Balanced Diet - Intake vs Output

No!  I’m not talking about ‘Weightwatchers’ but about life in general.  But starting with a diet. 

What is a diet? 

Too often the term is used to mean ‘abstinence’:  of food, drink, cream cakes!  However, the word diet means nothing more than what we take in.  That can be food, knowledge, focus… etc.

A balanced diet is little more than when our intake is balanced by the output.  So if we eat more high energy food we need to do more high energy exercise to burn it off.  If we eat just before we sleep we expect our pants to tighten.  In short, if our intake exceeds our output, there will be problems.  The same is true when our output exceeds our intake.  Our diet is no longer balanced.  It is pretty much impossible to upset the balance and still expect ourselves to perform at maximum potential.

So what if we look at life in general and apply the same principle of intake and output? 

Well, from experience I know that if I’m not balanced I’m in for problems!  I spent years giving out much more than I was taking in.  The result was running on empty until I could run no more and my system shut down in an attempt to recuperate: the result was nearly two years off work with depression.

At the other end of the scale I have spent lots of time taking in, taking in, taking in; without giving out.  The result was incapacity through loss of sight of the world outside my door.  I became the centre of what mattered.  No-one else really mattered.  The result was a slow exile to isolation.

I’m learning slowly, with the help of friends that my life needs a balanced diet in all areas.  Loss of balance leads to loss of health, be that mental, spiritual, physical etc.  Loss of perspective of who I am amidst a world full of people with needs and insecurities (similar to my own in many instances) leads to tension, blindness and a gross distortion of my own importance.

So I’m trying to focus on the BALANCED in balanced diet rather than diet. 

Hopefully, the continual need to deprive myself of the things I like and enjoy will be replaced by reality: sacrifice is part of that balance.  However, when taken out of context it leads to distortion of reality and we look at things in a negative light rather than enjoying the benefits and joys that balance brings.

There’s lots more that could be written, but for now here’s to Lurpak (in moderation of course).

Tags: balanced diet, diet, emotions, intake, output, relationships