Learn: You Are What You Eat

Hello Readers (or web world),

I’m here to inform you that for the next couple of months you will see more posts from me. In my previous post, I stated that I would be blogging more due to my new outlook on what life has to offer me this last year of grad school. Due to the awesomeness of my classes and the abundance amount of work I have to do for them, I have decided to mesh together my blogging habit and a homework assignment together (How freaking smart am I?). This assignment is from my Facilitating Student Learning class. I am required to keep a daily (somewhat) journal of what I’ve learned. This is a great activity because it will help me unwind after a crazy/busy day and go into meditation mode.

To be honest, I cringed a little bit when I realized that we had to keep a journal throughout the whole semester. My first reaction was “Isn’t this a little bit like high school?” but I stopped myself before I continue to criticize. Since I have been working on being more positive, I decided to look at this assignment in a different light. I have decided to make this a daily goal for myself. I want to continue to grow and learn as much as I can about God, higher education, life, Scripture, humanity, real life issues and much more. So much knowledge is out there and was created for a purpose. From practical skills, like learning how to juggle, to strategic skills, like learning how to play Sudoku (I’m horrible at that game). I will take advantage of this opportunity to not only explore what the God has created but share it with the cyber world. Hopefully, I will have one reader who takes this on as a challenge for themselves.

So here I go and start with Day 1…

Today I learned that “a tiger’s night vision is six times better than a human’s”. I learned this bit of trivia from a Snapple bottle cap. It’s Snapple’s “Real Fact” number 679. Good to know. Now whenever I am in the middle of jungle at night, a tiger can see me more than I can see him or her. Comforting.

Even though this bit of information is nice to know, I actually did learn something that I hope to continue to live out every day. Today I learned how it felt of the famous saying “you are what you eat”. While on my run on the treadmill today, I was feeling a little bit on the heavy side. Granted, I know that I’m not the skinniest person in the world, but today I felt my stomach was a 10 ton avail. While trotting along, I tried to remember what I have been recently eating. Then it dawned on me: hotdogs and hamburgers. This past whole week, I had a cookout to attend every night. For a grad student, it’s great. Free food! For the heart and fat intake, it’s horrible. I usually do not eat red meat and this week I went all out. I consumed more red meat this week that I have in a month. It’s not only red meat I have been eating but also sweets and baked goods. Due to my sweet tooth (my dentist hates me); I have a tendency anything sweet and in large quantities. In the end of my gluttony, I feel even more tired from the affects of sugar.

Earlier tonight I made myself the healthiest dinner I had all week. I steamed some green beans, yellow squash, and zucchini. Then I threw them in a pan with some chicken and added some seasoning. Boom. Real food again! I felt content and my stomach was thanking me of the vegetables that I consumed again.

To make a long story short, I felt all the food I ate this week during my run today and I did not like it. I realized that I have been more tired and not as energetic as usual. In other words, I felt yucky. Eating is a necessary part of our everyday lives. As a Christian, I strongly believe that in everything we do we are to give God the glory. How am I glorifying God through eating foods that grieves the body God has given me? We are given our bodies as a privilege; we must be good stewards of them.

So now when I’m about to eat that marshmallow or grab some M&M’s from the dispenser at the office, I need to remind myself…”You are what you eat. Is this glorifying?”.


That’s what I learned today.