Going on week vacation any tips?

Molly_234

I will be spending an entire week at Disney. Which will involve eating out almost every meal for the week. Any tips on what to watch out for or what snacks to bring. How to manage with so many treats around!

Machka9

Personally, I'd take a diet break ... but not go too crazy.

And then I'd take every opportunity I could to exercise. Hike, swim, rent bicycles, walk to go sight-seeing, rent kayaks, etc. etc.

Molly_234

I'll be getting an insane number of steps in which will be nice.

vespiquenn

I'm going to Disney too in two weeks. I plan on eating all the food. Like literally.

More seriously, I do second a diet break. It can be hard to track while on vacation, and can get to the point of being a nuisance when you should be enjoying where you are and who you're with. Just make wise choices if you're concerned. Pass on appetizers or alcoholic drinks. Make sure to get you're movement in, which is pretty easy there. I personally even plan on still working out by running three miles around the Caribbean Beach resort while I'm there, but that's just because I want a change of scenery from my cold Wisconsin runs. Just enjoy yourself, and know that most of the weight you may gain comes from the increased sodium in the meals.

Molly_234

What sucks is time that this past month I've gained 5 pounds from consistently eating over or not tracking calories. I feel horrible about it and want to get back on track but I also want to enjoy the time I get to spend with my family. Maybe I will just eat at maintenance until I get back.

Machka9

A few other tips ...

-- pass on dressings or foods with heavy sauces. That's where a large quantity of calories hide. Maybe you want one meal of pasta with a thick creamy sauce, but not every dinner.

-- order salads and steamed veggies with your meals instead of chips (fries). Again, if you like chips, have them with a meal or two, but not every meal.

-- eat only foods you really want, only foods that are really good. When faced with a huge assortment of food, it can be tempting to have one of everything. But you start eating some of the stuff and it's really not that good after all. For example, I've become really critical of cake. I might be tempted by that large slice of chocolate cake, but when I get it, I discover it's dry and flavourless (for some reason, restaurant/bakery chocolate often is dry and flavourless). So now, I'll look over the selection and make my decision based on which one looks like it will have the most flavour and be the nicest choice. And then I'll just have that one thing.

-- drink lots of water.

ccsernica

Last time I took my somewhat overweight autistic son to Disneyland, he visibly lost weight over the 3 days we were there. Not only was he so excited that it was the end of the second day before I could get him to sit down for a meal, but I let him have his way about where to go next.

Naturally, he didn't plan it at all. So we're on Big Thunder Mountain at the north end of the Magic Kingdom and he wants to go to the Toy Story shooting gallery at the south end of California Adventure next? OK, fine! Let's go! We must have put in 100,000 steps/day while we were there.

I'd say that very likely you won't have any problem maintaining while you're there even if you eat in a way that would be over-indulgence under other circumstances.

kkress92

There is another thread about this, (sorry I don't know how to post a link) it's got some good insights. You can search for it, it's called "dieting in Disney" Enjoy your vacation!

Theo166

Can you split meals or treats with a companion? This approach might allow you to increase your variety.

In terms of portable snacks, I like those individual servings of string cheese and maybe a small jar of peanut butter to keep in the room.

ashleighs148

Enjoy yourself. Never been to the American parks but I've been to DLP a bunch of times. I went to DLP for 7 nights at Christmas and walked well over 96 miles (phone died a couple days). I was on my feet from 7 am to 10 pm with maybe two and a half hours each day sitting eating. I find that tends to balance out the high-calorie foods. I'm usually a little heavier when I get back for the first two days and then it falls off, probably due to all the salty food. Just enjoy yourself. Wish I was going!