One of the questions my people have been asking me about my abroad experience, which always surprises me, is “What did you eat?”. I sometimes found it surprising that people are so intrigued by food, but then I remember, my people love some good, seasoned eats. Not only that, food, for many cultures, is the center of community and life. So, I am learning it is a more natural question than I would have imagined. It is just funny when my family and friends ask in a concerned way as if I was overseas eating grass & beans (I don’t even like beans btw).

I’ll first answer that question by telling you what I did not eat. It wasn’t any burgers, hotdogs, excessive snacks, or anything else that I now realize is way too heavy to be processed on the regular. I ate 3 meals a day, breakfast by 8 a.m., lunch by 1 p.m., and dinner by 8 p.m. Most of those meals were home-cooked by my host mama or locally sourced at local restaurants. I drank more coffee in 33 days than I had in my entire lifetime. I did not go a day without a bottle of water. I basically ate how my “holistic, fantasy, future” self eats LOL!

The difference between eating in Costa Rica, in my experience, was the freshness of the things I ate. For the first time, I felt steadily nourished by the food I consumed. One of the consistent dishes I ate for breakfast was eggs and “Gallo Pinto”, which is Costa Rican rice and beans. Now as I mentioned earlier, I am not a beans girl, and I assure you I still am not. It’s just something about the “mush” that gives me the “push” if you know what I mean. But, me being the open-minded individual I am, I tried it anyway, and it was actually pretty darn good. “Gallo Pinto” is an everyday Tica dish that is prepared with this special salsa named “Lizano”. It has a vinegary twang to it that just reminds me of the South, so you know I had to bring a personal bottle back to the States right?

“Gallo Pinto” lasted me a good week until it caught up with me, and well let’s just say, do some research on the effects of foreign food on your stomach LOLLL. After that painful episode, I ate more eggs, toast, and fruit in the mornings. You cannot tell me the pineapples I got to experience in C.R. were not of GOD! Tea or water was always the liquid that washed it down.

As someone who does not eat pork or beef, nor do I indulge in the beans, CHILEE, I thought I was gone be in C.R. starving. However, as told in the previous “How was it? blog, I was blessed with a gracious host mom who accommodated my needs to the best of her ability. There was even a moment during the weekend when she took me on a date with her and her mother to their favorite sushi spot, can you say HEARTWARMING? She made sure I was ALWAYS FULL. I sometimes hear her in the back of my head saying “Quieres mas?” (You want more?"), and it makes me smile.

The things I ate in Costa Rica undoubtedly put me on track for a lifestyle change, that I now know is very tangible from experience. As breakfast was always waiting on me in the mornings, I still wake up early in the mornings\attempting to put something light, yet fulfilling on my stomach. I am much more conscious of not overeating during meals.

Eating in Costa Rica was very fulfilling. I came back home and found that I had lost TEN POUNDS, a freshman 15 weight I’d been trying to lose for the past year. I had 3 healthy meals per day and was very active, which I’ll speak to in my next blog post by answering the big, “What did you study?”.