We all have had the experience, or have heard about how people go on a cruise and come back about 10 pounds heavier. Depending upon the number of days of your cruise, it could really vary in the amount of weight you can gain, but in general, for the average cruiser, it could work out to gaining about a pound a day!
Because we are regular cruisers and we love to eat, we had to figure out a way that we could still fit into all of the clothes that we brought for our cruise, before it actually ended!
Between the two of us, and from a lot of experimentation, we have finally managed to figure out how to not gain any weight on our cruises. Remember, we LOVE to eat, but we also can't afford to buy new clothes at a bigger size every time we walk off of a cruise ship!
We have created our short list of 3 Doable Tips on how to keep your waist line in check on your next cruise! This isn't a list of actions that include eating less, or sacrificing a whole meal... it is a list of doable tips, of what has worked for us, so that we could continue to eat like royalty without gaining any weight!
Tip #1 - Don't Eat SOAPS
Soaps is an acronym that we use all of the time, to clearly explain to everyone, how we eat, and don't gain weight! As long as you are hitting the majority of the acroynm, you will be fine!
We don't eat SOAPS: This means that we don't eat, or limit the amount of intake of the following foods:
S... SALT
O... OIL
A... ANIMAL PRODUCTS
P... PROCESSED FOOD
S... SUGAR
This is the basics of how we eat and keep our waist line in check. In fact, we found that when we stick to the list, we lose weight fairly easily, not to mention that we can literally eat as much as we want!
Tip #2 - Go Duck & Door Hunting
Your cruise could be filled with port days, or you could be faced with having a lot of sea days where you need to find activities that will make you WALK.
Walking is one of the best ways that we have found that we can keep our waists in check, and keep our energy levels up! The last thing that you should be doing on a cruise ship, is just being too sedentary. Get out and explore the ship!
a. Duck Hunting:
No, we don't mean going around shooting ducks off your cruise ship balcony!
There is a fun phenonmenom on cruise ships called "Hunting For Cruise Ship Ducks" This is where guests on the cruise ship bring ducks to hide around the ship, for other cruisers to find.
We love duck hunting especially early in the morning, or on sea days, as that is a great time for us to get out and walk around the entire ship, while there are still very few people out and about. Not only do we find ducks, but we also hide a few each day as well!
b. Check Out Door Decorations
Another fun activity that tricks us into walking far more than just walking around the track upstairs, is that we look at door decorations on other passengers' doors!
You may be lucky and find yourself on a cruise with a holiday or a theme, or maybe not, but you will definitely find a lot of people decorating their doors!
If you have a lot of time and energy, you may consider walking up and down all of the hallways on all of the floors to find the hidden treasures! We have had a lot of fun especially during our cruise looking at some really creative doors such as birthday decorations; celebratory decorations; holiday decorations and much more. Sometimes, you will find little bonuses on doors where you, the finder of the door decoration, will be treated to a prize, or a candy, or something to thank you for looking at their door.
In our door decorations walk, we find that we walk for MILES without even realizing it! We always only take one flight of stairs at a time (going up), so that we don't over-do the exercise and tire ourselves completely out!
Tip #3 - Eat And Drink MORE
We love to eat and drink. We ARE on a cruise ship after-all!
Cruise Ships hire some of the best chefs in the world. As an additional bonus thought that we wanted to mention is that you don't have to be afraid to ask for something that is not on the menu or buffet. We have found many chefs who have helped us specifically by cooking a dish with no oil, reduced salt, or protein made from only vegetables.
a. Eat more salad. For example, your lunch should begin with an overflowing heap of fresh greens, and topped with cruciferous veggies like brocolli and spinach; than add some beans (kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, etc), and then a small handful of nuts or seeds. (Take your salad to the next level by not adding salad dressing! Consider adding only black balsamic to your salad to enhance the taste. )
b. Drink more water. Keep yourself full and replenished throughout the day with tons of H20. It will help you keep your energy up for all of your activities, and it will help keep you full enough and trick your body into eating perhaps a little less, as you will get fuller faster! When we drink alcoholic drinks, we tend to drink it along with a glass of room temperature water! This way we find that we aren't drinking all of our calories, and hopefully ingesting far less sugar. (see the SOAPS acronym above).
You Don’t Need To Make Huge Sacrifices On Your Cruise
Bottom line, we believe in taking full advantage of the benefits of being on a cruise, but we also don't want to sabotage our own weight, or overall health. We treat our cruise ship trips as if we were going to a place to have fun with hidden ways to exercise, to travel and experience the world while still fitting in our clothes and not being uncomfortable with the potential weight gain!
These are the tips that have worked for us, so please, have fun reading and experimenting with some of these tips to help you on your next cruise!
Do you normally gain weight while cruising?
0%YES! I definitely gain weight
0%No! I haven't really noticed any change in my weight
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