Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | I DID IT!! I Survived my week-long cruise!!!

What a great week!!! My husband and I just got back from a 7-night cruise to the eastern Caribbean. I didn't have a single IBS attack the whole time. I had one or two gassy nights (one which I totally deserved

), but really had no major symptoms whatsoever! Yay!

Food i took with me: loaf of zucchini bread, large bag of honey glazed snack mix, bag of twizzlers cherry bites, two peanut butter filled tortilla "burritos". I had one of the "burritos" for lunch on sunday on the plane (DH had the other one!). sunday evening was a bbq on the ship, so i just had some rice and can't remember what else.... monday we were at sea, so i had time to get back on schedule. The restaurant staff was great, and very accomodating of my "dairy allergy". i got up EVERY Morning at ~6:30 and did 2-3 miles on the treadmill, and 1/2 hour of abs/weights. I was so proud of myself! keeping an exercise routine REALLY helped. thankfully i managed to have a BM every day, so that was good! every morning i had a plain egg white omelet (no oil!), a banana, and some other fruit. lunch was usually from the vegetarian section (white rice, indian-type bean and veggie dishes) or some grilled fish and veggies. for dinner i had grilled fish, baked potato, and steamed veggies three of the nights; they often cooked a "special" meal for me that wasn't on the menu if i let them know ahead of time that i was eating dinner there. that was the "main" restaurant. other nights we had sushi, asian, and italian.

the frustrating part was not being able to eat a single dessert, and having to watch DH and our friends eating yummy things like creme brulee, cakes, pies, ice cream, etc. i stole a bite from DH once or twice, but otherwise didn't cheat. the only night i really splurged was when we had nachos a few hours after an early dinner. i didn't eat any cheese or sour cream, but i did eat beans, some guacamole, and lots of salsa!! i ate quite a few tortilla chips, and i'm sure they were the high fat fried kind. it was SO GOOD though. i felt i deserved it. i was a little uncomfortable the next day, some mild gas, but nothing too terrible. I caved and took one of my bentyl pills and that did the trick. one day i was craving a burger from the grill, so i asked if they had veggie burgers - and they did!! so that was great. i made sure to take food with me when we went on shore excursions: usually a slice of zucchini bread was all i needed. i was able to buy fresh fruit smoothies (made with rice milk!!!) on antigua and st. thomas. i drank a bottle of bio-k every morning and drank lots of my yogi tea. Sunday at the airport was rough; there wasn't a single thing i could eat, and we were there for SEVEN HOURS. luckily i had made a few peanut butter sandwiches at breakfast to take with me, and i had some zucchini bread and snack mix left. that got me through the day.

I had packed my bio-k bottles in a soft-sided cooler in my checked bag and they made it just fine. I didn't once get questioned about the acacia or natural calm in my carry-on, or all of the food.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions! It feels SO GREAT to know that I can spend a whole week away from home SAFELY, and not get sick!! YAY!! And the good part about not being able to eat the desserts was that I didn't gain a single pound the whole week.

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Lisa, IBS-C (Vegan)
Stable since July 2007!
Mommy to Rhiannon Marie (Dec. 13, 2008)

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