Can healthy eating and enjoying your vacation go hand-in-hand? Absolutely—with a positive attitude, that is.
Whether you’re a dedicated healthy eater and you want to maintain the lifestyle you love on vacation, or whether you’re just embarking on a healthier regime and need all the support and encouragement you can get, it can be done. The key is planning, having a few simple strategies, being informed, and knowing what works for you.
Pre-Vacation Planning for Healthy Eating
Celebrity Flora
If you’re hoping to maintain a healthy lifestyle when you know there will be temptation at every turn, you’ll need a plan. Spend time researching the kind of restaurants and cuisines that will be available, and read up on dishes you might want to try. Don’t do this when you’re hungry!
Set yourself some goals—perhaps simply maintaining weight rather than piling on the pounds is realistic. The average adult requires up to 2,400 calories a day for women and 3,000 for men—but when you’re faced with freshly baked pastries, poolside pizza, tempting buffets, and colorful cocktails, you can easily put away 5,000 calories a day or more.
So be kind to yourself. And without becoming a diet bore, try to enlist the support of your traveling companions in your quest.
Research Your Destination (or Cruise Ship)
Le Voyage
When you’re serious about healthy living on vacation, preparation is key. Most cruise lines post sample menus online, so you can get an idea of the kind of food offered in the specialty restaurants, whether it’s sushi, high-end Italian, or steak. You can then plan ahead and arrive at dinner armed with ideas for healthy choices.
If you’re planning to sample the local cuisine ashore, go prepared. Check out places to try before you arrive. Vegans and vegetarians will love the website Happy Cow, which has extensive listings of healthy cafés and restaurants worldwide.
La Boqueria in Barcelona, Spain
Find out where the best food markets are; you might want to buy a bag of plump cherries or juicy peaches, or whatever fruit is in season to bring back on board. A few not to miss include La Boqueria in Barcelona, the fabulous Pike Place Market in Seattle, and Quincy Market in Boston.
Consider downloading healthy eating apps, although it is important here not to become too obsessive; figuring out how many calories are in cruise ship food isn’t always simple. But maybe you’re already part of a program like Noom, or Fast 800. Or try MyFitnessPal, which helps plan meals, track calories, and offers motivational messages.
Of course, staying healthy on vacation is about more than clean eating. You’ll need to move, too. So check out what’s available and might work for you, whether it’s sunrise yoga, a few daily laps of the jogging track, a couple of fun classes in the gym, or swimming. All of these and many more are available on cruise ships.
Pack Healthy Snacks
Snacks
Even the best-laid plans can fall to pieces before you’ve even arrived at your destination if you succumb to salty, calorific, carb-laden airplane food. So take your own. Pack energy and protein bars, nuts, and dried fruit to nibble on during the flight. Or small, individually wrapped cheeses, oat crackers, pre-chopped carrot sticks, and fruit that won’t be crushed and messy in your bag, like apples. For a sweet fix, take a bar of 70% dark chocolate, a source of fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.
Fill your water bottle before you board a flight; most airports offer free filling stations now. Steer clear of junk food outlets at airports and in gas stations. If you stop for coffee en route, skip the syrupy add-ons and ask for low-fat milk.
Set a Healthy Eating Goal
Luminae
You are on vacation so mealtimes shouldn’t be about deprivation; just being sensible. Some travelers swear by the 80/20 rule, which means that 80% of meals are balanced and planned, with lean protein, unsaturated fats, masses of vegetables, and healthy carbs. The remaining 20% can include the occasional treat, like a dessert, or a pastry with your morning coffee.
Perhaps you could adopt the teaching behind the popular Zoe nutrition program, which encourages you to eat 30 plants per week. On a cruise, this should be easy. The salad bars are so sumptuous that you could almost achieve 30 plants in a single day.
Eat Like a Local: Making Healthier Choices with Local Cuisine
Sorrento, Italy
Part of the joy of travel is trying the local food. But this doesn’t mean saying goodbye to your healthy lifestyle; it’s just a matter of thinking differently when you eat out.
In Italy, for example, skip rich pasta dishes in favor of caprese salad, antipasti, and fresh fish. In the Caribbean, opt for jerked chicken or fish, fish stew, or chicken and rice instead of fried fish sandwiches. Essentially, grilled, baked, or steamed is better than fried and will taste just as good.
