For the most part, I consider myself a “feel good” blogger. I mean, every day at 7:00am, I’m here checking in with all of you to see how you are doing and providing you with (what I hope) is some daily inspiration. I like to keep things light and happy. I love sharing healthy living tips, workouts, recipes, and little slices of my life. I love motivating you to be the best you can be.

Hotel Workout

But you know what?

Sometimes I am just not in the mood to be cheery and write a feel good post.

When I read other blogs, there is nothing that turns me off more than hearing about how amazing every part of life is. You guys must know what I mean. The bloggers that say every workout is THE best one, the people who never binge on anything except lettuce (please), and the ones that give off the vibe that nothing ever gets messy. Of course when I read other blogs, I consider that I’m reading someone else’s highlight reel, and there probably aren’t a lot of bloggers out there who actually WANT to share too much of the negative. I mean, I guess bloggers who complain all the time and are negative are ones I want to stop following too, so there’s definitely a fine line between over-sharing/being a negative nancy and also keeping it real/being transparent with your readers. I’m all for sharing the personal stuff if it’s done in a real and tactful way that people can relate to, but I’ll be the first to admit it’s a tough balance sometimes. And I never want to give off the vibe that I lead a perfect life.

Because nobody is perfect. And bloggers have bad days too.

grumpy

Yes, you heard me. Bloggers are not perfect. I have less than ideal workout sessions sometimes. I f*ck up in the kitchen (a lot). I get in arguments with people, sometimes for stupid reasons, and sometimes (gasp) because it’s my fault. I worry about finances and my future. In fact, I over-worry (shocker). Usually I over-think everything too (another shocker). And I can’t reign it in when I get like that (sorry co-workers… and family… and friends… and Tim…).

Shoot.

Yesterday was just one of those bad days for me. Usually a bad day in my book is when multiple aspects of my life are stressing me out. One thing? No problem. Two? Annoying, but manageable. It’s when I get overwhelmed by several things at once that I feel like I’m losing control. And I hate not being in control of things. When this happens, my time management skills go right out the window, and my anxiety levels go through the roof. Oh, and then I eat. A lot. <—not lettuce.

A couple of things I’m dealing with right now:

1. An extremely stressful situation at work that’s challenging my patience and motivation levels.

2. Family issues. Nothing new, just the same type of things resurfacing and the continued issue of being helpless and having no solutions or services available. Not exaggerating. How can the mental health system be so EFFED and leave SO many families out to dry? Probably a post topic for another day.

3. Finally, my ankle is still bothering me from when I rolled it in class last week. This makes me SUPER cranky because I know I should rest it for it to get better sooner. But resting also equals not being able to do my number one stress management strategy (exercise). CONUNDRUM because now how am I supposed to deal with #1 and #2?

An extremely miserable Athena ensues. One that just wants to do THIS:

faceplant

I hope you guys appreciate my honesty today and aren’t annoyed by it. I’m never going to post multiple cranky or complaining posts a week. But I also never, EVER want to give off the vibe that things are always happy. I want to be authentic without boring you of every single nitty-gritty detail of the things that may go wrong in my day-to-day, behind the scenes life.

What I CAN say is that despite the negative, I do still try to look on the bright side.

So I will leave you with something I am feeling really happy about this week. And that’s how many of you have emailed me or let me know that my post on Sunday about heavier lifting has inspired you to increase your weight, go out and buy new weights, or try something new for strength training. That keeps me going, knowing that at least in one area of my life, I can make a difference and am not helpless.

positivity

To anyone else out there not having such a great week, I hope this post helped you feel like you aren’t alone. And I encourage you to find that one silver lining. It helps.

–Let’s chat–
Thoughts on the “perfect life” perception? Anyone else having not such a great week? Are you someone who tends to get overwhelmed when there’s a lot going on at once? What are your tips for snapping out of a funk?