Important Lessons We Didn’t Learn in School... But It's Changing!

Throughout our entire school career, we learn many different subjects such as math, history, and science. Unfortunately for most of us, science did not go past chemistry and physics, leaving out anatomy and biology. There may have been a module or two but not enough to cover the entire human body and mind, and how to be healthy adults. Another thing I would say high school doesn’t prepare us for are things like loans, rent, mortgages, savings, and other financial stress that comes with being an adult, but I digress... Let's talk about the body today.

Most of us grew up hearing some common health knowledge such as, eat your fruits and vegetables every day, drink 8 glasses of water per day, get plenty of exercise, and don’t go to bed late. However, when we break down these basic tips, there are so many details to dive into that I wish I would have learned sooner!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone say they wish they would have started eating healthy or exercising at younger age, including myself! The good news is it’s never too late.

Let’s cover some topics that have a great effect on health, no matter what age you learn them.

Important Lessons We Didn’t Learn in School: Nutrition.

As mentioned above, some common tips we heard growing up included eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and drinking plenty of water. The first problem here is how much of that was really reinforced. Lots of children following a Western diet would start with cereal or toast in the morning, then typically brought a sandwich on white bread from home for lunch, or cafeterias would serve frozen and processed foods loaded with preservatives. Maybe there was an apple on the side or some carrot sticks, but by lunch time, a child following this diet eats mostly carbohydrates.

The second problem here is that although the beverage of choice should be water, the most consumed drink is fruit juice. Our little juice boxes we all adore, then and now, are loaded with sugar; having more that 1 per day leads to cavities, gastrointestinal inflammation, and weight gain.

As for the other food groups such as healthy fats and protein, I can’t even remember any emphasis on those growing up, which means once again that a lot of meals consisted of mainly carbohydrates. In the past, fat was deemed as something bad, whether it was good fat or bad fat. There was no differentiating the two sides of this category, therefore the food industry claimed all fat was bad. In fact, the opposite is true! Good fats such as nuts, seeds, olive oil, and avocados are good for your heart, cholesterol levels, digestion, focus, and is proven to aid in weight loss. These should be an essential part of everybody’s daily diet, whereas the bad fats such as fried food, seed oils, and processed fat like margarine should be eliminated all together.

Concerning protein consumption, it is very important to eat the minimum amount required for men’s and women’s resting metabolic rate. This is the number required to keep your body functioning at rest, meaning if you have a rest-day or lazy day, you will still need to eat a certain amount of protein to help your body’s basic functions.

For adult men, the minimum amount of protein intake required daily is about 56 grams/day.

For adult women, the minimum amount of protein intake required daily is about 46 grams/day.

If we add factors like exercise/training, longer work hours, studying, pregnancy or breast-feeding, then this amount of protein needs to increase significantly. Today, eating 3 meals a day with protein as the main macronutrient is recommended.

Lastly, on the topic of nutrition, lack of portion control was and still is a major issue. We should learn early on that there are certain ways to make your plate which leaves you feeling satisfied. This prevents a second serving and cuts cravings after eating a full meal. As a certified nutritionist, I follow and recommend The Plate Model. The Plate Model allows you to have the proper amount of each macronutrient category mentioned, which provides the body all the nutrients (not just empty calories) that it needs to function well.

Make sure your plate is:

½ vegetables- there’s no limit as to what you can eat here and the more colorful the better!

¼ lean protein- such as chicken, eggs, fish or beef.

¼ complex carbohydrates- such as rice, potatoes, and fruit. Yes, fruit should be considered a carbohydrate as it has natural sugar. Avoid white bread and pasta or gluten products all together.

