No Pain No Gain?

Back Pains

If only all back pains were so simple

After Christmas holidays it was back to work on the 3rd of January. The operations manager at my work was on much needed annual leave and so I was helping organise deliveries in his absence. I was actually quite grateful to go back to work that week because it was quiet and the perfect way to ease back into the regular work schedule. Two weeks later was a lot worse as organising deliveries proved to be quite difficult. Between delays from suppliers, or customers needing to change dates, I felt like every time I came up with the best plan it had to change. I was understandably stressed for two weeks. Unfortunately this caused quite a toll on my back. I didn't realise it at first, but I was tensing my back muscles a lot at work. When I switched back to my normal role I thought all was fine except I was still getting pain on occasion at my work. Later Matt and I attended a personal delevopment conference that is for 3 days from 8:30am - 10pm. This proved to be a VERY bad idea for my back condition. I spent many hours sitting in a chair and let's just say I really struggled to focus and relax when I was getting really painful stabs in my back. It got so bad that sometimes at the end of the day just standing would hurt! It wasn't as bad back at work with my ergonomic chair, but I had to do something about it ASAP. My boss let me take a morning to get helped by a guy recommended to do massage therapy/ acupuncture. I'm not sure what techniques he used, but it did seem to help! It seems that my month long back pains are finally on the mend! I have an appointment on the 21st of February to see my rolfer (similar to deep tissue massage) so I'm pretty sure after that all will be good.


Birthday

So amidst all the back pains I had my 31st birthday. I got sick the week before with a virus my boss gave me. I had a really awful sore throat for about a week. Nevertheless, I went out to dinner at TGI-Friday's a couple times the week before and on my birthday Matt and I played a bunch of games and watched Stargate SG1. Instead of a birthday cake, Matt made me gluten free brownies! Even though I was sick I still had a couple people visit which was nice. Overall it was a pretty good birthday. I didn't want anything special because we had done a lot for Christmas and I had bought a Wii U. It was more fun just to play games with Matt because he has been working a lot and we haven't really spent a lot of time together lately.

TGI FRIDAYS!

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownies

 Australia Day Weekend

I had planned a lovely day off work reading and getting things done, but in the end Matt had the day off work. So we did what anyone would do...we drove for an hour to pick up 20kg of raw honey. The back story is that raw honey has the best health benefits and I was referred to this lady from a woman in my ward. It's great honey and the ants thought so too. We had to filter one of the buckets to get the ants out. Later we went to this large Australia day event in Parramatta. They had load of old cars, a bunch of rides and blow up stuff for the kids, concerts, food trucks, and a whole lot more. We just went for an early dinner and sat on the grass while watching people. It's amazing that the whole thing is free and on such a large scale! It was a really good day!

Stuart Zadel Experience

Last weekend Matt and I attended a three day personal development conference organised by Stuart Zadel Property Education. I won't go into all the details, but it was three very long days as I stated before that took me three days to recover from the lack of sleep. We basically covered mental and physical health and how to have a better positive attitude that will lead to a happier and more successful life. The best part were really the things I learned about myself. Most people that know me know that I am a strict "Follow the Rules" kind of person. Well I learned that this can be a major limitation. I try so hard to do everything perfectly as I am instructed even when it doesn't feel natural to me. In one exercise I found that trying to conform to what I "thought" I should be doing actually prevented me from completing the task. We also had a couple of meditation sessions that despite the back pain I was experiencing, was a great moment to sit and think about what I wanted out of life. I realised that I put so much time into constantly doing things, that I don't take nearly enough time to just sit and really ponder about things. I don't really enjoy meditating, but quiet time to just sit and think is definitely something I should do more of.

Other News

Waiting to pick up Matt's car from NRMA

Matt and I are moving to Queensland! Our lease ends May 21st so our aim is to be out by then. We are looking at North Lakes area above Brisbane or potentially South, but we won't really know until we get closer to May and can really see what is available. We visited North Lakes when we were in Queensland for Christmas and really liked the area. It felt kind of like California. The hardest part is there are so many unknowns. We'll see where we end up, but I'm excited for the change. As for what I'll do when I'm there, I haven't got a specific plan yet. I signed up for a renovating course on Saturday which I know is going to be awesome! So I'm thinking maybe I will just work part time, while trying to get into renovating. Part time work might also be better for me as I've already been told by a few health professionals that the data entry and desk job is not helping my wrists and my back. Next year the plan is to finish my Psychology degrees. I need to do a 4th year psychology degree and then I can do a 4 year Professional Doctorate at the University of Queensland. My hope is that renovating may help me save up money to pay for school. Life is an interesting journey and I am learning that you don't always have to know how to get from point A to point B, just have enough desire and motivation to get there.

Other news is that it's HOT! I like warm weather but multiple days over 40C (104F) is too hot to really do much of anything. See the below message from The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:

Today is officially the hottest day on record for Sydney. The mercury hit 45.7 degrees at Observatory Hill at 2.54pm. The previous record of 45.3 degrees was set in January 1939.

Generally hot weather isn't a huge problem except for when it doesn't cool off at night and repeats the following day. As there is no insulation in homes here, and we only have one air con unit in the bedroom, the house is like a sauna and there is no cooling it down. Basically the only solution is to strip and sit in front of a fan, or go somewhere with aircon. Luckily my work is air-conditioned, but unfortunately Matt has been painting a bank and the aircon is turned off. I'll be happy for the heatwave to be over, but if given the choice I would still prefer the heatwave versus the bad winter and cold weather going on in the US.

As a side note I wanted to add a few things from today's lesson from Sunday School that were really meaningful to me. Here are some quotes from Gordon B. Hinckley found in Chapter 3 of Teachings Of Presidents of the Church: Gordon B. Hinckley 

Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve. 

Be believing. Be happy. Don't get discouraged. Things will work out.  

You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen.  

Do not despair. Do not give up. Look for the sunlight through the clouds. Opportunities will eventually open to you.  

There never was a greater time in the history of the world to live upon the earth than this. 

Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured. 

Believe in yourself. Believe in your capacity to do great and good things. Believe that no mountain is so high that you cannot climb it. Believe that no storm is so great that you cannot weather it. ... You are a child of God, of infinite capacity.