“James, don’t worry, we fry it long enough so that there’s no more fat or grease!”

A lot of our Health training was focused on Behavior Change and how to work effectively against the poor habits that many members of our future communities would have developed. We talked a lot about the barriers that exist between healthy habits and the people that we’re working with. While there are some pretty stereotypical barriers such as “we literally don’t have access to vegetables everyday because the veggie truck only comes three times a week and we can’t afford a refrigerator” there are also a whole lot of barriers that are easily removed if only the motivation existed, por ejemplo, “I like to cook with vegetables because they’re pretty, but I don’t eat them, they don’t taste good.”

I recently realized, however, that something that greatly affects one’s daily habits is your environment. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Duh, James, everyone knows that.” But it wasn’t until I took stock of my habits that I realized how easily one’s habits can change, and what the major factors of behavior change really are.

Before leaving for the Peace Corps, I was in probably the best shape of my life. In the 12 months leading up to my big voyage I had run two half-marathons and a full marathon. I was eating a relatively low carb, high protein, extremely balanced diet. I was actually eating way more calories than normal but was still losing weight due to physical activity. I was running between 3-8 miles almost daily, practicing yoga multiple times a week, and cross training on other days. I say this not to brag, but to show the stark contrast to my life now.

I realized the other morning that in just 5 months my life has changed drastically. I eat the food that I’m served, as I don’t cook for myself. What do I eat? 80% of my diet is comprised of Carbs. I have Yucca, Rice, Potatoes, Bread or Batata at every meal. My main source of protein is the two eggs that I get in the morning and the occasional piece of chicken or beans during lunch. Every meal has something fried in it; almost all meat is fried, eggs are fried, for dinner I sometimes am served fried cheese and onions. Also, every food item is way over salted. Snacks that I’m given? Over sugared juices, hard candies and home-made fruit candies. If I eat one full plate, I’m told that I’m going to die of hunger, and if I eat more, I’m still told that I haven’t eaten enough.

Exercise? My town thinks I’m crazy for exercising. I try to run daily but often find myself unmotivated and fatigued in the mornings (probably from a lack of calcium and protein in my diet). I also don’t always feel like running on a dirt/rock road where around every corner is a broken ankle waiting to happen. I am unable to practice yoga or do any extensive aerobics as I don’t have space in privacy and am constantly interrupted when I attempt to exercise in my family’s ramada.

I have every intention of staying healthy while I’m here, but am realizing that it takes almost twice the effort to keep active and healthy since I am living in a community that seems to encourage unhealthy behavior.

It is then that I begin to think about my purpose here as a health volunteer. It is supposed to be my job to motivate members of the community to change certain behaviors, I am charged with encouraging members of the community to first find a desire to change and then provide them with the tools to change their own habits. This is hard when the community is doing such a good job of changing my habits instead.

We’ll see what happens once I’m able to start training Health Promoters here. Hopefully I can help to ignite little changes. As they say in the noted family favorite, Bill Murray film, ‘What About Bob?’…., “Baby Steps.”