I have just returned from a 7 day cruise aboard Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines where many of you know the food is plentiful. I had good intentions of choosing the right foods but little by little I was enticed by gourmet preparation. Consequently, I have a tendency to fall off the wagon, eat rich foods, eat too much food and have a dessert a few times. Eating mass quantities of meats in place of my normal protein drinks frankly did not work like I thought. While I am confident I had my protein count right, still I felt bloated and lethargic most of the time.
Though I hit the ship’s gym regularly, I mentally and physically off my peak. My sweat was greasy from the rich food. I could not maintain the normal intensity that I achieved back at my home gym. I was mentally down on myself about my workouts and my eating habits. I rationalized it was only for a week out of the year and it was not going to kill me. And frankly I do think this is true.
Here are lessons learned for you for this summer's vacation.
- Rich foods screw up your workouts. Well duh! This is obvious.
- Avoid vacations where every meal is a buffet (all you can eat). I’ve only done 3 cruises in the last 15 years and they just don’t work well for eating right.
- Try to take vacations where you can maintain some of the quality eating habits. Renting a condo that offers kitchen facilities is a great alternative to a hotel and restaurant meals.
- It is okay to eat a few things that are normally taboo, assuming you are not competing in a contest in next few weeks, But don’t go hog wild…limit the junk.
- Don’t let vacation eating become the habit. Put your quality eating back on track as soon as your vacation is over.
- Workout, no matter how crumby the gym. Keep your training on the radar screen even though they will not be your best workouts. And even if you don't feel like it. If you have no equipment at all, don’t forget that you can always do pushups, sit ups and lunges anywhere. I did this one day at a hotel that had zero equipment.
- Use the crumby workouts to re-motivate you back to great workouts when you return to your home gym.
Oh yeah…protein supplements are a valuable part of great workouts. Eating the equivalent beef, chicken and eggs does not compare to positive benefits of drinking protein drinks that don’t bloat, add a lot of fat or come with a hefty amount of salt. I really appreciate my protein drinks today more than ever.
And yes what you eat does make a difference on your performance in the gym!!!
Sweat eventually hardens to Muscle".....Scott
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