How to stay healthy in Thailand

[ultramarine]

I few things I notice in your first post ultramarine:

How much sleep are you getting? It is easily the most important aspect of living and feeling healthy.

What exactly are you eating? Are you meeting all your vitamin and mineral requirements for the day? Ie. Fruits, vegetables? I suggest a website like nutritiondata.self.com to get an estimate of how much you are meeting your body's needs.

What exercise do you do? Aim for a full range: weight lifting, cardio, stretches to stay flexible. Being in Thailand I recommend trying yoga or pilates and using them to boost your flexibility and muscular balance.

Also you say you live a fairly low key life out here. What do you do for fun? Could your fatigue or run-down feeling be that you are bored and unmotivated? I don't know enough about your life, maybe you have lots of fun goals and projects, but if you don't go out much it can be easy to mentally get run down and sick of a place.

If you really want to get more healthy I suggest setting yourself fitness goals and adding more structure to your diet and exercise routines, have plans, these will make it much easier to identify any areas you are lacking and might be making you feel bad.

Good luck!

I was thinking of this mind-body dynamic too after I made my initial post. I think there is something to it. I would not say I was bored, however. I have some friends there so there was usually something to do or see. But a lot of the BKK annoyances were getting me down after a while. Sometimes I wouldn't bother to venture out. That happens -- we go through up and down cycles as expats (or just as people) where the local culture is sometimes stimulating and fun and other times a source of hassle and frustration. So I would put a check mark there as a potential source of unease. I know I wasn't liking living at my neo-stalinist condo after a while. The shoebox or worse, the prison cell.

Foodwise, I think I am quite conscientious about diet. It is something I take some care with. Always eat some fruit every day, veggies with two meals, whole grains where possible, all that good stuff. No junk food at all. I ate some of those 7-11 prepared meals for 33Bt. Pretty tasty but probably not the healthiest. Or was it the mystery meat CP bologna I ate?

Same thing with exercise. Swimming once a week for half an hour. Stationary bike or elliptical machine once or twice a week. A fair bit of walking mixed in there although some of the walking is self-defeating due to pollution exposure. Decent sleep amounts too -- 7-8 hours.

[ultramarine]

To the OP, considering all the things, lifestyle wise that you dislike about Thailand, especially the food ... why do you holiday here?

Maybe another country may suit you better?

I'm just curious ... why Thailand?

It's a fair question. A few things. The cost of living is low. I like the people as a whole, I speak some of the language, and I would like to go someplace warm during the winter. For reasons I can't fully articulate, I'm not drawn to Latin America so that is basically out. So there is a fairly short list of warm cheap places one can go.

... and a fair answer also ...

Personally I'd love to visit Latin America but, and it's a big but ... they seem to value life so lowly there ... lowly enough to dissuade me from going.

I'm envious of you if you speak a bit of the lingo here in Thailand ... not a skill set I have.

Though I've never lived or visited Canada, I can imagine the lure of a warm climate.

I have a soft spot for Canadians as I have liked most of who I have met ... same goes for the Dutch.

I lived in the States for 6 months, maybe 20 years ago when all they drank was Bud and Moose Head Beer kept me sane!

Glad the Moosehead did the job for you! Definitely preferable to Bud although I find I like German beers now mostly. More hoppy, less sweet than a Canadian-style lager like Moosehead, Molson Canadian or Blue.

I find the language thing is a big plus for me -- definitely gives you a window onto people's lives. I'm not good at it or anything -- maybe 500 words is all I know. I don't understand a lot of what people say but it comes in handy. I think most educated Thais probably know more English than I know Thai, but it pays dividends when you're encountering less educated people.

[poanoi]

It really is younger thais that know english,

there are plenty of well educated but over 35 year old thais that know very little english, if any.

[razorramone]

Hey razorramone -- I would like to hear your thoughts on South America. You've lived in both Thailand and South America, so you are in a better position to do this than most. I have also heard that the locals are quite friendly. That would be similar to Thailand. Actually, I think it's a common characteristic of most poorer developing countries that have only recently modernized.

For me, I have never felt a pull from Latin America. It's not based on any rational basis just never felt the allure the way I have with Thailand and Asia. I am not keen on the food there but I would admit I don't know a lot of it.

Yeah I agree, south American food isn't the best in the world. But - the fruit and veg there are so fresh and tasty, its great if you want to stay healthy.

Actually that's what I'd say the main difference is between there and Bangkok, people are a lot more conscientious and in touch with nature and the outdoors. Most people like going outdoors, climbing, biking, etc, unlike Bangkok where it seems a lot of peoples top hobby is going to the mall.

Yes the locals are friendly, similar to Thai but less shy. It was quite common I'd go to a bar, get approached by locals who could see I was foreign and were curious, and i'd end up getting invited to whatever party they were going to later. It helps that the language there is much easier to learn than Thai.

Overall, and maybe I am wrong because I've only been in Thailand for five months, but s.america seemed a lot more cultural to me. A lot more interest in the arts, music, and cinema. My impression of Bangkok is that it is a lot more commercial with less interest in the arts.

I don't want to paint it as some kind of paradise, the downside to this is that is it's a lot less technologically advanced, and less efficient, than Bangkok. Tablets are very uncommon, a lot of people still don't use facebook, and there is a lot more hassle trying to use banks/post offices for example. And the wages are a lot lower. As a teacher in Peru I earned $1400/month, compared to Bangkok where I earn $2400/month.

(This is talking about the Andean countries only, Colombia, Venuzuela and Brazil are very different)

Edited August 13, 2013 by razorramone

[ultramarine]

^ Thanks for the run down. Good to hear they are into the outdoors and the arts. I think that kind of thing is becoming fashionable amongst the university educated and elites but probably not for ordinary people. The mall may be more of a relief from the heat. I can't blame Thais for that even though I don't like hanging out in malls. But if you don't have aircon at home, then you might change your tune. Most working class Thais do not have aircon.

Upper class Thais are imitating Western trends of environmentalism, etc. Just look at all the bike stuff you see around. Of course, you may not see that many people actually riding on main streets but there are a surprising number of people in clubs or corporations who may ride together out of town on weekends.

So how are Argentina, Brazil and Columbia different from the Andean countries? Probably on par or better than Thailand in terms of tech and modern conveniences.