Balance yourself
Everyone has a period in which you live less healthy than you would like. Going to bed late, exercising too little, snacking too much. How do you get back on track? And: how do you stay there?
Eat healthy, go to bed on time and exercise a lot. If you manage to live such a healthy life, you will notice that: you feel good about yourself and you feel energetic. So every reason to continue with it. However, sometimes things can get messy. If your work is busy, if you have a lot of parties and dinners, if you are stressed or for whatever reason.
The first step is to be honest with yourself. Things aren’t going the way you want them to and you probably feel limp and tired too. You have to act to change that.
balance day
Sometimes it can be enough to have a balance day. A balance day is a day on which you eat and live very consciously. On such a day, do not take sugar and alcohol, eat a lot of vegetables and fruit and make sure you cook extra healthy. For example, you can start the day with a fruit salad with some yogurt and sprinkled with some nuts. At lunch you eat a large salad with lots of vegetables and some egg, chicken or fish. With the hot meal you eat whole grains (such as brown rice or bulgur), some legumes (such as lentils or chickpeas) and a large portion of roasted or stir-fried vegetables. In between you drink a lot of water, (green) tea and try to eat as few snacks as possible. If you are really hungry, eat a healthy snack such as crispbread with savory toppings, a handful of nuts or a piece of fruit.
A balance day is not just about healthy eating. Be sure to combine it with exercise, preferably in the open air. Refresh your mind with a walk in nature. Go to bed really early. There is a good chance that you will get up fresh as a daisy the next day. After such a balance day you will probably feel like picking up your healthy lifestyle again.
Sometimes it takes longer
Such a balance day works well if you have lived unhealthily for a short time, for example after a festive weekend or after the holidays in December. But doing healthy for one day is not enough if you have lived unhealthy for a longer period of time.
What is the best approach then? In any case, it is not a good idea to immediately start balancing for a whole week. Such a balance day is quite ‘strict’ and therefore cannot be maintained for long. It is better to take a little more time to get back into balance, for example one to three months. In that time you change the unhealthy habits that have crept in step by step. For example, you can choose not to drink alcohol during the week. Set an exercise goal and use a pedometer. Put a pitcher of water on your desk and abolish the liquorice pot or agree with yourself that you will take the stairs from now on. Make a to-do list and start with the steps that are easiest for you. Every time something is successful for a week, you move on to the next step. This way you will slowly but surely get back into balance.
