FIT on vacation (Photo-Blog!)

Wow. The Gothic Cruise was nothing short of amazing. I had never been on a cruise before, let alone played a show on one in a band, so it was an entirely new experience for me. I had the most wonderful week, and did some of the most incredible things, and, of course, ate some of the most delicious food.



One of the things that was most fun about this cruise for me was the gym. Big surprise, lol, seeing as how I'm a fitness junkie. But it really was an incredible facility. And the two gorgeous fitness trainers (with English accents) didn't hurt either! I spent at least 2-3 hours per day in that gym, just taking time for myself to really enjoy my workout and be by myself. It was the epitome of a "mental health week" and my body reaped some great benefits as well.

I learned a lot from the trainers at the gym. They gave a few free seminars like "How to get a flatter stomach" and "Burn Fat Fast," things that very much interest me for myself as well as for information that I can give all of you. What I learned was not only shocking it was highly influential to the way I will live the rest of my life. Don't worry, I'll give it to you all in spurts so I don't cram it all into one post. :)

Today I'll tell you about vacations and cruises and how bad OR good they can be for your health and body. The most shocking thing I learned on this cruise, especially since it was my first cruise and had no idea what to expect, was that the average vacationer gains 1-2 pounds PER DAY on a cruise ship. HOLY $#!^ That's up to 14 pounds on a 7-day cruise. Wow!!! That's awful!

Why does this happen? Well for starters, the food is free on a cruise ship and readily available 24-hours per day. You can go up to the Lido deck any time you want and have fresh baked pizza, hot chocolate or coffee and ice cream. The buffets for lunch and dinner are expansive and all-you-can-eat. Room Service is free and available at all hours. And dinners...yes lets talk about dinners:

The menu is three pages long, filled with decadent, fine foods as a three course meal. And if you so desire, you dont have to have just three courses. You can order anything you want, as much as you want, and its all free. Many nights, I'll admit, I found myself ordering two appetizers because I couldn't choose. Yeah, its awesome for fun, awful for you.




These dishes are delicious, but highly caloric, so if you eat a three course meal of these every night and spend all day at the buffet and drink your way through the seven days, its very easy to gain weight, even much more than 14 pounds when you have an open bar card. The one saving grace to these menus is the "SPA" menu at the bottom, offering low calorie. low cholesterol dishes to guests that are health conscious. These were mostly very tasty and I tried to keep myself to this part of the menu (for appetizers and desserts anyway). The only problem is there is only one option for entree on this menu, and so if you don't like what they offer, you are stuck without a healthy option. As a vegetarian, I pretty much never had the SPA entree, and I don't even want to know how many calories were in all of the vegetarian options. (Although they were incredibly tasty and delicious!)

Chilled Strawberry Soup

Vegetarian pot pie with cinnamon yams, squash and pumpkin.

"Diet" Pumpkin Pie

I did let loose a little on the food, trying all kinds of dishes and desserts I usually don't let myself eat. And I completely pigged out on the fruit salad...every day.






I staved off the weight gain, though, by starting every day on the cruise with a work out. I know it sounds like not so much fun to some of you. I mean, this is your vacation. Why spend ANY of it in the gym? Well, when you're working out on state-of-the-art equipment, with views of the open sea or of tropical islands or the lush green coasts of Mexico, and you can spend a few hours pumping your own adrenaline in peace without being bothered by cell phones, emails and other people...WHY NOT??? I managed to enjoy myself (without going toooooo overboard on the eats) and prevent weight gain with a fantastic experience and a great view. I'd say that was win-win!






I learned many things on this trip about health, fitness and life, and for the next few days I'm going to share with you all that I learned. Today's lesson:
You'll be perfectly fine to enjoy yourself on vacation so long as you FIT your Fitness in!