When we left Vancouver a year ago I was a not-so-svelte 210 lbs. Not exactly a lightweight anymore, I had put on quite a bit of weight over the previous couple of years when a shoulder injury had sidelined me from active sports. With this last year abroad being a barrage of new foods, a lot of beer on the beach, and the lack of gym time, I continued the climb up to 225 lbs. Back in Vancouver this last visit, I made a travel resolution to get into a workout regimen when we got settled in Costa Rica.
The larger problems with staying fit while traveling last year were that we were constantly on the move with a changing schedule, a lack of exercise equipment and laundry facilities, and most of all our need for room to exercise in. Many of the places we stayed in were barely bigger than the bed and I’m not much for public displays of profuse sweating.
When we moved to Tamarindo, it was a priority that we find a place where we would have the space to exercise. Our new place is ideal with a 2nd bedroom, and a washer and dryer. There’s even a gym up the road that I have yet to visit. I’ve started using the guest room as a workout space and am finally using the set of resistance bands I’ve been hauling around for the last year. I have a bunch of DVD workouts where some guy yells at me. I’m keeping to a schedule of working out in the mornings before settling into work or heading off to the beach. It’s a start. This first week has been rough, as was to be expected. Just about everything hurts.
Kelly has also started running in the mornings. It’s something she’s trying to learn to love… begrudgingly.
Beyond working out ourselves, we’ve been working out the kinks of moving into a new place. Doing the first few big shops at the grocery store. Figuring out transportation options. Finding umbrellas and searching for bicycles. Looking into where to take some Spanish lessons. It’s become apparent that we need to refresh our Spanish. Even explaining to the taxi driver where we live can be difficult. There’s no street names or numbers in Tamarindo after all.
Soon we’ll just need to get ourselves down to the beach and figure out this whole surfing thing.
Posted by: Shim
