We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Monika Paez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Monika below.

Monika, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I was on a call with my business coach and she was asking me about some pillars of my business. When I told her she said ok why not use SMART?! I immediately fell in love with the idea. Not only does it represent the 5 foundations I use in order to help women achieve their health goals, but its also stating the fact about being SMART with your fitness and your life. For so long this industry has made people believe all these myths and lies (myself included) and I am here to help you really know wait its really like to lose weight and be healthy. S=stress
M=Macros
A=Accountability
R-Root Cause
T- Training

Monika, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I help women who are chronic dieters, balance their hormones to keep the weight off and have a healthy lifestyle while still enjoying food with a holistic & functional approach using my SMART Method.

At the age of 18, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I couldn’t make a fist, open a bottle water or hold on to dear life if I was falling of a cliff. I visited a dr. Who told me that I had lupus, and would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, and I quote “ might as well give up on all your dreams because you’ll be in a wheelchair”. I started to get depressed, I felt so lonely. I was a dancer since I was 4, I sang and modeled. I would see all my friends who had their entire lives ahead of them, and mine was basically done.

Thankfully, I decided to get a second opinion and that was the best decision of my life. I went to another dr who told me I didn’t have lupus, I would love a long and healthy life and to never give up on my dreams. I got on a treatment of chloroquine 1x a week. I also started to work with a trainer. She was doing therapy plus workouts with me. I started to get stronger and lift heavier My coach at the time began to introduce my to running, before you knew it I was running the Miami ½ marathon. I had a contract with a music label in Italy, I started doing beauty pageants and small modeling campaigns.

In 2012, I competed for Miss Florida Usa and I knew I had to completely transform my body. I hired body building competitions and became fascinated at how the body could change with weights. I didn’t win the title but it did open a whole new career journey for me. I was at fIU studying journalism and never in my wildest dreams did a thing I would become a fitness coach.

Once, I aged out of pageantry at 25 I longed to be on stage, I found bodybuilding. I had heard of another pageant Queen who had gone from pageantry to bodybuilding and it inspired me. That’s when I truly began to love fitness and went all in. However, I never expected having crappy coaches at the time would still haunt me at 35. Coaches I had completed messed up my metabolism and hormones/ had me doing 3 hours at the gym while eating 900 cals. I stopped losing weight and having any sort of transformation. I would go o stage heavier each time and infer so uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure what was going on with me. I had a photoshoot for a fitness magazine in NY and they basically told me to leave because I was too fat. They had me waiting all day, took 5 pictures and told me to leave.
Another time I was doing a catalog shoot and none of the clothes was fitting and I was also told to leave. I was embarrassed, angry, felt ashamed. I ate less and exercised more. This also happened to me at a fashion show. Once a photographer told me I was too fat for the induatry, as I was shooting in a bikini. I cried so much that day. I remember leaving and going to Whole Foods. I kept putting more and more stress on my body which just kept increasing cortisol and I’d have more and more belly fat. What did I do? I got Lipo. (I’ve actually never shared that)

I think I’m a span of a year I had 4 different coaches and none of them where getting my body to do what I wanted. I was binging bad after every competition. To the point that my body would hurt. I would get so angry with myself for eating and not being able to control myself even though I just had tilapia and avocados for 7 weeks. On Monday I’d cut all foods and start over exercising again. I just wasn’t putting on muscle like I wanted (duh my body was in a total hormonal imbalance) so I got with a coach that put me on steroids. I saw some improvement but not a lot. I wanted to look like Michele Lewin and everyone told me I had to get on anavar.

started following an influencer who was actually given out information that no other one was giving. Really resonated with me so I started working with her. She had the body i aspired to have and the knowledge I wanted. I was with her for a while until she fired me.

I realized I didn’t want to compete anymore. I realize now I had an eating disorder. I would binge eat and couldn’t stop. I was having protein shakes and putting all this crap in it so I can fool myself into thinking it was healthy Bc it had protein powder. I’d put Oreos, Ice cream, oatmeal, anything I can find.

I’m 2016When I was getting married my wedding dress didn’t fit, I had gained weight even though I was in a diet. (Keto to be exact) I gained 15lbs. Ppl thought I was just eating everything I wanted and not caring that I was about to get married. Little did they know I was starving. I cried almost everyday. I found a nutritionist who put me on a watermelon diet, not the healthiest but it did it’s job. I lost the weight and fit into my dress. Somehow I came across a coach who was talking about hormonal imbalances. I started seeing everything he was saying and it really resonated with me. I started to work with him. He began to fix my hormones but not 100%.

I found my current coach and mentor, who opened my eyes to whole world of functional health dealing with hormonal imbalance and gut disorders. He has taught me everything I know. I knew this is what I wanted to. I want yo help women to lose weight the right way and not mess up the body like I did.

I started realizing eating whole nutritious food is not just about losing weight but it actually cures the body. There’s a way to exercise for different goals and needs.

I am now proud to say I don’t take any pills for arthritis, am stronger than ever and actually forget half the time that I have arthritis (RA)

To quote Thomas Jefferson “ I haven’t failed. I just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work”

Have you ever had to pivot?

I had just turned 25.I was working fulltime as a persona; trainer. I was going to people’s houses and training them. However, I felt like it wasn’t enough. People in my life where making me feel like I wasn’t enough. If I wasn’t a dr or a lawyer I was “nobody” to them. I was pretty much crying everyday and was probably one of my darkest years. I decided to just quit everything. I didn’t feel good enough as a trainer and much less as a person. i CALL IT MY 1/4 LIFE CRISIS HAHA. I am a firm believer thought things happen for a reason and we put out things into the universe with our thoughts and actions. I couple weeks after I quit, I went to a former client/friends house and she gave me a pep talk. It was then and there that I decided I wasn’t a quitter. I wasn’t going to let other’s insecurities bring me down. The rest is history

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth and client testimonials.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.monikapaez.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monikapaez/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MonikaPaez25/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFtsfwA7gm9bJh-AmBgUSSw
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@monika_fitness

Image Credits
Coco Michelle Photography