hi - I am on ww and have really been sticking to it and seeing results (finally!!) I am 5'7" - I started at 162 in January and now I am 153 - the lowest I have been in 3 years. My husband and I are taking a belated honeymoon in about a month - a cruise on Royal Caribbean and I am psyched, but I have been on a cruise before and they are really food focused. So... I was wondering if anyone knows how many points you can generally eat to maintain but not to gain. I get a lot of exercise (lately anyway) and I never eat more than 25 points regardless of how much I exercise. (this has been my downfall in the past). I thought if I exercised and ate those points (figure 4 extra per day) and maybe 5 more on top of that. That gives me a total of 34 per day which I can be very happy with but I really want to maintain. What do you guys think - anyone played around with maintenance? I will definitely go lower to maintain. Anyone out there been on Royal Caribbean. They say they have a spa menu at dinner. How is it? And are there a lot of good options for a WW person?

We LOVE Royal Carribean (we have been on two cruises with them) and yes, you can do very well on their fabulous and flexible menu. I wasn't counting points when we went on our cruise over Christmas week so I can't help you there, but I did make many choices from the Spa Menu. I also attended some of the healthy eatting classes in the Spa which were fun... nothing you don't already know, but a nice thing to do. The treadmill is my thing, so I really enjoyed the treadmills on these ships which look out over the stearn of the ship. DH and I also enjoyed walking on deck in good weather! The drinks are the downfall of cruising, but thank heavens they're very expensive, so the budget usually helps control that part of consumption... although if you stick to wine and bar brands (any stay away from the novelty, fru fru drinks)the multi drink cards you can buy in advance help. Where are you cruising to and on what ship?

Hi - we are going on rhapsody of the sea to key west, belize, and cozumel. Did you manage to maintain (or not gain too much) on your cruise? I am lucky - until about 4 years ago my weight was always pretty much the same - about 140 - 145, so I would have thought of someone asking these questions - what a jerk, just dont overeat! Now, I have finally managed to take off some weight, I feel so much better, my face is so much prettier - I really do not want to gain back. It is so hard fought to get it off and so easy to put back on... and you dont have to be the type of person who eats lots of chips and sweets. My downfall is I eat healthily, but eat a little too much at every meal and allow myself a few too many treats - albeit fairly reasonable ones. Well, once I got into my 30s, even my pretty reasonable eating has caught up with me. What if I commit to eat salad every day for lunch - maybe that could do the trick together with the spa menu and exercising.

I have never been on a cruise, but do know a little about maintenance. It is COMPLETELY different for everyone. When I was at goal, I was able to maintain at a high level of pts. (40+!) Some people have to stay in a much smaller range. WW recommends gradually adding pts to your range until you find the range that works for you.
I would say don't stress about pts too much, how often will you get to enjoy a cruise!!!
Have fun!!

you are so lucky to be able to maintain at 40 pts!!! I started WW in January at 162 and lost 2 pounds in the first 2 months. Obviously I was not very strict with myself, but at least I wasn't piggin out. I have been really strict for the past 2 weeks and I took off 6 pounds in the first 5 days and now 8 days later my weight has not budged. I do an exercise tape (50 - 60 minutes) 6 days a week, plus some other exercise as well. I'm not going to stress over it - but I cant even seem to get 10 pounds off, and I know it would be really easy to gain 5 on the vacation. I know everyone is different but why am I such a slow loser? I have lost some inches which is very cool but I would really like to see those numbers go down for all this hard work. Maybe I will try the Wendy plan.

Jane,
I am a really slow looser too, so I can feel your pain. The key is to just stick with it and know that it's got to come off sooner or later if you do what you know to do... measure, journal, exercise, and plan. Have you tried charting your losses so you can see the line going down over time? That encourages me. Sounds like you're doing the planning with anticipating the cruise. I think your plan of salads would be good, but there are lots of other great things to choose from too! Many fresh fish dishes at breakfast, lunch and dinner. You have complete freedom to order as many appetizers as you like to customize your order, and if something you had yesterday, like a shrimp cocktail is not listed today, just ask... they'll probably bring it to you! The thing about the cruise is that the presentations are so beautiful that everything you order is going to look attractive and make you feel special, so there's no way you're going to feel deprived regardless of what you order. You're also going to spend a lot of time in that bathing suit, so that should reinforce what you're doing for yourself!

We went to Cozumel, Key West and Merida. Cozumel is wonderful and the shopping and water sports are great! The street entertainers at Mallory Square in Key West are fabulous!
Have a great time!

Great topic. I am planning to go on a 7 day Carnival cruise in December to Belize, Grand Cayman, etc. Although I just started weight watchers (just finished week 4 with a total loss of 9 pounds) I am a little worried about it. It is nice to know that others too have faced this situation and done fine. There is a person at my meeting who has lost 70 lbs and she had taken a cruise - I'll ask her what she did and pass it on.

A couple of more thoughts to pass along. Take as much bottled water as you can, cause it is really expensive on the ship. I loaded up on the little bottles they give you on the airplane, since they were free and easier to carry than the big bottles of Evian they stock in your cabin or have on the gangplank as you depart in ports.

Also, the menues are usually posted in the glass cases outside the dining room early in the day, so you could check the dinner menu before you eat lunch and be able to budget your points ahead of time. That might help with planning. There are also some standard things offered at each dinner (steak, salmon I think) so if you're not sure what they'll be having, you can always count on one of those.

The grande buffet also opens about 45 minutes before serving for picture taking which is a good chance to scope out the entire thing and decide what is worth choosing when the time comes. It looks like a lot, but there are many repeats, so it is fairly easy to keep the volume down by just taking 1 of the "must haves" and don't eat more than the first bite of it's not worth it!

Outstanding cruise suggestions. Thank you! I am addicted to the Walmart flavored water and plan to pack some (those are sadly bigger then the smaller bottles - thus heavier but cheaper).

Going to Las Vegas and Utah for a two week vacation with my family in about 3 weeks and am already thinking about my eating during that time. I am big into planning ahead. Luckily my sister has met goal (71 lbs lost) and I can weigh in with her group and she keeps the house stocked with WW friendly food. Las Vegas is a bit tricker but I am hoping with "constant vigilance" I'll be ok. I'm guessing Las Vegas will have a larger WW center I can also weigh in along the way.

Thanks again!