What's the point?

This new venture is exciting. I've got a list a dozen items long of topics that I'm eager to write about, wading through the sea of dietary myths and broken quick-fixes and simplifying what has become a cluster of nutritional confusion. I, too, have allowed myself to play victim to the lies of the diet industry, a $60 billion machine looking to profit from our feelings of defeatedness and uncertainty, and urgency to change. 

And so today, for my first post of what will be many, I want to start at the beginning. What is even the point of all of this? No, not what's the point, as in why even bother? But what is THE POINT, as in what destination are we even trying to arrive at?

This question may seem ridiculous. Of course we know what we're talking about in terms of nutrition, right? We want to get healthy. But do we even know what it means to be healthy? Maybe. But, then again, maybe not.  

Healthy is one of those words that has been twisted and warped across the years (more so in the age of technology). Health is, by definition, referring to one's physical or mental condition and the degree to which it suffers from illness or injury and its ability to recover from illness or injury. That second part, the part about being able to recover, is particularly important in the timeline of modern medicine. Hippocrates is widely known as the Father of Medicine, and the idea of crisis was fundamental to his teachings. Crisis referred to that critical point in the progression of a disease where the patient's body would either prove strong enough to fight and reverse the disease or weak enough to succumb to the disease. Hippocrates was credited as the first to recognize that the ability to reverse the pathology of disease lies in the health of the cells of the body and not in the favor of some divine god. From this understanding, he developed a therapeutic approach to treating his patients that involved assisting the natural processes at play in the body so that they could return to a state of ultimate health and balance. 

Assisting the natural processes at play so that they could return to a state of ultimate health and balance. Do you want me to say it a third time? Because I will. And because it couldn't be said enough. That simple truth that he uncovered - the truth that our bodies are amazing healers, always looking for internal balance, and will find that balance if supplied with what it simply needs - has been lost in translation. Or, should I say, has been muted in translation. 

And that, my friends, is what we are talking about. That is the point. True health is completely determined by the strength and functioning of our bodies on a cellular level. That is where everything (body composition included) begins: in our cells. And any dysfunction (again, body composition is most definitely included) is nearly always caused by our cells not being supplied with what they need.

We think healthy is a number, a look or a feel. We think that healthy is fitting in or standing out. We think healthy is an athletic performance or feat. We think healthy is measured by the amount of energy we take in or expend. 

We couldn't be further from the truth.

You want to be healthy? Stop stepping on the scale. Stop obsessing over calorie or macro count. Stop reading that diet magazine. Stop listening to what Betty Sue down the block is trying to sell you. Stop spinning your wheels in the rat race of instant gratification. 

And most importantly, stop blaming yourself.

It isn't your fault. It's our fault. We, those working in an industry that exists to make you healthier, we are responsible for arming you with the truth. And we have failed you.

That is why this website exists. And that is what we, Carol and I, as a team are on a mission to do. To realign you with your body and to disconnect you from the bullshit. To give you freedom from guilt and to teach you how to be your own guide on the way forward. Your body knows exactly what it needs. It's time to learn how to listen. 

As I said, this new venture is exciting. I hope you'll continue to read along and please, if we are able to help you in any way, share what we have to say. It's time we made things right in this industry.