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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 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.
Did you like the cruise ship you were on and would you go back on that one?
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