Finally, use healthy oils or fats for cooking or for garnish- such as olive oil, avocado oil, nuts, seeds, and olives. And if you really want to learn something you wish you would have known sooner, check out my article on The Correct Order of Eating Food:

But It’s Changing…

Today’s younger generation has way more access to information than we did, and today’s parents have much more nutritional education for their newborns as well. New moms are now being encouraged back to breastfeeding instead of giving newborns formula. Then as the baby grows, parents are more aware of how much good fat is needed for the child’s brain development. Children today will be the first generation in a long time to grow up on good fats and protein rather than sugar and carbs that come from cereal or breakfast food boxes.

Furthermore, if we look at young athletes learning to play elite soccer, or track and field at school, their nutrition is being catered to optimize their performance.

And, another wonderful change happening for young adults is the consumption of alcohol. Millennials were the first to experience access to the internet, then Gen Z grew up completely with it, and they’re using it to access real research. Currently in 2025, 50% of young adults regularly drink alcohol, that’s down from 72% who claimed to drink regularly in 2004. And a surprising 66% reject moderate drinking habits when the WHO claimed 0% of alcohol is safe to drink because even 1 glass can impair judgement.

The world is taking a turn for the better.

Important Body Lessons We Didn’t Learn in School: The Body.

I would have loved to learn more about anatomy in high school. It’s not until I started massage therapy training that I learned the basics in anatomy, like the names of our muscles and bones, how we’re stacked in our overall posture, and then more detailed information on how the many different systems like organs work in the body. When I was discovering this information in depth it was like having a revelation for the first time. I remember feeling that this information would have been useful to me a long time ago. I also remember feeling a certain obligation to honor the body I was learning about, and that’s when exercise and nutrition became non-negotiable staples in my routine and lifestyle. And this is the exact reason why I wish I would have known anatomy sooner because I would have started taking exercise and nutrition more seriously sooner as well.

For example, I was recently reminiscing with some friends about an end of the year fitness exam my high school required, which was to run 20 - 24 laps on a 400-metre track. That’s equivalent to an 8 - 9km run, and the general training for this was the gym teacher blew the whistle & you go! Knowing about proper gait and foot-strike techniques now, it would have been so helpful to know back then.

Gait means a person’s manner of walking, jogging, or running, which can be performed with poorly if we don’t pay attention to certain postural cues. These postural cues become even more important if we need to add speed and intensity to perform. In fact, there’s so much information about how our feet should land, how to line up knees and hips, and how to breathe, that I wrote an entire article about the foot, you can find here:

"Standing, Walking, and Landing: Proper Foot Function and Gait"

Speaking of how to breathe, in the example of running 24 laps, I would have liked to know about the breathing technique I use today while running or jogging, which is the 2:1 breathing pattern. It involves inhaling for two steps and exhaling for one step, all through the nose. It creates a rhythm and a pattern that’s easy to follow, and easy to regulate if pace or speed needs to change. Plus it would have avoided mouth breathing during strenuous exercise.

Lastly, form and stretching should have been taught from a young age, i.e.- like how to squat. How to bend properly to avoid injury, and how to cool down or open tight muscles before moving on to the next task is so important to know. This is especially true for me now as a massage therapist because I see so many people dealing with pain. Once they get a postural analysis from me, they also say they wish they knew this information about their body sooner. Knowing what your body is doing against gravity gives you the power to change your posture and find some freedom while holding up your body.

But It’s Changing…

Breathwork and breathing techniques are revered and sought after worldwide today. Breathwork is a part of many people’s fitness and wellness routines. From box breathing to ujjayi breath in yoga, to how to prepare for cold exposure. Today almost everyone in the wellness space is utilizing breath for enhanced performance, stress management, and mindfulness.

When we talk about form, exercises, and stretches, there are so many tutorials online that it’s actually hard to choose from. In this space, there are a lot of people claiming one way or the other is the best, like cross-fitters will rag on yogis, and vice versa... but the truth is you need it all in moderation. If you’re lifting weights or doing cardio, your tendons and ligaments will need a rest day and time to stretch before moving on. So, it’s not about which exercise you should be doing all the time, it’s about a combination of many training methods to sustain the body week after week.

