other meal...make healthy choices as well...it's all good...and remember the average walk in the park is a min. of 6 miles....

 

[SelfEmployedDebtFree]

I feel I'm not alone in this. The page hits on this one are pretty high compared to the posts. On the trip I mentioned before, I noticed that ALL the bathrooms were packed. Even the "secret bathrooms" I usually use that are dead were packed. (YES! I'm one of those people who cant stand loud & busy public restrooms!!!)
Every bathroom I went in was loud and bustling. All the stalls were always full, and we did a lot of bathroom waiting. I made a clear point on my last trip (May 07, no DDP) to see if it was just my imagination, and it wasnt. The bathrooms were like ghost-towns in May. The crowd level was less, but not THAT MUCH less.

Sorry if this has already been said, but, just ask for half portions when you order your meal, whatever it is, Instead of messing up your food.

Can anyone confirm for sure that you CAN get smaller portions in WDW???
I tried that once or twice on my last trip and still got a huge plate of food. It didnt work for me. Maybe I chose the only 2 places who dont do that.