8 Tips for Eating Healthy on a Cruise

This is the last in our boomer travel fitness series from Nora Lynch of Fit Travelers Have More Fun. Yesterday, when I reported on my travel fitness progress, I confessed that maintaining weight and keeping fit while on a cruise is a real challenge for me. I’m guessing that many boomer cruisers have the same problem. That’s why today, Nora is advising us on how to eat healthy while on a cruise. I’m paying special attention to this one.

Save time for walking the deck

The key to eating healthy on a cruise is confidence. And how do you bolster your boomer confidence? Use my top eight tips for eating healthy while on a cruise:

1.  Know the Dining Style

Look at menus online ahead of time if possible. Check the interactive TV in your cabin, you’ll find menus there, too. Are the plates and portions huge? Is buffet dining the norm? We tend to go along with whatever we’re offered – it’s human nature. You need to remind yourself that you’re in charge.

Boomer Travel Tips:

• Ask for a smaller plate or ½ portion
• Transfer 1/3 of the meal to your bread plate, then ask the waiter to remove it
• Use a smaller salad plate for the buffet
• Survey the buffet first and put only items you’d rate as a “10” on your plate
• Eat a low calorie, high volume food first: a non-creamy soup (watch the sodium here though) or salad with vinegar only or light dressing so you’re less hungry

2.  Information is Power

Contact your agent or the cruise line itself and inquire about healthy eating options and any fitness or health activities available.

Boomer Travel Tip:

• Even if you don’t find something that you love, asking the question registers your interest in healthy choices with the cruise operator so they can add more options.

Start your meal with a healthy soup

3.  Balance is Key

Consider how you’ll balance the excesses so readily available on a cruise.

Boomer Travel Tips:

• Big meal? How about a walk on deck?
• Choose one, not both- appetizer OR dessert, wine OR bread, (_____________create your own here)
• Can’t help ordering a giant, high-fat breakfast? See if 30 minutes at the fitness center first thing in the morning doesn’t curb your yen for all things high-fat immediately after.

4.  Prepare Before You Go

Pick the can’t-miss excursions that make your heart pitter-patter and start preparing for them ahead of time (with your doctor’s ok), if they sound physically challenging.

Boomer Travel Tip:

• Increasing activity in the weeks before the cruise can positively impact mood, memory, mental clarity, and well-being which will help you make healthier choices in other areas too — such as eating. Why not start your cruise with some healthy eating momentum?

Make active excursions the theme of your cruise

5.  Create a personal theme

Will learning new skills or trying new activities aboard ship float your boat? Or is the ship offering active adventures that will make once-in-a-lifetime memories? Are you here for the evening lectures or shows? Perhaps you love to play the social butterfly?

Boomer Travel Tip:

• Don’t overemphasize fine dining. Keep your mind busy anticipating other activities and make sure your eating choices support them.

6.  Avoid Temptation

Sleep and alcohol – too little of one, too much of the other, and your decision-making suffers at the table.

7.  Beware of Your Mindset

What unconscious stories do you tell yourself that will interfere with good eating choices on the cruise?

• Story: I’ve paid for it all, I’m going to eat it all.
• Story:  I can’t help it; I have to clean my plate.
• Story:  If I don’t eat x, I won’t be getting my money’s worth.
• Story: (your story here)

These stories aren’t helping you! It’s time they were sent packing, or you’ll keep packing on the pounds.

8.  Use Your Family and Friends

Some of us just do better when we share our plans and goals, triumphs and challenges. Create a health competition with family or friends traveling with you. Many cruise lines now offer wi-fi (though it can be expensive — check carefully) so you can post Facebook updates about your healthy choices or pedometer steps.

Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to eat healthy on a cruise. But so many of you don’t make a plan at all because you’re afraid you won’t get it right. Try this:  be playful. Experiment. Take the pressure off. Identify a few things that work and use them on the next cruise — and the one after that. It’s much better to smile as you craft your own perfect plan than to grit your teeth as you try to follow someone else.

Do you have tips for maintaining weight and staying fit while cruising? Post a comment to share your tips. Alan and I are paying attention!

Nora Lynch, MS, RD, Certified Wellcoach, is the founder of Fit Travelers Have More Fun and creator of The 4 Week Travel Tune-Up and The Travel Oomph Assessment. She helps boomers get a little fitter and more energized for travel so they can see and do everything they’ve dreamed and feel great doing it! Her most recent trips have been to Oregon wine country, Cozumel, Mexico; San Diego, California; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Rome, Italy.

Thanks, Nora for a wonderful series on boomer travel fitness:

• Keeping Travel Oomph Alive While You Travel
• Travel Oomph: How You Can Get Some Before Your Next Trip
• Travel Oomph: Why Boomers Need It
• Staying Fit on a Road Trip

Want to keep up with us on our upcoming Silversea cruise? We’ll be posting photos and reports at the My Itchy Travel Feet page on Facebook. Be sure to like us while you’re there!

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