When Life is Too Good

Sunday Breakfast on the back patio, eating pancakes and drinking tea - pure decadence!

The last week which saw my 43rd birthday was what you could perfect...mostly.

This is what it's been like the last couple of weeks. Undulating between perfect and frustrating.  The thing is, it's all my fault.  Life for me is fantastic, but sometimes we can fail to see it when life is just TOO good!   That has been me lately.

A couple of weeks ago I was feeling very tired.  Self-inflicted overtraining.  I go too hard too quickly.  I pulled  back the reins though the tiredness and frustration remained.  I haven' even felt like training this week and dragged my sorry arse to the gym yesterday!  I still managed a mostly strong weights session, though squats are frustrating the hell out of me at present.  I'm still a novice and it's a learning curve.  It's not a great head space, and so unlike me, but when that happens I know it's time to stop and take a step back and look at why.

Knowing myself so well now, it's a constant battle to maintain balance in my life.  On one hand I like to train and go hard; keep the house tidy, stay on top of all things domestic, and yet on the other hand I like to relax and have time to smell the roses.  In order for me to maintain this equilibrium, I have to schedule times within my week and month to ensure that I keep it all humming along nicely.

With Christmas, New Year, and with all the rain, things have slipped behind on the domestic front and with such a large yard (which I wanted), it's more labour intensive, and I have a back log of work to catch up on.  Another mountain of weeds; washing things like bedsheets and furniture covers, etc which had to be delayed due to all the rain.  So that's just life, but it all just got a bit overwhelming for me.  It's times like these that I realise I need to physically stop and take stock of things.  Training, as much as I love it (except or the last week), sometimes has to be put on the back burner so I can get all the other stuff in my life back to a happy medium and humming along.  When I've got all this squared away, then I find I'm back in a better place, headspace wise and can then focus 100% on my training AND enjoy it!  When I lack motivation in my training, I know it's time to slow down for a while. 

So today I'm not training.  I'm catching up on house and yard work and preparing my stuff to start back at Army Reserves tonight.  At this very moment I'm sitting out the back patio listening to the whipbirds calling, lorikeets screeching, birds chattering, the chickens scratching in amongst the plants, classical music, and while I'm drinking coffee.  I'll grab 10 minutes of some quiet reading when I've finished this post, and then I'll be hanging out more washing, cleaning the kitchen and getting some much needed housework done.  I feel better already, and I'll return to training tomorrow morning.

The Lighthouse, Byron Bay

Breakfast Fresh Cafe, Byron Bay

Last Friday couldn't have been anymore perfect, and secretly, I think I need a whole week of doing what I did on Friday...sweet F'All!  I lay on the beach reading; pottered around Byron Bay shops and ended up at Mary Ryans Bookstore/Coffee Shop and spent about 2 hours in there looking through books and reading - it was pure bliss!   I bought two great books - 'Principles of Home - Making a Place to Live' by Kevin McCloud (the guy who hosts Grand Designs on ABC TV), and 'A Slice of Organic Life' by Sheherazade Goldsmith.  Anthony and I in amongst that had some lunch and in the afternoon we met up again and had a great coffee (Campos coffee) at the Breakfast Fresh Cafe (pic above).  We then drove up to The Lighthouse and the walk was great and the scenery spectacular and refreshing!  Anthony and I then drove back through the hinterland and finished the day late into the evening, eating pizza at Mt Tamborine before going home and falling into bed.  It was THE perfect birthday!

Come Monday morning I was despondent and not looking forward to going to the gym!  The warning bells are sounding and it was time to take note.  Mind you, apart from squats I had a great session and did my best pull-up session.  I decided to ditch my resistance bands and managed 4 sets of 5, 4, 4, 2 reps of unassistd pull-ups.  My best yet!  My lats are nice and sore this morning.

So this morning I'm taking some time out to get some much needed 'other stuff' done and I'm taking a little time out to stop and enjoy what I already have.

I've been frustrated because my weight hasn't budged beyond the 60kg mark and I've been whinging and complaining to myself (and Anthony...and Liz...sorry Liz!), but you know, things aren't so bad when I put it all in perspective.  I am the first to admit that I am too hard on myself sometimes and I expect too much of myself.  I need to lighten up!  And I need to remind myself to lighten up.  I also need to organise myself alot better than I do.

I'm still in pretty good shape.  I'm looking good and feeling healthy and fit.  I have a beautiful family and home and lots going on in my life to occupy me.  I am truly blessed.  So enough of whinging and complaining!  Time to get on with it.