The Life Ledger

Fitness is a way of life.

Did you know each turkey leg has over 1400 calories? Start at the beginning of the series for some general Disney World nutrition information.

photo credit: maduarte

Far from a typical theme park, Epcot offers visitors a blend of entertainment and education. Using fun, animatronics and Disney flair, Epcot urges recognition of the part one plays in the world, the environment, and our shared future. At Epcot’s Futureworld, visitors experience space, sea, speed, land and imagination, and the one thing that ties all the disparate experiences together is, of course, food.

Below, I’ll list vendors and restaurants offering healthier snacks and meals. We’re compiling most of the information below from great Disney sites like MousePlanet.com and AllEars.net. If you’re not like the folks at the WDW Today Podcast who can visualize every nook and cranny, you might want to review a park map like the one found at http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/. Also, keep in mind I am in no way proposing the suggestions below are healthy, particularly since I have no nutrition information - rather, the suggestions appear healthier in comparison to the standard fare. Finally, we’ll be skipping the character meals, because let’s be honest - if you’re paying for a character meal, you’re paying for the experience, not the food. With that in mind, let’s get started!

photo credit: Mista Gargoyle

Sunshine Season Food Fair
Land Pavillion, located in lower level outside entrance to Soaring.

After taking a leisurely flight over California, a boat ride through the history and future of agriculture and learned about the Circle of Life, Sunshine Season Food Fair offers a great (albeit loud) place to catch your breath before continuing your adventure. Sunshine Season is a huge counter-service area with many options for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, and organized into “bays” serving different foods. The Asian area offers steamed vegetables, sushi and (usually) a vegetarian meal option. There are several fish options, including Seared Tuna on Mixed Greens with Sesame Rice Wine dressing and Grilled Salmon with Mashed Potatoes with Kalamata Olive Pesto. If you’re not keen on fish, both the Grilled Vegetable Cuban Sandwich and Rotisserie Chicken or Beef Flatbread with Wild Greens and Tabbouleh appear to be tasty, healthy alternatives.

photo credit: ColeMatthew - all rights reserved

Coral Reef Restaurant
Living Seas Pavillion, located just inside main entrance.

Coral Reef offers a pleasant, if pricey, dining experience, providing guests full view to large fish tanks - photos like this one illustrate the dining experience. As MousePlanet puts it, “For some, there may be a bit of a cognitive disconnect in serving a mostly-seafood menu while watching fish swim around you.” Or as Len Testa eloquently puts it, “them’s good eatin’!” If you don’t mind eying both before and after versions of your meal at the same time, Coral Reef does have some healthy-sounding alternatives, including Pan-seared Tilapia - served with a roasted white and green bean salad tossed in a tomato vinaigrette and Grilled Mahi Mahi - served over Israeli couscous and arugula with honey soy glaze. Land-lubbers can try the Grilled Chicken Breast - with Jasmine rice and chicken broth.

photo credit: XISMZERO - all rights reserved

Electric Umbrella Restaurant
Future World, located inside Innoventions West near the Fountain.

Electric Umbrella offers fast counter-service fare with a few healthy alternatives to the standard hamburger. If you’re in the mood for a quick salad, try the Tossed Island Chicken Salad with mango, pineapple, and raisins, in a fat-free Italian dressing. If you’re more in the mood for a quick sandwich, try the Vegetable Wrap with hummus, zucchini, lettuce, cucumber, carrotts, roasted red peppers, balsamic vinaigrette and apple slices or Grilled Chicken Sandwich - with lettuce and tomato served with a wheat bun with apple slices. Or, if you’re really courageous, you could try the Len Testa Build-Your-Own-Salad salad bar(otherwise known as the fixins bar), although you might get some odd stares.

Next up - Epcot’s World Showcase.

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Did you know each turkey leg has over 1400 calories? Start at the beginning of the series for some general Disney World nutrition information.

photo credit: Calamity Meg

With a staggering 16.64 million guests a year, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom is consistently the most-visited theme park in the world. With that kind of volume, I would expect Disney to concentrate on cheap, consistent foods that appeal to the general masses and are quick to devour (like the 1400-calorie turkey legs), which pretty much cuts out most healthy meal choices. However, even with this volume, Disney manages to make some healthier choices available at Magic Kingdom - the trick is knowing where to find them.

Below, I’ll list vendors and restaurants offering healthier snacks and meals. We’re compiling most of the information below from great Disney sites like MousePlanet.com and AllEars.net. If you’re not like the folks at the WDW Today Podcast who can visualize every nook and cranny, you might want to review a park map like the one found at http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/. Also, keep in mind I am in no way proposing the suggestions below are healthy, particularly since I have no nutrition information - rather, the suggestions appear healthier in comparison to the standard fare. Finally, we’ll be skipping the character meals, because let’s be honest - if you’re paying for a character meal, you’re paying for the experience, not the food. With that in mind, let’s get started!

