Going on a Cruise Soon, Need Suggestions

I would honestly probably take my food scale... It has been the best thing for tracking and losing.

shellinut wrote: »

. We will be doing some fun excursions while on the cruise such as swimming with the dolphins and two snorkeling excursions but I do have MS so my mobility is somewhat limited.

Anything you can do in the water, especially with limited mobility. The water also helps with the heat, if you're symptoms are elevated by hotter temperatures. For any on-shore excursions, if you haven't already, try a walking stick or trekking poles. They're great!
Most importantly, like everyone else has already said, relax and enjoy yourself. Vacation is meant to be fun, not stressful.

I am a seasoned cruiser (4th carnival cruise booked for March!!), I started calorie counting a couple months before my most recent cruise and I'd like to offer another opinion.

On my most recent cruise, I ate whatever I wanted (Midnight pizza anyone?) and drank whatever I wanted. This meant a big pile of bacon, pancakes, syrup and eggs for breakfast. Mountains of buffet food for lunch. Three course dinner (sometimes with two desserts or two entrees!) A million sugary sweet cocktails inbetween. Chocolate, midnight pizza etc.

What happened? I stepped on the scale the day after I got back and I had gained 5kgs. Two days later it was saying only 2kgs extra. Four days after that (once all the extra salt and carbs had left), the total damage was only about 1.2kg which was dropped less than a week after that.

I wasn't particularly active (I did, however, generally take the stairs due to my elevator phobia) but I had a great holiday with very little damage. I know I wouldn't have enjoyed myself half as much if I didn't eat and drink whatever I wanted. For me, the small gain was totally worth it and this holiday-only eating habit is something I can actually maintain for the rest of my life.

The only thing with this is you need to make sure you don't go into holiday mode before you get on the boat and be able to get "back on the horse" right away. In the past, my "holiday eating" started a week and a half before the holiday and ended a week afterwards. Limit it to just the days you are on the boat and you won't have much damage done.

What I did was write down what I ate, even though I couldn't actually log online. (we weren't about to pay the super high fees for dial-up speed wifi!) Yeah, I couldn't get the actual calorie amounts, but just noting down what I ate was enough to make me keep accountable to myself. The other thing is to make sure you go on active excursions. Having a walking tour or something similar will burn a lot of calories! On sea days, walk the ship up and down on your deck. Do it a couple of times if you can. Take the stairs when you can as well. There were times we had to take the elevator because of how the ship is layed out, but we did a lot of walking even with that!

The main thing to keep in mind is that you're on vacation. Don't stress it! If you make it back and didn't gain anything (or only a pound or two), you're still ahead! Do the best you can to make sensible choices and be as active as you can and you should be fine. Hell, even on our honeymoon cruise BEFORE I started MFP, I ate a LOT of food, but with the excursions I didn't gain any weight that whole week. So focus more on having fun and don't spend a lot of time focusing on the calories.

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

Personally, if it were me - I'd enjoy my holiday/vacation
That's not to say you have to throw all common sense out the window - of COURSE be aware of the choices you make and of course eat until you're body says 'Ok, I'm full' - but I wouldn't personally track and log every calories during an event which doesn't come around that often and which is supposed to be a break from 'normal way of life'. Again, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to rebel against the system and spend all day every day eating chocolate, but have a little of what you enjoy, use your common sense, don't go utterly overboard but know that you'll be getting right back on track when you're home anyway.

that is the most important advice on a cruise