Achieving a healthy balance

Why balance matters for health and happiness

I’ve come to understand more in the last few years just how important balance is when it comes to health and happiness – which, in turn, feeds into our overall wellbeing.

With the weather seemingly turning to spring and the trees slowly turning green again, I’ve just been out for a cycle in the sunshine. (You may or may not know that I’m a fan of fair-weather road cycling.)

Whilst I’m no king of either speed or distance, I do have all the gear (no idea???) and pride myself on looking good going sloooow.

The real barrier to consistent training

This little ride got me to thinking about training and exercise in general, and one of the barriers to becoming consistent.

We tend to look for the easy option, the quick fix, the results without the commitment.

Lots of us have crashed and burned many times. Maybe we went for a run but found we couldn’t actually run as fast as we thought (or as far). We tried weights in the gym, but were so sore the next week, we decided it must be bad for us. Or we went on a new super low calorie diet, then failed at the weekend because we were miserable and starving - so we had loads of drinks and food on a night out, which surely ruined our efforts, so why bother?

Progress over perfection – even for a coach

I’ve been there and still have my own private struggles with being healthy, even as a coach who has been training for decades.

I know I can’t be the strongest guy in the gym (far from it), but I can push through and be the strongest me that I can and if I occasionally feel some DOMS (those sore aches that all newbies get in the gym) that’s ok, and perfectly natural (occasional soreness is fine if pushing yourself, but mild muscle fatigue is what is usually expected).

As far as cycling goes, I’m often left in the dust by a six foot student rocketing past me up a hill, and I will admit there is an inner sigh that I will never be that impressive. However, it’s tempered by the knowledge that I’m a very physically active male in his extreme late thirties (55). I’m consistent and work hard enough to feel that I have challenged myself, and know that I’m working to maintain general all round strength, fitness and mobility, which does not set the stage for being a master cyclist, for example.

My latest endeavour is to push myself outdoors once a week to do a 5k run (as an asthmatic fifty something, breathing is not my speciality when combined with the impact of footfall during running). I would like to go from always hating the idea of running to just being comfortable with it. Some weeks I can shuffle a slow 5k non stop, whilst others find me in a walk run situation. Again, the challenge is not to be a fast runner, just have the cardio competency to be able to maintain a steady run for when I am training with clients and to maintain/improve my heart and lung health.

Striking a balance with diet

Diet is another one that I accept as part of my humanity. I, along with many people, have a vice, which for me is chocolate. For others, it could be alcohol, takeaways, soft drinks or fast food, etc, and I know from personal experience that your body is a reflection of your lifestyle. So, while I will definitely satisfy my sweet tooth, I will always prioritise getting a decent diet across all macros in alignment with my general health goals. Our diet is always evolving and is affected by many internal and external factors (stress, time, cost, family, etc.).

Understanding this and accepting that whilst we may not have a perfect “instagram” diet, we just need to be prepared to accept that if we maintain consistency with minor adjustments to suit our needs, if we feel ourselves going off track we will usually be in a pretty good place to pull back in line.

Diet is literally all about balance.

Progress looks different for everyone

So as you can see, I am just human. And like the rest of you, I am trying to make reasonable choices and striving for sensible objectives that I can be happy with, knowing I am doing right by myself. This is what I urge you to do.

There will always be a balance between health and happiness, and if maintained correctly, they can both feed off of each other.

• You may struggle to train every day because of your commitments, but you might manage twice a week of solid training whilst making an effort to stay on your feet as much as you can on the other days, for example.

• You may know you indulge a bit on the weekends, but you can hold your diet tight all through the week in anticipation in order to balance your calorie totals overall.

• You may not be able to get to the gym, but you can do twenty minutes of exercise in front of the TV when your soaps are on.

• You may find that you absolutely hate squats with a barbell, but love lunges or goblet squats instead.

• You may hate running, but really love a long hike on the weekend.

Find what works for you

It’s all about finding a balance that works for where you are right now, whilst offering a positive outcome. When we find our balance, we can often find it gets easier to move on from there.

If you are looking for balance and don’t know where to start…. reach out and perhaps I can help.