TOPAZ HORIZON

Good news! My Papa was discharged from the hospital and is now recuperating at home. We will make him strong enough for his amputation. Please keep us in your prayers!

If there's any good that came out of the visits to the hospital, it's this: I am finally paying attention to my health. With diabetes in my family history, I can't ignore the fact that that may be my future. I'm seeing it up close with Papa's current struggles and it is ugly. I don't ever want my kids to see me like that.

Well, we don't know what's in our future but we can do what we can to delay or prevent it. So I'm eating less now. I'm eating less to no sugar. I can't give up rice yet. I'm okay with carbs, okay, but I love rice too much and I eat it in copious amounts. Now, 1 cup na lang. I aim to lessen it pa and just get my carbs from fruit and vegetables (bye bye rice huhu). No more soda, no more coffee, no more milk tea, no more powdered juice. Just water and green tea and natural fruit juices.

I'm just making kwento because I'm drinking Welch's grape juice right now and I wanted to share with my readers my journey to health. It's one of the few juice brands I drink now because Welch's is 100% grape juice. Nothing added. Fruit is already naturally sweet so you don't want to add sugar to juice.

Remember last Christmas when I gave away a bottle of Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice to my family? That is a guilt-free gift! And so now I think I should apply that the rest of the year and I'm now trying to eat guilt-free meals. Ewan ko ba. When you're my age, everything you eat can possibly induce guilt!

I choose Welch's because each bottle carries real grape goodness — a good concentration of nutrients called polyphenols that promote healthy blood flow, provide anti-clotting effect like red wine (without the alcohol!) and help maintain blood pressure. It's also a good source of antioxidants, keeps the immune system up to fight against viruses that cause common colds and cough.