Cruising Fitness

The ultimate challenge to healthy eating:  a tempting variety of abundant, bountiful, delicious, beautiful food that you already paid for; breakfast, lunch, dinner and anytime between, on a cruise ship for a week. I started off thinking I would try lots of things but not eat the entire serving of anything. Well, as the week went on, it got easier to eat the whole thing! I thoroughly enjoyed so much amazing food, some healthy and some not so much. But I don't regret it. A week of indulgence on a cruise isn't totally unacceptable to me!

I did better with the exercise part of the trip, starting with running stairs at 11 p.m. at the Denver airport on Friday night at our three-hour layover (or was it four?)  on our way to Houston via Miami. Oh yes, we took the long route. Something about maintenance delaying our flight, causing us to miss the connection in Denver. So lucky we were, not needing to pay for a night at a hotel in Houston because instead we were not sleeping much on a plane from Denver to Miami between midnight and 5 a.m. We made it to the cruise ship on time, that's the important part.

The other important part is that I was able to get in some great exercise every day and loved it, except the last day when we got off the ship and hung out in Houston.  The first day I went to the fitness center with Venisa and Anthony (my niece and her husband who were traveling with us). We did a fun cross-fit workout together. After that I got up every morning and either went for a run around the promenade deck (2.7 times around equals one mile!) or went to the fitness center and used the rowing machine and treadmill. I tried to run the 15 flights of stairs each morning and evening as well and sometimes in between. We took the stairs instead of elevators every chance we could, unless we were wearing our fancy heels to dinner.

I also went to the Zumba class one day. Talk about entertaining. The instructor was perkier than any other Zumba teacher I've ever seen, and they're all the perkiest people in the world! She wanted everyone smiling and having fun every moment. Occasionally she would mimic our serious, boring looking faces.  People-watching was very amusing at this class, which was held by the pool and attended by varying skill levels of people, one of whom was wearing high-heel wedgie sandals.

 It was also kind of thrilling waiting to see if the instructor might fall off the platform and maybe into the pool. (Didn't happen.) See the man in black right in front of the instructor? In the picture below he's turning around. The choreography was very simple with no turns, but this guy was quite the salsa dancer and he kept throwing in spins and turns and extra fancy steps and loved all the wows he got from the instructor! Total show off! You can't see me so don't even try, I'm in the shadows in the back so that I can people watch and not be watched by the cruisers standing on the balcony! I wasn't there to wow anybody!

Oh look, class is over and here I come (still got my groove on) to join my loving fellow travelers at breakfast. (I debated long and hard about whether to crop the somewhat unflattering close-up of my brother eating. I was nice and cropped it. You're welcome.)

 Then through the buffet line, boy was I hungry. Oh look, not necessarily the best choices. If I didn't eat the crust of that delicious crab quiche, that helped though, right? I loved getting a different flavor of yogurt parfait every day, and I always took most of the granola off before I ate it. Yum.

I liked to watch the sunset with my husband and sometimes our other fellow travelers. A couple of times after it went down, I was able to run around the promenade deck a few times to watch the sea and sky continue to change colors as dusk turned into darkness.

I love it. It's impossible to capture the beauty with a mere photograph.

Yes, that's a ship. 

Then it would be time to shower and get dressed up for DINNER!

Prime rib the first night.

I got up to see the sunrise every morning after the first day (when I desperately needed my beauty rest after that harrowing cross-country trip spending the night in airports and airplanes). Sometimes the promenade deck would be closed at first so I would run up stairs to the top level and work out at the fitness center a bit before coming back down to run laps when the deck opened. 

A sunrise run.

Such a fabulous way to start the day.

I got in a late afternoon run or two also.

In Belize, we toured the Lamanai Ruins. This is the High Temple. It was quite a climb, to put it mildly.

 The steps were eroded, uneven and varied in height, but all at least a foot high. It felt so good to be in shape to effortlessly climb this, and I did not use the rope provided. The old heart rate was definitely up a bit by the time I got to the top though! Here's looking down from partway up. Taking pictures is always a great excuse to stop a catch your breath. (Try not to gasp and pant.)

At the top, great view of the New River beyond the jungle.

Below is my brother Galen and our guide, Elvis Usher. Yes, Elvis can sing, and he belted out a stirring a capella rendition of the Belize National Anthem on the return bus ride. He also ran up those steps and back down later like it was nothing. I asked him what he does to stay so fit and he looked at me like I was a stupid foreigner or something. He rides his bike everywhere (gas is $6.00/gallon) and he "just does all the things a man does". If he climbs those steps a couple times a week with his tour group, I imagine that helps too!

 We were given strict instructions to stay on the steps, which go around to the side at the top. We were chatting up there with Elvis when suddenly this young man was there, climbing free style up the limestone. Elvis nearly freaked out. "What are you doing, don't climb on the limestone, it could break off," as he reached out his hand to grab the kid (who went from carefree to terrified in 2 seconds!) lest he plummet below should the limestone suddenly give out just as he was nearly to safety. Another thrilling moment as the shaken young man was hauled to safety.

 Water was provided to us in plastic bags!

 Good times.

So the cruise is over. The  multi-course dinners topped off with creme brûlée or cheesecake or bananas flambé,  the amazing buffets, that International Cafe with it's fantastic pastries and desserts, etc. added three pounds to me in spite of my faithful exercise. But according to my Activity Tracker, my exercise averaged out to my usual daily 7 points while my food consumption was well above my average 33 points! (I admit I was not tracking it.)

Soon Monday, our first day back, we ate mostly just fruits and veggies, and for the next two weeks are sticking to the new Weight Watchers Simple Start, which is mainly eating "Power Foods" - lean protein, fruits and veggies, whole grains, fat-free dairy.  The cruise was fun for so many reasons, food being one, but the best part was sharing it with my brother Galen and his wife Carol and my niece Venisa and her husband Anthony.  And now we all have a common goal that will help motivate us to be as fit as we can by August: We want to climb the South Sister together, and hopefully more family and friends will join us. More good times!