How to eat healthy at Walt Disney World

Sounds impossible, doesn't it? Who in the world ever thought of going to Disney and eating healthy? Crazy talk, right? Wrong! I have extremely high standards on what I put in both my children's mouth and my own can spend a day at the Magic Kingdom or EPCOT and eat as well as I would in my own home.

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Disney has made grand efforts to improve the healthfulness of the foods they offer, and has even gone overboard with an abundance of fresh fruit stands located throughout each theme park.

I just spent a week at Walt Disney World in Florida and returned home half a pound less than I was the day before vacation. Want to eat right while enjoying the magic with Mickey Mouse? Read on.

• Mickey makes mealtime easy on the fitness fan. Every restaurant I ventured through offered several menu options based on lean grilled meat, veggies, and/or fruit. Even the children's meals come standard with side items like: grapes, carrot sticks, and unsweetened applesauce. They also come with bottled water or skim milk. Sweet! Parents would have to go out of their way to substitute french fries and soda for their children instead of the healthy stuff. Eww! You the fitness fan, certainly wouldn't do that!
• Sit down dining restaurants offer Egg Beaters cooked without oil in lieu of regular scrambled eggs. I enjoyed this perk while dining with Minnie and Goofy at Disney's Yacht Club Resort.
• Resort dining facilities offer endless refrigerators full of fresh fruit, veggies, yogurt, dried fruit, nutritious snack bars and more.
• Seek out healthier desserts. Anywhere they are served, Disney has made efforts to make reduced fat, low sugar or fresh fruit treats available.

This is my strategy for eating at the theme parks.

• Have a healthy breakfast before you arrive. Breakfast foods can be tough, and we prefer just grabbing some cereal, fresh fruit and yogurt before we get to any of the parks.
• Between meals, we usually steer towards fresh fruit at the endless fruit stands located throughout each park or share a giant pretzel. The pretzels are a treat, because they feel like "theme park" food but without all of the fat and sugar. Of course these pretzels aren't wild with nutrition, but when you're burning thousands of calories each day (which you'll do) a good carb laden low fat snack works wonders.
• When it comes to lunch and dinner...scope out a few different restaurants. It's well worth it to locate a meal you're both excited about enjoying and will feel good about once you're done. Last week, we went into one restaurant at the Magic Kingdom that offered healthy food......but the healthy food there was fish. We are not fish eaters. So, we looked around and found the "Garden Harvest Salad" at the Columbia Harbour House. It was loaded with mixed greens, grilled chicken, vegetables, cheese and sunflower seeds. It was delicious and we all felt great when we were done! Look around! Don't settle. Disney has too much good stuff to offer.
• When you want a treat have one......just have a dessert that you, my fitness friend, can feel good about. After lunch at the Magic Kingdom we let each of our children have a Mickey Mouse pop. My husband and I shared one. Half a pop was enough to satisfy our craving, but not enough to make either of us flinch over the indulgence.
• Most importantly focus on the big picture when you get to any place designed to provide so much fun. You are there to play, ride, squeal, giggle, and just have a great time. Food should be enjoyable to you, but that is NOT what fun is all about. Food is fuel. Eat so you don't get a headache. But......don't eat just to eat! Your healthy body rocks. Don't get reckless with it. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Daisy, Pluto and all of the Princesses would want you to leave just as healthy as you were when you arrived.