Learning The Hard Way

First day on board, and I had to learn the hard way to listen better to my body. We boarded around 1:30 pm and were directed to the Lido deck to await for our rooms to be opened. The music was playing, waiters were scurrying around the deck carrying trays of pretty drinks with umbrellas, buffets with tempting food abounded and the lure of the start of our adventure was upon us. 

We were traveling with friends, and after a hectic 24 hours of preparing for our trip, we were all ready to let go of the pre-trip stress, and just have fun. We decided food and drinks were the first priority, so we ordered pretty drinks with umbrellas for the girls and buckets of beer for the boys. We hadn’t acquainted ourselves with the many restaurants at this point yet, so we eased over to the nearest buffet and filled our plates. I opted for a burger and potato salad, as it seemed the lesser of the evils at this particular buffet which sported mostly fast food fare. I considered de-bunning the burger, but decided after only half of a drink, I needed the bread to help sop of some of the alcohol. I haven’t had much to drink this past year, so am somewhat of a lightweight.

Let me preface the rest of the story, by explaining that since I’ve had my surgery I’ve had to seriously readjust my eating habits or pay the consequences later. I’ve learned to eat small amounts of food, to stay away from bread except in very small portions and only certain kinds, stay away from dense meats unless I have gravies to help smooth the way and avoid anything too spicy. Generally if I follow these rules, I can control some of the not so pleasant side effects of my last surgery. 

As the day wound on, I partook of three pretty drinks, some marinated vegetable appetizers, a mozzarella and tomato baguette, and then a steak dinner followed by Creme Brulee. Even as I bit into my desert, I knew that I was taking one bite too many, but the drinks had dulled my senses and my inner voice was simply not loud enough to stop the madness. I guess my head had gone into vacation mode, and I had basically broken every one of my rules. I had eaten bread three times in one day, I had eaten far too much food and I had ordered a steak dinner on top of everything else. To make matters worse, the steak turned out to be not so tender, but instead of passing it up, I continued to take bite after tough bite. It wasn’t ten minutes after finishing my creme brulee, that I started having problems. Within fifteen minutes I was back in my room, paying the price for vacationing from common sense. While everyone else enjoyed the opening show, I was curled in bed learning my lesson the hard way, and wondering if my trip was going to consist of me having to convalesce while everyone else was out having fun. 

This morning I awoke, still a little uncomfortable, but wearing my common sense hat again. I still have six more days of fun, I don’t have to cram every experience into a single day. I can pace myself to avoid any repeat performances. I am certainly not going to beat myself up any more over a day of bad choices. I had great fun until I didn’t! Even as I type away at my confession, I am laying next to my husband who also learned his lesson the hard way. Hangovers and the motion of the ocean don’t quite mix either. I think we’ll both be making better choices the rest of the trip.