How Not to Gain Weight on a Cruise

Cruises are famous for their plentiful cuisine, including four course meals, chocolate buffets and 24/7 pizza. But that doesn't mean you have to lug home the extra baggage of added weight along with your vacation tsochkes. Here's some tips for not letting your waistline fall overboard when you're cruising.

The late seating in the dining room can pile on the pounds unless you intend to dance the night away. On our first cruise, my husband and I never set foot in the dining room because we didn't want a four course meal at 7:45 at night. There is usually a buffet style restaurant open for all three meals elsewhere on the ship, their food is wonderful and you can go much earlier in the evening. That's also a good tip if you're prone to heartburn.

Buffet meals can be very tempting and that leads to the next tip. Eat only two meals a day. A friend and I were on a cruise recently and on the at-sea days, we'd eat a good breakfast, have something light in the middle of the day (fruit or frozen yogurt) and partake of the early seating in the dining room that we were lucky enough to get assigned. On shore days, we'd order breakfast in our room plus a box of cereal to munch during the day to stave off hunger. When we'd get back on board, we'd hit the buffet, being too hungry to wait for our assigned seating in the dining room and because, after a full day running around on shore, who wants to dress up to eat?

Eat fish. This seemed to work really well for me. Fish is low calorie, filled with Omega 3 fatty acids and as long as you go light on the sauces and zero on the breading, it's an excellent choice. Of course, I know I don't have to tell you not to surround your excellent choice with high calorie mayo-laden salads, breads and 3 kinds of desserts!

Don't take the elevators. The only time we took an elevator on our first cruise was to experience the glass one in the Grand Lobby. We all know how good walking is for us but stairs are even better. The more stairs you take, the less guilt you'll feel when you're sitting in the sun, reading your books and sipping your umbrella-embellished drinks.

Umbrella-embellished drinks... I'm a diet soda girl, so I got my soda card as soon as I got on board and grabbed zero calorie drinks all day and into the evening. Gotta make that card worthwhile, after all! My friend had tropical drinks from the bar every day, but usually just one and it didn't hurt her weight at all. Plus it didn't hurt her pocketbook much either, since drinks from the bar cost as much as shoes on sale at Payless, so one a day is thrifty as well as weight conscious!

Keep moving. The sports track isn't just for young folks wearing short shorts and those funky heart monitors on their arms. Check out the sign showing how many laps equals one mile and start counting while you're enjoying the fresh ocean air. You may not be dressing like a track star but do be sure to wear good walking shoes--sandals may not have enough support and your everyday shoes might be too tight for long distance walking. Also, I'm not one to sit for long, so I enjoyed exploring the ship, window shopping and just wandering around, people watching.

Don't wear loose fitting clothes--that only gives you permission to expand! When your pants start getting tight, believe me, you'll take a miss on the dessert bar.

Have a great time on your cruise, just don't let your self control go on vacation, too. I don't know about you but when I overeat, I just want to sleep and who wants to sleep away the cruise you deserve to have fun on??