Keeping Healthy

How do you keep healthy when your host family goes through a gallon of oil each week? How do you keep healthy when most of the foods on the street are fried? How do you keep healthy when it is SO incredibly hot that you never feel like working out?  I guess that is what we are currently trying to figure out. After being here for almost four months, we have found a few things that seem to work well for us.

   

First of all, there are tons of fruits and fresh veggies here in Nicaragua. We are going to be entering mango season pretty soon and we can’t wait to get our hands on them as our minds fill with the possibilities of what one can do with a mango.

   

Secondly, we enjoy our coffee (as many of you know) but we don’t put three heaping tablespoons of sugar in ours like our friends do here. Speaking of liquids, we are drinking a lot of water. Our Klean Kanteens have been getting much use and we are happy to report that the water in Managua is safe and clean for drinking. This has been a huge blessing as many other parts of Central America (and the world) do not have safe drinking water.

  

Thirdly, we are looking forward to a time when we have a place of our own and can choose the food that we make and also prepare it in our own special way. Although currently we are enjoying the local dishes and learning how to make them, it will be grand to make a curry dish for dinner.

  

Lastly, we feel that we have gotten into a pretty good workout routine. We try to run three times a week, the earlier the better due to the heat. If you start running after 6am, Nicaraguans think that you are crazy. We have enjoyed running in our barrio (neighborhood) as well as going to a nearby extinct volcano for a good 5k route. We also live close by to a military pool and have enjoyed swimming there one morning a week with a friend. Although we did get into some trouble a month ago for not having a swim cap or goggles.  And I am embarrassed to admit that the teacher asked us not to spit in the pool!  First of all, it wasn’t intentional and second of all, doesn’t everyone spit a little when they swim?  We also picked up a yoga mat and have found several great workouts on pinterest and also brought along our P90X videos.

   

This past weekend we were fortunate to visit the ocean and had some good swims.  Riding the waves is tough work!  And as I write this, Kevin is out in the streets playing some futbol with the neighborhood guys. That is good exercise, right?  All of this to say, we have a lot to learn, but we feel like we are making good headway to living a healthy lifestyle here in Nicaragua.