Cruise Nutrition HELP

FaithandFitness

Hi All,

Hubby and I are leaving in 9 days to celebrate 10 fabulous years of marriage. We are headed on a cruise, and neither of us have ever been. I am curious if it is possible to get healthy food while on a cruise. I am going to indulge a bit, but I am hoping I can get some sensible morning and noon time meals on board. Does anyone have any suggestions or knowledge in this area? BTW, I don't drink so I don't have to worry about alcohol calories. Thanks!

bstamps12

Bump. Going on my 1st cruise in August and would love to hear from MFPers who have been on cruises before about what healthy options are available!

alfredapittman

I recently did a cruise and there are so many menu choices. The salad bar is great and there are lite items on the dinner menu every night. Have fun and enjoy your cruise.

DonnaLFitz

If you're going on a cruise, you should enjoy the gourmet offerings. I just got back from an Alaskan cruise, and the dining experience was part of the vacation. If you avoid the casual buffets and stick to the dining room, you should do pretty well. The meals are balance, if a bit fancy, and the portions are not large. I was gone for 10 days and gained maybe 4 pounds. I had lost 2 of it a day after returning home, so I assume that was water.

Overall, I wouldn't worry about it. Enjoy yourself -- you've earned it!

Booper83

Well, breafast has fruit, yogurt, cereal; and lunch has salads and such. Those aren't as hard. The difficult part is dinner! All the dinner foods are fabulous and you want to eat all of it and try more things. Good luck on staying on track with the cruise. Remember, once you are off the ship, you are walking everywhere, and every ship has a workout gym and usually a track on the top deck.

TracyJean2012

Most of the food is buffet style but there are some good choices at the resturants which of course cost you. You can do wise with the buffets just what the serving sizes you take and look for the "better" choices and WALK everywhere. take the stairs when ever possible that will help also.

Good luck and congrats on the 10 years, I'll be cruising in Jan for my bday!

kr3851

I'm sure there will be a lot of things to pick from - after all there are heaps of people on cruises, most of whom will not eat the same thing as the next person every day. Hopefully there'll be a buffet where you can get a small portion (if any) of something rich and high-cal and then bulk up your plate with salad and veggies!!

sbwood888

When I cruised, I found that the menu always had "heart helthy"options marked on it.

FabiolaEnvy♥

i work the security part of the cruise before they can get on board...

you can bring some of your own food. i have seen so many people do that.
you can take some if you dont think they do.

(but overall im sure they do have healthy food)
a cruise should have a mixture of good choices of salad, etc.
its like a restaurant.

so you can bring your own food. ♥

i hope you guys will have fun, and enjoy the cruise vacation. ♥
im sure you will have a lot of fun

HealthiHannah

There is healthier options every morning, afternoon, and dinner.... you just have to remember that everything is gonna be packed with sodium since its gotta stay fresh for the whole length of the trip. The food is delicious though, and remember to still have fun and eat however you want. You don't want to look at the cruise as what you didn't get to eat.... if you don't worry as much you'll remember everything you DID get to do!

Flyntiggr

Heck yeah! I just went on a 14 day cruise, and there are good choices you can make. Lots of Fruits and veggies, always a chicken and beef option on the dining room menu.

Some suggestions -
- choose the dining room over the buffet as often as you can. You'll get better quality, portion-controlled food in the dining room.
- feel free to substitute sides on the menus. The waiters will bend over backwards to help you get a meal you want - or even order just the sides from other options.
- The desserts are very tempting, but usually not very good! Princess does fresh ice cream with every meal, and was always, by far, the best choice. Let yourself have some desserts, and enjoy it - in the end, you are on VACATION!
- take the stairs. The elevators are super slow, you get crammed in with lots of old farts, and the stairs are better for you!

LMK if you have any other questions. I've cruised quite a few times on different lines, so probably have some good intel specific to your line if needed.

