Balance!

The world we live in always tends to have a black and white vision of reality, it seems as though we cannot see a grey area in between. We always see things as good or horribly bad, but why don’t we see some things as if they were just “ok”?

BALANCE is the reason why we even exist, it governs everything around us and its what makes us who we are.

And when I talk about balance I’m not just implying you should have a balanced diet. I’m giving it a deeper meaning than that.

Lets look at our life on this planet. How do we exist? How is there so much life on this piece of rock in the middle of nowhere in our universe?

We’re here because of BALANCE!

What do I mean by this?

The earth is in what’s called “The goldilocks zone”, that perfect area in space that is not too far from the sun that would make us freeze to death, but also not to close that would cook us alive. We’re in that middle area that has the perfect BALANCE to promote life.

This may seem like I’m getting out of the way of nutrition and talking about something else entirely, but in reality I’m not, I just want you to understand how important BALANCE is; to the point where it’s the basis of our existence.

Even in your day-to-day life, balance plays a bigger roll than you can ever imagine.

We all search for the perfect life right? But what is “perfect”? Does it mean being rich? Being in love? Living a healthy life?

A perfect life can be found with a BALANCE of each… Love of friends, family and your significant other; health that will give you years of life to enjoy and a positive bank account with no debts; because what is a million dollar bank account without love? What is love without years of health to enjoy it?

BALANCE is what we should look for in life if we want to be truly happy!

Now lets leave the philosophical views aside and look at how your nutrition should be.

A “well-balanced diet”, you’ve probably heard it before. But it seems like almost every person on the planet overlooks this simple concept. These 3 words should be the basis of any nutrition program, because it’s BALANCE that will promote longevity and long-term adherence to the diet. A good nutrition program should be able to include both the physiological and psychological aspect of dieting. Because what good is a diet that gives you all the proper nutrients your body needs but is not lifestyle friendly or adherence seems impossible? The diet may be healthy, but if you can’t follow it than what good is it to you? And maybe the diet is easy to adhere to but doesn’t cover all the physiological aspects? Now your problem isn’t adherence to the protocols, its lack of proper nutrient intake that will in time cause nutrient deficiencies that will later be the cause of illness.

So what do we need? BALANCE!

Balance is key when it comes to dieting. You need a diet that you can adhere to but that also provides all the necessary nutrients to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Because whatever the diet may be, if you cannot do it for the rest of your life, than the diet is failing to accomplish its means.

What is a balanced diet? A balanced diet is an approach to nutrition that contains each of the macronutrients in proper amounts. (Carbohydrates, protein and fats).

A proper diet does not exclude any of the essential macronutrients, yet the fitness industry seems to demonize one macro per decade. In the 90’s fats were the enemy, nowadays carbohydrates have taken that place and have become the worst enemy to any dieter. Maybe in the future people will demonize protein? Well, actually some people already do. It just seems as though we always have this need to blame something or someone for our own faults

There are tons of dietary protocols everywhere; it’s a never-ending bombardment of fad diets that arise on sometimes ridiculous claims; to the point where even common sense is lost.

Almost every diet has the same approach… RESTRICTIONS. And not just calorie restriction, but also food restrictions. Don’t eat sugar, don’t eat fats, don’t eat bread, don’t eat dairy, don’t eat fruits, etc. but few diets ever take into account the matter of BALANCE. They never assume that maybe everything can be included into the diet with moderation to promote longevity.

The reason why all these different methods work is because once you restrict a significant amount of food choices you will unknowingly eat less food overall. Because the less food choices you have the less availability of calories you will have. It’s a simple conclusion, yet fad diets tend to show it as if they have found the magical solution to all our problems.

And don’t get me wrong, anything that helps someone lose weight and improve their health and well being I’m all for it. I start to question these diets is when adherence is compromised.

If you have the will power – like many do – you can restrict almost 90% of your food choices and lose weight, but for how long? The problem comes when your will power slips, that moment when you feel like you can’t take it anymore.

“Cheat days” anyone?

Cheat days that become cheat weeks, cheat weeks that become cheat months. And in most cases, just giving up on the diet entirely.

This is when I start to question the protocols; because dieting isn’t something you do every few weeks out of the year. This is a long-term commitment to yourself. And when I say “diet” I mean not letting yourself become overweight, not specifically losing weight. Because a diet doesn’t have to necessarily be focused on weight loss, and you dont have to have abs to be healthy.

A well balanced diet is meant to assist this issue of adherence and commitment. Not only does a well balanced diet provide all the necessary nutrients to sustain life, but it can also increase dietary compliance.

The human body was meant to have a wide variety of food choices. Even if you look at things from a survival standpoint, do you think people 100, 1,000 or 10,000 years ago had the luxury of being “picky” with food? Not at all, you’d have to eat whatever was available at the moment if you wanted to live. So as a survival mechanism our body was built to live off a wide variety of foods.

Its important that you learn BALANCE, not only in life but also with your diet. Eat protein, eat carbs, eat fats, eat a piece of cake, eat a pizza, have a glass of wine, eat some fruits, veggies, rice, etc. follow a dietary protocol that you can adhere to in the long run. Get your healthy meals in, have some “dirty” ones every once in a while for enjoyment. And never forget to live life!

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, leave a comment below!