You're about to discover ten tips on how you can go on a cruise, have a huge
amount of fun, still indulge and not put on a huge amount of weight.I'm Gary
Bembridge, and this is another of my tips for travellers. On average cruisers put
between five and ten pounds of weight on when they go on a seven-day cruise. So
how can you go on a cruise, have a huge amount of fun and not pile on the pounds?
Of course, one of the key things with controlling your weight is it's a game
of maths. It's balancing the amount of calories you take in with amount of
calories you burn. Let's take a look at some of the tips around how you can
control calories but still indulge and have fun. One of the things I really
recommend you do is choose to go to the main dining room rather than
the buffet restaurant. First of all because there's portion control, and the
size of the portions that you get served are much more controlled than if
you're in a buffet where you end up just, out of habit, piling up your plates.
If you do decide you want to go to the buffet, a couple of little tips that will
make a big difference. First of all, choose the smaller plate. Grab one of the
smaller plates because actually again it's mentally reducing and helping with
portion control. The other thing that I like to do if I go to the buffet is
I start by putting the healthy stuff on the plate first,
because then I find the plat is full of healthy stuff and then there's less
space and it's just much easier to not load it up with the bad things! So a couple
of changes if you go to the buffet can make a really big difference. Once you're
in the dining room, I have a couple of things that will also
make a huge difference while not getting in your way of enjoying yourself or indulging.
First of those is look for at the Spa menu. Most cruise ships will have some
kind of spa or healthy option menu that normally have a starter, main course and
a dessert. Start by looking at those choices first and seeing if any of those
appeal, because you'll be surprised as they can make a dramatic difference in terms
of the amount of calories, salt, fat and those kind of things - and they are designed to
be delicious. Secondly then look at the fish. On
many cruises you can have local fish
and great fish that's been brought on
board. Not only is it good for you health-wise, but it's going to save a lot
of calories and you might try some exciting new fish types and varieties.
Also what I do is not assume that I'm always going to have all courses. I
take a look at the menu and decide if I'm just going to have a main and a dessert
or starter. So choose one or two courses and have things that you really
really want. There is a certain routine and habit you get into every night of
having three courses. The other thing that I recommend you think about is
avoiding speciality restaurants. First of all because they going to cost you more
money, but secondly because you're paying more money to go to speciality
restaurant on most ships you are therefore in a mindset of eating all
courses: starters, main course, desserts . You can end up eating much more than you
plan. So I find when I go on a cruise I try and minimize the amount of times
that go to speciality dining because I do end up eating much more than I plan
to eat. Avoid bread and the bread basket, because if you're on a cruise ship with
a bread basket say to your waiter either no thanks, or make sure they don't
keep topping it up. Save those calories for something a little bit more exciting.
The other thing I do, which owns made a huge difference, is have steamed
vegetables. So instead of whatever perhaps the stuff that's coming with the
main course, with the steak or chicken or whatever, I often ask for steamed
vegetables or spinach. Vegetables that I really like and I avoid all the
vegetables that are perhaps really greasy and made with lots of butter.
Of course then try and cut back on the various sauces and dressings. When
you're ordering you can either ask for the dressing on the side or ask them to
switch it out, but look at the dressings because often the big
calories are in the dressings that come with meals and not at the actual meal itself.
My next tip is one that can probably save you a lot of money, but also save
you a lot of calories and that's actually avoid drinks packages.
Particularly drinks packages which are all-inclusive as they can be pretty pricey,
but also there is a sense that you have to, like what happens for me is I feel
that I need to get my money's worth. So by not having a drinks package it doesn't
encourage you to keep drinking and actually drinking things that have a lot
of calories in. Whether you've gone for drinks package or you're buying
individual drinks there are a couple of critical things to do. Try and think
about what a great drinks that you like but perhaps are a little bit lighter on
calories. So for example, avoid cocktails. On cruise ships people, even though they
don't when they're normally out and about, seem to drink a lot of cocktails. They
are packed full of calories, they're full of sugar and they are very
heavy in calories. If you're a beer drinker perhaps think about lighter
beers, also if you prefer spirits think about spirits which are perhaps a little
bit lower in calories. For example, vodka tends to have lower calories than many
of the other spirits, so that's a great choice. If you're a wine drinker consider
drinking spritzers, white wine and club soda, because again that still gives you
your wine hit or your wine tastes but is much lower in calories. You don't have
to give up drinking but obviously the more you can moderate the amount of alcohol you
drink the better, because they are very calorific. By making a couple of
switches and changes to what you do will help, but you can still go out have fun
in the bars and still be drinking. If you're on a cruise which includes wine
with meals, make sure that your waiter is not just filling
and refilling your glass, because the waiters are very good at doing
that, and keep topping up your glass you could end up having three or four
glasses of wine. If you're a coffee drinker make sure that you're asking for
things like skinny lattes or skinny cappuccinos. You'll find many of the
vending machines or the self-service machines will have cream or full fat
milk in, so again just by switching to skinny low-fat you can still have your
coffees your latte or cappuccinos. The same of course with hot chocolate.
