Getting the right balance between each aspect of the above title is a truly modern day problem.
I guess it depends on how you view structured exercise but many people I know wouldn’t list it in the ‘play’ category, so I’ve added ‘exercise’ as the plus one to the list as it’s an important part of our lives that shouldn’t be overlooked and my main focus here.

It’s so difficult to juggle all the many aspects of our lives but crucial that we do, because if one area is extremely out of whack it will impact the others sooner or later. One example of this is not getting enough sleep – I know I’ve talked about this before, so I’m only going to touch on it here to highlight the importance of rest since a consistent lack of sleep can have monumental health implications in the long run. Make quality sleep a priority!

Another major life imbalance is exercising too intensely or too often (yes, some people actually do this!) unless you’re an athlete or a fitness professional you don’t need to be exercising several hours every day, this could end up causing injury, or even depleting your immune system so that in the end you’re prevented from doing any exercise at all, let alone too much!

On the flip side it almost, but not quite, goes without saying that there are far too many people who literally do no structured exercise at all and even their daily living activities are limited, the long term health risks of this are too numerous to go into here but we all know we need to be exercising in some way. The current government recommendations for activity in adults suggests trying to be active every day & do at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity every week, plus incorporating strength work on 2/3 days per week. So as part of a balanced lifestyle the bottom line is – get moving – pun intended!

– This Article has been published in the December edition of Life Magazine – http://www.lifemagazines.co.uk