Why I Lost Weight on My Cruise Even Though I Ate Dessert Every Day

“Oh my gosh, I lost so much weight on vacation”, said no woman who loved dessert EVER. Am I right? If we are being honest, it is usually the opposite for us.

Most times we come back from vacation wondering how it’s possible to gain weight so quickly. We certainly practiced Figure Friendly habits for more than a week to lose 5 pounds. So, how is it that 5 pounds has no problem finding us over a week of vacation? To be honest, we don’t really care about HOW, we just want it to NOT be so.

As someone who has struggled with vacation weight gain for more than a decade, I thought it was the norm. I certainly never imagined losing weight on vacation- without dieting. You see, like many of the ladies I talk to, I love dessert. Vacations, especially of the resort or cruise variety, are dessert heaven. And, I fully indulge in those little slices of heaven during my time away.

Over the years though, something shifted. I went from being the girl who packed two sets of vacation clothes to allow for the “vacation growth” to the girl who could maintain her weight. I was thrilled with that change alone. However, on my most recent vacation, I was losing weight. I was literally getting leaner and tighter by the day – on a CRUSIE SHIP no less.

Here’s how it happened.

I was really active on vacation.

Yes, I do formal workouts on vacation. But, I didn’t sweat my vacation away in the gym. However, I walked a LOT. There was a full track on top of the ship and walking around with fresh air in the middle of the ocean was amazing.

I also picked active excursions because I enjoy physical adventures. I went diving at one port and spent the day zip lining through a forest at another. So, I end up being way more active on vacation than I am in everyday suburban mom and wife life.

I had great sleep quality on vacation.

I will be honest and tell you that sleep quality was something that I COMPLETELY ignored before my late thirties. However, now that I am a 40 year old mom of two, I realize how much my sleep matters. Did I mention that my toddler still doesn’t sleep through the night? So, since my kids were with their grandparents, I got to sleep through the night. It made a TON of difference in my hunger and craving levels and my midsection.

I ate tons of vegetables and enough protein.

Yes. I eat veggies and protein when I am home. As a matter of fact, I wrote an entire blog about how that is the key to eating for weight loss without tracking. That tip was also featured in my blog about vacationing without weight gain. However, the food on the ship was so amazing. And, the little specialty salads at every meal were enough motivation to eat even more vegetables than normal.

The meat selection on my vacation was amazing. Since I don’t routinely eat pork or beef, I am sometimes pretty limited on protein choices. However, the ship had chicken, turkey, and fish prepared what felt like a million and one different ways. That made getting my daily protein intake super appealing- no need to overdose on starch to get full.

I kept my non-dessert starch intake to a minimum.

The meat and vegetable selections were so amazing and flavorful that I really didn’t need a ton of rice, potatoes, or pasta to feel satisfied. So, each day I would sample a little of those and save that extra room for my twice daily desserts. Don’t judge me. You already knew I ate dessert every day from the title of this post.

I was picky about my indulgences.

So I already told you that the food on the ship was amazing. It was. However, there is a difference between “this is good” and “oh my goodness I have to have this”. So, when it came to dessert, I was picky. Here’s how it went down. Al and I would load our plates up with our personal “dessert buffet” and sample each thing. Then, we would go all in on whichever dessert was a must have and be done wth it. And, yes we did this at both lunch and dinner. OK and that one time with room service too.

So that’s it. That’s how it all went down. My personal strategy to enjoy a cruise vacation, eat dessert every day and actually lose weight too. That’s fierce right? Tweet it out so that your friends know too.

What did you think of all of this? Sound off in the comments.