The Importance of Balance
Balance and Happiness
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony. ~ Thomas Merton
The Importance of Balance in Losing Weight
We have talked about balance many times on this blog. Normally I’m writing about things like the balance between work and play. Encouraging you all to make sure you find time for yourselves in between of all of your life responsibilities. One of the things balance helps with is reducing stress. When things are in balance you have a tendency to not be so stressed.
Losing Weight
Although I have a pretty thorough understanding of balance and in fact am someone who writes and does talks on life and work balance, even I forget sometimes how important balance can be. Last year I decided to try to lose some weight and I was pretty successful. I dropped about 30 pounds and got down to around 190. Over the last year I put about 10 pounds back on and recently I decided that I’d like to drop another 20 pounds and get down to 180.
How I lost weight
So, I did what I normally do to drop pounds. First, I started eating like I should in the first place given that I’m a borderline diabetic. So, I cut out my more than occasional coke. I control my portion sizes better and really start to be careful about the number of carbs I eat on a daily basis. So basically focusing the majority of my diet on protein (meat, beans and nuts) and vegetables, I eat at least one bowl of salad each day. That’s pretty much the recipe, and I know, you’re wondering where in this is the workout piece? The fact is I work out 4-5 days every week, so in fact my weight really isn’t related to my workout schedule. Sure, if I wasn’t working out, it would be harder to lose and certainly easier to gain weight, but working out is such an integral part of my life now that it’s not really a factor in this process.
So I initiated this process, I was at about 204 the first morning and very quickly started losing weight. My goal was to hit 180 by my birthday at the end of August. That meant I needed to lose about 2 pounds a week over the period of time I had left. I started out really well and quickly got down to about 194. I was feeling pretty good about having dropped the 10 pounds. Well then things kind of stalled for a couple of weeks, that happens and I unfortunately wasn’t patient like I should have been. So I pushed a little bit, mistake, I did some fasting, not for the right reasons, but just to cut calories. It worked a bit, I dropped another couple of pounds but I stalled again Then it happened.
Being an Emotional Eater
I’m most certainly an emotional eater, I could explain the connections back to my childhood and how that developed but my purpose is not to bore you to tears in this post or to make you feel sorry for me. Unfortunately, some things went wrong in my personal life, some shit piled on at work and my mood shifted. I gave myself a small break and let my eating slide a bit, but the stress I was under didn’t let up. So, I continued to slip and eventually just gave in. The crazy thing about weight, as hard as it is to lose, man it comes back fast and within a couple of weeks I’d put most of the weight back on.
My mistake was that I pushed to hard, I allowed things to get out of balance on a number of fronts and things spiraled. I finally got my head right a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve changed my goals, I’m hoping for 180 by the end of the year. That means that I’m back to a much more reasonable pace of about a pound a week. Not easy, but much more manageable than what I’d been doing.
Hopefully focusing on the importance of balance will help me in losing weight the way I want to. More importantly staying balanced in your life helps you be happy. So keep yourself balanced and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
Other Posts on the Importance of Balance and Happiness!
Happiness Resources: Balance
Getting back to Basics to be happy
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