Give Yourself Grace

Many of us are constantly bustling from school to work to home to the gym to wherever else we have to be at that moment. This is your reminder to give yourself grace. Something that took me years to learn, and I am still learning now, is how to maintain balance when it comes to my health. With meals, I found that restricting the variety of food I was eating was worsening how my body felt. Eating salads for every lunch and dinner was getting boring and it never quite satisfied me. So I continuously snuck into the kitchen at night to snack on foods that I "should not be eating", making me feel even more guilty. Researching new recipes and learning how to prepare grain bowls, spaghetti squash, zucchini boats, açaí bowls, and more helped me understand that there is more to eating healthy than forcing yourself to eat salads every day. 

I dislike the terms "cheat meal" or "cheat day". I dislike these terms because they allude to the fact that restricting your eating all week and dedicating one day to binge eating is healthy. Some believe that this is a good strategy as it acts as a sort of relief from their diet. The problem with this argument is that most people take advantage of cheat days and overeat so excessively that it results in a stomach ache or they end up reversing all the work that they put into the gym that week. In addition, the term "cheat" has negative connotations; as if those who indulge in cheat days are doing something bad and should feel guilt for what they are eating. An article on MensHealth covers the debate surrounding whether or not "cheat days" are beneficial or harmful to our bodies in the long run. In my experience, it is easier and less strenuous on our bodies to allow ourselves to eat foods that could be considered unhealthy if you get the urge. Moderation is everything. On these binge days, people eat an enormous amount of food and, in my opinion, if they were to spread out this food thought the week instead of eating it all at once, the experience would become more enjoyable. 

This theme of giving ourselves some grace also applies when it comes to going to the gym. A lot of the time when I skip gym days, I feel extremely guilty. I stopped going to the gym many times my freshman year because I was constantly sick, which was extremely frustrating. Losing the progress that I worked so hard for in just a week made me feel defeated and led me to believe I was going nowhere. I started forcing myself to go to the gym even if I really was not feeling it or still experiencing body aches from illness. Going through that taught me that it is more beneficial to take a few days off when I am feeling ill so that I can come back stronger once I am healthy. An article on Healthline does a great job describing when it is okay to exercise when we are feeling under the weather and when it it best to take a few days off to rest. 

Health and wellness depends so much on balance. So give yourself a rest day if needed and add the guacamole to your Chipotle bowl if that will leave you more satisfied.