Welcome to Maria Makes Muffins!
Thanks for stopping by! I am so happy that you are here and look forward to getting to know you.
My name is Maria Peters and I live in a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul with my husband, Allan, who is a Creative Director at Target; and our sons, Matthew and Luke.
I started blogging in 2009 at Simply Clean Eating to share my weight loss journey and clean eating recipes after loosing 50+ pounds through Tosca Reno’s Eat-Clean Diet
In all things God works for the good of those who love him. Romans 8:28
God has blessed my life through my darkest trials. He used the near tragedy our family experienced in 2009 to soften our hearts. By the power of the Holy Spirit working through our testimony family, friends and strangers have been saved. The power of sharing God’s blessings in your life is awe inspiring. It’s amazing to feel (and see) the Holy Spirit work through our broken words to touch another soul. Don’t be afraid to tell others about your trials and the resulting triumphs – have fun boasting and bragging about what the Lord does for you everyday!
After almost loosing my husband in September of 2009 and giving birth to Matthew in May of 2010, I found myself, once again, 40+ pounds overweight. I was heart broken that I had gained so much weight during my pregnancy, but I knew exactly how to loose the weight. I quickly got back to the basics of eating clean, weightlifting and interval training with a little yoga mixed in. A year after Matthew was born I had lost 42 pounds and was in better shape than I had been post-partum!
At that time, I felt the Lord place a renewed desire to share my experience with the world – not only my weight loss journey, but also the struggle to forgive and move on after near tragedy. That’s when I started Maria Makes Muffins.
I believe that one day I will write books, speak to crowds of women and share our story of healing, both spiritually and bodily. I just need to get through the sticky part of life first, where God is working to smooth out my rough patches, like a rock that has been polished.
In late 2011 I happily found out that I was pregnant again. Luke was born at home in September of 2012. Apparently my body likes to gain 40+ pounds when pregnant, and postpartum I was 40+ pounds overweight for the third time in three years. We faced some scary obstacles with Luke’s health early on. I found that by eliminating chocolate, dairy, gluten and limiting grains + legumes in my diet that Luke’s health issues and colic faded.
He is now healthy, happy and thriving. Most of the new recipes that I share are all gluten-free, dairy-free and paleo for that reason. I have since added chocolate back to my diet – because I can’t live without dark chocolate! However, we have found that the entire family feels better when we eat a mostly Paleo, gluten-free diet.
I know that there are many healthy living blogs that share a beautiful, picture perfect version of life with small children. This is not one of those blogs. My life is crazy, chaotic and filled to the brim. I want to share those beautifully messy bits with my readers, because I feel that honesty is the best policy. Life is hectic. I don’t always have my $#!t together and my type A personality is learning to be ok with that.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 1 Peter 5:10
Want to know more? Visit my FAQ page for more focused tidbits of information about my life along with some clean eating FAQs.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I love hearing from readers! Shoot me an email at maria (at) mariamakesmuffins (dot) com, Tweet at me, comment on Instagram or send me a message on Facebook. I look forward to hearing from you!