Does
anyone think it’s funny (or maybe pathetic, or simply false advertising?) that
when I announce I’m going to blog
more often, I actually blog less?
Well, that’s what happened over the last several weeks. For shame.
Well,
no more—that is, if I can remember who I am and what I love.
I recently
reached out to Liz Wolfe, of CaveGirlEats
and the other half of the dynamic duo behind the Balanced Bites podcast. She’s
embarking on the adventure of a lifetime: homesteading! I wrote her a heartfelt
email wishing her luck and telling her that she is officially living my dream,
and that I would be living vicariously through her and rooting for her from
afar. She wrote me the most beautiful reply, the takeaway point of which was: I need to be writing. (In fact, the title of this post is a direct quote from her reply.) She could tell
from one little email (okay, it was a long
email) that I might have some sort of knack for this writing thing. (Or maybe
it was a combination of the personal email and some of the comments
I’ve left on her blog.) In any event, it was a much-needed reminder of what I
love, what I’m good at, and what I want to accomplish. I think it says a lot
that a total stranger could recognize good writing when it comes from the
heart, and that she recognized said writing with no knowledge that I actually
have a formal education in creative
writing. (Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and yes, they teach
creative writing at my alma mater,
even though it’s much more famous for engineering, architecture, and the
performing arts than it is for novels and poetry.)
So
here goes: MORE WRITING.
They
say “write what you know.” I don’t know who “They” are, but They always seem to
come with a capital T, and I suspect They’re the same people who say things
like, “Always go with your first instinct,” and “Always wait 30 minutes after eating
before you go swimming.” Seems like sensible advice, so I guess I’ll trust them
and stick with writing what I know.
Here’s
what I know:
·
I
love writing.
·
I
love food.
·
I
love cooking.
(This
trifecta right here should have told me something. Or should I call it a hat
trick, since I love hockey, too?)
·
I
love learning about nutrition and health.
·
I
love that some of the most delicious foods (red meat, butter, coconut) are good for us.
·
I
love telling people (all people, but especially
young women) that you can eat full-fat yogurt, full-fat salad dressings,
bacon, burgers (without the bun), eggs, cheese, and all those “naughty foods”
they’ve been avoiding their whole lives—and lose
weight!
·
I
love geeking out on biochemistry,
because molecules and bonds and formulas and all that other stuff that scared
the bejeezus out of me in high school now show me, on a chemical and cellular
level, why some foods are “bad” for
us and others are beneficial.
 |
| Mmmm...real food. |
·
I
love showing people that this just ain’t
rocket science. When you understand how the body uses fuel, how the
different macronutrients (fat, protein, & carbohydrate) work inside us, and
what can go wrong when we deviate from what our bodies expect of food and our
environment, correcting
many problems becomes nothing more than taking out the problematic things
and adding back beneficial things.
 |
| Honest, it's not! |
I
had to learn a lot of this the hard way. My goal in my nutrition practice
and in my writing is to make it so that other people don’t have to. I spend a
lot of time thinking about writing, and I’m often overwhelmed by the sheer
number of topics that fascinate me when it comes to food and health. That’s
probably what holds me up the most: deciding what to write about when there’s so much I want to get to. It also
doesn’t help that other people, like Chris
Kresser, Robb Wolf, Peter Attia, Diane SanFilippo, Adele Hite, and Chris Masterjohn, all already
do a fan-freaking-tastic job of
addressing issues across the board. It’s kind of like, “Really? Another nutrition and health blog? Do I
have anything worthwhile to add to
this discussion? Anything at all?
And
the answer, of course, is yes.
What do I have? What, exactly, is it I might bring to
this table? What do I have to add to this cornucopia of awesome information and
insight that isn’t already being churned out by seriously heavy hitting
experts? Ah. A question I’ve asked myself repeatedly, and one that has probably
done more to stop me from writing than anything else. But I’ve realized I do have something to contribute. Namely,
ME. My story. My perspective.
My take on what really constitutes “healthy eating” and good nutrition. And maybe
most of all, my voice. My combining things I love: writing, food, biochemistry,
good health, and did I mention writing?
So,
assuming I can be a woman of my word and actually keep writing on a more consistent basis, I’ll be sharing more of
what I’m up to in the kitchen (apologies in advance for what is sure to be
laughably amateurish food photography); more of how I came to study nutrition
and why I’m so passionate about de-programming people from the low-fat,
obsessive, calorie-counting mindset; I'll dissect and point out the ridiculousness of supposedly "healthy" foods; and address some of the latest
nutrition research popping up in newspapers and the evening news. Whew! Sounds like a big enough load for now.
In
the meantime, check out some writing I did a while back for someone else’s blog. I wrote a series on insulin
and carbohydrates for the End Sugar Addiction website:
All 4 links to the End Sugar Addiction website are broken. If fixed, please let me know. Thx!
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