Rejuvenating

Even when you have all the systems in place, leading a more sustainable lifestyle is sometimes difficult to maintain.

Especially when something else starts taking up your precious time, like running a small green business, as well as a mostly full-time job, and trying to balance that with spending enough meaningful time with family and friends.

Enough was enough.

So, I decided that, with my 52nd birthday rapidly approaching, I needed to take some time off to rejuvenate and reflect upon things most important to me.  To that end, I have taken 5 days off work to do whatever I like!

Things like replanting a very neglected veggie patch.  Now that our long hot weather is finally over, I can plant a crop of winter vegetables and turn over a couple of the beds.

The leaves have dropped on most of the deciduous fruit trees, so they will also need a prune and shape.

But most importantly, there will be time to reconnect with family and friends around the clay oven, cooking pizza and having fun.

I’ve also taken a good hard look at myself.  Confession time now dear reader.

Due to a lax attitude to my diet and exercise, I’ve put on a few too many kilos, just peaking over 102 kg (224 lbs).  It’s something that I not proud of and it’s very unhealthy at my age.  There; it’s out in the open now.

Kim and I have renewed our focus on simple and nutritious food and I have boosted my exercise hours per week.  I know it is as simple as fewer calories in and more calories burnt each day, but it does take focus.

I know it sounds easy enough, especially when I am planting lots of wholesome food in the veggie patch over my break.  We have also found that by planning to cook the evening meal together as a team, we are more likely to cook a non-processed meal, than to cheat and get takeaway food.

Why cook together, you ask?  Because we both enjoy cooking from scratch and get to spend more quality time together.  What more could you ask for!

Thankfully, the weight is starting to drop so I will keep you abreast of how we are managing to create wholesome meals each week.

Also over my break, I will also be servicing my renewed passion for cheese making, of which I cannot seem to get enough of.  Not the cheese per se, but the process of making different types of cheese and then sharing it via cheeseman.tv (my cheese YouTube channel) with the worlds curd nerds.

Speaking of YouTube, I decided to dedicate my original channel just for cheese making at home.  This was a big step for me, as it meant that I had to remove all but a few very popular sustainable living videos.

So what to do?

Well, I just went ahead and created a dedicated Greening of Gavin channel that will include weekly Vlog posts as well as some of the original how-to videos and television appearances from the original channel.  You can subscribe to that channel with this link if you are interested; The Greening of Gavin YouTube Channel.  Very exciting times ahead.  Now take a breath Gav….

Kim and I are also looking for a way to start podcasting again.  It is definitely lack of time thing, because we are more often than not either packing orders or doing the bookkeeping.  It’s something we really enjoy doing together and have lots of fun in the process.  I know that many of you enjoy listening from the comments and emails we receive after each episode!

So this weekend (and a few days afterwards) I am looking forward to relaxing, renewing, and rejuvenating.  I will be master of my own domain, and take the time to work at the things I enjoy most.  I think it’s something that all of us should do on occasion, just like my new motto; Live MORE, Work LESS.