Balance: The Key to a Healthy Lifestyle

Establishing a healthy balance between your work/family life and your health/fitness life is so important. It took me a good year of consistency to find an understanding of what balance really is and how much it affects me on a daily basis. I remember when I was in high school I use to view exercise as something I HAD to do to burn off the ice cream I ate earlier in the day. I felt the need to work out every day doing cardio and hating every second of it. I now workout as much as I can because I love to do it and I also know how much it benefits my mind and body! Balance is not forcing yourself to go to the gym because you feel bad or guilty. It is going because you want to and physically can. Balance is also understanding the fact that some days you are not going to be able to make it to the gym, and accepting that verses feeling bad about it!

Balance plays a HUGE role in nutrition as well. Nutrition is so specific to each individual, but the idea of balance remains the same. Balance in the food world is not eating good six days out of the week and then splurging the last day. It is simply eating whole, real foods and also eating a little piece of chocolate after. The ideas of “splurging” and “treating yourself” are somewhat a misconception. You shouldn’t be depriving yourself and then binge eating at the end of the week! You should find a balance where you can have the veggies and the cake! Portion control is such a big part in finding a healthy balance in your nutrition. 

Just like anything, it takes time to establish a healthy mentality about working out and eating right. The gym and food are not our enemies and it should not feel like a chore to eat right and workout. These two things are often seen as burdens when really, working out and eating right tremendously helps improve our overall health!