Snacks

photo credit: stretchdog

Aloha Isle
Adventureland, located just past the entrance from Main Street.

Aloha Aisle is home of the absolutely scrumptious Dole Whip pineapple soft serve ice cream. Unfortunately, it’s ice cream, so we’ll have to overlook it in favor of the fresh pineapple spears - a great snack and a good alternative to the common apples and carrots found elsewhere. If you’re thirsty and in the mood for juice, Aloha Isle offers apple, orange and - of course - pineapple.

photo credit: pinkpollyanna

Liberty Square Market
Liberty Square, located across from the Liberty Square Riverboat and next to the Hall of Presidents

If you’re craving fruit, Liberty Square Market has the biggest selection. It’s a little pricey, but then, so are the hamburgers. At the Market, you’ll find grapes, apple sauce, oranges, apples, bananas, watermelon and mixed fruit bowls. They also offer pickles, corn on the cob, carrot sticks and celery sticks. Trust me - get your snacks here and bank your calories for a Dole Whip dessert at Aloha Isle. You won’t regret it.

photo credit: joeandy

Main Street Bakery
Main Street, located halfway down Main Street on right

Apple turnovers, Mickey head frosted cookies, banana bread pudding - Disney lists Main Street Bakery as an official location for purchasing fresh fruit. Beware, however - it will take some serious willpower to resist all those sweet treats in favor of fruit. Fruit selection, which according to Allears.net includes strawberries and cantaloupe, likely changes with the season. What doesn’t change is the danger of hiding a cheesecake slice under those fresh strawberries.

photo credit: BMS-LOU - all rights reserved

Toontown Farmers Market
Toontown, located between The Barnstormer and Donald’s Boat.

Like the Main Street Bakery, Toontown Farmers Market is an official location for purchasing fresh fruit. The Market is conveniently located across the street from the character meet & greet site at the Judge’s Tent, allowing one parent to wade through multiple queues obtaining pictures and autographs from various princesses and woodland creatures while another forages through the cotton candy and popcorn to find apples, fruit cups, oranges, grapes, bananas, yogurt cups and frozen lemonade.

Meals

photo credit: andreaweckerle

Columbia Harbour House
Liberty Square, located across from Haunted Mansion’s entrance.

Fried fish, fried chicken, french fries - this restaurant gives all appearances of being a standard fried seafood joint. However, amidst all the batter there are a couple of healthier alternative meals to be had, starting with their Lighthouse Sandwich (hummus with tomato & broccoli slaw). If you’re still hungry, add a bowl of vegetarian chili. Finally, if you’re more in the mood for a salad, they’ve got you covered with their Garden Galley Salad (mixed greens with chicken, pecans, pineapple and feta cheese), and I’m sure you can request they hold the cheese.

photo credit: zesmerelda

Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe
Tomorrowland, located across from the Tomorrowland Speedway loading area.

Home of the purple ketchup, Cosmic Ray’s offers three counter-service “bays”, each with its own selection of food: Unhealthy, Unhealthier and Passable…. I mean Chicken, Burgers and Sandwiches. Skip Burgers, don’t collect your 200 extra calories and head directly to the Sandwich bay, where you’ll find humongous Chicken Wraps with a side of Strawberry Yogurt, apples or grapes. Beats a burger any day.

photo credit: stretchdog

Plaza Restaurant
Main Street, located at the end of Main Street on the right, next to Plaza Ice Cream Parlor.

Decorated as a turn-of-the-century ice cream parlor restaurant, Plaza Restaurant hosts a variety of sandwiches and salads. For healthier alternatives, skip the famous Reuben and head straight for a Chicken Strawberry Salad (fresh garden greens, grilled chicken breast, fresh strawberries, gorgonzola cheese, tossed in a white zinfandel vinaigrette dressing) or Vegetarian Sandwich (fresh mozzarella, hummus, basil pesto, cucumber, roasted red pepper, vine-ripened tomato, and lettuce on a freshly baked foccaccia bread served with sweet potato chips). Other offerings that appear to be on the lighter side include the Tuna Salad Sandwich, Turkey Sandwich and Plaza Club. As with any sandwiches, hold the mayo to keep the extra calories down.

photo credit: sansaarai - all rights reserved

Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station
Tomorrowland, located at the entrance of Tomorrowland from Main Street past Plaza Restaurant.

Open seasonally, the Noodle Station offers a pleasant alternative to the ubiquitous hamburgers and chicken strips. Best described as “Asian inspired,” the Noodle Station serves noodle bowls such as Chicken Noodle Bowl and Vegetable Noodle Bowl with Tofu. Also available are Teriyaki Chicken or Tofu and Beef and Broccoli, both served with steamed white rice. Also, an added perk - the terrace provides a nice view of the castle during the fireworks show.

photo credit: cafeplushenko - all rights reserved

Tony’s Town Square
Main Street, located on the right side of Town Square as you enter the park.

