The Rosa Chronicles: The Ups, the Downs, and the Wardrobe Changes

This is the continuation of my previous post. To summarize that post, I related about my severe bout of depression that left me out of commission for a while. I reverted back to old habits and quickly gained weight. I was put on new medications and they worked just fine. My husband had planned a trip to Puerto Rico for the two of us. He knows how the Chicago weather makes me feel, and he thought a couple of days in sunny Puerto Rico, mi patria , would make me feel better. And so we got on the plane and headed to La Isla del Encanto . For the first time we took a night flight to the Island; we generally fly during the day to get some extra time. The flight itself was weird; it seemed like it lasted forever, more than the 4 1/2 hours that takes to get there. At one point I looked at Andrew, who was sitting in the seat across from me, because the plane felt suspended in the air, as if it were not moving. Shortly after, I remember clearly, I asked him about my mom-in-law, with whom we

Blogging about my journey to a healthier me helped me a lot - it kept me honest; it made me accountable, and it allowed me to keep track of my progress in a tangible manner. But somehow I stopped doing it and right now it has been well over a year since I last wrote an entry! A lot has happened since then, both good and bad, although I want to think that everything that has happened has been good in a way or another. I believe that there is good even in the most difficult situations. So today, a day that has been especially difficult for me (what the hell, it has been a very difficult couple of weeks, let's be honest!) for reasons which I will explain in due time, I decided to go back to blogging as a way to regain that accountability, but mostly to do something nice for myself. I have a tendency to be really hard on myself; often times I put my needs aside to take care of those of others...and as you may very well know, there is always something else that needs to be done, some

Has it really been nine months since I last wrote an entry? Time does go by too fast! Well, here I am again, continuing to chronicle my journey to getting fit and healthy…and all the things that happen in between. Wouldn't it be great if getting fit would happen  as fast as time goes by? I'd be super fit by now! Some updates since the last time I was here: I have lost a good amount of weight! When I started this journey I was at 179 lbs, which I think was almost as heavy as I was when I was pregnant with my second daughter. With the workouts and the changes in my diet, I managed to lose 22 lbs, and wow, how great does that feel! I got rid of a lot of my clothes that did not fit me anymore; I went from sizes 14/12 to a size 10 and finally to a size 8. I remember the day that I tried my 19 year old daughter's pants, which no longer fit her - I was hesitant but tried them on anyway and whoa, what a surprise that they fit me! As I had mentioned in this entry , I had re

It has been a while since I last wrote, and a lot has been going on. It would probably take me several blog entries to describe it all, but I will try to summarize it.   So here we go: DrPH program – In this   entry at the beginning of the year, I wrote about applying for a DrPH program. I was very excited and looked forward to being accepted. Well, time kept going by and I did not receive any news, so I finally decided to call and ask. It turns out that I was not accepted into the program. I was one of 130 international applicants for only 15 spots in the program. 130 for 15 spots, imagine! Had I known that was the case, I would have never bothered to apply given the high stakes of being accepted. I was waiting to receive official notification, but since that never came from them, I am making this the official notification that it did not happen. I was a bit down at first, but then I realized that: 1) there were 115 other people out there that were not selected either, so I wa

I broke my Facebook addiction! Yes, I did it! In this   blog entry, I spoke about Facebook Addiction Disorder, and the problems I was having by wasting time on social media instead of doing more productive things. So, on March 5th, I said goodbye to Facebook. At first I thought it was going to be a temporary thing; through Facebook I got reconnected with a lot of friends from my childhood, family members that I had not seen for several years, plus it was always good to laugh at the things that people post - so much drama sometimes! But for the past 5 weeks or so, I have not missed it, not at all, and then I wonder if I will ever be back. We will see. Meanwhile, I have kept somewhat connected through Instagram   and through Twitter , hence the "half-sabbatical" concept. But Twitter is way too fast for me, and you can only do so much on Instagram, so after the irregular post or photo, I go back to having my free time.  So what have I been doing with this new free time? Well

More than 10 years ago I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I was not surprised - diabetes had been a part of my life ever since I could remember. My brother José, 10 years older than me, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 9 years old. As I grew older, I found out that a sister of mine whom I did not get to meet had died of complications related to diabetes at age 3. Years later, my 5 year old niece was also diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and my own mother received her Type 2 diagnosis soon after we moved to Chicago. To me, it was just a matter of time until I was diagnosed. My diagnosis came as a result of my inability to lose weight. I had joined a gym, hired a trainer, made some changes to my eating habits, and yet, I was not able to lose much weight. Concerned, I went to my doctor and explained my symptoms. She recommended a battery of tests which came back with a diagnosis of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) . PCOS, in turn, is associated with diabetes. I had man