What this means is that if you want to exercise and be in shape until your old age, then all types of weightlifting, cardio, sports, stretching, mobility, yoga, and meditation need to have their spot in your fitness routine for a well-rounded body and mind.

Important Body Lessons We Didn’t Learn in School: The Mind.

Parents in the 50’s and 60’s and moving forward were educated a lot by television and advertisements. Black and white newspaper clippings saying sugar is the sure way to boost your energy without consequences. Each TV commercial one after the next promoting fake food like “I can’t believe it’s not butter!” And then each household was living on margarine and toast as a standard Western breakfast. While other commercials made you feel bad about yourself if you weren’t skinny as young lady or if you were more of a sensitive guy.

This played on the emotions of many generations, believing we all had to be the same, and that everyone was happy doing so. That was far from the truth. Take this old ad for example, so enthusiastic to tell you it's ok to eat sugar before a proper meal, you should be undereating to be skinny, and expect to have high energy levels. So many things wrong with this picture, yet this is what our parents grew up on.

A pro-sugar ad that appeared in TIME magazine in 1971.

Food plays so much on our emotions, and it affects our mental health. It is not until each of us does a review of their life’s timeline, can we see how mood and mental health was affected by these industries. Of course, mental health was not talked about when I was a kid, and looking further back at older generations, like that of my parents or grandparents, they really didn’t address this at all. Going further back than that, each generation had it colder and harsher. Sure, families loved each other, but emotional and stress regulation weren’t things practiced in the home. There was a lot more verbal and physical abuse, outbursts of aggression, alcoholism, encouraged cigarette smoking, and many other unhealthy habits that created toxic environments.

These environments created patterns in families and households that we now call triggers in mental health. I talk a lot about patterns and triggers with my Reiki clients, also something they wish they knew sooner because it would have helped them navigate and regulate their feelings from a younger age. Here’s that theme again, important stress and emotional regulation should have been taught from young, in school or at home.

But It’s Changing…

Nowadays, maybe there is an extreme aspect to this because society is now sensitive to almost everything. The awareness of how things used to be made it that anything can be a trigger today. Balance must be restored.

While older generations could have benefited from mindfulness, meditation, and breathing techniques, they’re learning it today. So, it’s never too late. The younger generation get to grow up with the detailed information of mindful eating, body awareness, which is proprioception, and the inner self, which is interoception. They are aware and considerate of others, which is ultimately cultivating compassion. When this compassion can be cultivated in one individual to the next, it then spreads further out into families, friends, communities, finding a more harmonious way to coexist.

One last example I can give about the school changing for the better is detention. Many schools are changing typical detention time to meditation time! Rather than have the child who needs to learn a lesson sit and do their homework after school, not really addressing the issue, schools are now choosing to let the child meditate with their eyes closed and answer a few questions about what happened, like:

• How were you feeling at the time of the incident?

• Was that the reason why you acted the way you did?

• Was that passed on to someone else who didn’t deserve it?

• What can be done to resolve this?

• Is there something deeper that must be addressed?

When anyone, child or adult, stops to ask these questions, there is often a deeper meaning revealed. Once that deeper meaning is figured out on their own through meditation on these types of questions, this can regulate emotions and stress, which leads to better behavior next time. One can then move forward knowing what a trigger is and how they can respond to it next time, should there be a next time.

A good practice for all, pause and the answers will come.

From my article: Acronyms That Help Guide Your Body, Mind & S.O.U.L

Read here: Acronyms That Help Guide Your Body, Mind & S.O.U.L

In conclusion, I do believe our school systems are shifting towards more mindfulness, athletic optimization, and delivering accurate health information.

Do I still wish I would have known all of this at a younger age? In theory, yes; but in my life, it made me who I am today to see this all unfold. I definitely wouldn’t go back, instead I choose to thrive from here on out for my present self and future self, while making this information accessible to all.