Spas and health food! Not just for the rich and famous!

Hi Divas!

Hope this finds you well. I'm not sure if I told you, but this Diva spent a few days last week in Florida visiting the Safety Harbor Spa & Resort for some much needed R&R.

The Safety Harbor Spa (http://www.safetyharborspa.com) is one of the top 10 spa destinations in the U.S., mostly because it is famous for its "healing waters" that come from a huge aquifer deep below the Florida earth. This water is filled with minerals and was considered by explorer Hernando de Soto to be "the fountain of youth". The water has been used for over 500 years for its healing powers and is now used in all areas of the hotel and spa, including the pools, steam room and bathing water. It is delicious and I would defy anyone who says they can't tell the difference between it and the purified waters currently on the market.

Anyway, the Spa has an enormous fitness center, too. In fact my room overlooked the many tennis courts located right alongside the beautiful Tampa Bay.

While I was there I had a few spa treatments and just relaxed, darlings! Actually I took a 2 hour bath the first night (with La Diva Bella product, of course)! I can't remember the last time I took such a relaxing bath! I sat by the pool, too, and took a steam in the lovely steam room. Aside from a necessary trip to the cell phone store for a charger (duh! Forgot mine!), I just relaxed, enjoyed the tropical and relaxing setting, and finally got a chance to think!

Thinking is something you don't really have time to do when you have an extremely active (and probably genius level) 9 month old boy! (Did I mention I left the Babe with family for three days!)
It took a while, but I finally remembered who I was before Baby O dropped into our lives. I remembered why I loved to travel, too.

In my other life, I got to travel a lot; I've seen most of the U.S. because of my other jobs, which is at least one thing to be thankful for! In fact, I think I've been to almost all of the 48 contiguous states, so far, which is so much fun and such an eye-opening experience, too. In addition to seeing exciting new places and meeting lots of new people, travel is, for me at least, an awesome time to think and reconnect with my hopes and dreams.

Why? Well, think about it, aside from hospitals (which can have yucky karma), airplanes are the only place you can't be interrupted by phones or email or distracted by the news or the internet. And though you can't really stretch out and relax, you can pop some Enya on your iPod and journal or doodle to your heart's content. So, I've always taken this time to get caught up on "my life". In fact, I think I would recommend flying over sitting in a cemetery (which I've heard is good, too), when it comes to making huge life-altering decisions. Ask yourselves, when was the last time you just sat and thought about your life? For me, at least, it had been nearly 2 years and I am just so grateful for the brief but enlightening time I got to spend away from my life to think about where I was going.

Now, please understand, I don't always follow through on on all my dreams and goals, but I do manage to make a few important changes that really do effect my life.

During this trip I realized I needed to take better care of myself in *all* aspects of my life. This means getting the sleep my body needs and craves (hard to do with O waking at least twice a night), making showering and grooming a priority, setting up boundaries with family members that tend to unknowingly trounce all over me, and to eat right.

Now, eating right is a HUGE issue for me, because I have always found great comfort in food...especially in trying times, like the last 2 years! Unfortunately, I am finding out that getting comfort from food is not always a good thing. I become worried about carbs, calories, fiber and protein! This becomes such an obsession, that my usual M.O. is to stop eating because I just don't know what to eat!

But, this time--ah! this time!--I decided to do something I think I can finally stick with! I have decided that I will follow in the footsteps of the rich and famous and replace refined foods with whole foods. The key word here is replace! Not eliminate...no, not eliminate, can't do that! Instead, I have replaced white flour with whole grains, butter with olive oil and milk with soymilk. And let me tell you, I feel great!

Actually I should say I *felt* great until last night.

Last night, I didn't plan for dinner and was feeling stressed, so I rationalized: "Hey! I can splurge once in a while!". So I ate a big ol' sub on a giant white flour roll with cheese and processed meats, to boot! Then I topped the whole thing off with a big glass of skim milk (not soy) and some gingersnap cookies (white sugar, white flour).

And, let me tell you, was I ever sorry!

In the middle of the night I had the most horrific stomach pains, forcing me to spend time in the "Ladies" for a while (not going to be any more explicit) . Then, the next day, I felt like I had been drugged AND hit over the head with a shovel. I slept ALL day! And it wasn't even restful sleep! I'm still feeling woozy! What a nightmare!

Well, as they say around here: "Light dawns on Marblehead!" I now realize that even though I might love or crave foods like cookies and milk, they just aren't good for me. I'm probably allergic to them, actually, and if I want to continue to feel good, I just can't eat like that any more. So, I'm back to my whole foods regimen and so thankful for the learning experience!

So, in summation darlings, you might want to consider yourself rich and famous for a few days and head on down to the Safety Harbor Spa (or any other, for that matter), so you can learn that you are a very valuable person and worth taking good care of! It's a lesson I don't think I will soon forget myself!

Ciao for now, sweeties!