Latina's Inspiring Fitness

With so much body negativity and straight criticism from girl to girl, it's time for us to realize that every time we open our mouth's to critique another female we're not harming anybody but ourselves.  We condemn the media for creating unrealistic body images but we do nothing to fight it and instead feed into it.  Reality is, we're all guilty of it at some point.  We'll see somebody and point out the negative as if it's going to make us feel better.  News flash, it doesn't.  At the end of the day you're still the same person, with the same insecurities and flaws, just that now you've added bonus points to your Bitch status.  Might sound cliché, but instead of trying to tear other females down we should empower and motivate each other.  As we should all lead by example, and in honor of next month being National Hispanic Heritage Month, I want to thank four latina females who have in some way motivated and inspired me to follow and continue on with my healthier, more active, Misfit lifestyle.

Sascha Barboza, best known as Sascha Fitness, is a Venezuelan fitness guru with an undeniable combination of beauty and brains.  After giving birth to her daughter Avril she decided to use her knowledge (Masters in Fitness Nutrition) to motivate other women to lead a healthy lifestyle.  Sascha embarked on her own personal challenge to lose the baby weight and used social media to share her workout plans and personal recipes.  Succeeding with her first challenge and with already many people, especially women, looking up to her she decided to continue pushing herself and in 2013 won two awards including "Bikini" at the National Physique Committee competition.  Her meal and workout posts, all the fitness and nutritional advice, her sometimes silly Snapchat's and her fun personality leave little space for surprise at the fact that she counts with 1.5 million Instagram followers.  Know spanish, want to lead a healthier lifestyle and have some fun at the same time, go ahead and follow @SaschaFitness .

Massy Arias who you might also know by her original Instagram name of MankoFit came from the Dominican Republic at the age of 13.  Knowing no english, coming to a completely different country and being independent by the age of 17, she had a hard time fitting in.  Falling into depression, Massy was in a dark place.  She had no motivation, self image issues and no desire to do anything.  In 2012, at 5'8" she weighed 114 pounds and was what she labeled as "Fat Skinny".  Opposite to most of us who struggle with losing weight, she came from the complete opposite side of the scale.  After hitting rock bottom, she decided to use exercise as a 'drug' to cure her depression.  3 1/2 years later, weighing about 150 pounds of mostly muscle she looks amazing and more importantly she is happier than she could have ever imagined.  For Massy Arias, fitness is so much more than having a great body.  It's about being healthy mentally, emotionally and physically.  It's about being independent and strong and loving yourself.  She empowers women to work for what they want, not to do this to be like 'the girl in the magazine' but to be the best version of yourself.  Following Mankofit today, you'd never imagine she dealt with depression.  From her little dances to her self love tweets, she's just a burst of energy ready to get you on track with a new, healthier and happier lifestyle.  What are you waiting for?  Head over and join the 1.8 million people already following her on Instagram @MankoFit .  

You might remember her from "Everybody loves Jenni", Janney "Chiquis" Rivera, the eldest daughter of legendary Jenni Rivera is another inspiration to many females embarking on their weight loss journey.  Now I know what you may be thinking... No, she's not a fitness expert, she's not the thinnest or most in shape but she has struggled with being overweight all her life and knows the real struggles of coming from eating whatever you want, with little to no exercise to suddenly realizing the negative effect it really has on us.  Chiquis decided to take control of her life and get to a much healthier weight losing 30 pounds (with the help of celebrity nutrition consultant, Alejandro Chaban) in just 8 weeks which she has managed to keep off.  Referring to her followers as a whole as Boss Bee Nation and embracing the idea of women being powerful, Chiquis is full of posite energy.  If you have ever struggled with your weight, wouldn't mind some extra positivity and want to follow a fitness 'MisFit' who might be dealing with some of the same struggles as you, @ChiquisRivera is your girl.

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The moment I find out I was pregnant with my first baby, and after the excitement calmed down enough to let me function properly, I went Instagram crazy searching up the hashtag #FitPregnancy and that's how I ran into Mariza Villareal.  Mother of three with baby #4 on the way and two time Overall National NPC Athlete,  Mariza's physique is undeniably amazing!  With her posts consisting of pregnancy safe exercises, personal meal choices and helpful pregnancy facts, she's great motivation for just about everybody.  Whether you're expecting, trying to lead a healthy lifestyle after having a baby, or just looking for tips and motivation for diet and exercise; you should definitely check @Mariza_Villareal out.

 

 

 

 

Whether you decide to follow or not any of the four 'MisFit' inspirations above is up to you but what I do hope you take from this is the importance of lifting other women, empowering each other and highlighting the positive in others.  Hashtag #MisFitInspiration and tag a friend who deserves to be reminded of how amazing she is.  'Til next time lovelies.