This article draws on Bourdieu's analogy of a fish in water, to provide a four-stage self-reflexive account of one Health and Physical Education (HPE) teacher's acquisition of a Foucaldian analytic lens, one with which to explore the moral and governing practices of HPE. Drawing on this research journey, the author seeks to demonstrate her growing capacity to "feel the weight of her water" and to subsequently critique the resilience of care within Australian HPE contexts and the role these care discourses play in the constitution of healthy, active citizens. This narrative is used to illustrate the complex, contingent trajectory of research endeavours and the value of reflexive strategies for those undertaking the journey from teacher to researcher. (Contains 2 notes.)