Balanced Eating: Where to Start?

Welcome to our new Eat Well, Live Well blog. As Nutrition Editor for FINDINGbalance, I’m excited to share ideas, information and insights to help you pursue a healthy and free lifestyle. As a nutritionist, there is SO much to chat about since I know people are visiting our site with a range of questions and concerns. But I have to start somewhere. Right? So let’s get started.

There are two extremes when it comes to eating, with many people leaning in one direction or the other. On one end of the spectrum is the person who is consumed with eating perfectly—perhaps counting every calorie, carb and fat gram, scrutinizing labels, dodging all traces of sugar and/or afraid to eat one bite of anything that isn’t 100% organic. Having to plan, calculate, worry, prepare, measure and think, think, THINK is so exhausting and sucks the joy out of life.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is the person who puts no care into food choices and meal preparation. They might binge on fast food, down soda all day, keep cupboards stocked with chips and cookies, and rarely have a piece of fruit or a vegetable. Eating is out of control. All the chaos and lack of structure is wearing them out…zapping their energy. Neither eater is nourishing their body well. Both are out of balance.

How about you? Do you lean towards obsessiveness or carelessness? Perhaps you even swing back and forth between the two extremes. Is poor nutrition taking a toll on your body? The goal is to move toward the place of balance in the middle: respecting your body through the choices you make.

Balance is not just about what you eat. It’s how you eat, when you eat and why you eat. It’s making choices that respect yourself as a WHOLE person. Are eating habits, food fears and/or rituals interfering with relationships? Do you medicate, companion, or reward with food? Is eating—or restricting—central to your life, even taking your focus off of God? If so, you are using food in ways it wasn’t intended, depriving yourself of joy in the process.

Being a balanced eater means knowing that food is nourishing fuel, and eating a variety of healthy foods to satisfy physical hunger and promote good health.It means recognizing that God gave us a wonderful assortment of tastes, textures and aromas so that we can enjoy and savor food—even small, moderate amounts of not-so-healthy “treat” foods. It means putting some thought and planning into fueling our bodies, but without fear or worry. And it means having some structure to our daily eating, but with plenty of flexibility and a willingness to try new things.

Want to learn more about balanced eating? I invite you to click the “Eat Well, Live Well” tab in our articles library. Great places to start are “What is Healthy Eating?” and “Moving Toward Balance: Healthy Goals.” Depending on which way you lean, you may need to relax too-tight rules or begin to establish some consistency. Take baby steps toward that place of respect in the middle. It’s a good place to start.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)