"Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin."
Hello There
My name is Chris. I'm 53 as I write this in October of 2025, and I'm a gamer, a golfer, and a guy who's been (and continues to be) on a serious health journey. After losing and then gaining over 190 pounds and facing significant cardiac events, I thought I was doing everything right by following a 'keto' diet. I was wrong.
I discovered I was eating 'dirty keto'—my 'health foods' were full of inflammatory oils, hidden starches, and artificial sweeteners that were working against me.
'The Path is Too Deep' is my personal blog about ditching the marketing and discovering the power of a Clean, Anti-Inflammatory, Whole-Food Ketogenic Lifestyle.
I'll be sharing what I've learned about reading labels, my ongoing journey with weight loss, my strategies for managing mental health (ADHD/dysthymia), and my thoughts on gaming, golf, and technology. It's my personal rulebook for taking back control.
"Not all those who wander are lost." (but some are...)
Let's start with the brief history of how we got here. Anyone close to me can feel free to take the cat for a walk.
I think it all started with mental health and an outlook on the world.
Two events come to mind: one, my dad leaving my mom when I was about three years old, and two, being present when my mom got a call telling her her dad had passed away.
These two events would have a greater effect on my life growing up than I could have realized. I think I was too young to realize the departure of my father, but it was felt by my brother (8 years my senior), and my mother. As I grew up, my resentment and anger grew, and laid deep pathways of behaviour for later in life.
The incident with the phone call is far more clear and far more complicated (thanks to some regression therapy in my forties). I remember being alone in the house with my mom, which I apparently wasn't, but I clearly remember her picking up the phone, listening for a short while, and then breaking down in tears of sorrow. I clearly remember going to her and, in a confusing and futile gesture for a five-year-old, trying to get her to stop crying. I spent most of my life from then on trying to help and fix the broken and distressed people around me...especially women.
I grew up around food that was both good tasting and rich, brought forth from my ancestors who hailed from the lands near the mouth of the Annapolis Basin in Nova Scotia. Like many others, big plates of food meant prosperity, and from families who had survived the Great Depression, it meant things were okay. There were also "people starving overseas", so I needed to finish my green beans, and if I did...well, there was always dessert. Food became a reward for hard work or to alleviate grief or suffering...did you skin your knee? Let me clean that up and you can have some ice cream...
So, a move from Ontario to Nova Scotia out of a necessity for my mother to be near her family for support, combined with a growing sense of paternal anger, a need to fix anyone with a tear in their eye, a deeply-ingrained reward mechanism leading to emotional eating, and me heading into puberty? What could go wrong?
Fast forward through a series of school-age relationships where I consistently managed to find girls who were all "broken" in some way and "needed fixing", a growing emotional distance from my older brother, a growing waistline from my emotional eating, all the while trying to navigate the complexities of teenage hormones.
Pause for one moment to reflect that I did find interests that are still with me today: technology and gaming, particularly tabletop gaming. I also found a strong passion for the dramatic arts in school, which was great, because my ADHD was throwing the rest of my academics in a bin.
We'll hit fast-forward again through a 17-year marriage and a non-violent but very angry, overweight man who's loud voice and intimidating demeanor scared the life out of his wife and children. Unhappiness lying ever-pervasive under the surface boiled over constantly, and ended with me leaving my wife and girls.
Let's keep speeding through a couple more relationships where I, once again, was trying to fix my partner, having me facing off with severe social anxiety disorder and borderline personality disorder, the failed efforts to repair more than overwhelming my mental health. It was then that I was diagnosed with dysthymia, also known as persistent depressive disorder. Let's have a look at Wikipedia, shall we?
"Dysthymia is characterized by a 2-year [or longer] history of depressed mood, as well as at least two of the following symptoms: poor appetite or overeating, hypersomnia or insomnia, fatigue or low energy, low self-esteem, poor concentration or difficulty making decisions, and hopelessness."
Huh. Well.
Turns out, in my early forties, I found out I had a mental health condition that had been there the entirety of my adult life. It was than I started taking Wellbutrin (Bupropion), which has helped regulate both my depression and my ADHD.
