Guest post #2 of the week is from Mary @ Bites and Bliss.

Reasons I love reading her blog:

• Mary eats some of the most fantastic-looking breakfasts around.
• She’s training for her first marathon!  I  love reading about the training process (maybe one day I’ll get the nerve too…).
•  Her photography is incredible – I especially love the pics of her gorgeous horses.

Lucky me won a package of Newman’s Own cookies from her, but I promise that doesn’t give me a biased opinion. 🙂

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Hey everyone!

I’m Mary from Bites and Bliss here to chat with you all while Laura’s away.

I’m a yoga instructor, equestrian, recent marathon-trainee, foodie (of course), and college student majoring in nutrition science. But unlike many college students, I’m not into partying all night and stuffing my face with cheap food. Nope, I’m the one of the few that would choose a big helping of sautéed veggies over wings and beer any day. But let me say, it’s not always easy eating healthy while living in a college town where most restaurants are pizza joints and none of them really cater to health, not to mention any special diets like vegetarianism.

Enough about me! Let’s talk about something we all have in common- healthy living. When first starting Bites and Bliss, my friends and family weren’t quite sure what it was all about. Surprisingly, they understood my posting pictures of food and writing about it more than what the blog’s real focus is and suddenly, there was a confusion of what exactly “healthy living” is.

So, what does it mean to be healthy liver?

And by that I mean, living healthy…not a healthy organ. But those are good, too. 😉

Anyway, I digress. Back to the question at hand.

Does healthy living mean eating nothing but salads all day?

Not a chance.

Is it spending hours in the gym to burn off every calorie we’ve eaten that day?

Of course not. (Although I used to think so. But that’s another story.)

Healthy living is just what it says: living. Happily and healthfully.

It’s having that dang slice of pizza.

And cherishing every sweet bite of chocolate…

Or a cannoli or three.

Healthy living is knowing it’s okay to indulge every now and then without beating ourselves up over it. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand, right?

I kid. But, balance is important.

That may be the most important part of what healthy living is, after all. It’s a balance.

A balance between the good and the bad. Or rather, between being too healthy and not healthy enough.

Wait, “too healthy”? Is there such a thing?

If you’ve ever reached that point, you know exactly what I’m talking about. When living healthy becomes an obsession, ironically, it becomes unhealthy itself. This is the point where our meals are just numbers and our diets so restricted not even a nibble of chocolate can pass our lips without immediate regret. And exercise is used obsessively for burning calories to lower another favorite obsession: the number on the scale.

But, there is a sweet spot between the two. It’s a spot in which both food and fitness work together to fuel our body and keep it strong; when our mind is just as strong as our body and we’re healthy, and just as importantly, happy with where we are.

Think that balance is hard to reach? Not at all. It’s as easy as having our cake and eating it, too!

Would you believe each of those is super healthy, vegan, and gluten-free? Oh, not to forget absolutely delicious. Proof eating healthy does not mean eating cardboard.

The next step is just as simple: strengthening our body and mind.

Through yoga, weight lifting, dancing…whatever floats your boat.

Of course, healthy living doesn’t just happen within the kitchen and gym; it touches every aspect of our life. Food and exercise can only take us so far, after all. Every thing else we do matters  just as much- our choices, our actions…things we do for ourselves, without holding back, to take us as far as we can go.

Like, taking the road less traveled.

Too cliché? I thought so.

How about, challenging ourselves to try new things.

And to change so we can grow.

It’s having fun, finding the small blessing every day, taking time for ourselves, loving ourselves, loving others…

Obviously there isn’t one single definition of “healthy living”. It’s so multidimensional and every single person has their own idea. But in my eyes, healthy living’s doing what we need to do, when we need to do it, for the sake of ourselves and those we love.

Even if that means feeding them an entire pizza from time to time and posting embarrassing photos of them on the web. 😉 (Don’t worry. The pizza’s thin crust, light cheese, and loaded with veggies.)

So go! Be healthy the best way you know how.

xoxo,

-Mary

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“Step with great care and great tact / and rememeber that Life’s a Great Balancing Act…” – Dr. Seuss

What does being healthy mean to you?