Balance: Everything in moderation

We try to find balance in all aspects of life from how we spend our time and who with, to what we eat. We truly believe that everything in life is best enjoyed in moderation and would love to know your opinions on this topic as well.

There has been a lot of talk recently around the topic of ‘orthorexia’. People suffering from orthorexia have an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food, becoming fixated on food quality and purity. Despite this not being a recognised clinical diagnosis, it has developed into a serious problem for some people, calling for the need of this label. Now regardless of whether or not you agree with the label, it is important to recognise the lack of balance which leads to the need for it.

Likewise on the other end of the spectrum, the obesogenic environment currently embodied by the western world does not promote a healthy lifestyle. With fast food chains on every corner, it’s hard to escape the unhealthy junk food available. People lead such busy lives and can often think it’s ‘easier’ to pick up a takeaway over cooking a meal. Between this and an endless array of chocolates and sweets at checkout counters, it’s no wonder that the Government Office for Science have predicted that 60% of men and 50% of women will be obese by 2050.

Neither of these extremes are healthy but the difficult part is figuring out how to achieve balance.

For us, we find that making sure that we cook and eat real food for all the meals we possibly can helps for the times when we aren’t able to. It’s all part of having a balance – we all like to go out for meals with friends and family and allow ourselves the occasional treat. Not only do we believe that there is nothing wrong with this, quite frankly it is important so that we aren’t restricting ourselves and eating in a way that is too extreme to be sustainable.

Relationships can have a major impact on our health and wellbeing, and ensuring that we have a good support network can help us feel more secure. For many of us, socialising includes eating and drinking. This is why it’s so important to take the journey as an individual to explore what balance means to you, to understand your relationship with food and the role it plays in your life. Life is for living in a healthy way: it’s about finding what works for you, whilst achieving balance.

Worrying about whether the restaurant or house you’re going to will be able to accommodate your nutritional needs can be just as detrimental as eating the foods you’re trying to avoid. For some people it is absolutely essential for their health to cut out a certain food group, for example people with coeliac cutting out gluten. However, for the majority of us, eating less gluten, dairy and sugar is a lifestyle choice, which provides us with a more positive physical and mental health. Therefore, although the occasional piece of cheese or bar of chocolate may have some short term implications, in the long term, learning to strike this balance will override this.

A few tips on how we like to stay balanced:

• Planning and prepping meals for the week (or as much as you can), ensuring as many meals as possible are home-cooked and freshly made.
• Spending time with your family and friends and making meal times enjoyable and not just about fuelling your body.
• Practice guilt-free eating – you’ve had your pizza and chocolate pudding, you enjoyed it and now it’s time to move on. Remember to enjoy it, otherwise what was the point!
• Remember ‘everything in moderation’ – there’s nothing wrong with a small square of chocolate here and there, but if you’re tucking into a family sized chocolate bar on a regular basis, perhaps it’s your relationship with food that needs more analysis. The majority of us wouldn’t eat that because we’re hungry.

The most important thing for us is learning to enjoy cooking and eating all types of food. Exploring tastes, knowing what works for YOU, and being creative whilst also being healthy. It’s about not letting obsessions take over your life – spend time doing the things your love with the people you love, rather than getting so drawn in to the finer details that you forget to enjoy life!

That is what balance is to us – please comment and tell us what balance means to you.