Planning to eat dessert, would like some advice on damage control page 3

[magnolia1973]

And I can tell you... from 35 years of dealing with sugar addiction.... don't fast to make up for eating sweets. Just et normlly, a little lighter. All it does is set up "it's OK I can allot the calories". It sets up great new cycles of "hmmm, if I skip the sweet potato I can have ice cream" which morphs to "if I have lean chicken breast with dry spinach I can have a snickers" whch becomes "hell, I'll just have cheesecake". It also sets up the sin/punishment mentality.

Go on the cruise. Enjoy the desserts. Enjoy the food. Come home, eat clean. Accept a few more pounds on the scale; they will come off in due time.

[j3nn]

I'd just enjoy what you like, be active when you can, fast when it's convenient(e.g., not hungry, wait to eat), and stay as stress-free as possible. You do not have to justify to yourself or anyone else why you want dessert, it's obvious: it's delicious and you're on vacation!

Don't overthink this or let others make you doubt your decisions. Beating yourself up is so unhealthy. Have confidence that you will get back to normal when you return home. No need to believe in advance that it's a downward spiral. That's uncalled for and encourages an unhealthy relationship with food.

[rayross]

Whatever weight-loss program you're on, it will be easier if your body is fully mineralized. Especially if you sweat when you work out, you're losing minerals. If the body is fully mineralized, hunger decreases, cravings decrease, and fat is lost, whether you exercise or not.

btw If you eat that sugar-free ice cream, make sure it's not sweetened with Aspertame. To sweeten things at home, Stevia is a wonderful substitute for sugar.

[heatseeker]

Jeepers, it's a vacation. An expensive one, at that. Live it up!

I eat close to perfect most of the time so that when there's a special occasion, I have no guilt about indulging. If you're really concerned, though:

You could IF to limit damage. Save all of your calories for dinner and then burn through them the next day as you fast. Hopefully this will keep you in the "fat adapted" state so that you can continue to burn fat as your primary fuel.

I also recommend this, mostly because this is exactly what I did when I was in Vegas for a week, and it worked like a charm. I had nothing but black coffee (and, okay, some clear alcohol at the blackjack tables--it's free!) until about 6pm, and then I'd go to the buffet at whatever hotel I was in and eat whatever I wanted. Didn't gain a pound, and I actually felt good the whole time, no bloating or crankiness. AND, most importantly, I enjoyed myself and still felt like I was exercising my hedonism muscle (which is half the fun of a vacation, IMO!).

[serenity]

Many people here will not like my answer. But here it is anyway. Work out a whole bunch--cardio. Yes, the forbidden, really-bad-for-you cardio. When I went on vacation for nine days last spring, I was on week two of training for a ten-miler. Because of the training, I increased my weekly mileage drastically. Thus, although I was eating and drinking (and I mean drinking pina coladas and frozen margaritas) like the world was about to end, I lost weight instead of gained. Well, fine, I only ate eggs and some cheese for breakfast, would skip lunch, then have two frozen margaritas or pina coladas in the afternoon, then go out for a huge dinner with more drinks. I had dessert too, at least a couple of times. But dessert has never really been my thing.

Come to think of it, the ONLY thing that has ever worked for me has been working out so I wonder why I try so hard at this diet thing.

So, yeah, one word: run.

[heatseeker]

I dunno, Serenity, when I was training for a marathon and running a whole lot, I gained. I think the increased cortisol + increased carbs (there is really no way not to eat more carbs when running 50 miles a week) made my particular body type just pack it away like crazy. Steady state cardio is not my friend.

Different strokes and all that. Just wanted to offer an alternate perspective.

[Mamame]

You're going on vacation. I'd just say to stop worrying about it and enjoy yourself. We've been on vacation a few times since going primal and while I try to stay as clean as possible I don't stress too much about ingredients and enjoy myself - and that means desserts! One thing you could do is just eat half the dessert to limit the damage, but personally I've never found it to be an issue to go straight back to clean eating afterwards (and I used to have a HUGE sugar addiction). Most of the time now I have a bite or two of dessert and that is all I can handle.

[serenity]

I dunno, Serenity, when I was training for a marathon and running a whole lot, I gained. I think the increased cortisol + increased carbs (there is really no way not to eat more carbs when running 50 miles a week) made my particular body type just pack it away like crazy. Steady state cardio is not my friend.

Different strokes and all that. Just wanted to offer an alternate perspective.

Yes, you're right. Different people are different. Training for a marathon is also different from training for a 10-miler though. I was only running about 25-30 miles a week; I think 32 miles was my peak. I imagine that 50 miles per week would be a deal more stressful.

[qqemokitty]

There's nothing wrong with having a single serving of panacotta or creme brulee while on fancy cruise vacation. If you want the ice cream, go for the real deal, don't ruin it with sugar free. Relax and enjoy, and keep your other meals primal.

Fruit and cheese plate sounds yummy too. But I am a sucker for anything custardy. :3

Just keep your other meals as primal as possible given that you aren't preparing your own meals, and you should do just fine.

[Gorbag]

Enjoy the sugar free vanilla ice cream with some bourbon poured over it and plenty of fruits! Eat ad libitum all the stuff that you usually avoid at home, but make your cocktails sugar free like CubaLibre made on diet coke. Also, do plenty of rounds in the swimming pool for “damage-control”, cardio works for burning up energy, and when eating a lot you can also exercise yourself much more than usual! And enjoy your cruise without worrying about a little more added weight, it will mostly be water gain after all…