Adventure on the Legend of the Seas - Part III: Exercising & Healthy Eating on board

These posts are also part of a competition I am entering. If you think I deserve to win the the Grand Prize which is a cruise 7D5N Western Mediterranean Fly-Cruise on board Liberty of the Seas, please visit http://contest.omy.sg/royal-caribbean/ and vote for me! You stand to win prizes too!

*** Early Morning Stretches *** 

While my roommate Darren was dancing the night away with some Japanese ladies double his age, (I was told one of them was 60!) I was already sleeping in bed, totally knocked out!  I did not even hear Darren come into the room. I think he came in very 'early' in the morning! So when it was his turn to sleep, I woke up. I woke up at 6.30 AM! I took a shower and was ready for my stretch class at the Fitness Centre on board.

Every Monday night, I would be attending Kickboxing and ABT Sculpt class at the Community Club next to my house. As I boarded the cruise on a Monday afternoon, I had to missed that week's class. Instead of exercising, I was feasting away on the cruise with the other 10 bloggers. So when I discovered there were exercise classes on board, I decided I would join it!




I was too shy to take photos during the class. So I took photos after the half hour class was over. What was the name of the class again? It's Stretch Class. What's that?

If you have been attending Mat Pilates,  Kickboxing and similar classes, you would usually get only 5 minutes of stretch in the beginning and another 5 minutes of stretch at the end. For this class, it  was half an hour of only doing stretching exercises! Basically, you stretch almost all the muscles you can stretch in your body! Oh, it did feel very good!

This man in the photo above was beside me for the stretch class. Since we were there earlier, everyone in the room conveniently eavesdrop he and the wife's conversation with the personal trainer. They were talking about their healthy living progress on board. They were talking about the exercises they did the day before, what they did to relax their minds and also what they ate the day before.

While, the bloggers were feasting away, I realised there are many who come to the cruise to be healthy or learn to be healthy with the help of the personal trainer! When I heard that they ate very few carbo, ate lots of veggies and only ate fish, I was in awe! Wow, they can resist all the wonderful food on board?




While we were having our stretch class, there are folks behind us were running and cycling away!
Young and old, these people woke up at 7 am to exercise! I did notice something strange though. The fit ones were all on the left, those that looked more unfit were on the right!

If you like training using machines, you would like training on the ship's Fitness Centre. Instead of TV screens, you have the view of the vast blue sea! You get to see the sun rise too! It was a beautiful sight!

After the stretch class, there was supposed to be another exercise class, but that was canceled because the trainer had a meeting. Sigh. I was looking forward to that!


Most classes are free, except for Yoga where you need to sign up and pay a fee for it.




This was the trainer Daniel Blythen. I felt he was quite good. The last 10 years, I have attended various classes by different trainers, he was one of the better ones. He was a bit too serious. Maybe because the class had mostly people way older than I am?




He seemed quite qualified though. He studied sports and exercise science and massage therapy!

I suddenly remember this Pilate instructor I had 8 years ago. She is studying her sports science degree now in Canada. The few of us who attended the class still gossip about her. Another friend keeps track of her blog and keeps us updated. She is still a psychotic lady that we knew. She will always says she is fat and needs liposuction when she's already skin and bones.

Let me tell you something funny that happened so long ago and I still remember. If you attend Mat Pilates class, you would be taught how to breathe. The instructor would always be shouting inhale, hold, exhale repeatedly. Sometimes we had to curl and do different postures that somehow makes you want to fart. 


This happened: Everyone exhale.... Now get ready to inhale again.... Then out of a sudden, I could not control and some gas leaked from my posterior. Oh my goodness, it came with a high pitch sound too! She said, hold hold.. Everyone hold your breathe.... Don't inhale unless you want to die of poisoning! Everyone just burst out laughing and could not not exercise for the next 5 minutes. No one knew who was the culprit!




There were many complimentary seminar. The topic for the seminar sign up sheet above was: "Did you know it takes 36 glasses of water to naturalize the effect of one soda? Would you like to learn more?"

Yikes and double yikes! The day before all of us had so much soft drinks! I felt like a sinner in that fitness center.

*** Breakfast that I did not touch ***

After stretching, I was hungry and I walked out to grab some breakfast.  Whenever we are hungry and walk to the restaurant and you will meet another food blogger heading there! I saw Catherine! Yey, I got a breakfast partner! It would have been boring eating alone in the huge restaurant!

Coming out of the Fitness Centre feeling like an outcast, I thought I better eat something right.



