The Path is Too Deep

My best friend sent me a text on the weekend that gave me pause. He asked: "When keto diets make general claims about staying under so many net carbs, they never consider a person’s size or activity. I assume someone who runs a daily 10k could eat way more carbs and stay in ketosis since they’re all getting used." It is a brilliant question. And scientifically, he is absolutely right. The "20g Net Carb" rule of strict keto is not a universal law of physics; it is a safety buffer designed for the average, sedentary metabolism. When you introduce high-intensity activity (like a 10 kilometer run), the biochemistry changes. Here is the science of why athletes can "get away" with more carbs, and the mechanism that makes it happen. The Two-Tank System To understand this, we have to look at where your body stores carbohydrates ( glycogen ). You have two distinct fuel tanks: The Liver (The Thermostat): This tank controls Ketosis. If your liver glycogen is full, y...

Sleep is not a state of biological shutdown, but an active, mechanical cleaning cycle essential for cognitive survival. For decades, the prevailing scientific thought was that sleep was simply a period of rest - a time for the body to conserve energy and recover. However, recent discoveries in neuroscience have completely shifted this paradigm. We now know that your brain is performing a vital, physical flush of toxins every night through a biological process known as the Glymphatic System . Here is the science behind what actually happens when you close your eyes, and why treating sleep as a passive luxury is a physiological mistake. The Mechanics of the Wash During waking hours, your brain consumes a massive amount of energy. This intense metabolic activity produces waste byproducts that accumulate in the surrounding tissue. To clear this, the brain initiates a fascinating mechanical shift: The 60% Shrink: When you enter deep, slow-wave sleep, your glial cells (the supportive cel...

I was watching an interview recently with Andrew Rea (the creator of Binging with Babish ), and he made a comparison that stopped me in my tracks. He compared the fact that our internal monologue - that constant voice narrating our lives - is similar to a Large Language Model (LLM) , just like the AI we use today. He said: "It's the sum total of your experiences and your projections of the future... and it works about as well as an AI language model does, which is not quite well enough." As a guy who has spent a lifetime in technology, this clicked. We tend to believe that the voice in our head is "The Truth." But if we look at it through the lens of computer engineering, we realize it isn't truth. It’s just predictive text . 1. The Training Data (Your Past) An AI like Gemini or ChatGPT is trained on a massive dataset of text. It doesn't "know" anything; it just recognizes patterns in the data it was fed. Your inner voice works the same way. I...

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know I am a man of logic. I am a network engineer by training and a compliance manager by trade. I trust data. I trust evidence. I trust things I can measure. My partner, Angela, operates on a different frequency. She is deeply connected to the spiritual world - Reiki, Feng Shui, smudging. Usually, these are two very different languages. But last Wednesday evening, those languages translated perfectly. The Power of Thought We were doing an "affirmation" session using a deck of Power Thought Cards by Louise Hay. As I was shuffling - skeptical but willing - a single card literally jumped out of the deck. I turned it over, and the text hit me harder than any scientific paper I have read in years. It read: "It's only a thought, and a thought can be changed." And on the back, a mantra: "I am not limited by any past thinking. I choose my thoughts with care. I constantly have new insights and new ways of looking...

In the world of Quality and Compliance, we have a rule: "Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are living documents." When new data comes in, we don't ignore it just because it's inconvenient. We review it, we audit the risk, and we update the protocol. For years, Erythritol (the main ingredient in Swerve and Lakanto) has been the "Gold Standard" of Keto sweeteners. It doesn't spike insulin, it has zero calories, and it bakes like sugar. But a new study published just last year (Berry et al., 2025) has flagged a potential bug in the code. It suggests that while Erythritol might be safe for your waistline, it might be stressing out your brain’s blood flow. Here is the audit of the new findings and my "Corrective Action Plan." The Bug Report (The Study) The study investigated how Erythritol affects Endothelial Cells . These are the cells that line your blood vessels. Think of them as the smooth pavement of a highway. They control blood flow an...

I was originally planning to write today’s post about cruciferous vegetables. But then I looked at the calendar. It’s Valentine’s Day. And let’s be honest: Nothing says "Romance" less than the smell of boiling broccoli. So, let’s pivot to the official food of February 14th: Chocolate. In the health world, chocolate gets a bad rap because it usually comes wrapped in foil and packed with sugar. But if you strip away the milk and the sugar, you are left with Cacao . And Cacao isn't candy; it is a legitimate superfood with a potent chemical profile. The Chemistry of Affection (Theobromine) We often compare chocolate to coffee, but the stimulant in chocolate is different. It’s called Theobromine . Unlike Caffeine (which is a nervous system stimulant that can make you jittery), Theobromine is a vasodilator and a muscle relaxant. The Effect: It dilates your blood vessels, lowering blood pressure and improving blood flow. The Feeling: It provides a gentle, steady alertness a...

For those of us living a clean ketogenic lifestyle, the condiment aisle can be a frustrating place. You pick up a bottle of "Olive Oil Mayonnaise," turn it around to read the ingredients, and find that the first ingredient is actually Soybean Oil. Since we know that industrial seed oils are a primary driver of inflammation, this usually means mayo is off the menu. But it shouldn't be. Mayonnaise is actually a perfect keto food: high fat, zero carb. The solution isn't to stop eating it; the solution is to master the science of making it yourself. It is surprisingly easy, and it all comes down to a chemical process called Emulsification . The Science: What is an Emulsion? Oil and vinegar (which has a water base) do not want to mix. If you shake them up, they will eventually separate. This is because water molecules are polar (they have a charge) and oil molecules are non-polar. To make mayonnaise, we need a "peacemaker" - a molecule that has one end that loves...