I like how I eat, I'm fine, I don't need to hear about nutrition
Jen Hatz MS, RD, CSSD, LDN, CSCS
Hey there bright eyes! Come sit down, let’s chat. That’s a lie, this isn’t a chat, I just need you to listen while I talk. I’m Jen, a persistent nerd with an affinity for pushing my beliefs and passions on others, and I love food, and health, and wellness, to the point that I’ve dedicated my life to it.
Cool, I really don't care
Well guess what sunshine? I don’t take no for an answer. And more importantly, you don’t think you care about nutrition because you don’t know what you’re missing out on. You. don’t. even. KNOW...
But that’s why I’m here, to open your eyes to a new perspective, allow you to see things through a different lens, and ultimately to push my beliefs and passions onto you, as I so eloquently stated above. We need to look big-picture though to understand why I get so insanely jazzed about force-feeding you this insight...
For us to first understand food, we need to understand the human body. By this I mean, understand WHY your body is the way it is. What is even the point of your body? What is the point of YOU? Why are you this way? Why are you even here? Besides me forcing you to be here?
“Why is he this way?" [Girl 1 to Girls 2-6 in the bathroom]
"Why are any of us this way?" [Girl 7, a completely unsolicited stranger from a different stall]
[cue Women's Restroom Group Therapy]
Don’t get triggered into an existential crisis.
WHY? The human body is designed, and I mean structurally and functionally designed, to do one thing. There’s one sole purpose for your body existing on this planet, and it’s not procreation even though we all agree that sex is right up there as being pretty important to human life and existence. Stop kidding yourself, sex is what makes the world go ‘round, unless you’re a flat-Earther and then I guess sex is what lays the foundation, flat, and then, it...uh… just stays like that…
What I’m talking about is even more fundamental to the basic laws of science. Your body is designed for energy. It’s structurally and functionally designed to PUT OUT ENERGY, to transfer energy, and when you are no longer physically or functionally able to put out energy, you are quite literally no longer alive.
Oh boy, she’s one of those… I bet she loses her mind over astrology and edibles too.
Well I do, but that’s besides the point.
When I say energy I mean the actual currency of science as we know it. Remember learning about matter and atoms, and electrons, and protons, and all that noise when you were younger? Remember learning about how all of life, literally everything on the planet, in space, our bodies, it’s all made of these particles that are compounded in ways that we can’t see with the naked eye. That's all that really matters...[mic drop]. Remember learning about one of the most basic yet profound laws of science, in fact it's the First Law of Thermodynamics:
“Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only be transferred.” [The total amount of energy and matter in the universe remains constant, it just changes from one form to another]
This is actual, real-life, quality science we’re talking about here.
“This is handmade quality shit we’re talking here.” -Hal L, Happy Gilmore
So your body is designed for this purpose, to facilitate the transfer of this energy. We measure life based on recording an output of this energy, like heartbeats, breathing, and brain activity. Our barometer for whether someone is alive or not is based on whether or not they (their body) is continuing to PUT OUT ENERGY (like with tracking/recording the electrical activity of a heartbeat, oxygen exchange through breathing, brain activity). When they are no longer putting out this energy, when there is no transfer of energy occurring (no output of energy being recorded), they are pronounced dead.
Whoa Jen, this is getting heavy.
I know, stay with me, it gets better.
As a normal human functioning in your life, you put out energy in a VARIETY of ways and you really have no control over it. You know what it feels like to put out energy when you do something that requires effort like exercise or physical activity, studying or concentrating, because you physically feel the exhaustion after and you recognize that you put out energy (in this case, effort). But you also put out energy when you aren’t applying effort, like mindlessly scrolling your phone, opening the fridge every 10 minutes in case you lowered your standards enough to actually eat what’s there, laying paralyzed on the couch in self-loathing because you haven’t moved all day but it’s too late to start now so you’re in it for the long-haul. In fact, you put out energy in ways you are completely unconscious to like when you’re actually unconscious in your sleep, or just the act of breathing, pumping blood through your body, digesting your food, sending hormonal feedback signals through your body alerting your brain when it’s time to get out of bed so you can use the bathroom like an adult and not soil yourself.
Your life in essence is made up of the variety of ways that you put out energy.
Isn’t that beautiful? You’re designed to contribute energy to the world, how sweet!
Remember what I said earlier though about energy?
“Energy can’t be created nor destroyed, only transferred.”
So you are putting out this energy in every single thing you do, every second of the day, every moment of your life, conscious or unconscious. But you aren’t creating this energy, you are simply transferring it out. So where does that energy come in from?
Here’s where I get so excited I just can’t stand it…
In humans, we measure or track this energy in CALORIES. A calorie is not a physical tangible thing but instead, by definition, is a unit of measurement (it’s a unit of measurement for the energy required to heat 1g of water by 1 degree Celsius, or think of it like the movement of particles needed to cause enough friction to produce heat). So as a human, your life as you know it is made up entirely of you putting out this energy, putting out these calories (particles moving in a way to cause enough friction to heat water) in a variety of ways, that makes up everything about you and your existence.
It’s like you’re a beautiful, fluid-filled, friction-powered machine. "Uh, say what?"
Shh don't overthink it
But the ONLY source of energy, and I mean this is the ONLY source of calories that a human being can actually take in is from food.
I repeat:
FOOD is the ONLY source of calories on the planet, and therefore the ONLY source of energy that a human being can actually take in, and then you transfer that energy out through everything in your life, everything you do, everything you experience, everything you are.
This means, EVERYTHING you have ever done and will ever do, every moment of your life, every thought and feeling, every accomplishment you’ve ever made, every success and every failure, everything about what your body is physically made of and everything about YOU, had to START from food. coming. in. first.
You could ONLY put out that energy because you transferred it, and it all had to START from food coming in first. That means everything in your life as you know it is BECAUSE of food coming in first. You know the phrase “you can’t pour from an empty cup” this is precisely the point: you can’t put out energy that wasn’t there to begin with. Meaning STEP 1 of your life, the ultimate priority of all priorities, is FIRST taking IN food.
THAT’S how important food is.
And yet we take food for granted. We skip meals and forget to eat, or we mindlessly stuff ourselves, or we treat food like an enemy, or rely on it like a friend. Accepting this fundamental truth to life and recognizing the power that comes with food (I mean literal power, your ability to produce force, strength, and power has to start from those calories coming in first) this should give you the most profound change of perspective in how you see food.
Wake up to your new perspective, please enjoy the view!
Now you don’t have much say in HOW your body puts out that energy, but you DO have every ounce of control over the energy you choose to take IN. You should feel empowered now to see that all of the energy you put out into the world, it all STARTS from what you take in, and you get to CHOOSE what you take in.
Take control of what you choose to take in, and you’ll be amazed at what you can put out.
Thank you for attending my JEN Talk. We’re just getting started…
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