Quite a few years ago, my wife and I spent a year in southern Mexico.

During that time we worked in a small hospital. We even lived in the hospital.

The one thing that I didn't enjoy was eating in the hospital cafeteria. You wouldn't think of it as a cafeteria. There was not really a choice of what you had to eat.

The typical breakfast was something called gorditas. These were made like a small tortilla with a thick edge. There was a little tomato sauce on them and some cream. There was usually a little fruit to go with them.

For lunch we usually had a vegetable soup, some rice and a tortilla. The soup was sometimes flavored with a chicken foot. No lie!

The supper was black beans, not even flavored with salt and more rice and tortillas.

About the only variation was the type of fruit that was available. And that I enjoyed. In season, there was nothing as good as fresh mango, papaya and pineapples.

One of the things I really enjoyed was one small type of banana called manzanita (little apple). These small thick bananas tasted about half way between a banana and an apple.

One time I saw a man carrying a whole stalk of these bananas to town. He was about a mile from town when I met him on the trail. I asked if he was going to sell them. He told me that he wanted 15 pesos. That was about 2 dollars at the time. I was more than willing to buy the whole bunch.

Despite the good fruit, we would get tired of the constant tortillas, bland black beans and rice. So, occasionally we would go to town and buy a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread. That was the only food we could find that reminded us of home.

As you can imagine, there were lots of times when we spent our free times talking about pizza, pie and ice cream.

On top of all of that, the heat and humidity really messed with your appetite. There were times when you did not feel like eating at all.

During that time, I weighed less than at any other time as an adult.

There were several things that affected my weight loss during that time.

1) There was not a whole lot available to eat that we really enjoyed.

2) There was very little in the way of refined foods.

3) The heat decreased my appetite.

4) We mostly ate fruit as a treat.

Because of my experience, I have several recommendations for you.

1) When you shop for groceries, spend more time in the fresh fruit section and less time in the bakery.

2) Don't keep food around that you can eat right out of the package. Make yourself work a bit for it.

3) Don't use as much air conditioning in the summer. It will decrease your appetite. But, be sure to drink enough water to keep up with your fluid loss.

You can probably think of some other applications.

But, if you can't do it yourself, you could always sign up for a year of volunteer work in southern Mexico.

Dr. Ron is an Emergency Room physician with over twenty years experience in the health care field. He often treats people for problems with their weight. Come to Balanced Diet Health now for more great resources.