Vacation anxieties

Breeli0519 · April 2016

I've been on and off MFP for the last 4 years. Gaining and losing, gaining and losing. But about 3 weeks ago after a night out with friends, something clicked in my soul and I was tired of feeling like the short, fat, misfit of the group. Nothing that anyone said or did made me feel this way, but it was just that sense of enough is enough with the excuses and BS. It's time to do what needs to be done.

So for the past 3 weeks I have logged my food faithfully, staying within my allotted calories, drinking plenty of water, and exercising 5 days a week. And its working!! Well, DUH!!! Of course it's working...SMH...but I digress...I feel like I'm in a really good place mentally to tackle this task of getting lean and healthy. And now...we leave for vacation to Florida in the morning. <sigh>

Don't get me wrong...I'm super excited about vacation! I've never been to Florida and we're doing the whole Disney thing with my 5 year old. I am and have been truly looking forward to this for months. But as a person that thrives on routine, I will find myself completely out of my routine and largely not in control of how foods are prepared and serving sizes, etc, etc, etc. I have been using a strategy of immediately asking for a box at restaurants and packing up at least 1/2 of the meal right away, before I even take a bite. That has worked well as far as portion control is concerned. That, coupled with making the wisest choice I can on meal selection in the first place, is a habit that has served me well so far and I plan to implement that strategy on our trip.

Basically, this is a long way of saying that I know what to do and have the tools to work with, and under these circumstances I just have to make the best menu selection I can make and don't be a hog at the trough when the food comes. We will also be staying at a condo, so at least for breakfast I will have more control over the situation. I have been working to mentally prepare myself for this trip and know I need to hold tightly to what I know to be true without getting so wound up in the detail that I end up not enjoying the trip. But any words of advice or tips you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I just needed to get this out of my head and own the anxiety and face it head on so that it doesn't blow up in my face. Thanks in advance!

puffbrat · April 2016

Try to sneak in as much exercise as possible. You should be able to do lots of walking at Disney, but take advantage of other opportunities like pacing while standing in line or a home routine at the condo. Otherwise I would suggest don't go overboard with the eating but enjoy yourself and don't stress too much about diet. Continuing logging as best as possible may help. I don't know if Disney has rules about outside food (probably) but if possible, bring some lower calorie or filling snacks with you to help resist the temptation of high calorie park food. Have fun!

gnarlykickflip · April 2016

in my opinion vacations are a great time to relax your routines and just try to have fun. remember, you are going to be walking an awful lot! i went on a vacation recently and made a rule that i just have to stop eating when i am full. the hardest part though is making sure you jump right back in when you get back! i did gain a few pounds over vacation but i lost half of it back within two days of getting back on track afterwards. whatever you do, remember that you can start over when you get home! good luck and i hope you have a lot of fun

eep223 · April 2016

Do you have RunKeeper or something similar on your phone? I would turn that on when I got to the park to track how much you walk over the course of the day. I'll bet it's a crazy amount. That might be some extra motivation! Also, make sure you keep drinking lots of water. I always forget to do that when I travel, and I ALWAYS get dehydrated.

sllm1 · April 2016

Oh, yes, the walking on vacations means you have more leeway in your calorie count. You could also change your goal to 0.5 pound per week to give you more calories to work with. It is vacation, after all.

If you don't have a FitBit or some other device to count steps, I would at least get a cheap pedometer. 2000 steps = about 100 calories (rough estimate)

tcunbeliever · April 2016

We walked about 6 hours a day on our last Disney trip, and I did not regulate my food and I did not gain any weight - I didn't lose any weight either. Disney does allow outside food, just no glass containers. I definitely recommend snacks for the child as food lines can sometimes be long, and packing snacks for you would be good too if you want to keep to a routine. Also, depending on traffic the drive to/from the parks can be 10 min or 2 hours, so snacks to leave in the car are a good idea too. The sit down restaurants usually have a good selection of healthy items that are delicious, so if you eat sit down the selection will be better than eating from the walk up quick-service food options, but sit down is more $$$ too. Taking half your meal with you may be problematic due to the outdoor temperatures. There were 4 of us on the trip and we would actually just order like 2 meals (or sometimes even 2 appetizers) and then share them, and order more if we were still hungry, so we didn't end up with a bunch of leftovers to cart around and also didn't waste a bunch of food. The portions are usually generous even for the child sized meals, plus, we were able to try a greater variety of dishes with this strategy. The Disney staff did not seem to mind or find this unusual at all, so I suspect a lot of folks do this because their portions are so big at most of the restaurants.

MadeinChelseaGirl · April 2016

I am in the same position. I am going home for a wedding - needless to say there will be a lot of courses to have plus dessert!!! - and I am dreading it. Plus, I need to get myself into a swimsuit. Dreading it. Whenever I go to a restaurant I always go for the chicken. Safe, boring choice but it is the healthier option of all. If you like fish, that would be even better, but I don't rally like it. Also, stay away from alcohol. Good luck and enjoy!

MzManiak · April 2016

I would suggest to change your calorie goal to maintenance, and be okay with not losing weight while on vacation. Log as best you can, drink lots of water, do some strength training at night before bed, and just enjoy your rest. You know how to lose the weight now, so even if you gain a pound, you'll get right back to it when you come back to your routine.

WTealA · April 2016

I gain on vacation no matter what lol. A week in maui put me up 6lbs, despite eating salads, fresh fruit, protein shakes and boatloads of water, plus running 18 miles. So make the best food choices possible, don't stress about it, and enjoy your vacation!

Breeli0519 · April 2016

I appreciate everyone's feedback! Thanks! I'm going to go and enjoy myself and try not to get in my head too much.

UnkTantor · April 2016

Prices of Disney food may keep you slim & trim.

sanfromny · April 2016

I just came off of a week long cruise to the Bahamas which was a great excuse not to even log into my phone because I did not want roaming charges so I didn't keep track of calories, ate what I wanted, drank what I wanted and gained 4lbs...Well actually 13 but 9 came off in the first 3 days (water weight). Just have a good time. and when you get back get back at it. Last year when I went to Disney I think I walked 30,000 steps a day...

CrabNebula · April 2016

WTealA wrote: »

I gain on vacation no matter what lol. A week in maui put me up 6lbs, despite eating salads, fresh fruit, protein shakes and boatloads of water, plus running 18 miles. So make the best food choices possible, don't stress about it, and enjoy your vacation!

Hawaiian food is dangerously delicious though. I sat down and ate most of a Costco bowl of spicy poke myself. Calorie count? Probably from all the mayo 34093820941, but man, was it goooooddddd.

Vacation anxieties

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