Balance

This weekend my girlfriend Anna was telling me about a woman she met at a party. This woman, whom I will refer to as Betty, is an ultra marathon runner. That means she runs for twenty-four hours straight. Not twenty-four hours spread out over a week or a month, I am talking about twenty-four hours in succession. That’s one full day and one full night of running. While I am waking up and having coffee, she is running. I am walking to work and she’s still running. I step out for lunch and, “Oh look, that’s Betty running, man that girl can run.” I am back to work while she keeps on running. I go home for a little supper and R and R, “Wait a minute, is that Betty?” She’s still running! Well, I have got to get some shut-eye. Eight hours later, she is, you guessed it, still running!

Maybe I am just not dedicated enough to understand, but that seems just slightly excessive to me. There is nothing I want to do for twenty-four hours, not even lay on a beach with a margarita. I mean sure, I would love to spend the day lying on the beach, but then I think I might want to catch the sights, take in a show, maybe even go for a run, but then I want to have a shower and go to bed. There is a famous ultra runner here in our San Francisco midst. His name is Dean Karnazes, maybe you’ve heard of him if not, Google it. He ran fifty marathons, in fifty days, in fifty states. Let me break that down a little. He woke up in San Francisco on say the fifth, ran 26.2 miles, then drove to SFO, got on a plane, flew to Florida, slept for a moment, then arrived bright and early on the 6th to run another 26.2 miles. He did this fifty times! What are these people running from?

I happen to think this kind of behavior is a bit much. I am also not a proponent of the belief that it is an inspiration or a motivator for us all. I think that in this country we have become obsessed with all or nothing thinking. Everything about health has become very black and white. There are things we are told are bad to eat and things that are good. There are ultra thin models and plus size ones. Everything is measured in terms of bigger, smaller, stronger, or faster. I know it is a mundane expression but I believe “everything in moderation.” When Dean and Betty are running they eat candy bars, pizza, soda, and donuts. At home when Dean is not running (when is he not running?) he eats grilled salmon and broccoli. Wouldn’t it be great if there was role model who ate grilled salmon most nights but sometimes went out for a pizza and beer, ate a donut sometimes on Fridays, ran a couple times a week, stretched regularly, and spent time with his family. How not exciting that man is. That story certainly isn’t going to sell any books and yet it is a hard enough lifestyle that most people don’t do it.

It is hard to be moderate. How many of you reading this have vowed on some New Year’s Eve to exercise every day or give up sugar? I am sure you could do it for a while but then did it eventually go south? Did you find yourself not exercising at all, or eating everything you could find containing sugar? Well congratulations, you were living the life of Dean. It’s a lot harder to be moderately healthy all the time, then uber-healthy some of the time.

It’s all about balance. The all or nothing attitude works for some but for many, it is a road to disappointment. How long can a body sustain twenty-four hours of running? How long can a heart beat if you do nothing but sit all day?

This week I urge you to take a look at your life. Where is your balance? Maybe you need to exercise a little more, maybe a little less. Perhaps you are eating way more sugar than vegetables or maybe you are drinking three soft drinks for every cup of water. Balance it out. And if you drink nothing but water and eat nothing but vegetables and fiber every day, then have desert on Saturday, it’s not gonna kill you and it might make you feel good. It’s all very personal, every body has a different balance; this week let’s see what yours is.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live