This year was a first for me. My husband had asked me multiple times to travel with some of his high school buddies and their wives on a cruise. Now, this was something that never interested me as my husband and I typically like to travel at our own pace and time with no specific itinerary. I also never really understood the whole floating hotel thing. But, I humored Chris and decided to give vacationing a go!
As the time started to near I realized a couple of things:
One, January is a very busy time for us to take a vacation! What the heck were we thinking?!
Two, do I have sea legs or am I going to be seasick!
Three, I have goals before summer, and I know that cruises are food on food on food, oh my!!!
So, I thought I would take the time to help others out, so you can cruise your way through vacation without any fitness goal setbacks
1. BALANCE “EMPTY CALORIES,” MEALS, AND DESSERT
One thing I knew was that alcohol would be flowing. I myself love to drink typically a couple of nights over the weekend and I knew that would exponentially increase to the daily over vacation. So, knowing that would be a lot of empty calories I knew I had to be very careful with my food intake.
If you’ve been on a cruise before you know that you can basically eat to death because everything is covered in your package like an all-inclusive floating resort. So, I knew my key choices would consist of fish and vegetables. Luckily, this cruise had plenty of options and variety in these categories.
So, for those that have never cruised let me give you a run-down of the dining experience. Basically, you sit and you are presented with a menu of apps, main courses and then of course desserts. The waiter would ask for your order for all three at once. Now, for me, I would steer away from ordering dessert because my dessert was prosecco! But every time I put my order in and I said no dessert the waiter seemed puzzled and then, asked again are you sure?
Obviously, they were shocked because I had basically paid for it so why not eat it, right? So, as you can see this went on for multiple nights. A little pointer: Make sure you immediately decide on your meal and don’t turn back! It helps if you order first, that way no one else’s order can deter you from making good choices. I don’t know how many times I heard “hey, we are on vacation!”
Yes! But vacation doesn’t mean that I can just eat whatever without consequences.
Now, this doesn’t mean that I never ate dessert in the week-long trip, but I started with the mindset that I have all week to eat dessert and it doesn’t have to be every night. Plus, I only wanted to eat it when I truly wanted it. That made the dessert moments far more enjoyable. 🙂
2. MAKE A PLAN TO HIT THE GYM (OR GET SOME EXERCISE IN)
Fun fact! The cruise ship had a fantastic Gym! You also had access to personal trainers and group classes.
One of the first things my husband and I did was check it out and decide on a time that we would plan to workout. Now, everyone has intentions to work out every day before leaving on vacation, but hey, it just doesn’t always happen! That’s ok just plan to go a couple of times or do something active to keep the calories burning while traveling.
My husband and I went to the gym 3 times over the week and on the days, we got off the ship we walked everywhere! Some days we were tracking 16,000 steps while checking out the islands. I definitely considered that an active day on vacation!
3. HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE
One thing that I can’t emphasize enough is hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate! This is so important for multiple reasons. Alcohol consumption and the heat in the tropical climate (or high elevations if you’re not going tropical) dehydrate you. Hydrating can help you stay full when you think you’re hungry, but really your body needs water.
Overall, my vacation experience was unique and fun-filled! All without completely losing my goals for the New Year. If you can take anything away from my experience, it should be that you can enjoy yourself on vacation and still eat healthily. The greatest part about vacation is being able to go out to eat and enjoy the company of others, without having to stress about life, work, and all your daily responsibilities!
Where are you planning to vacation? What’s your biggest concern about staying on track with vacationing? Let me know if the comments.
Cheers!