If you like seafood, Italian cuisine or Lady and the Tramp, Tony’s has you covered. Amidst the cheese and bread you’ll find dishes like their Grilled Salmon (over Mixed Greens with beets, feta, and candied walnuts, tossed in an orange-shallot vinaigrette), Catch of the Day (served with Orzo pasta tossed with pancetta, roasted garlic and seasonal vegetables topped with balsamic maple glaze) and Seafood Diavoli (linguini pasta with clams, mussels, calamari, shrimp, and salmon in a spicy tomato sauce). You can even splurge on a healthy(ier) dessert with a Seasonal No-Sugar Added Sorbet with fruit.

From fruit to fish and Asian to Italian, Magic Kingdom makes available many more food options than hamburgers and fries. Did I miss your favorite haunt for healthy(ier) meal and snack alternatives? I’d love to hear about it - leave me a comment below.

Next up - Epcot!

A while back I mentioned listening to podcasts as one way I make exercising more fun and more consistent. I personally find podcasts much more interesting than music for exercising for three main reasons:

• Listening to people talk is much more engaging than listening to music
• Podcasts are topical, so I can listen to people talk about something I’m interested in (or you can listen to music centered around a particular theme, if that’s your bag)
• Podcasts are serial, so I look forward to the next installment as a part of my exercise routine

Since mentioning podcasts as part of my exercise routine, I’ve been asked what podcasts I listen to while exercising, what mp3 player I use and what podcatching software I use. I chose the SanDisk Sansa e280 media player because it’s flash-based (I’m not interested in a harddrive-based player), has a nice interface and an expandable memory slot. After using a couple of other podcatchers (including Juice, HappyFish and a few others), I settled on Ziepod due to the interface and slew of advanced features, like dynamically renaming files and tags as it downloads episodes. Here’s a Ziepod screenshot:

Here’s an incomplete list of some of my favorites podcasts to listen to while exercising:

• This American Life
  My absolute favorite podcast - Ira Glass has a way of picking the absolute most fascinating topics and stories that seem boring at first, but end up engaging, entertaining and thought-provoking. Make sure you set your podcatching software to download this one - only the current week’s episode is available for free.


Tech-related

• This Week in Tech (TWiT)
  Leo Laporte’s a strong personality behind the podcasting movement, and TWiT is the foremost show in his podcast netcast network. I have to admit I haven’t liked Leo much in the past - I liked Patrick Norton better on The Screen Savers (Patrick, by the way, is currently serving up shows at dl.tv), and liked Chris Pirillo’s version of Call for Help more than Leo’s. All that aside, I really enjoy listening to Leo’s netcasts - I think he really shines in this medium. TWiT in particular gathers together several personalities that enjoy talking about tech and BS about tech news, making for some great moments (my favorite so far is Steve Gibson and John Dvorak going rounds about spam). If you like tech, this is an entertaining fluff podcast.

• Security Now (Another member of Leo’s netcast network)
  Steve Gibson is pretty entertaining to listen to and does a good job breaking down complex security issues into understandable concepts. I like the interplay between Leo and Steve, and the topics they cover are interesting and advanced enough to keep my attention.
• This Week in Media
  This is a great podcast for someone who appreciates four people who love to talk about their passion - all things media. Fortunately, when these guys geek out, it’s still entertaining (particularly since they stopped talking about the Red camera).
• Other tech-related podcasts I enjoy include Chris Pirillo Show, Engadget, TalkCrunch, FLOSS, Windows Weekly.


Disney-related

• WDWToday
  My wife and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon, and I have been hooked since - I love going to WDW, I love reading news about Disney (check out Jim Hill’s articles for some fascinating reads), and I love listening to podcasts about Disney. WDWToday runs about 20 minutes per show, has great hosts and fun topics. This is one worth downloading and listening to previous shows - if nothing else, the antics of Len Testa (co-author of the my Disney bible, Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and owner of the world’s biggest coffee drip) never fail to make me laugh.
• WDW Radio Show
  Lou Mongello has written a couple of Disney trivia books and hosts a fun, informative podcast. While Lou doesn’t make me laugh as much as Len Testa, I do enjoy WDW Radio Show for all the fascinating tips, trivia, Disney backstory and ride-throughs. Lou’s previous podcast, MouseTunes, is also worth listening to - although some of the information is dated, there are some fun, timeless segments to be found.
• Some other Disney-related podcasts I enjoy listening to include Magical Definition and Imagineering My Way.


Other topics

• The Wordpress Podcast
  Who’d have thought listening to people talk about blogging engines could be interesting? I just started listening to this show - as this blog runs on Wordpress, I enjoy listening to the latest news, plugins etc. For Drupal users, Lullabot hosts an interesting podcast.

For audio books, I’ve used two interesting resources: PodioBooks and LibriVox.

There’s a slew of other podcasts I’ve subscribed to or tagged, but just haven’t had the time to listen to. Have I missed your favorites? Share them in the comments!