Healthy Cruising: Leave Your Elastic Pants at Home!

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Enjoy a healthy cruise and leave your elastic pants at home!

You don’t need to abandon your healthy lifestyle to enjoy a cruise. In fact, cruises offer fantastic opportunities that could lead to a healthier fitter you! This booklet will guide you in making smart food and fitness choices to manage your weight on a cruise. Limit your weight gain, maintain your weight, and even lose weight by following this six-step program. The guide includes a bonus resource with healthy living tips for 13 of the most popular cruise lines in the world.

Step 1 – Set a Realistic Goal
The most frightening words I heard from the cruise staff were: the typical cruiser gains 1 to 2 pounds for every day at sea! Don’t let this be your experience. Based on your own desires and level of control, you choose the goal that most realistically matches your upcoming cruise experience. Special mention is given to strategies that will help you meet your goal when cruising with children, traveling with a large group, or vacationing with a non-supportive cabin mate.

Step 2 – Start Before you Embark
Your efforts will be helped tremendously if you spend some time researching healthy options on your particular ship, destinations, and the port city from which you’ll be embarking. This step encourages you to improve your chances of success by starting the day of the cruise off on a healthy note and keeping a cruise journal.

Step 3 – Make the Fitness Center Your First Stop
Your first onboard assignment is to find the fitness center. Use your visit to check out cardio machines and fitness class offerings, sign up for specialty classes that are limited by the number of participants, and meet the fitness instructors. At the least, become acquainted with the fitness center as a bad weather contingency plan.

Step 4 – Choose Quality over Quantity
The availability of food selections around the clock can derail your best intentions. Add a few food rules to address your particular weaknesses. This step includes a “Quick Guide to Sample Meal Selections” and introduces a coupon strategy for those traveling with children.

Step 5 – Be Active at Sea and on Land
Most cruise ships offer excellent fitness opportunities that encourage you to build your own program based on your preferred level of intensity. This step offers a number of suggestions for on-board activities and guides you into making healthy decisions when touring destination ports.

Step 6 – Schedule Your Indulgences
Your cruise should be filled with fun, excitement and relaxation—to a point. Practice selective indulgences. If you diligently follow the steps in this guide, you should be able to accommodate a few “cheat meals” and even a “cheat day.” Don’t deny yourself a great vacation by being overly strict.

Bonus Resource: “Best Bets” on Popular Cruise Lines
“Best bets” include healthy eating tips, on-board fitness opportunities, and cruise reviews for the world’s most popular cruise lines, including:

• Carnival
• Celebrity
• Costa
• Crystal
• Cunard
• Disney
• Holland America
• Norwegian
• Oceania
• Princess
• Regent Seven Seas
• Royal Caribbean
• Windstar