During the Christmas season, it is common to eat more and eat foods that are high in calories. This past Christmas, I ate many high-calorie foods: foods made with processed flours, sweets, cakes, chocolates, and alcoholic beverages. The traditional Christmas food in my country, Venezuela, is very high in calories, but in addition to what I ate at home, I had several Christmas celebrations: with the Reading Club, with the flamenco choir I sing with, with the English-Spanish exchange group, with the Spanish Red Cross, where I volunteer, with my students from the Creative Writing workshop, and with my friends I visited in Barcelona. I think I've definitely gone up a size. Most of my pants are too tight.

When I thought: “I'm going to start a healthy diet, Christmas is over. I need to lose the excess weight I've gained.” I have two problems that make it difficult for me to diet: winter and Aunt Lili. This is the first winter of my life; I lived for more than fifty years in a Caribbean country where there is no winter. Winter has made me hungry, friends. I don't know if it's because of the low temperatures, or because I'm spending more time at home, or because my body got used to overeating in December. Now, on top of that, there are storms in the Mediterranean that have brought a lot of rain, and I can't leave the house. In the photo I'm sharing with you, you can see my round face at the beginning of the year, when I visited the monastery of Monserrat.

Aunt Lili, my partner's relative, came to visit from Romania. She will be staying with us for a month. She is a charming lady, full of vitality, despite being over seventy years old, and she is an excellent cook! She brought us a traditional sweet cake from her country. She loves to cook and cooks in large quantities. Two days ago was the birthday of Ruxandra, the eldest daughter of Daniel, my partner, and I was cooking lunch and a delicious fruit cake with Lili. For me, and for Daniel, it is very important to eat healthily and be in good health. That's why I want to go on a diet. But I also like to look good. I admit that seeing myself a little heavier, a little rounder, makes me look sexier, more attractive. I think my partner must like this. But I'm worried. I don't want to look like those obese women I see around me. So I won't let winter and Aunt Lili stop me from achieving my goal. I'm going to avoid overeating. And you, are you dieting?