Keeping fit in Mauritius

Hello everyone,

Keeping fit during your time in Mauritius is of utmost importance. How about sharing with us and your fellow expats how you keep healthy in your host country?

What are your daily health hacks in Mauritius?

Do you exercise regularly? What is your go-to sport?

Do you manage to keep your diet healthy and balanced? How easy is it to maintain a balanced diet in Mauritius? Are you able to find organic products easily?

Are there national or local incentives to foster a healthy lifestyle: sensitisation campaigns, sports infrastructure etc. ?

How much of your monthly budget is dedicated to keeping fit?

Please share your experience,

Priscilla

For me, fitness has been a lifestyle choice giving my background in the Services and a close combat instructor for many years therefore, locations does not really get in the way. In my spare time I do prepare fitness protocols for folks here and have helped one or two actually win competitions by giving them the necessary work out approach to achieve their goals. We have also ran a few health and fitness seminars on the island to address issues that get in the way. The main challenge here is availability of authentic supplements like magnesium, potassium, zinc, Complex B, K2 , D, E etc... All of which are essential for the body functions. I can't really get into the reasons why lack of these essentials are a major contributor to health challenges and why people generally don't see much results despite working out but suffice to say that majority of the food here is lacking these essentials nutrients due to several factors including the farming and production methodology. The challenge is finding supplements that actually contain these ingredients in the right proportions without caking or padding regardless of the brand name. The fact that the government generally does not encourage importing supplements without approval which can be a very long daunting process does make this quite a a challenge for me. I am quite careful what tablets or substance i in-jest because I do understand the potential problems that can result from some of these brands that do not really have a sound and equitable quality assurance process for products that come to Africa unlike the west where several levels of approval and governance are in place (although as we all know some bad stuff can slip through the cracks). There has been bootcamps, beach hangs etc to help encourage fitness and healthy lifestyle and i have enjoyed being part of those sessions. Today, i train 5 days a week at Moving gym and my home gym. Hope you guys find this helpful. feel free to hit me up if you need some fitness guidance.

I'm from the UK and always lived in suburban or rural areas and so my main ways of keeping fit are what  I call home gym which is essentially bodyweight exercises or gym  and classes.  I have been able to join yoga early morning at Mon Choisy, swim with others at  the beach. There  was even a beginner's  lesson because the water  was quite calm and not too deep. I recently joined a gym and that was through promotion by my employer . So e food here is full of pesticides I hear but if you use local markets
and only occasionally eat overly processed foods you will be all right. I find it easy to have a balanced diet here. The fruit is lovely and some fruit and vegetables that were even diffiy to source in London sometimes such as green bananas, jackfruit, mangoes, paw paw,lychees, avocados are available for much less and taste better. I used to run often but It is very hot here in the north so you have to either get up early or go out a bit later to have cool weather for running. You can always join one of the many gyms which have Aircon.
I have found that there are lots of sports groups and events such as triathlons and marathons going on and Mauritians seem to love a hike. As far as I'm concerned fitness for me is cheaper and better here.

Fitness has been a significant part of my life for the past 20 somewhat years. My daily training regime consists of mobility, strength, and endurance mostly.  I also incorporate bag work, speed drills, and skill learning while staying as functional as possible with a big emphasis on mobility.

During the cooler months I prefer training at the beach, with a pair of gymnastic rings for upper body work and heavy sand bags for the lower body work. During the warmer/hotter months, I just find the closest gym and stay cool indoors :)

I train 6x a week where I divide it in 3 strength days, and 3 hypertrophy days.
The breakdown is as follows:

Mon - Strength push
Tue - Strength pull
Wed - Strength legs
Thu - Hypertrophy push
Fri - Hypertrophy pull
Sat - Hypertrophy legs
Sun - Off / Cheat day...

I eat mostly a low fat whole food plant based diet, and eat seasonal fruits and vegetables while I am here. I've become friends with my local farmers and fruit/veggie sellers, and they tell me which produce or fruit is naturally grown (no pesticides or herbicides). I stay away from most of the imported fruits. I do a lot of frozen veggies and fruits under the BIO section, which is available in most supermarkets around the island.  Most of my protein sources are from grains, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, and tofu.

I also supplement with a plant based protein powder, EPA/DHA and Vit D.

Another sport/activity, I'd like to get into is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, although I realize that I should have done this back in California, however a few google searches indicated a few potential schools on the island that I'd like to check out. I simply need to check their validity, while on that note,  if anyone here is an avid BJJ practitioner, please reach out, or if you know of a place to train that you feel is legit hit me up, it would be greatly appreciated.

I belong to a few FaceBook groups where members constantly share new plant based products, recipes and plant based restaurants as they come up on the island.

At the moment my monthly budget only includes my gym membership, hopefully soon a BJJ membership as well...

Hope this helps...

Nick