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| You gotta get Minnie Ears! |
We had lots of fun and the obvious stress that comes along with dragging your mom, two kids and husband around all day long in the relentless heat. But we did all the rides we were hoping to do - especially the scary ones (even my mama!) - and I'm sure we made memories we will all keep forever like riding Kali River Rapids in Animal Kingdom 8 times in a row. We were soaked and laughed our butts off. I'll never forget how giddy we all were. So awesome!
So What's The Skinny, Minnie?
So how did I do food wise? Well, first thing to mention is that American portion sizes are CRAZY!!!! Seriously! We could have shared 3 meals between 5 people but because we were on the dining plan, we were all entitled to our own meals plus snacks and desserts. Too much food. I felt so guilty leaving food behind. Le sigh...
I ended up gaining one pound but my weigh in was a day after we returned. For all I know that could have been water weight from all the sodium or from flying. Because, if I have to say so myself, I ate like a rockstar. The only issue was the desserts. I had a hard time pushing them away. I think had they not been available at every meal, I would have lost weight that week.
Most of my meals were made up of proteins, healthy fats, veggies and fruit, which is how I normally eat for the most part. Here are a few of my fave restaurants:
Pico Bill's at Magic Kingdom
Mexican food which meant I could have a fajita platter! This came with chicken or beef, rice, beans, sautéed veggies and three tortillas. I only ever ate one tortilla and brought the rest to the hotel to make breakfast burritos with the eggs we had delivered.
Landscape of Flavors at The Art of Animation Hotel (our Hotel)
There were lots of choices at our hotel when it came to various meals. Lunches and dinner options were burgers, homemade chips, pizza, build your own pasta, sandwiches, salads... But they also had a station that made stirfries and curries so I had that a few times for lunch. Really healthy and satisfying.
The Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom
We had dinner here the second day I believe. We've dined at The Rainforest Cafe in Disneyland and it was also very good. I had the seafood stew. It was delicious! It was tilapia, mussels, crab legs and shrimp in this spicy tomato broth. Beautiful depth of flavour. Mmm....
The Garden Grill at Epcot
This is a character dining experience so Pluto, Chip and Dale and Mickey all come by to visit as your restaurant rotates. Exciting! This meal was family dining which meant that they just brought a set menu to the table and you could keep asking for more food as you needed. Well, we only needed the one serving for our family of 5.
You got a salad, a big bowl of mac and cheese, sweet potato fries (which were AMAZING! The secret: cinnamon), dinner rolls and whipped honey butter (OMG). Then you got this massive skillet that had roast beef, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, peppers and sausages and cranberry sauce.
Interesting story... So we didn't even finish the first set of food brought to our table. But get this... The waitress said that the table before us had 4 skillets between 4 adults. 4 SKILLETS!!! I can't even imagine where you would shove all that food. This comes back to American portion sizes and, I'll be honest, there were so many people with weight problems down there. Overweight people using scooters to get around the parks... It was sad because I was not that far from that and I know how hard it is. There is a real obesity epidemic down there and it seems worse than in Canada. At least in my opinion. The food industry has made people addicted to crappy food and it's very, very scary. Ugh... So, so sad. :(
50s Prime Time Cafe
This is such a riot! This restaurant looks like my grandpa and grandma's house in the 80s... because it hadn't changed since the 50s. The melamine furniture, the kidney shaped tables, the old tube TVs.... Hee hee... I loved it. The food was pretty good too. I had Mom's Old Fashion Pot Roast. It was satisfying and tasty. And for dessert, the pineapple upside down cake. You had to have it! lol It was very good and so pretty too.
And notice what was playing on the TV? Dennis the Menace! Inside joke because we call our Ben "Bennis The Menace" and he looks just like him.
So these are just a few of the highlights. We also went to the Chefs de France in Epcot. It actually wasn't that great. I had just made homemade French cuisine the week before so maybe I was spoiled by my "made with love" food ;)
No Tracking? No Kidding!
So after almost 250 days of straight tracking, I took a break while I was on holidays. And you know what? The earth did not implode. I ate mindfully, probably had too many desserts and sweet tea but hey, I was on vacation and we were putting in an average of 26,000 steps a day. I actually hit my first 30,000 steps badge while I was out there. Nice!
What I noticed about not tracking is that I'm at a place now where I just naturally want to eat better. I wasn't choosing healthy food because I'm "watching my weight". I chose healthy food because I knew I wouldn't feel like crap afterwards. Who wants to go on an upside down roller coaster and sit in 35 degree heat after eating a greasy cheeseburger and fries? Yeah, not me. I knew that would make me bloated and icky. Not worth it. Plus my body now CRAVES nutrition. NSV!! Can I get an amen?
So I was kind of proud of myself. Temptation was everywhere but I wasn't really tempted. I think all of this is sinking in. It only took 37 years. Awesome.
Simply Filling - Making the Switch
After evaluating my performance at Disney, I realized that I was in a place where I was ready to trust myself with food and not track as strictly. Someone mentioned a few weeks ago that, with the work I was doing on being more mindful about my eating, I might be ready for Simply Filling. If you don't know what Simply Filling is, here is the abbreviated version.
Instead of counting points for all of your food, Weight Watchers gives you a list of food you can eat without tracking and anything that isn't on the list (mostly junk food, sauces, certain fats, etc.) is tracked using your weekly points. But... BUT... you must practice mindful eating. You should only be eating until you are satisfied. Here is the list of foods.
This is my first day and so far I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. For the last few months, I've been going over my weekly points and, every time I do that, I feel tremendous guilt. But I've still been losing weight. The reason I have been doing well is because I was eating more food to satisfy my hunger and I was choosing good foods. I wasn't going over my points to eat junk food. I was just eating more. The extra eating started around the time I started running - my body just needs more calories to fuel itself and I'm honouring what it's telling me. But I still felt bad for exceeding my points each week.
By doing Simply Filling, I don't feel guilty about eating when I'm hungry because, if I'm eating foods on the Simply Filling list to satisfy my hunger, I don't have the points hanging over my head. It's brilliant.
Could I have done Simply Filling from the beginning? Helllll to the no! I've done a lot of work about learning portion sizes and cleaning my diet and that had a lot to do with counting points. I think that was very important for me to do first. But I know now that I'm ready for this next step. I hope.
I'm Proud of Me
When I started Weight Watchers in January, my goal was to be under 200lbs by Disney. I started at 257 and a little part of my thought that there would be no way I could do it. But as time went on, I realized that I was doing it and that I might just make my goal. Well I hit my goal 1.5 months early and I was 194lbs the day before I left. I DID IT! I feel so proud and so amazing. It's indescribable. We just all have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
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| The centre picture was from last year, the other two were from Disney! |
"One bite, one meal, one day at a time."
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