I hesitate to post this, because I am always rolling my eyes about people asking for "diet" advice on a vacation.
Well, now here I am in the middle of a weight loss journey and about to encounter a 2 week dive trip to Bonaire.
I have taken vacations before while dieting (never two weeks though), I have taken dive trips while not dieting, but never both.
I guess I am trying to wrap my head around what a good strategy that will be mentally and physically healthy for a dive trip without starving myself or just incessantly eating everything in site. Overall goal: Don't gain a ton of weight, but eat enough to have energy and feel good and of course enjoy being on vacation!
Challenges - Exercising:
It seems like limiting exercise after a dive is a must and with all the repetitive diving we plan to do any exercise should be light.
1) I'm an emotional eater - exercise daily helps with anxiety about life and eating.
2) I dislocated my knee almost two years ago during an accident and have worked very hard to get that leg back in shape mostly by doing daily exercise and stretching.
Possible approach I see is that swimming and diving may be enough to both combat the anxiety ( I find diving to be incredibly relaxing) and hopefully physical enough to keep the knee "lubricated" (it gets stiff with inactivity). If this turns out to not be the case, I plan to try additional light exercise such as walking, swimming, stretching, yoga, etc.
Challenges - Eating:
What can I say, diving makes me really hungry, it did before I was dieting and it does now. There are articles out there that conflict about how many calories diving actually burns, but 4-5 dives a day,especially with a good portion being shore diving with surface swims will probably make me pretty hungry. How do you estimate how many calories you would need to eat for maintenance?
How do you find a happy medium with eating on a dive trip - Are there middle of the road plans you guys have tried successfully in the past?
We are doing most breakfasts and lunches at our accommodations so I can eat similar types of foods as I do at home, but I know the 1200-1500 calories/day is not going to cut it while diving this much. I don't want to count calories on vacation, but I don't want to "fall of the wagon" and binge eat either. Do you guys have any good strategies for this?
Hubby is not dieting and loves food and sweets and desserts - ie gelato/ice cream everyday is a given. I am just hoping to control portion sizes and not binge. That is my rough plan for now.
I just needed to vent and get all this down so I can start getting a mental plan together to organize my expectations, goals, thoughts, and feelings about how to approach eating on the trip.
Thank you for your thoughts (and please be gentle....)
Well, now here I am in the middle of a weight loss journey and about to encounter a 2 week dive trip to Bonaire.
I have taken vacations before while dieting (never two weeks though), I have taken dive trips while not dieting, but never both.
I guess I am trying to wrap my head around what a good strategy that will be mentally and physically healthy for a dive trip without starving myself or just incessantly eating everything in site. Overall goal: Don't gain a ton of weight, but eat enough to have energy and feel good and of course enjoy being on vacation!
Challenges - Exercising:
It seems like limiting exercise after a dive is a must and with all the repetitive diving we plan to do any exercise should be light.
1) I'm an emotional eater - exercise daily helps with anxiety about life and eating.
2) I dislocated my knee almost two years ago during an accident and have worked very hard to get that leg back in shape mostly by doing daily exercise and stretching.
Possible approach I see is that swimming and diving may be enough to both combat the anxiety ( I find diving to be incredibly relaxing) and hopefully physical enough to keep the knee "lubricated" (it gets stiff with inactivity). If this turns out to not be the case, I plan to try additional light exercise such as walking, swimming, stretching, yoga, etc.
Challenges - Eating:
What can I say, diving makes me really hungry, it did before I was dieting and it does now. There are articles out there that conflict about how many calories diving actually burns, but 4-5 dives a day,especially with a good portion being shore diving with surface swims will probably make me pretty hungry. How do you estimate how many calories you would need to eat for maintenance?
How do you find a happy medium with eating on a dive trip - Are there middle of the road plans you guys have tried successfully in the past?
We are doing most breakfasts and lunches at our accommodations so I can eat similar types of foods as I do at home, but I know the 1200-1500 calories/day is not going to cut it while diving this much. I don't want to count calories on vacation, but I don't want to "fall of the wagon" and binge eat either. Do you guys have any good strategies for this?
Hubby is not dieting and loves food and sweets and desserts - ie gelato/ice cream everyday is a given. I am just hoping to control portion sizes and not binge. That is my rough plan for now.
I just needed to vent and get all this down so I can start getting a mental plan together to organize my expectations, goals, thoughts, and feelings about how to approach eating on the trip.
Thank you for your thoughts (and please be gentle....)