I'm back!

I am back and determined to stay!
Many changes happened in the last six months, we are a bigger family now, three generations living under the same roof. 
We moved to a bigger house in an amazing place, a farm by the sea. This has been a dream of mine for a long time, to live by the sea. 
My days are full of beautiful moments, the walks on the beach, the stand up paddle with Marco and the girls, the breathtaking sunsets, I feel relaxed, balanced, grateful and inspired. I feel so inspired that I started to look at things and trying to come up with ways of improve them! My head is always spinning with ideas, most of them will never be nothing more than that but it keeps my mind sharp and creative.
This blog is now a journal, a place where I write the highlights of my day.

See you later
                                                          Maria

Hobbies and confidence

Yesterday I had a really long day, I was feeling tired and I couldn't wait to get home. So were my colleagues, all they wanted was to go home and do nothing. But I wanted some hobby time. It is far more relaxing to do something you love than not doing anything.

Having a hobby is very fulfilling, it brings us so many benefits.

When you decide to do something with your free time, you need to learn the basics, it requires effort and can be frustrating but you end up with a new skill and ready for hours of relaxed enjoyment. You also tend to step up and constantly challenge yourself to go further. The benefits are enormous,with the simple fact of having a hobby you:

• learn a new skill
• improve your focus
• develop your creativity
• learn to over come challenges as they come along
• train your patience and perseverance
• strengthens yourself
• gives you a sense of accomplishment

Just try it and see how much more confident and relaxed you become.

My Paleo yogi life

A few years ago, when I was determined to adopt a healthier lifestyle for me and my family, I came across with mark's daily apple , which introduced me to the  Paleo diet . From there I read all the major books: The Primal blueprint, Paleo diet: loose weight and get healthy by eating the foods you were design to eat, The new evolution diet, 4 hour body,  but the one that really influenced me was Wheat belly by Dr. William Davis. We have been wheat and gluten free ever since and we are never going back!

Trying to mimic the way we use to live back in the day makes sense. On a Paleo lifestyle you only eat real food and exercise in short bursts, the so called Tabata.

No, I'm not going to force any diet or lifestyle on you and even though I agree that we all should live in a way that brings us closer to Nature, I am not comfortable with anything that follows strict rules. So I bend them, I tweak them, I take this from here, and that from there and I make it work for me. Pablo Picasso once said  “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist". I am not a pro nor an artist but my days are filled, for the most part, with enjoyment. My rules are few and easy to follow:

never eat wheat nor gluten,

practice yoga everyday,

load on lean protein and spinach,

draw or crochet something everyday,

sleep 8hrs (never make it),

read and challenge myself everyday,

be present,

 be grateful.

They work for me, they keep me healthy and happy. I guess I'm a" Paleo yogi".

Now, you make your own rules.

Maria