I am concerned. I will be in Las Vegas for 5 days staying in a room with no kitchen amenities. Any suggestions or tips for maintaining a healthy diet on vacation?

If you're a gambler (I am) you can burn lots of calories just by jitters and adrenaline. Definitely a place that's fun for a short stay, but for me at least, not a healthy place to hang out for a long time. It is probably the most fun place I ever went for work reasons (convention).

We spent most of our meals at Bellagio. For breakfast we generally went to Palio, a small cafe/coffee shop near the main elevators. They had great coffees, teas, fruit cups and plates, salads, sandwiches and a beautiful selection of croissants, pastries that are all made in house. It is easy to get healhty options, but very tempting to grab a croissant. I had lunch there too one time.
We ate at Olives (in the shopping wing) and I was able to get nice meal-sized salads and grilled meat.
Sensi has nice grilled fish and is lovely. We did not eat there, but would try it is we go again.
We ate at Cafe Bellagio for lunch. The menu is extensive, but it feels sort of like a busy factory. They did accomodate no dressing and no bread basket. The place is quite busy as it is just off the lovely inside garden. (The smells from the garden are intoxicating.)
Noodles was quite good and could be very light with seafood and Asian veggies.
(Sensi, and Noodles both recommend reservations, but we went early as we had dd. There was not problem getting seating around 5. Olives was different- very popular.)

The buffet is ever popular. We checked it out and I did not much like it. I am smell sensitive and it smelled too much like an institution. It was crowded and I like a more relaxed eating atmosphere. (It is also expensive if you consider that you'll eat a salad and some protein.)

There is an amazing Gelato shop and a patisserie where they make crepes and great chocoalate. The patisserie is in the spa wing and worth looking at, but offers lots of temptation.

You can buy time in the work out room. They also have classes and trainners available for a fee.

One of the pools is long and lends itself to laps. (There is also a pool cafe that serves lighter fare.) The pool area is lovely and laps don't seem so mundane there.

Another note about walking... we walked a lot in the hotel. (I did not like the rest of Vegas at all- found it kitchy and overstimulating to the max. Loved the Bellagio, though.) You can walk from the lobby toward the spa tower and make a 5-10 minute loop around hallways filled with conference rooms back to the lobby. It is a pleasant "track." We actually avoided the casino using this loop around the spa tower to get to the main tower's elevators. Pleasant walk, exercise and no smoke or too much stim. for dd.

Food in vegas has really changed. It's not all-you-can-eat buffets and steak dinners. You can find lots of restaurants that have healthy foods. Everything is just kind of expensive. I tried one of the cheap steak dinners, by the way. Totally not worth it unless you just want the kitchy experience of eating shoe-leather meat while playing Keno.

The buffets can even be a good option if you focus on the salad bar, the fresh fruit, and the lean protein and pick your splurges carefully.

When I was in Vegas for a week, I lost 5 pounds from walking everywhere and being too busy to eat.

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Originally posted by windycityattorney:
I will be at the Bellagio as well! Where were you able to find healthy meals?

There are some good options there. I will type more tomorrow as time is limited tonight.

Since Vegas caters to both the young and the old, it is pretty easy to find decent choices there. There is so much to choose from, including many temptations, but if your Vegas vacation was anything like our Vegas vacation you will walk your feet off. There is so much cool stuff to see, and the easiest way to get there is usually to walk. Even walking from your hotel room to the street is a hike, since you almost always have to walk through the casino to get there.
If you go to downtown Vegas, I believe that it is the Frontier that has 99cent shrimp cocktail. It's great. But I would splurge for the 2.99 one, it's much more satisfying. Low fat and tasty. (It also helps downplay the effects of the 1/2 yard margaritas!)

Have a fabulous time. I love Las Vegas and can't wait to go back.
--Francie

I will be at the Bellagio as well! Where were you able to find healthy meals?

We were in Vegas this spring. The food is really quite good. Lots of tempting high fat, high cal stuff, though. We stayed at the Bellagio. I could give you specifics about restaurants/food there, but am not too familiar with other hotels.
(At our hotel, ALL the restaurants were happy to meet special requests like no added butter, sauce on the side.)