Turon and Trust
"Hasang-hasa ka na pagdating d’on," my friend D said, casually, like she wasn’t about to drop the most life-changing advice of my 22-year-old existence. We were walking back to the dietary department at PGH, sweaty and starving, the way you’d expect from interns running on four hours of sleep and questionable sustenance. (Nutrition students eating turon for lunch—oh, the irony.)
I was spiraling about finals. Would I choke? Would I somehow invent new ways to fail? My anxiety was eating me alive. Looking back, it’s no wonder I was a wreck. I’d been operating on adrenaline for months, hadn’t seen a glass of water in ages, and ate whatever I saw on the way to the next ward. Still, her words cut through my chaos: Trust your body. You’ve trained it well enough; it knows what to do.
It clicked. All that cramming, that trial by fire wasn’t for nothing. Finals weren’t about reinventing the wheel; they were about putting all that muscle memory to work. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough.
Fast-forward to today, and I repeat D’s wisdom to every client I work with. When they’re about to finish a program and start freaking out and start asking “What if I fall off the wagon? What if I end up back at square one?” I remind them: You’ve been practicing this all along. You’ve been doing the work. Why would anything suddenly change?
Here’s the truth: I’m just the nudge. They’re the ones who decide what to eat, when to work out, and how to sleep. They got the results they wanted all while navigating birthday buffets, stressful workdays, and hormonal cravings. With all that training, they’re sure to know what to do at the next barkada hang.
So I tell them: Trust yourself. You don’t need me hovering like a dietitian-shaped mosquito, asking about every bite you take. You’ve got this. And hey, no more annoying check-ins from me. Good riddance.
Just like I learned with that turon in hand, life isn’t about perfection. It’s about practicing until trust feels natural. Trust your body, trust your choices. After all, you’ve been doing it all along.