It was around this time last year that I read Kelly Exeter‘s ebook, Your Best Year Yet. 

I loved it and felt myself nodding in agreement on many pages; having a-ha moments.

But I didn’t put it into practice.

Then later in the year, after a mini-melt down, I read it again but still didn’t figure out that I needed to change my attitude and way of thinking before I could create MY best year yet.

I feel like I’ve been on a constant roller coaster – one day I’m up, down the next and around and around. It’s been like that with food, human relationships, my career, fitness, social scene, mental and physical health, motivation and general happiness. It’s time to get off the corkscrew carnival ride and sort out my life.

Food

Over the 2014/15 Christmas New Year holidays, I ate whatever I wanted, when I wanted. It was great and physically and mentally, I felt fine. I gained about 500grams overall.

But as the middle of the month approached, I knew I had to get myself off sugar. The more I ate, the more I wanted. This is true for me with wheat too. So I planned to do a 3-day green detox.

Sure, I ate some green food but I decided to stop being so rigid in my ways. On day 1, I caved and had 2 beer at the end of a hot day. I also had 1 coffee each day (which I didn’t plan to). But my food intake was whole, fresh foods only: vegetables, eggs, nuts, seeds, fish, spicy green soup and 2 or 3 pieces of fruit each day.

This seemed to re-set my system for wanting those healthy foods. Thankfully, I’m off the refined sugar rush and back to focussing on real foods only. And not just for myself. I’m slowly getting my boys to do the same. Mr M is open to it but the boy, who has recently turned 9 is resistant. But he’s doing pretty good so far.

What I have realised recently is that I don’t need to restrict all these things that I perceive as BAD. I am able to have my cake and eat it too because I know now that I can switch off to it.

I don’t want to live my life never having a beer again or never sampling a chocolate mousse in a fancy restaurant. As long as I choose my health first, I can ease up on my food OCD.

Career

The roller coaster ride took sped me through some wild peaks and valleys with my career in 2014. I had some wins with articles published in Sunday Life and Good Health and my photography portfolio tripled in size.

But by September (AFTER I bought myself a new Macbook Pro!!) the writing wins had slowed down and I felt defeated. So much so that I took a part-time job cleaning houses. I hate being in debt and I needed the regular income. Just as I thought, the writing became a sometime thing. I was too tired after cleaning to then sit at my computer. The cleaning was easier then writing by the way. BUT….it had to go.

Thankfully, Mr M pushes me to stick with the writing. He convinced me (okay, he told me) to quit the cleaning job and get back to writing ASAP. I felt reluctant about it but when my last day arrived, I was thankful.

My first week back to my office has been fantastic. I don’t know what I was thinking before. Once you find something you like to do,forget about the money and just keep going with it.

Life 

Like I said in my last post, my goal for this year is to ENJOY it. Enjoy the ups and down cause no matter what you do, life will still give you a mix of both. I’m actively seeking enjoyment, adventure and fun this year. And that’s when success will arrive to me. If I can stress less and enjoy more, I will be successful.