Bubs05

My last cruise I came back 5 pounds lighter, without really trying (this was before joining MFP).
Most ships have a gym that is free to use (some classes may have a fee). The ship I was on also had an outside track. You will do a lot of walking, which helps too.
In the restaurants they are very accommodating. They do have diet friendly options and remember, you can order off the menu. A previous poster said that the restaurants cost money, that is not necessarily true. Most cruise lines do have 'fine dining' that do require an extra fee, but there are no cost restaurant(s) as well.
Just like 'on land' it will be up to you to make good food choices, and you will have plenty to choose from.
The hardest part is avoiding the late night run to the pizza joint, or the ice cream machines.

FaithandFitness

THANKS EVERYONE! I do plan on having some fun with the food, but I now know I can also have some sensible choices available as well. I can't wait to check out the gym there (does that make me weird?) When I go to the gym here I have to bring 4 kids or I have to cram it in somewhere in the day. I will get to exercise whenever I want all those days!

HockeyHolic

I went on a cruise and actually lost weight! It was so nice to have fresh cut-up-for-me fruits and veggies on the salad bar. I was active on the excursions, and made use of the walking track on the deck. You can do it!

Flyntiggr

THANKS EVERYONE! I do plan on having some fun with the food, but I now know I can also have some sensible choices available as well. I can't wait to check out the gym there (does that make me weird?) When I go to the gym here I have to bring 4 kids or I have to cram it in somewhere in the day. I will get to exercise whenever I want all those days!

FYI - running on a treadmill t sea is a very strange experience! I got better as the days progressed, but I usually had to hold on with a couple of fingers to keep my balance. We had a couple really rough sea days where I couldn't stay straight on the deck. Hit the stationary bike those days...

SageLikeTheSpice

I went on a Holland America cruise over Christmas, and I lost 5 lbs. Assuming your cruise is similar, here are my suggestions:

- Do more active activities (I loved the dance lessons, especially line dancing, and I don't even like country music) and take advantage of the gym, walking the promenade, excursions that are active.

- Take the stairs. If the elevators are like the ones on the ship I was on, you'll get to the floor you're heading for faster anyway. The only time I took the elevators was when I was going to a different floor with my parents.

- Do the dining room. Even if you're getting multiple courses, the servings can be small, and they'll listen to substitutions if you need them. I tended to get a soup or an appetizer, but not both (while everyone else got both), and I did get dessert, although I agree with whoever said they weren't always great (except there was this excellent mud pie-like torte that might be my favorite dessert ever), but they were generally small.

I did the buffet area for breakfast most days. They had omelets there that were awesome (you choose the ingredients), and sadly I discovered the bran muffins much too late in the trip, lol.

I also brought my own snacks.

Oh, and I got three massages, but they cost extra.

clrrrr

Take the stairs!!

SageLikeTheSpice

THANKS EVERYONE! I do plan on having some fun with the food, but I now know I can also have some sensible choices available as well. I can't wait to check out the gym there (does that make me weird?) When I go to the gym here I have to bring 4 kids or I have to cram it in somewhere in the day. I will get to exercise whenever I want all those days!

FYI - running on a treadmill t sea is a very strange experience! I got better as the days progressed, but I usually had to hold on with a couple of fingers to keep my balance. We had a couple really rough sea days where I couldn't stay straight on the deck. Hit the stationary bike those days...

Haha, if you thought that was bad, you should have tried doing push ups and sit ups on the ship. Or worse, doing a workout that included jumping, lol. This was not taken into account when my personal trainer gave me my workout.

Bubs05

THANKS EVERYONE! I do plan on having some fun with the food, but I now know I can also have some sensible choices available as well. I can't wait to check out the gym there (does that make me weird?) When I go to the gym here I have to bring 4 kids or I have to cram it in somewhere in the day. I will get to exercise whenever I want all those days!

FYI - running on a treadmill t sea is a very strange experience! I got better as the days progressed, but I usually had to hold on with a couple of fingers to keep my balance. We had a couple really rough sea days where I couldn't stay straight on the deck. Hit the stationary bike those days...

I got to the point that I could run on the treadmills that didn't face the windows. Every time I used the ones by the windows I couldn't keep my balance! It was so weird.
Running on the outside track was challenging some days too...on one side the wind would push me along to the point that I got going too fast, and then I would turn the corner and could hardly cut through the wind.