What is Nutrition Moderation and Balance?

Moderation. Balance. Those are words you probably hear or see a lot in the fitness community. Every one is preaching moderation and balance. What does moderation and balance really mean? What does it mean to them? What does it mean to you?

This is another post that has been on my mind lately and actually in our draft folder for quite a few months. I realized that these were becoming "fitness buzzwords" (we use them too!) but saw that many people were completely lost on the entire topic. I decided to finish and post it after we had ice cream (yes, REAL ice cream) last night in Annapolis. I posted the photo below on Instagram (@heandsheeatclean).

What is Moderation and Balance?

According to dictionary.com:

Moderation: the quality of being moderate; restraint; avoidance of extremes or excesses; temperance.

Balance: a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc. or mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.

What does Moderation and Balance Mean to You?

When someone posts a picture of their cookies - are they just eating two or three? Could you do the same or would you devour the whole bag? When they post a picture of their ice cream is it one scoop or four scoops?

Just like we have mentioned numerous times previously, you are NOT like anyone else. Just because someone eats two cookies per day and then puts the rest of the bag back in the pantry without thinking about it doesn't mean that you have to force or even train yourself to do the same thing. It doesn't mean that they are any better than you or more disciplined than you (or vice versa). We each have our own personalities. We need to learn how to work with our personalities instead of against.

Some people can have a bag of candy or pretzels and only eat that "one serving" or a few at at time. Others can't. It's okay. Maybe you are one of those people who can just eat a few at a time but my guess is that you've tried over and over again to "practice moderation" or count calories, points, or macros to allow for those "treats" but still end up devouring the entire bag. Don't beat yourself up.

The solution? Don't keep the cookies or pretzels in your house or at your desk. Just because you don't have junk food in your house doesn't mean that you are too strict or don't enjoy your life or food (These are comments that many of us get!). There is a place and time for everything - when, where, and how much is up for YOU to decide. 

80/20 Rule

Our overall lifestyle (traveling or not) is 80/20. 80% of the time we eat what we consider clean/healthy foods (lean protein, complex carbs, healthy fats, lots of veggies, etc.) and 20% of the time we may consume food that has more sugar, fat, etc than we normally would.

We never want anyone to feel deprived. You can still enjoy your favorite treats! Just like I posted that picture of our ice cream while we were traveling, we get our treats outside of the house. Order dessert at a restaurant (and split it with someone else), get small portions of your favorite treats while traveling, etc. In that picture, I had one scoop (which is more like two scoops at most places) of cookie dough and Scott had two scoops of peanut butter cookie. We didn't think twice about getting it. We live a healthy lifestyle and have a healthy relationship with food. This doesn't mean that when we are traveling we eat junk 24/7. This means that a majority of our meals are still healthy but we don't worry about what we are eating the whole time (more to come on this topic later).

As always, we want to caution you about comparing what others eat to what you eat. How your body will respond to certain foods is different. How often and how much you can eat will depend on your body. Just like everything else with health and fitness this takes time and trial and error! Maybe you have that "treat meal" once a week or once a month or maybe you do eat that small portion of chocolate each day. How often you need to have it will depend on your personality and your goals. Find out what timing works for you so that you do not feel deprived because that will just lead to bingeing.

Keep in mind that just like everyone has their own definition of eating clean, everyone has their own definition of moderation and balance. Some people think that eating a rice cake with peanut butter is balance. Some people think that eating three scoops of ice cream is balance. Some people think that eating a slice of pizza is balance.

"Trigger foods" will also vary for each person. I can devour an entire bag of Sour Patch Kids in one setting but I don't really ever crave (or even care for) breads or pastas. My easy solution? I don't buy Sour Patch Kids and keep them in the house. I don't care to try and "train" myself to only eat 6 Sour Patch Kids. If I want them, I will eat them outside the house where I can get a smaller portion instead of a large bag (or I will make my "Sour Patch" Grapes!).

Where do you fall on this? Have you tried over and over again to incorporate these "treats" but still end up over-eating? Or are you one that can only eat small portions and leave the rest alone?

Are We Obsessed with Fitness Perfection?

This is another draft that has been in our draft folder for almost a year. I decided that it might be a good time to post it after reading all of the comments from my post on how Getting Into Fitness Ruined My Body Image.

Before I continue with this post I wanted to point out the fact that I feel very grateful that I refuse to do anything that will compromise my health. I've never had an eating disorder and I don't over-exercise but I know that mentally this body image issue is not good for me. I honestly already feel a lot better just from publishing that post. I haven't critiqued myself in the mirror or compared myself to anyone on social media. I have been focusing on what my body can do. I started taking a yoga class a few times per week and I'm excited to master a new move that I can do on top of all of the mountains we climb on our trip this fall. :-) I plan to continue to focus on having a positive attitude and live my life without falling into the comparison trap (you can read more in my post on Building Up Your Confidence with Positive Thinking).

Now onto my new ramblings...

Are We Obsessed with Fitness Perfection?

I'm proud to say that both Scott and I have lived this lifestyle for over 4 years. We have a healthy balance in our lives. We never make the "most active" list at the gym. Why? Because we have other things to do with our lives besides go to the gym twice a day or even every single day. People will be up on the most active board with 20 or more swipes in ONE week. It isn't healthy to workout that often - doing so usually leads to an unhealthy relationship and distorted body image. Don't get me wrong though, we do workout in the gym. We are normally there 4-5 times per week. We also have other activities we enjoy outside of the gym like hiking, biking, playing tennis, etc. Our workouts are not always in a gym.

Why is it that once we become interested in fitness and being healthy it eventually turns into an obsession to be perfect?

