Anyone who’s ever been on a cruise ship knows that it’s not as much about the destination as it is about life on the high seas – namely, dragging your (growing) behind from meal to overabundant meal, happily stuffing your face and always saying yes to dessert.
For a so-called health enthusiast/certified fitness trainer, I’m embarrassed to say I took full advantage of the smorgasbord on my recent cruise vacation. It was seven days of throwing caution to the wind and workouts to the wayside in favor of all-you-can-eat buffets and sweet treats. I wouldn’t say I regretted it (it’s vacation!), but seven days of overindulgence has wacked out my system. I’m lethargic. My digestion is off. My face is breaking out. Now that I’m off the boat and back to real life, it’s time to get back into my regular diet and exercise regimen again.
I overheard several people on the ship say something along the lines of doing a cleanse, or just all out fasting, once their vacation was over. I thought the same thing. But what’s actually a healthy way to get back into the swing of things after a couple days of decadence? Some thoughts:
Don’t do a cleanse. I know so many people who decide they’ve been “bad” lately and need to “detox”, so they try some sort of juice cleanse and tell everybody (including themselves) that they’re doing it because they got fat and need punishment in the form of nasty green liquids. Perhaps this is more about a mindset than a diet, but you don’t need to drink kale juice for a week because you had a couple of rich meals recently. Eat whole foods starting with veggies first. No need to eat a blender-diet unless your jaw gave out from all the chewing (kidding!).
Fasting is okay. What I mean by this is, sometimes it’s beneficial to give your digestive system a little break – see my post on this here. However, I’m not talking about trying to lose that excess weight you gained by just not eating for a while. You fast for around 8 hours just from sleeping every night. Try 12 hours (say, 7 pm to 7 am) for a few days and see how you feel. Studies have shown that fasting can have some really fascinating positive effects on your immune system as well, so if you’ve been trapped on a boat with 2,000 potential Patient Zeroes for a week, you might need a little boost.
Cook. I’ll admit, it’s really, really nice to have food just handed to you for a whole week – you start to believe you’re entitled to it. However, once we got back home, shockingly, no one brought me water and asked me what I wanted to eat. Happily, we currently use a grocery delivery service, so the day of disembarkation we got a delivery of fresh produce and meat for the week. I’d highly recommend planning for groceries as soon as you get back from a vacation, to curb the temptation of going out just because there’s no food in the house.
Have a positive attitude. What’s the point of a vacation if you come back all down on yourself and full of regret? Enjoy it, then jump back into the routine. Or, if your routine wasn’t that great to begin with, think of it as a reset. I read a disturbing statistic recently that said that for most people in the US, over 90 percent of your total in-person time with your parents is spent by the time you graduate from high school. My parents and sister, whom I hardly ever get to see, came on this cruise with my husband and me. Together, we enjoyed some great food, beautiful sights and quality time. My stomach may be a bit overworked but my heart is full. How could I ever regret that?