June weigh-in

I weighed myself the day after returning from my recent cruise and my weight is… 8 st 3 lb! Yay! This means I managed a 2 week holiday with a 9 day cruise in the middle and didn’t put on a single pound 🙂

Achieving this did take quite a bit of determination and effort which might not appeal to everyone as most people take holidays as an opportunity to relax and enjoy a little overindulgence. However, after 6 months of hard work to reduce my weight by 2 stones (28 lbs) I was keen to find a good balance of enjoying the trip but not regaining any weight. This is how I did it:

• Rough calculation each day of the estimated number of calories I was consuming and the estimated number I was burning off which helped me to keep track and stay focussed.
• Daily gym sessions… it was easy to be in the ship’s gym at 06:00 each morning as with the -8/-9 hours time difference I was always awake at 5 am!
• Paying $69 for a gym pass for the 9 day cruise duration which meant unlimited classes such as pilates and cycling and suspension training.
• Booking active excursions; each of the 4 shore trips I did involved hiking.
• Never taking the ship’s lift… as my cabin was on level 5 and many activities were on level 12 I did a great deal of walking up and down 7 flights of stairs!
• Walking several miles around each of the ports while I wasn’t on any of the excursions.
• Eating healthy breakfasts and lunches but allowing a few treats each evening.
• Not snacking between meals.
• Throughout the day I drank black coffee, herbal tea (mint, cinnamon & apple, orange etc) and water. I mostly had just one glass of wine which was enough for me.

At each meal I opted for the healthiest choice. A typical day would be:

Breakfast (600 calories):

• Half a bran muffin (consumed early in the morning with a coffee before any gym classes)
• Small bowl of bircher muesli
• Melon, grapes, pineapple
• Poached or scrambled egg

Lunch (400 calories)

• Mostly salad; steamed vegetables; vegetable curry and fruit from the buffet

Dinner (1300 calories)

• Bread roll and butter
• Starter
• Main
• Dessert
• Glass of wine

For a 50 year old 5’3″ woman to maintain a weight of 8 st 3 lb my ‘My Net Diary‘ app says I need to consume 1650 calories each day. For an average food consumption of 2,300 calories (as above) this meant burning off an extra 650 calories each day. This was achieved quite easily as with daily gym sessions, walking, trekking and climbing stairs several times a day I often burned off more than this. Extra time in the gym gave me more ‘calorie credits’ to enjoy delicious food each night, such as the delicious ‘warm chocolate lava cake’ as in the picture!