Confession time: I miss my Tico diet. Basic, almost boring, it is made up primarily of beans, eggs, tomatoes, bananas, bread, tortillas, coffee, chicken and fish, with various other fruits and vegetables occasionally part of the mix. I am in my third and final month in the States, and have done my best to replicate my diet, but up here everything tastes just a bit different.
And sits in my belly just a bit differently. My digestive system has gone from efficient to straining, with occasional unpredictable results. On a recent morning hike, I was suddenly stricken with the urgent need to poop and only a randomly placed porta potty outside a small city park saved me from public humiliation.
After decades in the tropics, I sometimes feel like my blood has thinned out, and the cold northern air I once endured now chills me to the bone. Likewise my stomach has changed. It has adjusted over time, and the diet I once ate now requires time to adapt to. I feel either overly full or underfed, my tripe now has its own collective orchestra of sound effects, from low, slow gurgles to cavernous growls loud enough to turn heads.
All of this is humbling to me and here is why: I used to laugh when I heard Costa Rican athletes complain about the food they had to eat when traveling abroad for competition. What is so special about the diet here?, I scoffed. Why would you take your own foods from CR and prepare them like back home instead of eating what is available and opening up to new tastes from different cultures. For me it was Tico provincialism at its best. But now I understand.
Though I am not a nutritionist nor a biologist, I can feel the difference on damn near a cellular level. My system seems confused, and if my overall metabolism could be charted, it would look like a bitcoin graph, littered with spikes and crashes.
The past month I have been in Los Angeles, and would bet I have walked and hiked more miles over the hilly terrain here than anyone else in the greater LA area. Yet, I have gained several pounds up here, despite regular exercise. I can only deduce it is the higher calorie diet I am consuming here. Convenience foods, comfort foods, delicious high-calorie snacks have taken control of my diet and my waistline!
I have enjoyed my stay in the US and have one more dietary blowout coming up, with a traditional family Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, followed by a weekend of leftovers. The following week I return to Ticolandia and will reintroduce my digestive system to the benign and nutritious diet it was accustomed to. My first meal when I get back will be a plate of scrambled eggs, warm tortillas and a portion of gallo pinto topped with Salsa Lizano. Add some delicious Costa Rican coffee and a couple of locally grown bananas for dessert and I will say a Buen Provecho! to myself as I merge onto the road toward dietary recovery.
