Moderation in Moderation: Total Balance

mtwadmin - Fri, February 11, 2011

I sometimes feel like I live a double-life.  On the one hand, I write a wellness blog, am committed to eating a good diet that consists of mostly local, organic vegetables.  I cook for myself.  I practice yoga five times a week.  I make my own kombucha. 

But on the other hand, I’m also a performance poet and musician.  Performing regularly at bars and clubs often leads to late nights, alcohol, less-than-desirable food choices, and even (gasp!) the occasional cigarette.

Every once in a while, I wind up at an early morning yoga class, trying desperately to focus on balancing my entire body on my forearms, and I am struck with the harsh realization that this would probably be a lot easier if I weren’t out till 2AM the night before, if I’d skipped the leftovers on my buddy’s plate of french fries, or if I hadn’t had that third Manhattan.

This is not an everyday scenario, mind you, but it happens.  And when it does, I often find myself feeling guilty, as though I’m living some lie because I don’t practice what I might think of as an “ideal” healthy life.

“Moderation in all things” is such a cliche it’s almost lost meaning, and there are so many psycho wellness blogs out there who tout dogmatic mantras of no-lists in their creeds of wellbeing, (I’m looking at you, all you crazy dieters with cult-like titles [80-10-10, Vb46, etc.]).  Plus we do live in a Protestant-based culture, after all, so I guess my reaction of guilt shouldn’t shock me.  Still though, does beating yourself up over a poor (or even ambiguous or questionable) decision ever lead to good things?

I’d like to draw a line here between what I’m calling guilt and simply knowing you’ve made a mistake and taking responsibility.  Guilt, to me, is when you become so consumed and self-loathing/-pitying over a perceived miss-step that it affects your behavior negatively.  Anyone who’s struggled with a failed diet plan is familiar with this cycle.  You deny yourself, you screw up and eat a “forbidden” food, your brain goes haywire and you devour half your pantry and call out for pizza.  Then you sit around feeling guilty.  You beat yourself up.  You vow to starve yourself even better next time.

This blogger does a great job of describing her attitude of moderation and eating.  After years of living with various eating disorders, she has finally arrived at a place where “nothing is off-limits.”  This outlook has empowered her to make good, moderate choices moment-to-moment, instead of the oppressive “all or nothing” attitude she had when she was younger.  If she overeats, she recognizes it, and starts fresh from that point, instead of trying desperately to atone with self-denial.

Instead of trying to fit your life into some mold of what you think the ideal should be, why not start with how your life looks now and build around it?  Everybody’s life is different, and it takes a great deal of awareness to figure out what will balance yours. 

What do you think?  Is there room in a healthy lifestyle for late nights, cocktails, birthday cake, and sporadic drags off of other people’s cigarettes?  Or are these things definite no-nos if you truly value your health?