How to find the right balance between fitness and social life

It is not always easy to stick to a fitness plan with regular physical activity and a healthy diet. When you start a new fitness routine, it's even easier to stick to the diet plan, drink plenty of water, exercise regularly, and get at least eight hours of sleep a night.

But as soon as it's your best friend's birthday, you drink sparkling wine all night long, grab fast food and feel weak when you wake up... and miss your Zumba class in the process. That can happen, of course, but there are methods you can use to prevent your social life from being neglected due to a healthy lifestyle — and vice versa.

Plan ahead

You don't have to give up on your plans just to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle — it just takes some clever planning. If you're in a successful weight loss week and suddenly an invitation from your friends for a cheese and wine evening blows through the door, then you'll most likely cancel. But if you do this more often, you'll soon feel burned out and isolated. Instead, plan such meetings in advance so that you have a very precise overview of when these “cheating days” are taking place and you can then enjoy them.

Invite friends/family to work out

“If you can't beat them, then join them! “- Invite your sister to an aqua aerobics lesson or go jogging in the park with your best friend. In this way, you improve valuable time spent together and do something good for your fitness.

Working out together Balance Lifestyle

Learn to say no

You don't really feel like going out? Say no You don't want to drink alcohol at a company party? Say no It's one of the simplest words — yet so difficult when it comes to actually saying it. You know your body, your limits, and what you can expect yourself to do to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Stop feeling guilty

Whether you feel guilty about eating too much or drinking too much alcohol, or because work piles up on your desk after vacation, constant feelings of guilt about the pleasant aspects of life can lead to stress, and the stress hormone cortisol plays a major role in weight gain. It gets your body into a kind of “fight or flight” response. Your body thinks you've burned calories as a result of stress (even though that didn't happen at all), and in return, you want to replenish those “lost calories” by eating too much. So if you want to go to that one party or enjoy a delicious dinner with your loved ones - no stress - just do it.

Use the “helicopter view”!

Get out of your everyday life and look at your life through the “helicopter view”. This allows you to balance all things that are important to you. If you want to go to the gym five times a week, see all your friends and family regularly, and focus on your career, then maybe this Wheel of Life can help you out.

Take a closer look at the areas of life that are most important to you: Some of these areas could include physical health, learning a new language, or visiting your niece on the weekend. Write these things on your Wheel of Life. You then assess each of these areas, rate the level of attention you are currently paying to each area and compare this with your ideal level. As soon as you have an overview of fitness and social life, it also becomes easier to rebalance them.

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