I saw all sort of cereals. There were healthier options like wheat and bran cereal, but it's not me! Next!





Walking further in, I saw donuts, different kinds of rolls and breads! They are freshly baked too! The smell whiff around, tickling and tempting you to eat it. Urggh..

No, no, no... walk away!




"Alamak!", the more you walk, the more tempted you are!

Look at this pastries! Sugar glacing over it makes it look even more appetizing. You can see the layers and layers of the puff pastry. When you smell the buttery smell, you can imagine the crispy sound when you bite it even before you eat it!

Flee from temptation!




Oh... this looked healthy. Porridge / Congee.  The condiments though was not healthy. My favourite!  Crispy ikan bilis, crunchy and fragrant 'you tiao'/dough fritters, smooth and glistening century eggs, pickled radish etc.

Should I or should I not? I normally would have eaten this, but no... let's behave for at least one meal!




Oh, something healthy! Grits. (That's ground corn). Maybe a bit too healthy! I can't swallow that! It looked like glue for making paper mache! (Sorry to the chef who made this, I don't mean to say you prepared glue) 

Stay away too!

*** Breakfast that I ate ***

Walking further down the long buffet line, I opened the bamboo steamer and saw char siu bau!
Resistance was futile this time.  I love char siu bau! I am taking it! Not too many, just 2!




Somehow char siu bau makes me happy! Mini char siu bau! Anyone loves char siu bau too?

By the way, later on the cruise when we went down to Phuket, I walked into 7 Eleven and saw Lay's with Char Siu Bao flavour!! I bought a pack back!





On to the hot food section, I was tempted again. But since I know I would be climbing the rock climbing wall later with the rest of the bloggers, I reasoned that I should eat something from here.

Eggs are good for me! I chose scrambled eggs. They were nice decent scrambled eggs.  I love sausages too! Trying or pretending to be healthy that day, I chose the turkey sausages! It was too lean for my liking! Haha... It was still nice though.




I finally saw something that I was familiar with! Oats! Some of you might know I eat this at home!
I gladly scooped up the oats and added my favourite dried fruits on it. Dried cranberry and raisins. I saw some sliced almonds and thought why not?

I was glad I ate this. My body registered it was something familiar and circuitry sent signals around that things are back to normal. The body's 'plumbing' system that was a bit cranky on the first day was repaired within half an hour after I had this meal! The huge amount of food we ate the last one and a half day was cleared! All flushed out!




I ended my breakfast with a big bowl of fruits! I usually buy guava on the way to my office every Mon-Fri! The options here were way better. I am totally lovin' it!

The rock melon was not sweet though. ;-)


Here's something hilarious:


That's some conversation that the 10 bloggers have in our Facebook group. We realised that my roommate had plumbing problems for the entire trip! Goodness!

Remember, fruits are excellent for the 'plumbing' system too!

*** Rock Climbing Wall ***

As some of you would already have figured out. The 10 of us had to 'work' for our free cruise trip. One of the many 'work' we had to do was to climb the rock climbing wall! Ya, you climb, and the camera man will film you.

Easy peasy! But... I could only climb the easy and medium difficulty wall. After that my hands and legs gave up on me!



The easy level is really easy! You can climb up very fast!
By the way, this was the first time I climbed it. I realised little kids can do better! Faster too!




I managed to get up the medium difficulty wall too. (Ya, that's me)
I wonder if the stretch exercise I did 2 hours earlier helped with the climb.

My hands and legs were too tired for the hardest climb. Later we realised, if you are gonna climb, go straight to the hardest after the easiest. Most people can't do 3 at a go. Your hands/arms and legs will be too tired. That's a tip if you are heading for this cruise and want to climb it.





If climbing is not for you, the 9-hole miniature golf course on the ship might be your cup of tea.
Just don't hit the golf ball into the Straits of Malacca!




There were all sorts of games and activities on board. If you walk around and you can see people playing all sorts of games like this one here. He's throwing a black bag into the hole on the opposite side.


I think my post is long enough. Any more details and you will be bored. If you think having a cruise holiday is all about eating and gambling, I hope this post gives you a different perspective.

There is an outdoor pool, 4 whirlpools / jacuzzis on board too. There's also an indoor pool in the solarium. There is also a Day Spa on board and many more. Check out http://www.royalcaribbean-asia.com/ for more details.



This post is cross-posted at http://blog.omy.sg/royal-caribbean/2010/12/30/adventure-on-the-legend-of-the-seas-a-royal-caribbean-cruise-part-iii/ too! Visit it too!