How to Maintain Equilibrium

One of the biggest hurdles I see in clients maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle is the ability to maintain balance, over the long term.

Equilibrium, which is a word used often in France, is, by definition, a balance between several different influences or aspects of a situation.

In my mind, maintaining positive lifestyle changes and achieving a sense of balance in our lives is a constant, moving target. With this in mind, we need to be agile and know how to pivot, literally daily.

We also need to know how to read ourselves - how we're feeling at any given moment, what's going on in our heads to make us want to eat in a certain way. Why are we feeling lethargic and lazy? Are we experiencing head hunger or true physical hunger? What are our underlying needs disguised as a craving?

In my experience, it is rarely our body that gives up first wanting to eat well and exercise, it's our mind.

Therefore, being acutely mindful and aware of our thoughts and feelings, results in an intimate relationship with ourselves and our intuition. Our intuition has always been there, we just lost touch with our bodies, based on "outside" authoritative diet rules, which most of us can't wait to rebel against anyway! Do we really want to be told what to eat? Most chronic dieter's intuitively know what a healthy, balance meal looks like. Pick up any health magazine and we find heaps of recipes.

Let's face it, sometimes we burn the candle at both ends. Sometimes, life throws us a one-two punch. Sometimes, due to life circumstances, we are sleep deprived or exceedngly under pressure from work, illness, family, finances, personal relationships or just life in general.

So, how do we keep it all together, when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan? Without wanting to sound simplistic, because, the answer has many layers, however, we simply come back to ourselves and continue to pay close attention. to ourselves and our needs.

We practice leaning in...to ourselves and our personal needs at any given moment. 

You might be thirsty when you think you're hungry - have a large glass of water and wait then minutes.

You might be overtired when you think you need a cupcake - take a power nap and wake up to a herbal tea.

You might be stressed, angry, bored when you crave an entire bar of chocolate - distract yourself with uplifting music or a sitcom or talk it out with a good friend, before you devour chocolate in a stressed state of mind.

​It's truly not worth eating when you are stressed because often you miss the pleasure of the experience. To top it off, if we do this repeatedly, then we become more stressed  because our jeans won't fit. It's a no win situation.

Our intuition can take many, many years of a journey to reclaim. However, it is always there. Don't ignore it. Come home to your body. Feel it fully. Trust it. And it all starts with simple awareness.