I am back, and YES it is possible to take a two week cruise to Hawaii for a honeymoon and not gain weight!!

I hit 130 lbs and called maintenance, and my safe range is between 130 - 135 lbs, and I tend to bounce around in that range depending on water weight. I left for the cruise weighing about 133 lbs, and came back weighing 132 lbs. That doesn't technically make it a loss over the honeymoon, due to the fact I bounce around, but let me tell you how awesome it is to see that number on the scale. :P I didn't gain weight!!

Cruising is something I have decided is a definate vacation I will want to do again and again...DH and I will be going on another one to mexico next year. Since I have had this experience I know I will be able to field them without problems.

The food is buffets normally, but on our smaller cruise ship the Zaandam, the food was served to you over the counter after you select what you wanted in the resturant we went to most often. The staff was absolutely awesome.

Anyway, here's what I did, and it worked:

I decided I wasn't going to worry about portions or the amount of food I was going to eat, but that I was going to try to stick to an induction type menu. If I saw it, and wanted it, and it was a meat or veggie, I ate it, no questions asked. I avoided most of the sauces when asked if I wanted it, due to sugar (I could actually TASTE the brown sugar in one sauce!) but if it was cooked in a sauce, I didn't worry about it.

I decided any and all veggies were ok to eat, with one exception, potatoes. I didn't stress about any other veggie, and for the most part the veggie options were pretty much low carb anyway. I also took the opportunity to sample a ton of new meat (duck, phesant, etc) that I would not have tried on my own.

I also sampled soups, if they looked like a variation of meat and veggie or just veggie.

For breakfast I had eggs or visited the omelette bar, and bacon, sausage, steak, cottage cheese etc. If I saw any type of strange omelette or different type of meat, I would try it. There were only two times I added something to breakfast, I found some nice plain yogurt and strawberries, so I had that (yey for no sugar options!) and I tried their diabetic blueberry muffin. That one was a no-no due to the flour, but I decided to try it. It ended up tasting very bland, and wasn't worth it.

For lunch I loaded up on meat and veggies again. They always had excellent cuts of meat. That or had huge salads from the taco bar, omg they had this incredible shredded chicken there, it was awesome.

Dinner was mainly tons of different cuts of steak, just because I LOVE steak. I have been avoiding it for months, eating low calorie chicken or tuna to lose that last few lbs, this cruise was heaven on earth to me, and the steak was soooooooooooooo good!

I had dessert every night and sometimes after lunch too, but I always had the sugar free deserts. Ice cream, pudding, jello, etc. I avoided the sugar free breads as much as possible. I was very happy with the desert selection (it was sooooo funny too...another person on the cruise was complaining about the sugar free deserts, she turned and said to the woman on her right "they say its sugar free, but you know they aren't taking out the cream and fat!" ....I just nodded and smiled. :P

I also took my scale with me, but only under the condition that I wasn't going to worry about it, and it was only there so I could watch what was happening. At first my body freaked out. I had been keeping my carbs at around 20 - 30 and my calories at 1,200, which may have been a bit too low. As soon as that steak and all that low carb food hit my stomach, it was PANIC PANIC SAVE THE FOOD OMG OMG OMG FOOD FOOD FOOD!! and I gained weight fast. I just ignored it, figured I was only going on a honeymoon once in my life and I was only eating low carb foods anyway, so...pffft.

Once my body started to realize that food was coming, reliably and happily every single day for over a week, it started to relax, and let go. I was still eating the heavy meat and about the same large portions, and my weight started to drop back down to a more normal range, about 132 - 133 lbs.

The day ofter I got back, scale read 132 lbs.

Anyway, if you are going on a cruise, and worried about staying on your WOE...relax. Stay away from the breads and ENJOY all that meat, and not having to cook or clean up! It's completely doable.

I am going to Hawaii next week and was wondering how I was going to stay on track. Your comments and advice are very helpful. Thanks!!!

Congrats!! You did a great job. I'm going on vacation to D.C. at the end of June and I am worried about the food. Hope I can do as good as you did.

Thanks for a great post!
I have been on a cruise since being on CALP, and LOVED it. Your strategy was terrific- and very similar to what I did. I never felt deprived, and enjoyed my desserts with dinner. The one thing I had to avoid as all the alcohol- does not do good things to my body! I think cruising is great for LC- so many veggie and meat choices. And so much to do and so much fun to be out on the water.
Congrats on your marriage, too. It sounds like you are off to a great start-
E

Congrats! WELL DONE!

Your method is exactly what I would do on vacation. Eat as much meat and veggies as I want. Vacation is not a good time, in my opinion, to drastically change the diet. If I ate high carb on vacation, I would spend all the days feeling uncomfortable in my skin because I'd gained 5 lbs of water.

Wow that's amazing. I never thought a cruise would be that easy to continue on lcing. I've heard so much how amazing the food is on these cruises and to expect to gain at least 5 lbs. You sound like you did great. Congratulations. I too find it very easy to stay on plan eating out. I quite enjoy it as it's a change from what we do at home. I've been home for just over a week after being In LA and Disneyland for 6 days. I was also worried but I managed to always find something I could eat and kept nuts in my bag (for those just in case times). It worked out well. Congratulations on your new marraige and all the best in the future.
Leah

This is a great post - thank you so much for sharing this. And kudos to you for sticking to a wonderful 'plan' while on your honeymoon, and enjoying every minute of it.

I particularly liked your recommendation to avoid the bread-based sugar-free desserts - what great advice! Thank you.

You know, in case anyone else is wondering, I've also found it very easy to stick to LC'ing when in a place like Las Vegas - there's a lot of buffets there as well, and no matter what, I can always get great roasted meats, salads and veggies. In addition, there are quite a few 'sugar free' offerings at these places too. Not to mention, lots of wonderful seafood (lobster, crab, shrimp) and so on. Pretty good LC eats in Las Vegas.

I find driving/road trips the hardest in terms of sticking to plan. Too many fast-food places along the way, and bunless burgers get old pretty fast.

In terms of other vacations - it's actually easier to eat 'buffet style' when sticking to plan than regular restaurants because you don't have to order all these modifications to a meal (no potatoes, oh, and please skip the croutons and so on).

Anyway, here's to good LC vacations for all of us.

I'm so glad I read this post. DH and I are going on a week long cruise in April and I had been wondering if I was going to come back weighing 10 more lbs! It's great to know that it is possible to cruise LC.

I've gone on cruises about twice a year for the last 8 years. The last cruise I went on was a 7 day Alaska cruise (my first cruise doing Atkins) I did not gain one pound. All the cruises before that I gained from 5- 10 lbs. I was very pleased with myself to say the least.