What the hell does a balanced life look like? It’s a tough question, because it looks different for each of us. And it is kinda complicated.
My recent example of this is my very special relationship with chocolate. Anyone who has spent time with me (even a couple of hours) will agree that I am a total chocoholic. That is, I rarely go a day without eating chocolate, and I don’t mean one piece, I mean a bar. Whilst I am totally in agreement with nutritionists about not moralising food (I don’t consider any food ‘good’ or ‘bad’) I decided that I might need to lower how much added sugar I consume to be more balanced. So, I decided to take added sugar foods out of my diet for 1 month.
I immediately started to obsessively think about what I was eating, how I would avoid sugar, what I could eat instead, what snacks to keep with me so I never got hungry and gave into a sugar craving….
Well within 1 week, whilst having avoided sugar, I had also become food obsessed. Just like people who diet all the time, my mind was on food. It absolutely sucked ass. How on earth do you try to live a balanced life, or reduce what you eat if all you can think about is food restriction?
Personally this feeling of restriction was too much like the thoughts I’d had to battle with when I was anorexic as a kid. I quickly decided that my balanced approach to life would probably include more chocolate than you might expect to be a balanced diet. From the outside maybe my chocolate consumption isn’t balanced, but it doesn’t matter because in this instance it’s all in the name of keeping my thoughts balanced.
Where do your actions LOOK balanced, but actually create thought processes that spiral into imbalance and stop you from enjoying everything life offers? Can you go a day without a run without going mad? Can you say yes to that piece of cake at a family party without worrying that your healthy eating is out the window?
It might be time to think about balance more in terms of the health of your thoughts, rather than your actions.