The Challenge with Wellness and Balance

I am a newly certified Holistic Health Coach and the program I attended, Institute for Integrative Nutrition (if you’re interested in hearing more about the school please reach out!) , was completely transforming. Are all of my problems suddenly fixed? No, not even close. However, I do have a health and wellness toolbox that I am confident in and know that I can fall back on, and that is truly my main goal as a Health Coach, is to share what I know with others and help them develop their health and wellness toolbox too! Everyone’s will look different and will change and evolve as their life changes and evolves….

I find myself saying these things and I wonder: “Does anybody get what I mean? Does it all sound like a bunch of crap?”. Sometimes I think to myself, I am a hypocrite, I talk about all of this stuff but then I go and drink a bottle of wine and eat cheesy potatoes and then feel like shit in the morning and hate myself. Seriously. It happens. I sincerely believe in living a life that brings you joy and if sharing a bottle of wine with your friend brings you joy, do it. Some say live a lifestyle that’s 80% healthy and 20% indulgent. But what is healthy anyway? Is it this achievement you reach when you say “no” to everything bad for you and isolate yourself because you’re on a “diet”? No, I don’t think so. I’m also bad at math, so trying to figure out what actions I take 80% of the time vs. 20% of the time hurts my brain. I think “healthy” is subjective, like art. Which is probably why I am so passionate about it.

Healthy looks different on everyone.

So how do you find that balance? I think we’ll all be on our own journeys with this for our entire lives. To me, balance means that you make choices that you know will make you feel good. You have french fries but you also have a salad. You drink a bottle of win but then you wake up and drink your lemon water and green smoothie. You look to add veggies whenever and wherever you can. You choose to nourish your body, instead of punish it by over-eating or under-eating. You enjoy your life. You say yes to things you want and say no to things you don’t. It sounds simple, but I know it is not.

Despite knowing all of this, I find myself comparing myself to other health and wellness professionals and bloggers in the online world. Everyone seems so perfect, and like they all have an infinite about of money to spend on all of these fancy products. Yes, I understand that a lot of companies endorse them and they are sent free products to try and share, but still! How can you afford $50 for a supplement powder and have umpteen million different kinds to choose from?!

You don’t have to buy these supplements in order to be healthy, you just don’t. 

Everything that you see on blogs, Instagram and Facebook are all the best portions of someone’s day, you don’t see the bad and ugly. I get it, it makes sense, and I find that I post “best of” content a lot. It’s natural, I think. You want to present your best self and if you were always your best self that would be an accurate representation of you, but nobody is perfect.

Here’s what I don’t post on my blog and Instagram:

I work at a restaurant waiting tables in order to make easy, quick money that has flexible hours and allows me to do what I want to do, whenever I want to do it. If I want to take off and travel for one month, I go for it. I have nobody to really answer to. That’s a plus. A downside is that the hours are late and because of that I often skip meals and/or eat food that is not compliant with my diet and lifestyle. So, yea, this means eating leftover food from a party at 1AM while folding napkins. Hm, not exactly what I’d recommend, ever. But sometimes, I’m starving and it’s what is available to me.

I am in a lot of student loan debt. A lot. I wish I could go back to my 18-year old self and teach her a thing or two about federal vs. private loans and interest rates. But alas, here I am. It’s all done with and there’s nothing I can do about it now except to pay what I owe… for what seems like the rest of my life. I am not a victim by any means and I do not regret my education. Most of my closest friends are friends from college or friends of friends from college, including my incredible boyfriend. If I didn’t go to Nazareth College, who knows if I would’ve met Mike. I can’t put a price tag on that, so I don’t. Does it sting a little bit that I pay more than my rent in student loans? You betcha. Sometimes things are really tight financially. But I am grateful that I can pay them while living in NYC, following my dreams, traveling and knowing that one day they will be gone.

So if you find yourself struggling to find balance in any area of your life; diet, work/social, relationships, money, etc. You’re not alone. I want you to know that I am on this journey just like everybody else. I am not somehow above you just because I am educated and trained in health, nutrition and wellness. If IIN taught me anything it is that living a balanced, healthy life is a lifelong journey that’s not as complicated as it may seem.

Now go be well and love your life!