I don’t believe it in. It’s bad for you. The glorification of the phrase “everything in moderation” has caused far more harm than good.
Why? Because it simply doesn’t apply to anything important.
Sure… for the little stuff – those things you could take or leave – moderation makes a lot of sense.
But…
- If you are an alcoholic, you don’t need moderation, you need “cold turkey”
- If you love your family and friends, spend as much time with them as humanly possible (not “just enough” time)
- If you want a big squat, you don’t need moderation, you need to SQUAT!
The Elephant On The Seesaw
What I believe in is BALANCE. And that is an entirely different creature.
Think of all of the ways you can make a seesaw balance. An easy method is to leave the sucker EMPTY. You can also have it balanced with two equal-sized elephants on either end!
Now imagine that you put a simple 10 pound kettlebell on only ONE side. What would happen? It would tip over. 10 pounds is moderate by most standards. It’s hardly an elephant. And yet it still caused an imbalance: the EFFECT of the moderate act was extreme.
When you are trying hard to increase one area, you can’t let others slide in the name of moderation! To become great at anything you must OBSESS about it.
- Find your weaknesses and make them strengths.
- Do more work than the next Jane, and leapfrog over her
I’ve added to that, “More is not always better, but it usually is.”
- More lifting
- More mobility
- More diet (whatever that means for your sport/life)
- More time with loved ones
- More sitting outside with a good book
- More wine!