I'm a big fan of hot chocolates on cruises and try to make it a skinny
hot chocolate. The other thing when it comes to drinks is try and have diet
colas or sodas not the full on coke or sodas if you possibly can. Now
let's take a look at some very simple ways of burning calories and still
having fun. First of all one of the things that I do that really made a huge
difference was ditch the elevators, ditch the lifts and use the stairs. If
you're on a big mega ship it's a lot of stairs to walk up and down, but if you
never use the elevators and you use the stairs you are constantly burning
calories. It's not a huge deal and you can take it at your own pace, but seriously
it makes a huge huge difference. It also means you're not waiting for elevators.
If you only do one thing: use the stairs not the elevators. Next, get your steps
up. This is again a very easy way of burning calories without really noticing.
There are some active things you can do, for example, many cruise ships will have
either a running track or walking track or on ships that have
promenades that go all the way around, use it every single day. Get out there
and take a walk on the track or around the promenade deck. You'll find it's
actually quite social and on many cruises they will often have group
get-togethers where you'll go as a group and walk around. On many cruise ships if
you walk three times around the promenade deck you've done a mile
already. Also walk the ship is another great thing to do. After
dinner or after a meal just walk around the ship, stroll around because again walking
is a great simple way of burning calories. Another great way of
getting your steps up is ditch the panoramic bus tours and go on more
walking tours. You're going to see the sights, you're going to get a chance to talk
to the various passengers around and you and you're going to be burning calories
while still having a great time sightseeing. The next key tip I've got is
you can burn calories while actually having fun. Instead of just lying
around on a lounger, which of course you may want to do for some of the vacation,
also take advantage of all the fun things to do on a ship.You can go and play
table tennis, you can go to the sports deck where often they will be hosting
various activities and events. You may be on a ship where it's got
activities like flow riders and ice skating. Basically fun things that are going to
keep you active and burn up your calories. Dancing is another great way of
burning calories. You can go to dancing classes or even just going out dancing.
Whether you're into ballroom dancing or disco, you are having fun dancing
and you'll be surprised actually how dancing is going to chew through a whole
bunch of calories. There's also going to be organized activities like
gym classes or water aerobics, and these can be very sociable and they're a great way of
having fun and meeting other passengers. They are actually very
sociable events. My next tip is about being active on shore. I've already
mentioned that you could go on walking tours, but you'll find increasingly
cruise ships are offering much more active tours. You can go cycling, you
can go kayaking, more active hiking. Look for excursions which
have much more activity to them and again you're can have a huge amount of fun and
perhaps even test some of your limits and try things that you haven't tried
before. Look for active things to do if you're not going on an
organized excursion. For example, in Kotor I took time to walk up the huge big hill
that overlooks the port. I got great views, it didn't cost
me anything and spent a whole lot of calories. My next three tips are more
general tips but they do make a big difference and I found they've actually
helped me a lot. First of all look at what you pack. What a lot of people do
when packing is taking things they can grow into. If you take
along some of your favorite clothes that you know fits you well when you're kind
of at a weight that you're happy with, it is a little way of nudging you if you're
eating too much. If you go to meals wearing trousers that you normally
feel very comfortable in, it's a little reminder about what feels comfortable.
It's a thing that nags in the back of your head. Don't pack
elasticized pants. Don't pack clothes that you can grow into as it's just a
little thing that's going to nudge you and keep you sort of on the straight and
narrow. Secondly avoid things from the Spa that are claiming they're going to
help you lose weight, unless it's a fitness class. On ships
you'll find all sorts of wrap products and treatments, that you're going to pay a lot of
money for, where they claim to help reduce cellulite and weight. Avoid those
because they are not going to make a difference. Another great tip, of course,
is to go on a wellness cruise. Increasingly with the growth of and
popularity of themed cruises, a lot of river cruises and ocean cruises have
wellness cruises where they try and have great menus, great drinks, activities,
excursions which are all around wellness. They make sure that you eat well, you
eat fantastic stuff and you can indulge but actually it's all with a wellness spin.
Cruisers report that they put on between 5 and 10 pounds of weight on a seven-day
cruise. Going on cruise and having a great time but then having to go on some
big diet regimen afterwards is not a great end to the vacation. Hopefully
with these 10 ideas you can actually go on a cruise and have a
great time but come back from your cruise weighing the same or only putting a
little bit of weight( or even having lost weight). I followed these tips and they
have worked for me. I've been on cruises of seven weeks or longer and come away
from that cruise actually weighing less, feeling
fitter and healthier by following these tips. If you enjoyed this video I'd love
it if you watched many more of my Tips For Travellers videos because they're
designed to help you make much more of your precious travel time and money on
both land and at sea.