Not Just the Flip-Flops… I Eat Dessert Three Times a Day on Holiday and My Clothes Still Fit! How?
The Maldives is Not Helping My Self-control
The restaurant contains a dessert station that appears to have been designed by a committee of pastry chefs, food photographers, and highly persuasive demons.
Chocolate cakes.
Cheesecakes.
Tiny glasses filled with mysterious creamy things.
Large glasses filled with even more mysterious creamy things.
The sort of desserts that make you reconsider every sensible nutritional decision you have ever made.
And yet, during this holiday, I have dessert three times a day.
Breakfast.
Lunch.
Dinner.
Every day.
My clothes still fit.
Not just the flip-flops.
Before somebody accuses me of possessing unusual genetics, exceptional discipline, or a secret agreement with the dessert gods, let me explain what is actually happening.
Because the interesting part is not the dessert.
The interesting part is that I don’t feel hungry between meals.
No snack cravings.
No energy crashes.
No desperate searches for biscuits at four in the afternoon.
And for me, that is always the clue.
When hunger becomes quieter and energy becomes steadier, I know my blood sugar is totally behaving itself.
The short video attached to this article shows the reality: enormous desserts, zero snack cravings, and clothes that still fit.
Which sounds suspiciously like nutritional witchcraft.
It isn’t.
The secret is not eating less.
The secret is eating in the right order.
The Order Changes Everything
Most people focus on what they eat.
I used to do exactly the same thing.
Protein? Check.
Vegetables? Check.
Reasonable portions? Check.
Then I would completely undermine all of that excellent behaviour by wandering past a fruit bowl, a biscuit pack, or anything containing chocolate and deciding that one small snack couldn’t possibly matter.
My blood sugar disagreed.
The reason this holiday feels so different is that I am eating in a very specific sequence.
Every meal starts with vegetables.
Then comes protein:
– Eggs at breakfast.
– Usually fish at lunch and dinner.
– Occasionally chicken or beef.
Only after that do I move on to the carbohydrates.
Including dessert.
And this is where people usually look at me as if I have just announced that I communicate with dolphins.
“Wait. You eat dessert at every meal?”
Yes.
The dessert is not the problem.
The order is the strategy.
When fibre and protein arrive first, digestion slows down. Glucose enters the bloodstream more gradually. Energy remains steadier. Hunger tends to stay quieter. The dramatic rise-and-fall cycle that used to send me hunting for snacks a couple of hours later becomes far less noticeable.
Or, as I like to say:
No NAKED carbs. DRESS THEM!
Carbohydrates are not villains.
I quite like carbohydrates.
The Maldives buffet and I have managed to maintain a healthy diplomatic relationship.
The difference is that carbs behave very differently when they arrive with fibre and protein already doing crowd control.
Instead of creating a glucose rollercoaster, they become part of a much smoother ride.
And smoother rides generally result in fewer emergency visits to the chocolate (fridge) department.
The Surprising Part Wasn’t the Dessert
The surprising part was everything that didn’t happen.
I wasn’t thinking about food between meals.
I wasn’t wandering around looking for “something small.”
I wasn’t opening the fridge out of boredom, curiosity, or what I like to call nutritional optimism.
Most days, I ate breakfast around 9am, lunch around 2pm, and dinner around 9pm.
That was it.
No snacks.
No emergency chocolate negotiations.
No dramatic energy crashes.
No moments where I felt as if my body had suddenly misplaced its electricity supply.
And for me, that is usually the giveaway.
When blood sugar is behaving itself, hunger becomes quieter.
Food stops dominating the day.
You eat. You enjoy it.
You move on with your life.
Including, apparently, to the dessert station.
Which brings me to something else people often misunderstand.
The goal is not perfection.
The goal is not to spend your holiday pushing a lonely lettuce leaf around your plate while silently resenting everybody having fun around you.
The goal is to create a way of eating that is sustainable enough to survive contact with real life.
Including birthdays.
Christmas.
Restaurant meals.
And Maldivian desserts large enough to have their own postcode.
For me, that means protein, vegetables, sensible meal structure, and yes, room for dessert.
A strategy that works only when life is perfect is not really a strategy.
It is a temporary arrangement.
The real test is whether it still works when the cheesecake arrives.
In the next article, I’ll show you the other half of the equation.
Because while nutrition played a huge role in why my clothes still fit in the Maldives, it wasn’t the whole story.
I wasn’t spending my holiday trapped in a gym.
But I wasn’t exactly lying motionless on a sunbed either… though I did this as well, just not the whole time.
Part 2: Why I Train on Holiday (Without Really “Training” at All): click here
***
If you want to see how this looks in real life, ask questions, or learn how to apply it to your body after 40/50, I host a private Facebook group: Fit Over 40 & 50 Ultimate Club.
👉 Join here: Fit Over 40 & 50 The Ultimate Club
***
Click here if you are interested how to build muscle at 40/50+.
