At age 19 I stepped foot onboard the submarine USS Henry M Jackson (SSBN 730). It was the beginning of my “real life” time in the US Navy after completing submarine school and sonar technician “A” school.
To become part of the crew the first thing I needed to learn was how to survive onboard the boat blindfold. Every submariner has a role and their survival can be the key to the survival of the rest of the boat. If a key person dies, the chances of the rest of the boat surviving can drop dramatically.
One thing we know about humans and nutrition, you can go without food and water for a few days, but take away oxygen for a few minutes and the game is over.
That made the oxygen system one of the most vital systems of the boat, which every submariner needed to master.
From top to bottom side to side the boat is filled with pipes and cables neatly arranged. The passage ways, however, had a specific pipe running from the most forward (front) part of the boat all the way to the most aft (rear) part of the boat covering just about every corner, nook and cranny. It was the oxygen line. Every few feet there was a manifold right above your head just below the ceiling where you could hook up an oxygen mask. To indicate the location of the manifold above and help you distinguish it there are sandpaper strips glued to the deck (floor) directly below them.
In order to work, the mask needs to be connected to the oxygen line. The mask is a face sealing mask that you can only breathe through if it is connected to the boat’s oxygen line. Trying to breathe with the mask on while disconnected would suck the mask into your face choking and asphyxiating you.
The initial trials you wore the mask and starting from the forward part of the boat, you needed to find the next manifold and the next until you were at the aft part of the boat. When you’re new and can’t find the next manifold your urge is to take off the mask before it chokes you.
Then the real lesson came… they said, if there is a fire, the boat will fill up with heavy black smoke, and that will choke you just as bad as keeping the mask on when disconnected from the oxygen line so you need to be able to walk the entire boat with the mask on blindfolded. When you can survive blindfold, then you can be trusted to do your job in case of a casualty. When you can survive blindfold you can earn your submarine dolphins and be part of the crew.
That is how you survive there, and when it comes to health and nutrition I follow a similar concept. I’m going to teach you the concepts and the body’s health system. Your job is to master the system and learn to survive with it blindfold.
Blindfolds in health and nutrition are things like labels, government regulations, research papers (including peer reviewed), and the most common, misleading marketing and advertising…
When you learn and master the system you can survive blindfold. It doesn’t matter what the food label says, or what some scientist wrote, you are the one wearing the mask and the only one who can feel if you are choking and dying.
When you understand what’s essential for life and how to eat foods based on performance you not only learn to survive, but you can begin to see what your body is truly capable of doing. Your mind is beyond amazing, but the wrong food kills it.
You are about to learn nutrition in a way I haven’t seen anyone else cover it. There will be many things explained different and it’s done on purpose for a reason… this is my method.
