Balance- in Health and Fitness

Jul 28, 2018
4 min read

This popular almost 'in fashion' word has sprung up everywhere recently when it comes to the health and fitness industry. I am even guilty of using this word quite often.

What does it actually mean though?

According to my 'trusty' google search and online dictionary this is the definition …

noun

noun: balance; plural noun: balances

an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.

2. a situation in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions.

"the obligations of political balance in broadcasting"

synonyms: fairness, justice, impartiality, egalitarianism, equal opportunity;

So if to remain upright and steady we must have an even distribution of weight otherwise we may lose our footing why can't we apply this as a metaphor when it comes to our own health and fitness.

Think about it, if you are limiting yourself on a super strict diet plan do you not think that sooner or later you will have a wobble and lose your balance? This kind of restrictive lifestyle may cause you to counteract all your hard work. Imagine, you eat 'clean', track your macros and calories and workout hard all week. When it comes to the weekend surely you will crave just a little bit of freedom, I mean, your favourite desert, a packet of crisps, garlic bread, a chocolate bar- whatever it is that you have tried so hard to restrict yourself from eating all week.

The weekend comes and you just binge, all of your work in the week potentially undone if you go crazy mad on the calories and you are now in an overall end of week calorie surplus.

I have been there myself in the past, I would be 'so good' all week and then the weekend would come and myself and Gavin would just indulge not stop until the end of the weekend. The result- we would feel disgusted with ourselves have major food hangovers and feel frustrated because all of our hard work was now essentially undone.

So what changed?

We realised that by restricting ourselves so much during the week we believed we deserved to have a 'cheat weekend'. I soon realised that we didn't need to view our favourite naughty foods as a treat for the weekend. We could actually fit them into our macros and within our calories each day so long as we were conscious of portion size and the total calories in each food item. We tracked our food for a while which helped and logged all our exercise so we could see how many extra calories we had earnt. Without changing our attitude and approach to eating our favourite treats we would have continued on a road of restricting and binging- a vicious circle.

With our healthier and more realistic approach to our favourite treats we have achieved that magic word 'Balance'. I admit that most of the time we eat healthy, wholesome nutrient dense homemade food so I could argue that in terms of balance the scales lean more towards good foods, however in terms of our attitude it has totally shifted.

I no longer view a treat as something I can only have at the weekend, a treat can be whenever the hec I want, if I fancy a couple of cookies with a cuppa then I will have them. If we want to go out midweek and eat a burger then we will. This is where striking that balance has occurred. 5-6 days a week I train and Gavin 5 days a week, we walk our dog every morning or evening and we both move a lot throughout the day, having porridge or a protein shake for breakfast, chicken and salad for lunch and a big bowl of spag bol with wholemeal pasta and some garlic bread is hardly going to do us much harm.

I try and ensure on days when we have had a really tough workout we eat a mostly carb based meal in the evening.

We go to Cheesecake factory- our fave restaurant whenever we feel like it and will even take a cheesecake home- balance. Some days we will have a zero carb dinner- balance. Some days we will have so much fruit and veg are bowels are like wow hello- balance and on other days pizza is the only answer- because balance and zero feelings of guilt or regret.

I don't track my food anymore, I did it for about a week with Gavin but now I understand and know what will take me over my calorie goal and whether or not I've actually eaten enough to meet it. I don't weigh out food I think that's obsessive, I believe in getting as much of your macro nutrients- protein, carbs and fats as you can from whole foods and on those days when you just wanna strike that balance then go on have that treat you want!

Just remember that other magic word 'moderation'.

Now I've blabbed on enough about food, what about training? For me I train as much as I want I don't have specific days set a side for 'rest days', I have to admit I tended not to have proper rest days because I normally just pushed through the pain. But recently I have learnt to listen to my body and if its yelling 'just give me a bloody break will ya' then I don't even think twice about giving myself a complete day off.

Active rest days are also helpful in achieving balance. They're great because we are still keeping ourselves moving but we aren't doing our full typical workout. Our active rest day yesterday was a lovely early morning walk along the beach, walking, talking and people watching as we went along meaning we soon covered 5k without even realising. Our bodies needed the shake off after a week of intense workouts and it felt good to walk away the DOMs.

With all of this in mind, we do have some weekends where we will spend a day at home curled up on the sofa watching movies and not move unless its to go to the loo or get food, and guess what, I don't feel bad, we deserve it and its totally okay because we have finally found balance and it's a wonderful thing.