It was then that a series of, shall we say, unfortunate events occurred, that will bring us up to this year. Let's hit the highlight reel:
- December 2013 - My brother died at the age of 49 from colon cancer
- December 2013 - Had my first heart attack at 41; stents and medication forever
- January 2014-2018 - Scared of another heart attack, tried every diet and weight loss method I could find, settled on keto and cardio (mostly)
- August 2019 - Hit my lowest weight in my adult life: 197 pounds
- March 2020 - Worldwide pandemic (maybe you heard about that one), living alone in an apartment in Halifax
- October 2020 - Back up to 281 pounds and rapidly climbing
- November 2020 - Moved to Kentville to live with the love of my life, who I would marry in 2022
- December 2020 - Second heart attack
- January 2021 - Started dieting and exercising again
- December 2021 - On the way down again: 347 pounds
- May 2023 - Down to 324 pounds! Yay!
- June 2023 - Left my teaching career
- June 2023 - My uncle died
- Sept 2023 - One of my cousins died
- December 2023 - My aunt died
- December 2023 - Back up to 381 pounds
- December 2023 - Third heart attack
- December 2023 - Estranged father died
- January 2024 - "I'm really going to do it this time! Down to 360 pounds!"
- February 2024 - Started a new job
- Spring 2024 - My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer
- May 2025 - Fourth heart attack
- June 2025 - My 19-year-old stepson died
- July 2025 - Struck in a hit-and-run that totaled my car
- August 2025 - Fifth heart attack
- September 2025 - My (second) wife and I separated
- October 2025 - Moved back into Halifax to start life again
- October 2025 - Around 350 pounds, starting clean keto and exercise
I'm absolutely sure that many people reading this will be able to look back on the past twelve years of their life and say "I had a lot of stuff happen to me, too!" Absolutely. We are all fighting battles that most other people don't know about. That is, despite all of this, why I still think we should be as kind as we can to other people.
It is also the reason why my doctors and therapists see me burst out laughing when they say "you should bring your stress levels down". Yes, I suspect I should.
"That Is Why We Call It the Present"
The old hands can come back from their walk.
So, where are we now, starting anew? Getting settled in a new apartment in Halifax. Continuing to learn and educate myself. Taking a good hard look at my lifestyle, and realizing it needs to change.
I'm on a strict ketogenic diet, which means I keep my daily carbs under 20 grams.
But I've learned that the most important part for my health goals isn't just the low-carb number, it's the quality of the ingredients.
A lot of 'keto-friendly' products are technically low-carb but are what's called 'dirty keto.' They're ultra-processed and built with inflammatory seed oils, processed starches, and gut-disrupting artificial sweeteners.
My protocol is a 'clean keto' approach. I'm focusing on anti-inflammatory, whole-food ingredients to support my overall health, not just to hit a carb count.
What My Diet Consists Of:
High-Quality Protein: My one meal is built around clean proteins like beef, poultry, fish, and eggs.
Clean, Anti-Inflammatory Fats: This is key. I only use high-quality fats like ghee, butter, olive oil, and avocado oil.
Nutrient-Dense Vegetables: My carbs come from non-starchy vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, leafy greens, and mushrooms.
"Clean" Sweeteners Only: If I use a sweetener, it's only natural, gut-friendly ones like Stevia, Monk Fruit, and Erythritol.
Whole-Food Snacks: My snacks are simple, clean, whole foods like plain pork rinds, baked cheese crisps, and dry-roasted, salted nuts.
The 'Dirty' Ingredients I Strictly Avoid:
The "Red Flag" list:
The "Inflammatory Oil" Trap: I avoid all products made with inflammatory industrial seed oils, like canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower, peanut, or corn oil.
The "Hidden Starch & Sugar" Trap: I avoid all processed, high-glycemic starches and sugars, including corn starch, tapioca starch, rice flour, maltodextrin, and dextrose.
The "Gut-Disrupting Sweetener" Trap: I avoid artificial sweeteners like Sucralose, Aspartame, and Ace-K, as well as gut-irritating sugar alcohols and fibers like Maltitol, Sorbitol, Xylitol, and Inulin.
The "Gluten" Trap: I also avoid wheat and gluten as a potential source of inflammation.
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