Living in Costa Rica . . .Where the living is good By Jo Stuart jostuart@amcostarica.com

 
The trappings of Progress include plastics and food preservatives (to wrap and keep snacks filled with salt and sugar), They also include wonderful inventions like cars and telephones and computers and remote controls and video games, all things suited to a sedentary indoor life.

With Progress has come stress and long hours, not at hard physical labor, but behind desks (and computers) and other stationary objects, which means that time has become a luxury.  There is no time to cook, to dine, and to relax in the sun, to take a walk.  There is only time to eat fast foods on the run, or more likely, in the car.

And to add to all of this is the problem of addiction.  Just about anything that plucks at the pleasure areas of the brain can become addictive if allowed to go unbridled. Basic needs are prime candidates.  Food is dangerously so, especially if it contains fat and sugar.

Just as Costa Rica responded almost as quickly as the United States to the alarming bad news about smoking, so too, has it already begun its campaign against the dangers of obesity.  The newspapers, the billboards and the posting in hospitals are out. 

That alone won’t do it. Just as so many smokers had to go through the pain filled months of withdrawal, so, too will those who have made themselves sick because they have overeaten, will have to bite the bullet (but not swallow it).

I am not speaking from the superior position of one who never had a weight problem.  I have always had extra pounds trying to sneak up on me.  But one of the little mantras I have lived by is that when I go out in public I try not to be an "eyesore."  That was the word I thought of it when I was a kid. I think I learned the idea from my mother, although it was never said, only demonstrated.  I just don’t look good fat.