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

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...

Sometimes you seek guidance from others instead of trusting what you are already doing. This was my experience this week when I sought out help from a nutritionist in my fight against diabetes. Here's what happened. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been taking a nutrition course online. It has been great; I have learned a lot and as a result have been able to make some changes to my diet. Now I know the balance I must have between carbs, protein and fat, and I have been adjusting my meals to try to keep with that goal. This has meant that I have had to let go of some foods that I liked but that were not contributing anything but empty calories to my diet. I have moved away from refined grains to whole grains, I am looking at foods with a low sodium count, and I am making sure I get my recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. All in all, it has been a great course...until two weeks ago. Constant companions: fresh fruit and a scale to weight my food. The w...

Today was one of those days for me, the ones that you wish you could have stayed home all day, preferably in bed, not doing much of anything. But it was not meant to be. I had to finish payroll, meet to discuss 4 pending proposals, and finish getting ready for tomorrow's site visit. I had to go to work. And to make things work, the window replacement project at work has not been finished, so my office is a total mess, with my plants all over the place, my picture frames in little piles, and the whole office in total disarray. It was definitely not a good start to the day. By the time it was 5:00 p.m., and despite a delicious cup of cuban coffee, I was crushed. My energy was very low, and my emotions were threatening to betray me. Just a minor thing would have caused me to burst into tears. But there was still a fragment of sanity in me, and I came home determined to regain my balance. I lit up candles the minute I got in, and put a favorite CD on. Then I went to the kitchen and s...