Hey all! I'm excited to get "back on the bandwagon" with being healthy. I've been a nutritionista most of my adult life. I grew up in an Italian/Mexican household, so home-cooked meals were the norm and my mom made fresh salads every night to go with dinner...like, real salads with homemade dressing, not just iceberg lettuce with ranch. As an adult, I considered myself to be a food-label-reading ninja and was a vegetarian/vegan for 7 years.

I've also struggled with eating disorders for the majority of my life, from anorexia when I was in high school, bulimia when I was in college, bingeing and purging in my 20s, and now plain old emotional eating and bingeing. Because of my struggle, I've been fit and thin the majority of my life (I wish I could've seen it at the time!) fluctuating between 120lbs at my smallest (and unhealthiest) and 150lbs (what I always considered fat, but is more of a healthy weight for my height and frame).

However, over the past 5 years, I've put on an extra 70 pounds. A lot of it had to do with changes in my life. I got a new job that, while wonderful, required a lot of hours and attending a lot of events. So, I didn't have time to go to the gym anymore and eating all those cocktail party foods became all-too-easy. Hello, 20 pounds. Three years ago, I met an amazing man who loves to cook, and loved to feed me his delicacies. For the first year and a half, I joked around that we were fat and happy, but I was not happy with the extra 50 pounds I've put on over those 3 years.

Now, I'm entering another year of transitions and changes in my life. Although we still love each other, my partner and I are growing in completely different directions and have decided to part ways. I'm returning to my health practices to get me through. Not only with food but also with meditation and yoga and journaling. So, here's to being the sadder but wiser (and thinner) girl.