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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Balancing Act

How's your balance?  No, I don't mean the kind of balance that is required to do the grasshopper pose in yoga.




I'm talking about the balance in your life between work, family, relationships, food, personal time, spirit, and exercise.

Oh, that balance. 

I have learned that when my life is out of balance, it gets really messed up, really fast.  There are two prime areas where I struggle: work and food. 

I am the daughter of a workaholic.  My father ran a small business while I was growing up.  He ran it out of our house initially.  He was a contractor.  He worked a lot.  When he got home from work, he would go up to his office and do paperwork and make phone calls to schedule jobs for the following day.  I am lucky that my mom was a stay-at-home mom and could provide the hands-on parenting that we needed.  In that regard they made a good, balanced team.  But I could easily be a workaholic myself.  I've always had jobs that didn't end when the work day was over.  Now I have a full-time job plus I have my own small business.  I often work on weekends and evenings.  I always have my phone and am checking email and texting with clients.  I work at balancing my work life, but do you know what's hardest for me?  When I'm not working.  I always think I want more free time and wish that I wasn't as busy as I am, but I have the hardest time keeping my head when I lack the structure of my job.  During my vacation after Christmas, I had a hard time with the down time.

But this is a blog about weight loss and having an-out-of-balance relationship with food is something I know quite a bit about.  To me either end of the food/weight spectrum is a problem that represents a lack of balance in my relationship with food.  If I am compulsively counting calories, weighing myself obsessively and exercising like a maniac (you know, dieting) then I am out of balance.  If I throw my hands in the air and eat everything that doesn't eat me first, I'm out of balance.  Either extreme is a problem for me.

One of the reasons that I ended up fat is that every time I decided to "do something" about my weight problem and screwed up relationship with food, I ended up back on the extreme dieting end of the spectrum.  I believed that this was the behavior that would lead me to freedom from weight issues and freedom from the general nuttiness in my brain when it came to food.  But because this approach lacks the balance that is required for a good, healthy life, it was doomed to fail.

Now please don't think that I'm all balanced and serene.  If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know that I am not.  But I'm working on it because I know that it is important.  I believe it is the key to a normal, healthy life.

So how's your balance today? 

8 comments:

trishajo said...

my balance is directly affected by how grouchy i am on given day. LOL

that's why i need to keep working out bc when i work out i get those happy endorphines and all is well in the world and balanced!

namaste! =D

Rachel said...

my balance sucks right now. we (me, myself and I) are all working on it.

MandaPanda said...

My balance is actually pretty good. Things are busy and they're always going to be busy when you've got kids. Unfortunately, neither Hubby nor I can stay home with the kids but they're in good schools and I'm off as early as possible (2 pm) so I can be with them when school's out. When I'm home, I'm home...no checking into work for me.

Lyla said...

I think this is my problem right now, actually. I feel completely out of control, and I've convinced myself I am (so of course, I've given up and I'm not trying). But it's actually FALSE. I'm not out of control-- my band is still doing its part pretty well, it's just my attitude and the all-or-nothing thinking that's killing me.

This is a good post. I need to find the balance, not perfection.

Rain Howard said...

In all things, seek balance :-) I read that in a fortune cookie once, after devouring two peoples worth of Chinese food.

Cat said...

My balance is good. Work stays at work, I have time for some fun stuff like piano and doing a bit of shopping, though I have felt a bit this week that I haven't had my usual time for blogging and commenting. I do feel like that's a bit off. Love this post and I have to agree, being "perfect" isn't the way to lifelong changes and permanent habits. Always love your posts.

Steph said...

My balance is related to stress, but things are going much better since the family drama at christmas is over. Girl Scout Cookie season has begun, so we'll see how TRULY balanced I am...LOL Hugs!

#fatfreefloozy said...

Wow! This is the 3rd blog I have read today which has talked about needing the routine of work to adjust their food intake. Speaks volumes.