It seems like many people who find an interest in health and fitness think that a competition is their next step. I'm not knocking competitions but I've seen them ruin some people completely. Some don't even have an interest in being healthy after the fact because it was all for the competition - not for life. I have never wanted to do a competition because I never wanted someone else judging my body but now I do that to myself. I feel like everyday is a competition for everyone because of social media. I couldn't even begin to imagine having my body picked apart by someone else and compared to other people. Like I mentioned, I think we all do that enough to ourselves.

The picture I found below is from a hike Scott and I did last weekend. We hiked 10 miles - why isn't that enough?

Or this one where we spontaneously hiked 4 miles to see the sunset.

Or climbing half dome. Yes, we climbed that.

Or maybe this one where we climbed the highest mountain in the lower 48 (Mount Whitney) at the END of our two week hiking trip.

Or doing a backbend in Zion National Park after hiking Angel's Landing.

Why do these accomplishments never seem good enough?

I posted this on our Instagram account (heandsheeatclean) back in May but every time I think about it helps put things into perspective. Over Memorial Day weekend we did one of the hardest hikes we've done (probably number 2 or 3 behind Mt Whitney and Half Dome), over 11 miles in Linville Gorge. Not only was it hard physically but mentally it was tough to finish. We were once again reminded that life is NOT about how much money you make or a number on the scale - Life IS about LIVING IT - the memories you make and the adventures you take. A man, who loved hiking the trails, died on the trail 20 min before we got to that point. He was STILL THERE. We had to walk past a deceased hiker in a body bag on the trail. He was 55 and died of a heart attack. He died doing what he loved. I couldn't even hold back my tears for someone that I didn't know because my dad leaves for the Appalachian Trail again in a month. I KNOW that we were there for a reason. We were in that spot so that I would finally find the courage I needed to post about my struggles. His friends and family didn't care if he had a 6 pack or if he could out-lift others in the gym. They cared about the kind of person he was INSIDE.

Whenever I get into one of my deep comparison traps, Scott always asks me "Is this really going to matter in a year, 5 years, 10 years, etc. What matters is that you are healthy and you are." Once you really think about it most of the stuff we beat ourselves up about...doesn't matter. The only place it really matters is on social media.

You can browse through many different social media sites and see "selfies" that people post daily (or sometimes even multiple times per day) that shows just how "perfect" they are but just know that isn't attainable for everyone. YOU are not THEM. You have a different set of circumstances, a different body composition, and different LIFE. This doesn't mean that you can't have goals and work to better yourself but do this for the right reasons.

We're also sure that you have seen photos that people post where they are clearly very lean but say something about how they aren't in that good of shape now or that they can't see their abs because of dinner last night, etc. Don't get wrapped up in the "fitspo" community that is ever-so prevalent these days. Find out what works for you (eating and workout wise) and stick with it! It may take some time, months or even a year, to find out your optimal combination but it's worth it! Sometimes the people who you think look like the optimal picture of health are actually really broken on the inside. Stop letting the world dictate what success looks like to you. Find your own version of success.

We've posted this picture before in our intro post to "He and She Unfiltered" but we wanted to share it again here. Get rid of the noise and focus on YOU! Make life an adventure!

Build Up Your Confidence With Positive Thinking

After posting yesterday I honestly avoided looking at it because I was afraid I would decide to delete it but I am so glad that I didn't. Hours after pressing "publish" I came back and read every single comment. I was blown away. I am so glad that the post helped so many people or at least opened some eyes. It was SO difficult to put everything out there for the whole world to see but I knew it had to be done.

Life is WAY too short to live like this and I've decided that I'm NOT going to live like this anymore. After reading some of the comments, I actually feel lucky that I haven't had these issues longer than I have. I feel like it's a prison but I vow to escape it now and I want to take as many of you with me as possible. I CANNOT continue down this road.

I PLEAD with you to join me, especially if you are a mother. It is so important that we end these body image issues now. All of this negative self talk does NO GOOD. Absolutely NO GOOD. I realized last year that the scale did no good and I got rid of it (read this post) so I KNOW I can do the same with this negative self talk. We would NEVER talk to someone else the way we talk to ourselves so why do we still do it?

I immediately found and read my article from Oxygen Magazine (June 2013 issue). I am so shocked about some of the things that I wrote about in there.

"Whitney hoped that her personal language would spark her confidence, igniting a sense of self-assurance that would drive her to a bold, determined approach in the gym. Whitney's one-on-one positivity pep talks helped to build up her self-esteem, and to permanently shape her into a women who sees the glass as half full. 'I had to learn how to twist my negatives into positives'".

They even quoted me as saying "I realized that when you hear something enough, you start to believe it. When I started to think of myself differently, I truly started to change my life."

So, now the question to myself is HOW do I get that back? How do I get that positive attitude back? I'm going to start with these 5 things and I would love for you to do these with me!

1. Say at least one nice thing about yourself each morning. Bonus points for actually TALKING to yourself in the mirror. It doesn't even have to do with looks. It can be something positive from work, your personal life, or just that you made healthy choices the day before.
2. Avoid judging or critiquing others. When we judge others it really does say a lot about ourselves - more than it says about the other person. We are in NO place to judge anyone.
3. Avoid social media accounts that are based solely on appearance. Honestly these are easy to spot by how many "selfies" they take. These accounts MIGHT give you a little motivation at first but over time it will drain you.
4. Do not talk negatively about yourself. Definitely avoid doing so in front of your spouse and/or children.
5. Stop comparing yourself to others. You are YOU. This is the only life and body you have. Live your own life.

I KNOW that we can do this together. Let's get started with what I've listed here but - get -ready - there's lots more to come!

P.S. I would love for you to join our FREE Healthy Living Challenge on Facebook because we plan on tackling some of these together (just fill out the form in the post linked above)!

- Whitney