My Body’s Evolution

I’m realizing that ramen is starting to be empty calories for me—much like the years I spent suppressing emotions, consuming things that filled space but didn’t nourish. I want to take a pause here since I love ramen. I may need to play with this idea of what nourishes me and what is filler. But it was interesting since recently I had Hokkaido ramen soy sauce-based—which tasted like dampened soy sauce and water.

As I took another bite and sip, it got heavier and sensation took over. I wanted to believe it tastes good, but it didn’t. Just before this, I was eyeing for a bowl of udon, and quite frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the same.

So why is this happening? And why does this feel eerily similar to the years I spent suppressing emotions—filling space without actually nourishing what needed attention?

The Same Pattern Everywhere

To answer that question, this same feeling I got from eating that ramen bowl was like saying “I gotta work harder if I want to achieve things,” and that also feels like empty calories.

I’m realizing there are certain things where I feel nourishment versus having no real nourishment. The same goes with the whole “work harder” narrative.

So with food, my body is saying that I don’t need this. This isn’t what I need—not because I needed ramen, but because my system has evolved past that fuel source. The not so unappetizing part was . That realization hit me from observing this, and it goes back to me building the capacity.

With the “work harder” narrative, the “got to work harder” feels like an urge disguised as motivation. It’s probably coming from an external source like old conditioning from a parent/guardian or societal expectations other than ourselves; since it’s not coming from an impulse of what my capacity or sensation is actually saying. It’s the same energy as suppressing emotions—external pressure to keep moving instead of honoring what’s actually happening.

While yes, eating and growth is important, how connected are we to our bodies to the actual necessity. Like with a million tactics and techniques out there, if there’s no purpose or connection, it feels meaningless—like don’t do a “Whirlwind Waltz Punch” if you don’t know how to use it in context.

Here’s a deeper look at what I mean with the empty calorie signal.

The Empty Calorie Signal

To understand empty calories, this term has been described as something taking up space in your body, but it doesn’t nourish or fuels what you need—like soda, heavily processed foods.

Another way of seeing this is a situation where it takes up your time, energy, and attention leaving you depleted. Like suppressing emotions—it takes constant energy to maintain the holding pattern, but doesn’t actually resolve what needs attention.

For example, that dreaded feeling of, “why the heck did I do this to myself” said slowly and painfully explains the empty calorie feeling; a way my body is telling that certain things don’t serve me anymore, which is why I had to replenish by drinking home made lemon water right after I ate ramen and right after I ate ice cream.

On the opposite spectrum of that, beef pho replenishes me due to the broth and condiments like the bean sprouts, mints, cilantro, purple onions…it just feels homey. It’s not one-dimensional like ramen. It’s layered, complex, actually nourishing.

Since I mentioned situations where it takes up time, energy, and attention, are anything “spirituality” based—even typing this, I feel a churn in my intestines all the way to my throat.

“Modern spirituality” is not for me.

Let me be clear: modern spirituality often removes you from yourself and places your connection in an external source. The gurus, the systems, the higher sources that manipulate how you think and feel. Doing “practices” because you’re “supposed to” rather than because they actually serve you. Often these practices become another way of suppressing emotions—spiritual bypassing disguised as healing.

Spirituality, to me, involves a connection of yourself to the world within and around. It’s a practice of staying connected to:

• Your internal signals (body, impulses, capacity)
• Your immediate reality (what’s actually happening, not what “should” be happening)
• The world around you (relationships, environment, context)

We’re not transcending into bliss mode or 5th dimensions here—although I do believe there’s more out there than we humans possibly know. I digress.

When you look at the history of what spirituality is and how in ancient times they practiced meditation, it was actually about reflecting on oneself. Nothing to do with external sources or gods.

We as human beings want to let some outside source be responsible for how we think. Sometimes we can rely on ourselves, and yeah, we get shit wrong anyway.

What I’ve Learned About “Empty Calories”

Recognizing that empty calories is not lazy. It’s observing how you are dealing with my whole overall environment of things. Is this nutrition or not?

What does recognizing something as empty calories mean you should do about it? There’s really no “should” do about it. It’s observing and seeing what feeds your body and system.

Going back to the pho noodles again. For my body, it nourishes and fuels me compared to the dampened ramen I had.

With “hard work”, the “hard work” felt like the suppression of my emotions and sensations waiting to explode in my face for me. “Work harder” kept me suppressing. It kept me in the soy sauce water broth. It kept me disconnected from what actually needed to happen.

Turns out, going slow and feeling what needs to be felt is less work than forcing yourself to keep moving while suppressing everything underneath.

That’s the impulse-driven question I’m sitting with: What actually nourishes me? Not what I’m supposed to want nor what used to work. What actually feeds my system right now?

Maybe you’re asking similar questions too.

What are you consuming that tastes like soy sauce water? What are you doing that feels like suppression disguised as productivity?

That’s where observation becomes navigation.