Consider the calories in your vacation cocktails, too. A piña colada can contain as many as 340 calories and 40 grams of sugar, more than the entire daily recommended intake for an adult man, according to the American Heart Association. Instead, try rum and soda water with a splash of lime juice, or a rum and diet cola. Choose a white wine spritzer, diluting the wine with soda water, or a gin and diet tonic with plenty of ice.
If you’re traveling in the heat, make sure you drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. Fresh local juices are wonderfully refreshing, too, although they can be filled with sugar, so consume these in moderation. Coconut water is a great choice in the tropics; it’s low in calories and packed with electrolytes, which help you stay hydrated.
Portion Control: Savoring, Not Overeating
Le Voyage
Nutritionists advise that when it comes to portion control, your plate should look as follows. Half will be taken up by non-starchy vegetables; broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, green beans, bell peppers, salad leaves, and so on. A quarter should be occupied by lean protein; chicken, turkey, fish, for example, or if you’re vegetarian, beans, lentils, and soy products. Then, the remaining quarter should consist of healthy carbs, such as brown rice, whole grain pasta, quinoa, or sweet potatoes.
Some people find visual clues helpful for judging portion control for weight loss or management; your protein source, for example, should be about the size of a deck of cards.
Fine Cut Steakhouse
Other hacks when it comes to moderating portions include simply asking for smaller portions, or a child-sized portion. You can always have more if you’re still hungry. Perhaps if the appetizers on the menu look healthier than the mains, you can opt for two appetizers and skip the entree.
Slow down the pace at which you eat. It takes 20 minutes for the brain to tell the body it’s full. So don’t wolf down the appetizer and then plunge into the entree. Eat slower and you will feel fuller—but you should have consumed less.
Consider mindful eating, too, which can be difficult back home, when we’re always in a rush. But you’re on vacation. So savor the moment; the candlelight, the sound of the waves, the music, your companion. Take time to taste your food. With practice, this technique can work well when eating a smaller portion, or a dainty dessert. You’ll appreciate every mouthful.
Dining Out Tips: Smart Choices for Restaurant Meals
Mykonos, Greece
First, choose a restaurant that is going to meet your needs. A venue specializing in southern fried chicken or deep-dish pizza won’t be a smart choice. Greek or Mediterranean are usually good options, as are Japanese and Thai. Italian food is healthy provided you skip the creamy pasta dishes. Indian is great if you avoid anything cooked in ghee, clarified butter, and temptations like deep-fried samosas.
The key to successful healthy eating once you’ve chosen a restaurant is managing the menu. Check carefully for items depicted as “light” or “steamed”. If something you want comes drenched with butter—sole à la meunière, for example—ask the waiter if you can have it plain grilled instead, with a little butter on the side. This goes for all sauces; staying healthy doesn’t mean going without, just in moderation. If it’s on the side, you control how much you have.
Make sure there’s always water on the table and alternate every glass of wine with a glass of water. Try to resist the bread basket and pats of salty butter, too.
Healthy Eating on a Cruise: Tips for Every Meal
If anything, healthy eating on a cruise should be easier than at home, simply because there’s so much choice and no planning, shopping, or preparation involved. Imagine salad bars in rainbow colors, healthy juice bars, and iced fruit kebabs around the pool. The key, as ever, is resisting temptation.
Breakfast
Spa Cafe
A good breakfast can set you up for the day; sensible choices will help avoid that mid-morning sugar crash. Eggs, rich in protein, will keep you feeling full for longer. Choose an omelet with mushrooms and spinach, or poached eggs and/or avocado on whole-grain toast. Greek yogurt is also protein-rich and delicious topped with berries and scattered with high-fiber chia seeds and nuts.
Things to avoid include waffles, pancakes, bacon, flavored yogurts, sugary muffins, and sugar-loaded breakfast cereals. If saying no to these is too hard, just remove them from the equation and choose a different venue. Celebrity Cruises’ AquaSpa Café, for example, is a peaceful place to enjoy breakfast, with only healthy options on the menu.
Coffee lovers will rejoice in the knowledge that coffee is rich in polyphenols, which have anti-inflammatory properties. Just steer clear of the syrupy add-ons.
