10 Low Carb Cruise Lessons

1.  It is totally possible to go on a cruise and lose weight.  

This was me on the cruise in 2011

I was stressed out from dealing with my 86 year old dad in assisted living.  We were buying a new house and planning on moving the very week we returned, AND we were trying to sell our old house.  My husband was looking for work.  Our son and his wife were expecting a baby, due any day during that week.  My stress was up and my weight was UP.  It was rough.

This is me on the the right, on the cruise in 2012 -- rested, focused and Low Carb!

(with my dear friend, Amy Dungan)

What a difference in how I looked and how I felt.  And even better, I came home almost 2 pounds thinner than when I left on the cruise!

2.  It is totally possible to have so much fun that 

food is just a non-issue.

There were times when it was almost a nuisance to have to stop and "refuel".

(my friend and cruise committee member, Kim Eidson with her bowl-o-bacon)

Yes the food was good and there were plenty of healthful choices (amidst a land mine of CARBAGE), but when you are in the middle of enjoying the water park, or hanging from the sky walk, food is the last thing on your mind.  It was sort of fun to actually "work up" an appetite.

(my friend and cruise committee member, Debbie Hubbs on the Sky Walk)

3.  You can totally skip the buffet line 

and still eat like a King.

(taken by my good friend, Carb Tripper)

The restaurant was open for nice, quiet, sit-down meals, 

apart from the hustle and bustle of the buffet lines, which were monuments to gluttony.

4.  Coffee makes a good dessert, 

especially if it is bulletproof.

Link to "Bulletproof Coffee"

yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5.  I can now say that I have friends all over the world.

(259, to be exact)

6.  Low carb / Paleo friends are very giving people, 

and NOT "in it" for the money.  

They freely share what they have learned!

(Matt & Stacy - the http://paleoparents.com/ 

Vanessa Romero  http://www.healthylivinghowto.com/index.html  

Thomas Nikkola - http://www.facebook.com/tom.nikkola)

7.  No one sings Elvira like Jimmy Moore and Tom Naughton.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3998733606346&set=o.85354194342&type=3&theater

If that link doesn't work, here is a link from 2010 -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJoMZ7LYLNw

8.  It is possible to make close friends 

in the midst of a very large group of people.

(Susan Winkler, Carb Tripper, JoAnn Paxson, Lisa Coker -- I enjoyed every minute of 

talking to these ladies.  They were fun and amazing.  There was some concern that if the group got "too big", it would lose the intimacy and friendships that had been so easily formed in years past.  Well, perhaps there were some people that I did not get to meet more than once, but from what I read in blog posts and facebook posts, friendships were formed!)

9.  It is easier to take the stairs on a ship, 

than trying to climb them to go to work every day.

Strange but true.  There were most mornings that I literally ran up and down the stairs instead of taking the elevators.  The weather was great, the atmosphere was alive, and there was just so much to see on the ship.  So when I got back to work and looked at the 6 floors of stairs to get to my desk.. well... there just wasn't the same motivation.  

10.  Every year on the cruise I learn new things 

and reinforce the foundations of Low Carb Living.

... and a parting thought ....

(This is Tom Naughton's photo from Facebook.  

L to R, Dr. John Briffa, Fred Hahn, Dr. William Davis)