We clung to the rickety wagon as Ed’s duct-taped gloves loosely clutched the steering wheel of an old, but still bright green tractor. Tony has probably done this a million times, but it was entirely new to me. The floorboards of the agrarian chariot were rotting and the metal carriage was loosely held together by ancient bolts – the flex would prove crucial on our return, wagon brimming with several thousand pounds of wood. Ed hopped off to fell an enormous oak, probably a good 80 plus footer. We went on to collect from a different section of woods before heading back.

There was a slight gap in the forest where the tree had been, as well as the other trees it leveled with it. It was all planned of course – Ed is a master. He knows the trees like an addict knows veins. The man is over six-foot-six and weighs a good 240 pounds. He is lean but colossal and muscular, as is Tony. Standing beside them, my six-foot-two frame seems diminutive in comparison. They toss logs like toothpicks.

So we loaded wood. Not 5, or 10 logs. Seventy is a low estimate. Five feet in length, 3 to 8 inches in diameter, we stacked them into the wagon steadily over the course of an hour and a half, whilst making a separate pile for firewood and branches that will quickly be consumed, back into the rich forest floor from which they came.

When we returned, we clung to the outside of the wagon, gas can clacking against the rails. A chain connecting the two side walls kept them from breaking from the immense weight of wood. The wheels bulged, almost flat, and the back end dragged through the deep snow troughs along the tractor path.

It was fun. Hard work, but fun – and a great way to stay warm and fit. The mushrooms will be included in the CSA baskets for the season, and sold to restaurants and farmers markets. I can’t wait.

Just like cars, our bodies need fuel. Cars combine refined oils with oxygen into combustible gases, which expand in the piston cylinders and make the wheels turn. You probably know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be stored or transferred. So what is actually happens to the energy we obtain from food?

After being broken down in our stomachs, our intestines absorb food nutrients into the blood. As blood is pumped through our bodies, so too are the nutrients which are taken into our cells. Here, glucose is converted into ATP (Adenosine triphosphate) through a series of processes referred to as cellular respiration. The ATP is further broken down into usable biochemical energy, thereby creating water, carbon dioxide and heat as byproducts.

This video brings back memories of high school freshman biology, but it’s detailed, short and not too complex:

So then what? Of the usable energy,

• 65-75% goes to fueling our bodies core needs. The speed with which your body burns energy at rest is called basal metabolic rate (BMR) and it varies depending on how big you are, your gender, how much you eat, and your activity level. The climate is also a factor.
• 12.5-25% goes to fueling your muscles, such as exercising or walking up a flight of stairs.
• %10 goes to the actual processing of food. In other words, it takes some energy to breakdown food to release more energy – just like drills used to find oil use gasoline engines.

These percentages assume you’re only eating as much as you need to balance your BMR, physical exertion, and digestive requirements. If you consume more calories than you expend, the extra energy is stored in your body as fat. This is critical to understand. Though fat is the most calorie-dense nutrient, the fat that we see around our waists is fat created by calories. That means it could be from carbohydrates, alcohols, fats, or even proteins. Though eating a lot of fat will yield a lot of calories (as well as other potential issues such as high cholesterol), most people gain weight because they consume excessive carbohydrates, which are the cheapest and most readily available food source.

Carbohydrates aren’t bad—and neither are fats. In fact, they are necessary. But eat too much of anything and you won’t need to buy an exercise ball for Christmas. You’ll be the size of one. I’ll make this more tangible in the next post – weightloss basics explained.