Maintaining a healthy lifestyle in Costa Rica should be easy, right? After all, it’s the happiest country on the planet, right again?

That should mean good health and all the attributes that go along with it, right yet again? I really thought that when I arrived in Costa Rica there would be something in the air that I would inhale, and the healthiness of it would flow through me.

As if suddenly I would drop the extra pounds I was carrying simply by drawing the happy air into my lungs.

Despite my most hopeful thoughts I found the first few months in Costa Rica brought me about 10 pounds of weight gain… and it was not muscle weight. How could it be possible that me with all my background in fitness, my years of teaching others how to get in shape, found myself struggling to not only lose but to even maintain my weight?

I know weight is not the whole picture but like I said, I also knew that I wasn’t building muscle, so it was that other thing… body fat. Ugh!

What’s more is I felt I had no excuses with all the places available to burn calories in Costa Rica and the abundant sources of high quality food at prices better than most markets in the states. Why then, was I struggling?

This got me thinking. Why do many expats along with their Tico counterparts struggle to maintain the level of health they desire? North America is no longer the only place in the world to find obesity.

Costa Ricans are finding themselves struggling with the same challenges as their gringo neighbors. So again, why? The answer is simple.

There is no biological divide between the great Northern Americas and the more Southern Americas keeping me or any of us from our goals with fitness. The challenge to maintain a healthy profile in Costa Rica is the same challenge as managing a healthy lifestyle in the states, Canada or anyplace else for that matter.

The basic concepts, which I really want to get to in detail because I am a fitness nerd like that, we will only be dipping our toes into today. I come to educate and hopefully entertain a little so stick around and I promise we will go the distance.

Here it is: The secret to good health… is to move more and eat better.

Everybody calm down. We will get to running, but let’s start with crawling. I promise this won’t take long to master. The great mystery of health has always been there, and most of us know it fundamentally somewhere deep inside.

Everybody wants to roll past the energy paradigm as if there is some greater mystery beyond where the real truth of health lies. We can’t skip this truth any more than we can skip learning that 1+1=2.

Fundamentally understanding this concept of “move more, eat better” is the arithmetic of health mathematics.

For example, most people could not tell me how many calories their own body burns in a day, but they could tell me how much their Apple computer stock is worth. Many couldn’t identify the most effective and most basic ways to maintain a healthy body weight but the same individual will tell me that avocado is good for me and egg yolks are bad for me. Huh?

Here is where we will start. Stand. The human body is 30% more efficient standing than sitting. This means that a day of just standing requires 30% more energy than a day of sitting: “Move more.”

If we start walking around and doing things like yard work or hiking, oh boy! Sky’s the limit. So we will start here with standing. Science has figured out in recent history that habits take about 21 days to cross a barrier, where they actually become habitual. Up until that point they are simply activities.

Now, habits can be broken. It takes about 21 days to break them. So we are going on a 21 day plan to create a better habit in our lives and that is standing. The way the human mind is wired, one major life change at a time.

The reason many people fail with making the change for better health is they try and change more than one thing at a time: diet overhaul plus new gym membership. It’s too much. After 10 years of selling gym memberships, I will tell you that joining the gym may be too much for some.

The most important thing is the new habit. Even a poorly executed habit is better than an over ambitious one. If I have a bad workout I am only more motivated to make it count the next time. Also, zero effort which is often the result of trying to do too much too soon is not helpful. Scoring a 1 in effort beats a 0 anyday because remember we are trying to create a habit, or a behavior.

Your homework for the next 21 days is to (yes, stand, thank you for paying attention, but also) get in 30 minutes of activity from an upright position per day. As upright as you can get.

You may substitute yoga or another physical activity if you are unable to actually stand, but nobody gets an excuse. If you are limited to moving only your lips then I want you talking until you go horse. This is not a 3 day per week plan either.

Every day, for 21 days: 30 minutes of activity. If it helps you to mark a calendar with what you do, then do it. Anything you can do to keep yourself accountable to the plan, do it.

If you are already doing this, then your homework is to find a new outlet for 30 minutes of activity in addition to your current 30. I have never looked forward to any workout I have ever done but I have never felt regret afterwards.

Here are a few suggestions for activities you can try. Take a walk: just walking is a tremendous workout for one’s heart and lungs, plus it helps develop our ability to stabilize.

As we age one of the biggest challenges we face is gravity. It screws everything up. Our skin, ears and nose are a constant reminder of Earth’s gravity, high potential for falls and broken hips later in life, it’s like the very soil is beckoning us back.

Fight gravity by taking a walk; it worked for Ghandi. Take a yoga class. Yoga can be very difficult but a beginner class will still develop key stabilizer and strength muscles we will use later.

If overall mobility is an issue, many fitness locations offer chair work. I dare anybody to take a chair exercise class to tell me it was easy afterwards. Many people progress from chair classes to standard classes and find youth they didn’t know they had.

Hike. Poas, Barva or Arenal, you have your choice of volcanos to see here, why drive to them when you can hike them and reap so much more reward. My wife and I hiked to Barva via the road in December. The hike was grueling but manageable.

Every turn was another groan and it seemed we would never summit. When we stood in front of the lagoon, which frankly is really not that impressive, the feeling of accomplishment and reward was undefinable and unrelated to the view.

If you have the energy to hike, even if it’s to drive halfway up and hike the rest, I cannot explain the feeling that will come with it. It has to be experienced.

Ok, you have your mission should you choose to accept it. As with anything worth doing in life you will be accountable to only yourself. Cheating is like cheating at solitaire.

I have given you some suggestions but find something you don’t hate doing. If you enjoy it, even better. Remember our goal is to create a new habit, here in paradise. We will build on this and I will be bringing you more information as we go, but for now let’s keep it simple.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Written by VIP Member Damon Mitchell who spent over 10 years in the fitness industry before he moved to Costa Rica in search of a better work/life balance. Currently he lives in Playa Tamarindo in Guanacaste, where he and his wife Cristina are owner-operators of Pizza&Co pizza express, located in Plaza Conchal 2.

Daily, Damon runs on the beach or works out at Tamarindo Fitness Center, keeping fit by doing a combination of old-school weight lifting, calisthenics, TRX, stability ball work and just about anything he can do to create new and fun exercises. Most recently he is learning to surf.

You can email Damon here if there is anything specific about staying fit and healthy in Costa Rica you would like him to cover in his next article.

Written by VIP Member Damon Mitchell who spent over 10 years in the fitness industry before he moved to Costa Rica in search of a better work/life balance. Currently he lives in Playa Azul near Tarcoles with his wife Cristina and their dog Kai.

Daily, Damon runs on the beach in Playa Azul and keeps fit by doing calisthenics, using a TRX suspension trainer, stability ball and just about anything he can to create new and fun exercises.

You can email Damon here if there is anything specific about staying fit and healthy in Costa Rica you would like him to cover in his next article.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.