Life Must Be Balanced, Like A Salad

When people think of the perfect health food, they often think of salads. But like life, the ingredients in salad are hard to balance. 

Sauces loaded with sugar and preservatives are heavily decorated, tossed into, or drench salads. These sauces range in a rainbow of colors, make people’s taste buds wild with delight, and the zesty taste of the lettuce washes away in the liquid sauce. 

There are salads filled with different kinds of red meat mixed with the vegetables that, when overeating, lead to a multitude of health problems. Because the meat is so satisfying, there will be people who push the lettuce aside and munch on the meat. 

There are also salads filled with cheese that in comparison to the lettuce, if eaten too much, can cause a number of health issues. Many people often crave cheese over salad because it makes the taste buds dance in excitement. 

However, like life, you do not need to deceive yourself into believing you are eating healthy because you are eating a salad, but in reality, not eating a salad because you are pushing the lettuce leaves away or eating pounds of sugar. You can be truthful with yourself and strike a healthy balance. You can crunch on salad leaves, eat a little bit of meat, and an array of other vegetables. 

Being honest with yourself takes thoughtfulness and to break away from the social norms of following what the people you surround yourself proclaim is how to live your life. You have your own thoughts and life experiences that make you unique. Allow yourself to embrace your uniqueness instead of pushing away all of the ingredients inside of yourself, to fit in with people. 

Oftentimes, people never express their ideas because they are terrified of what other people might think. If their friends want to go to a movie, and they wish to read a book instead, they might ditch their desire to read a book, to attend that movie. This is because people are constantly needing to feel supported by their chosen community. They give up their own individual passions and topics of interest to design their conversations to fit the box of their friend group. While pieces of themselves are expressed to their friends they hide the parts of themselves that are embarrassing, shaping themselves to feel welcome. 

However, you can strike a healthy balance between accommodating shared and different interests with your friends through activities together, and engaging in conversations and interests unique to you that are not in common with your friends. 

The ingredients you make your salad with determine how it will impact your body. How you choose to let other people impact your life and who you choose to be in your life both have big effects on your life and health. 

• balance
• friends
• self-awareness