December Guest Blogger: MariaPaula
I am so happy to bring you this second guest blogger for my December Happy Healthy Holidays series! Please welcome my amazing friend, MariaPaula!
MariaPaula and I connected on Instagram with our love of healthy food. I love her ability to take a recipe and make it fit her macros. Her food photos are also absolutely gorgeous! MariaPaula does reviews of lots of different recipes and products, which is great because then I know what I should spend my money on and what I shouldn’t! She and I also share a love of fitness especially because of the mental benefits, in addition to the physical gains. Make sure you check out her recipes and lifestyle tips at www.primeallinstinct.com and her Instagram.
Now, let’s find out a little more about MariaPaula!
Happy Healthy Holidays with MariaPaula
- Welcome to the Happy, Healthy Holidays series! Please tell us about yourself.
My name is MariaPaula :) As a self-proclaimed health foodie and fitness junkie, I treat my life like a constant experiment aimed at maximizing my health AND reaching my ever growing fitness and physique goals.
2. What sparked your healthy lifestyle journey?
My healthy lifestyle journey truly began when I realized that our mental and emotional state is just as (if not more important) than what we eat and what we do.
After struggling with health issues for many years, and trying pretty much every diet out there, I realized that nothing external was going to get me better if I didn’t first address my internal state. It’s so much easier to blame how we feel and look on the conditions in our life (our situation, our habits, out lack of time, etc.) But ultimately, none of those things will get better until we decide to change how we think first.
3. Why are you passionate about leading a healthy lifestyle?
I’m passionate about leading a healthy lifestyle because of how AMAZING it makes me feel. Especially because once you adopt a healthy lifestyle it has a massive ripple effect in everything else you do and that is extremely powerful. When you are consciously making daily decisions to be a better version of you and take care of your body and mind, your self-confidence improves, your self-love grows, your confidence is strengthened and you show up FULLY in every aspect of your life.
4. What is your best tip for maintaining your healthy lifestyle during the holiday season?
My best tip would be to change what the meaning of the “holiday season” represents to you. To a lot of people, the “holiday season” is synonymous with “impossible to maintain healthy habits season”. And sure, there will be more gatherings, more meals out, it may take a bit more planning but you still have all the same tools available to you.
We have to stop using the “holiday season” as our excuse to stop taking action towards our goals. Especially because, there are always holidays to make “a season” out of ; Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Easter, your birthday month ;) , etc.
It’s really important AND powerful to make that mental shift.
5. What advice would you share for those looking to lead a healthier lifestyle
Focus on cultivating self-awareness first and foremost. What do you like? Why? What do you not like? Why? What do you want to change? Why is this important to you? Why does “x” trigger cause “y” behavior? What do you need to be true to make _____ more enjoyable / effective, etc. You have to keep asking yourself good questions over and over again.
Why? Because, to get results you have to be consistent in living a healthy lifestyle, so you have to find what works the best for YOU, and you can’t find what works best for you if you don’t really know yourself.
A little more on Maria Paula...
MariaPaula Rey is a brand new blogger with a lifetime passion for food, health and fitness. The focus of her blog is combining the best aspects of holistic nutrition with flexible dieting (IIFYM) so that reaching our health and physique goals easily flows into our lifestyle.
MariaPaula helps current and aspiring flexible dieters by sharing tips and tools to make it easier to track your macros, creating nutritious and macro friendly recipes, and also provides honest reviews on recipes, products and restaurants where she answers the question: “Is it worth your macros?”
You can find her on her blog : www.primeallinstinct.com and on Instagram : www.instagram.com/prime_all_instinct