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Well hello friends! Welcome to my little writing space!

It sure does take some time to be able to sit down with my own thoughts long enough to write my first post. This has been stirring in me for quite some time and I am hoping I can share who I am, where I’ve come from, and why I started Healthy Mess.

My name is Maca (pronounced May-sa), I am 30 years old. Mama to three amazing kiddos. As I write this, Ellie is 8, Elijah is 4 and Luke is 10 months. Their Daddy, my husband, is Jeff and he is our hero! A Firefighter and Police Officer where he works and he is currently in Paramedic School through his department. ((All the Firewives now understand why life is absolutely bananas at the moment)) I have been in the Health & Wellness industry for nearly 8 years now. Through my own life journey I have become exceptionally passionate about Food and healthy living, Pregnancy & Childbirth, and Growing Food – organic gardening. I wanted to create a space where I can share all the things and integrate them in hopes of inspiring and encouraging others wherever they might be. I often have people look at my life right now and they have no idea where we started. They see me post my healthy meals or my homebirth video with my 3rd blessing…. what they DON’T see is what life was like 8 years ago. So I want to take you THERE before I take you anywhere else.

In 2010, my husband and I were a Hot. Mess. Literally falling apart in every area of our life. We had our beautiful daughter, Ellie, and we were working our tails off. I did what I loved as a Hair Stylist. Jeff hated his job in corporate where he was not valued at all but worked and stressed to the bone. I was a pack a day cigarette smoker that lived on fast food and energy drinks. I was completely dependent upon my ADD medication. When I cooked at home it was boxed hamburger helper and spaghetti meat sauce from the Dollar Tree. Just remember that as you keep reading. Come back to that image of us if ever you find yourself doubting where YOU can go in life or on your health adventure.

I got involved in a company that truly did change my life for the better. I began making changes little by little to make our home healthier. Ellie was just shy of two years old in 2011 when Jeff got the cancer diagnosis. A 9.4cm malignant tumor was removed and I’ll never forget the day we got the news that there wasn’t any cancer in his lymph nodes or elsewhere. Something shifted that day in my spirit. I didn’t quite have a grip on it but for the first time after we found out the diagnosis – I cried. Jeff is pretty private and he didn’t want anyone knowing what he was going through so I kept it to myself. He went through his rounds of radiation “just to be safe” and continued to be sicker than ever for months following that. I went to visit THE beautiful friend of mine that introduced Jeff and I in the first place, Bijoulea, in Austin where she was living in March 2012. That weekend my eyes were opened to organic gardening through her awesome neighbors who had started a community gardening project called, “Food is Free.” We also watched a documentary that showed science behind how food can heal. I went home after that weekend and made a DRASTIC overhaul. We went almost completely plant based for several months. I tossed the cigarettes and ADD medication in one night and that was that. I was on a healing mission. I attempted my first garden that summer and failed miserably. It would be a few more years before I got back into it and was successful at growing our food.

I am SO looking forward to sharing all the foodie things with y’all! Tips for how I feed my family healthy meals, understanding ingredient label reading, growing food and keeping that process simple. I do NOT have a green thumb. I just know there are things I want to do in life and just because I fail the first time, that only drives me to want to succeed the next time!

*Jeff is healthier than ever now. We had two more kiddos after the cancer so I’d say what was meant to break us in those early years of our marriage only made us and his body stronger.

In between all the foodie adventures, a passion for birth was born. I will go into greater detail of ALL the things in future posts, I promise. Just to give a little taste, my birth with Ellie was traumatic for me. This needs its own post completely. Understanding health transformed my pregnancies and labors like I never knew possible. When I say “Health” I am referring to mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. EVERY area. My traumatic hospital birth with Ellie in 2009 spurred me on to have an amazing, unmedicated hospital birth with Elijah in 2013 which then launched me into having a beautiful homebirth with Luke in 2017. My own birth experiences led me to pursue becoming Pre-Postnatal Yoga certified to support pregnant women. I prefer one on one situations so I did private sessions for a few friends. That was the catalyst that got me invited into 7 births in 2016. THE greatest honor to me is being invited into a Birthing Mama’s space. I would be remise to not mention that my doula, Hannah, was CRUCIAL to my two births being so peaceful and life changing. Her love for me during my labors opened my heart to want to offer that same comfort and encouragement to women in their own labor journey.

This past fall of 2017 I became a Health & Wellness Coach through the Dr. Sears Wellness Institute. I very much am enjoying the workshops I get to facilitate to help families and women during their pregnancies and childbirth even go deeper to transform their homes and experiences. Shortly after my certification, I felt compelled to share a video on my Instagram of my house in all its messy glory. Specifically, I did the video of my kid’s rooms with the caption, “In case any of my friends need to feel good about themselves today.” Then I began messaging a friend and laughing about my mess when I replied, “Well, its a mess but at least it’s a Healthy Mess” — DING DING! “Healthy Mess” was born.

I hear so often that people may feel a healthier lifestyle like I share is unattainable and I so desperately want to just share that if *I* can take steps forward, so can they! I believe that each of us are given specific gifts to utilize to benefit others. I celebrate my friends that have immaculate homes and are able to get dressed everyday head to toe super cute. My friends that throw the best parties and are extremely organized – I celebrate you ALL! Where I may be strong in some areas, I always have areas to grow. I cannot stand comparison. We ALL have value to give to this world. We just need to learn that jealousy is a waste of time. Encouraging is my jam. Let me high five all you Mamas that have never gone to FINALLY take a shower and forget to shave ONE leg. I mean….. that may or may not have happened to me even before I had all the children. (ha ha)

PHEW! Are you still here reading? This feels so long. Here’s the part I’ve been having difficulty with on this post….. I WANT to just firehose you right now with ALL of the things going on in my brain. I want you to know ALL of the story… but these things take time. I want to develop it all piece by piece in the coming months as I launch this passion project of mine out on the inter webs for all to read. It’s a scary thing to put yourself out there and these subjects feel so raw and vulnerable to me. While it’s scary, its also exhilarating and I feel ready! I hope you’ll stick around with me as I unpack and pour out the last 8 years of what I’ve learned and gone through. Please remember that wherever you find yourself today, we all start somewhere. None of us have it all figured out. YOU are an incredible human being with a purpose bigger than yourself. Dig in. That’s what I plan to do myself. I feel like I’ve been tossing the wood logs on for quite a few years… building layer by layer the journey. It’s time to fan the flame, friends.

Here we go!

All the Love Love Love,

Maca