Realizations On a Cruise Ship

Now that the work week is over, I have some time to share with you guys some of the fun and some sobering fitness lessons I learned while cruising the Caribbean a week ago. While I am planning on posting a blog sharing some of the great sights I saw and the fun activities my girlfriend, my family and I experience, today's post is all about insights I gained on people and fitness.

First off, I learned you don't have to eat like a slob and get fat on a cruise, although most people did. Believe it or not I came back from the cruise one pound lighter than when I took off! This is because I have learned to eat for function mostly and not pure gluttony. Don't get me wrong, I was on vacation and when I wanted a cheesecake or a slice of pizza, I ate it without guilt! On the cruise I used the same non-indulgent discipline that keeps me lean and sane in the real world: I simply enjoy my little slice and then move on! The truth is the cruise offers TONS of meal choices and you don't have to worry about prepping meals at all. For all health conscious folk it works out perfect because you could have fresh fruit and veggies available 24 hours a day. Chicken, turkey, slabs of steak and fish were available at every lunch and dinner. I literally ate better on the cruise than I do at home in a sense that every meal was COMPLETE with fruit, veggies, a lean protein source and some good complex carbs. Who can argue with that?

The second thing I learned on the ship is most people have no self control when it comes to eating or drinking. I witnessed one person after another create a mountain of food on their buffet plate, chow it down and then go sit by the pool and drink cocktails for hours on end. I concluded if most people have a chance to really indulge, they are going to and they'll do it big. Consumption of all kinds into excess and total oblivion...perhaps it's an American thing? Either way, this experience for me was sort of disheartening as a fitness professional and a human being. It's hard to shake the feeling of watching people just sit, eat, drink, sit, eat, drink, sit, eat more and drink more all day long. For me, vacation has always been a time to go do a bunch of things you don't have a chance to do during the daily grind: go exploring, do some cool activities, sight see, relax and quietly enjoy life. What I saw was a lot of people just parked on a ship eating, drinking, partying and continuing to drown out any real meaning with mindless indulgence.

The third thing I remembered on the cruise, not learned, was that observing nature holds a key to finding meaning and peace here in the world. Nature just IS.  I enjoyed several quiet sessions out on the ship deck over looking the vast ocean with my girlfriend, just standing there absorbing the beauty, the power and the immensity of the ocean and the world that lies beneath it. Several snorkeling excursions opened my eyes to a totally different, quiet and beautiful world under the water. Observing nature is a powerful activity. One of the most powerful experiences I had while snorkeling was watching the fish and plant life just flow with the ocean currents. I noticed during my first snorkeling session I would struggle against the tide while I watched the fish just sort of roll with it, at peace, no struggle and with ease. After awhile I learned to sort of just float there and observe rather than fight to swim around. I think that's symbolic of the way people tend to struggle in life. We make the struggle for ourselves. I believe if we learned to, not to be so cliche "go with the flow", we would find more harmony in life. This was only one of the many realizations I had on my trip: we could learn A LOT from observing nature.