Lunch
Murano
Lunch on a sunny day at sea may mean dining from the poolside grill. Burgers are not off the menu, although you might want to skip the bun and the fries and opt for a side salad instead. Grilled chicken or fish are other healthy choices. Ask for sauces on the side, so you can limit how much you have.
Lunch is also a wonderful time to explore the salad bar, a feature of every cruise ship buffet. Here, you can go wild, loading your plate with as many colors and textures as possible. Just steer clear of creamy dressings and lavish amounts of toppings; a scattering of seeds is better than a fistful of fried croutons.
Dinner
Luminae
Dinner can be a challenge if you’re dieting, especially if you’ve had a cocktail or two and have worked up an appetite. So survey the menu with care. Most cruise lines nowadays indicate the healthier dishes on their menu, as well as items that are gluten free, low fat, and lower in carbohydrates.
You can make your own healthy choices, though; as ever, opt for grilled rather than fried, and ask for sauces to be served on the side. Order extra sides of vegetables, paying attention to the less healthy options. Creamed spinach, for example, is not a great choice. Don’t be indecisive and let the waiter, who wants to make you happy, talk you into accepting two entrees.
Tuscan Grille
You can also ask for half portions, or order sharing dishes for the table if you just want a taste of some of the more calorific options. The same goes for dessert. There’s nothing wrong with the occasional indulgence and sharing with your travel companion could satisfy those banoffee pie cravings while reducing the guilt.
There’s also the option of gearing your entire choice of stateroom around healthy living. Celebrity Cruises’ AquaClass, for example, is designed for the health conscious and gives you exclusive access to the delightful Blu, a restaurant specializing in clean cuisine.
Snacks
Cafe Al Bacio
If you’re eating properly at mealtimes, there shouldn’t really be a need for snacking throughout the day. But this is your vacation and there will be temptation—most likely not in the form of healthy snacks.
There are a few ways to manage cravings. If you go for mid-morning coffee, sit at a table and have your companion, or a waiter, bring the coffee. Don’t stand in line at the counter, salivating over the pastries. If everybody is eating ice cream, opt for an iced fruit cup or kebab instead. At cocktail hour, olives are a healthier choice than salted peanuts or potato chips.
Cravings between meals are often a sign of dehydration, so drink plenty of water, especially in the heat. Few people drink enough; the recommended guidelines are 13 8-oz cups a day for men and nine for women.
How to Navigate Cruise Buffets Without Overeating
Oceanview Cafe
If you’re trying to maintain a healthy diet, the buffet on a cruise ship may be a paradise—or a temptation too far. But with a little planning and a new approach, the buffet can work for any health-conscious cruiser.
Survey Before You Serve
This may seem counterintuitive, but tour the buffet before you start loading your plate. Identify healthier options and plan what you are going to eat. Otherwise, there’s a danger of over-indulging at the taco or pizza station before you’ve even considered the salads.
Choose Protein & Veggies First
Sushi
Eating a lunch rich in protein is the best way to avoid hunger pangs during the afternoon. Choose grilled meats and fish, sushi, and antipasti. Take a separate bowl to the salad bar and fill it with greens, grated carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, beans and pulses, seeds, and perhaps a sprinkling of cheese or a dollop of hummus as a treat. Skip the creamy dressings and make your own; a little olive oil and a squeeze of lemon, or vinaigrette if that’s on offer.
Practice Portion Control
Approach the buffet in the European style. Don’t pile your plate high with everything at once; you can always go back for your main once you’ve had an appetizer or a salad. Ask for smaller portions if the dish is served—and take smaller portions if it’s self-service.
Desserts in Moderation
Luminae
If you have a sweet tooth and can’t resist dessert, look for the low-sugar options, which should be clearly labeled. Or assemble a colorful fruit platter or a small selection of cheeses. Try to resist taking multiple portions or loading a big sharing plate for the table and undoing all the good you’ve done so far.
Conclusion
Luminae
Is it easy to stay healthy on vacation? In short, yes! With a positive approach and a sense of exploration rather than deprivation, combined with exercise, fresh air, adventure, and an absence of stress, you will hopefully come back motivated—and in better shape than ever.
