Back from the Cruise

I'm back!

First, let me just say that we had a truly great time on the cruise. We had great weather and calm seas the whole trip as Hurricane Dean headed West. There's so much to tell you, I don't know where to start...

I got exactly the reaction I was hoping for from each of my family members. First from my Dad and then from the rest of the family as each one arrived in town. The most commonly used phrase was "What happened to the rest of you?"

What a great feeling!

Once we got on the ship, the challenges were obvious. It's no secret that you are simply surrounded by food on a cruise. But what is important to remember is that the more food there is, the more choices there are. So it wasn't as hard as I anticipated.

Breakfast in either the dining room or the buffet offered omlettes so that was obviously fine. In fact in the dining room I was surprised to find turkey bacon the menu. I tried it once, and it was awful so I switched to regular bacon after that.

Lunch on the buffet seemed the best option for me. There was always a carving station or an easily identifyable chicken or fish that could be had with a salad.

The biggest issue with dinner was the amount of food, not necessarily WHAT was on the menu. I could always get a piece of grilled salmon or grilled chicken with veggies if nothing else on the menu tickled me.

I skipped the bread (obviously) and the pasta, rice and potatoes.

So where was the problem?

Dessert and alcohol.

I didn't order desert every night. But as I said before I left, I decided that I wasn't going to deny myself something that I knew was a unique experience that I couldn't get at home. So "hello, chocolate melting cake!" A truly yummy experience.

Add to that a few glasses of wine and "vodka and something" ... and well, you can guess how that adds up.

The good news is that I actually did go to the gym THREE times while on board. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at a pretty brisk pace (3.8mph) interspersed with short spurts of jogging at 4.5

Aren't you impressed? I certainly am.

With all that said, I also KNEW that by the end of the cruise, I had definitely gained some. I was afraid to see how much.

According to my own scale this morning, I am up 8 pounds. But I am not discouraged.

Today I got right back to strict low carb eating and back on my Fitness Flyer for 25 minutes and fully expect to get rid of that cruise weight pretty quickly.

I'll get some pictures up as soon as I sort through all of them. In the meantime...

Stay tuned for less of me.