We’re all familiar with the term ‘Balanced Diet’ and are bombarded by media extolling the virtues of their version of it. However, would you really be able to recognize a balanced diet even if it came and slapped your round the face?

At its very basic level, a balanced diet is simply one that balances the amount of macronutrients and micronutrients you consume – namely the amount of carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals –  along with fiber and water in order to provide your body with the right amount of energy for you to carry out daily life and maintain good health.

However, even considering a balanced diet at this superficial level, it should be apparent that ‘balance’ is not a one size fits all concept since, for example, the energy expenditure of a manual laborer far exceeds that of the average office worker, so their balanced diets should look very different.

A balanced diet is, therefore, a very personal thing, and as such the only way to achieve this is to gradually learn what it means to you. When setting out on this journey it’s important to be honest with yourself to find what works for you.

'Balance’ when referring to diet means somewhere between the extremes of excess and deprivation, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should aim for the exact midpoint between them. When setting out to discover your ‘balanced diet’ it’s important to avoid overthinking things and stressing out about it. Instead, aim to make gradual changes from which you can learn what works for you and what doesn’t.

You also need to do a little homework to learn the types of food you are eating and their calorific value. You don’t need to a qualified nutritionist, but you do need to recognize foods that primarily comprise the different macronutrients and those rich in specific micronutrients. Furthermore, you should know the different forms of carbohydrate (starchy carbohydrates [i.e. bread, pasta], non-starchy carbohydrates [i.e. fruits and vegetables] and sugars) and the different forms of fat (saturates [solid fats], monounsaturates [liquid fats], polyunsaturates [liquid fats] and trans fats [the majority of which is created artificially during food processing].

At first, this may sound a little daunting but avoid approaching things as if you are cramming for an exam! You will steadily build your knowledge bit by bit so long as you pay attention. Of course, you will make some slip-ups along the way, but that’s all part of the journey, and just shows that you are trying, so give yourself a break and don’t be too hard on yourself.

So far, we’ve discussed finding your balanced diet in terms of what you consume, and of course, this is ultimately its defining consideration. However, there is no point in achieving balance in one part of your life if this is only achieved by forcing other parts of your life off-kilter. Ultimately, balance in any part of you life is only achieved if all aspects are addressed; so, in addition to nutritional balance it’s also essential to consider the other balances in your life:

1. Emotional/mental balance: your psychological wellbeing.
2. Social balance: your ability to interact, communicate, establish, and maintain relationships with others.
3. Medical balance: your overall state of health, and the absence of disease, illness, and injury.
4. Spiritual balance: your ability to honor your own and other’s values and beliefs.
5. Physical balance: your overall cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and motor skills.

On a personal level, you may place greater or lesser importance on one or more of these balances, and that is fine, there is no right or wrong. For example, some need to be around people whilst others don’t; in such cases, such individuals will sit at opposite ends of the spectrum for social balance. Likewise, some people are more resilient than others, and so these individuals will sit at opposite ends of the spectrum for emotional/mental balance.

It is, therefore, important to approach your journey on finding your balanced diet with a healthy mindset that encompasses all aspects of your life. There is no point in following a diet that precludes you from eating out with friends if that is what is important to you; it will will make you feel isolated and your social balance will be off-kilter.

Similarly, following a balanced diet should not mean eliminating foods that you like entirely – even those demonised by the health food brigade; otherwise you will simply fixate on them and want them even more, which will throw your emotional/mental balance off-kilter. Basically, everything should be permissible in a balanced diet, though perhaps not at the same levels of consumption as before.

Moderation is the key to success when it comes to following any diet, not deprivation; however, once again we return to the concept of what’s good for one is not necessarily good for another. You may find eating a healthy diet comprising mostly fresh whole foods 80% of the time, and allowing yourself to moderately let rip for the remaining 20% of the time, but this may not work for an individual who struggles with moderation, and in their case their balance may need to be eating mostly fresh whole foods 95% of the time and really letting rip for only 5% of the time.

Ultimately, the key to successfully finding your balanced diet is to find the sweet spot for all of the balances in your life. You may actually find that your balanced diet doesn’t look anything like what you’ve been led to believe by the media, but that’s alright, we don’t always have to choose healthy nourishment over pure indulgence. When all is said and done, you may have thought eating superfoods each and every day was the way to go but even with the best intentions in the world, it will not be sustainable if you sacrifice too many of the other balances in your life.

In finding your balanced diet, your real goal is to achieve a state that is both energized and healthy, and as part of this process it’s also important to understand why you crave specific foods and not to demonize them. Quite often cravings result from a deficiency of a certain nutrient, particularly micronutrients; for example, you may crave chocolate because your body is deficient in magnesium, and that’s right, you’ve guessed it chocolate is rich in the stuff! Whilst it will take time to understand your cravings and how to satisfy them, you will eventually start to eat more intuitively compared to the conscious effort it may require at the beginning, but this is all part of the course.

When setting out to find your balanced diet it is therefore important to ensure that you do include some of the foods that you like, even if they are not considered 'classically' healthy. Furthermore, aim to also break them down into flavors and textures since that will help you make appropriate food substitutions further down the line should the need arise. Finally, also consider how you want to feel when shopping for your food, when preparing it and when you sit down for your meals as these factors also affect the balances in your life, and so will ultimately help shape what your balanced diet looks like.