I was 17 when I first heard of the 212 Degree Theory. My high-school weight room had a bulletin board near the entrance. A seemingly random mess of paper covered in dirty Olympic plate fingerprints always hung from it, and no one ever paid much attention to it. I remember waiting for my scheduled lift to begin while glancing over the bulletin board and reading some of the junk pinned there I had never paid much attention to. One paper caught my eye. It was a full sheet of clean white printer paper with maybe 3 lines of text, all Times New Roman size 12, even the title. It intrigued me, clearly a meathead had something to do with this and he put effort into actually printing it out. This had to be good. So I read it:

212 Degrees

At 211º, water is hot. At 212º, water boils. With boiling water comes steam. And steam can power a locomotive. The one extra degree makes the difference.

Fast forward to present day. I still keep that idea in the back of my head in all that I do. It resonated with me. I always push a little harder and try to keep driving. Sometimes I run low on coal for the boiler. When that happens I stop to water up and reload on coal.

But what does that have to do with hot sauce? It’s simple: I always put a little extra hot sauce on my food – usually my morning eggs. That 212 theory has become so engrained in my life I can’t do anything without it. I will put the perfect amount of hot sauce on my food, set the bottle down, 212 bubbles up in my sub-conscious, and then I pick the bottle up and add a little extra.

That little extra is always too much and affects me in two ways. First, my food is ruined. I still eat it in total because I’m an animal, but I enjoy no part of it. I will actually sit there sucking in air to cool off my mouth. Secondly, I come from a long line of digestive fickleness. Adding hot sauce into the mix in heavy volume is the last thing I need. Let’s just say that I burn myself twice when applying DG Host Sauce Theory.

But why continue to do it? Great question. Commitment. On top of that, I like being outside of my comfort zone and experiencing new things. DGHST with eggs is a great way to start a day and get you in the mindset to push a little farther and try new things. Who knows, if you apply DGHST often enough, you may just end up experiencing what balance is really about in an NJ Transit Train Bathroom.