The Path is Too Deep

If you grew up in the 1980s like I did, you remember the "Health Guidelines" vividly. We were told to trade our butter for margarine, our steak for pasta, and - most tragically - our eggs for sugary cereal. The egg was demonized. It was viewed as a cholesterol grenade, a "heart attack on a plate." So, as a man with five heart attacks on his medical chart, why do I consume eggs almost every single day? Because for 40 years, we were playing a "Shell Game" - a con where we were distracted by the wrong villain. The egg isn't the killer. It is quite possibly the most perfect nutritional capsule nature ever designed. Part 1: The "Cholesterol" Confusion (The Con) The logic seemed sound in 1985: Eggs contain cholesterol. Heart disease is caused by cholesterol. Therefore, don't eat eggs. It was simple. It was elegant. And it was wrong. Biology is not a simple bucket. It is a complex, adaptive system. We now know that Dietary Cholesterol (what y...

Universal Meal Frameworks I have always found traditional recipes a bit stressful. They often feel like rigid scripts that demand very specific ingredients ("1 tsp of fresh tarragon"), and if you don't have that specific item, it feels like you can't make the dish. If you aren't confident with substitutes, you panic, close the cookbook, and order takeout. I've moved away from cooking with strict recipes. Now, I cook with Frameworks . Think of a framework as a flexible blueprint. It allows you to swap out ingredients based on what you have in the fridge without ruining the meal. When I look at a fridge full of random groceries, I don't see "nothing to eat"—I see possibilities waiting to be slotted into a plan. Here are the 4 Universal Meal Frameworks I use to cook 90% of my meals . Framework 1: The "Skillet Smash" (The Keto Answer to Stir-Fries and Pasta) This is my solution for busy nights. It is fast, uses high heat, and relies on a ...

Happy New Year! Welcome to Day One. The confetti has been swept up. The "New Year, New Me" energy is at its peak. But let’s be honest with ourselves: The calendar changed, but life didn't. The challenges waiting for us in February don't care that it is currently January 1st. Yesterday, I wrote about why Resolutions fail and why Habits work. Today, I want to talk about why we build those habits. We don’t build them for the sunny days when motivation is high. We build them for the rainy Tuesday when the car breaks down, the stress spikes, and the "Old You" wants to order a pizza. This year, I am not planning for "Perfection." I am planning for Resilience . The Trap of "Fragile Positivity" There is a brand of positivity that suggests if we just think happy thoughts, nothing bad will happen. I have had five heart attacks. I can tell you, my arteries didn't care about my mood. "Fragile Positivity" is hoping it doesn't rain. ...

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl of procrastination. It is the one night of the year where millions of people collectively decide that they will be different people when the sun comes up. If you are a regular at a gym, you know what is coming. They call them the "Januarys." For the first three weeks of the year, you won't be able to find a parking spot. The treadmills will be full; the weights will be occupied. It is a tsunami of good intentions. But if you wait until February 1st, the tide goes out. The parking lot empties, and the regulars get their squat racks back. Why does this happen? Why do millions of people start with such fire, only to flame out in thirty days? The Trap of "Resolution" The problem lies in the word itself. A "Resolution" is often treated as a wish. It is a binary statement: "I resolve to lose 20 pounds." "I resolve to get healthy." These are Goals . Goals are destinations. The problem is, a goal does not tell yo...

We have been taught that weight loss is a simple math problem: Calories In minus Calories Out equals weight loss. If you aren't losing weight, you must be eating too much or moving too little. But what happens when you slash your calories, spend hours on the treadmill, and the scale still doesn't budge? You aren't bad at math. You are fighting a hormonal blockade. The problem isn't the fuel; it's the delivery system. To understand why a clean keto lifestyle works where calorie counting fails, you have to understand the most powerful hormone in your body: Insulin . The Lock and Key In a healthy body, insulin acts as a key . When you eat carbohydrates (sugar, bread, pasta, fruit), your blood sugar rises. Your pancreas detects this and releases insulin. Insulin travels to your cells and unlocks the door, allowing the sugar (glucose) to enter and be used for energy. Once the sugar is inside the cells, blood sugar drops, insulin levels fall, and the doors lock again. Thi...

Living in Nova Scotia means acknowledging a harsh reality: We are solar-powered creatures, but for six months of the year, someone unplugs the sun. The "Halifax Grey", especially in the winter months isn't just a weather pattern; it’s a physiological state. We go to work in the dark, we come home in the dark, and in between, we see a lot of fog. While we joke about the weather, the biological toll is real. We aren't just missing out on a tan; we are starving our bodies of a critical hormone. It’s Not a Vitamin, It’s a Key First, let’s clear up a misconception. Vitamin D isn't really a "vitamin" in the way Vitamin C is. It is actually a pro-hormone -  a building block your body uses to manufacture essential hormones. Think of it like a master key. It unlocks receptors in almost every tissue in your body, from your immune system to your brain. Immune Defense: It arms your T-cells to fight off viruses (crucial during flu season). Mood Regulation: Low leve...

For decades, nutritional orthodoxy has given us very clear instructions: Get your protein from lean meat, and get your "healthy fats" from nuts, seeds, and olive oil. We’ve been trained to trim the white stuff off our steaks as if it were toxic waste. When I started looking into the biochemistry of my clean ketogenic lifestyle, I got confused. I knew there were only two "Essential Fatty Acids" (Omega-3 and Omega-6), and that plants and seeds are full of them. So, if plants provide the "essentials," why eat fatty meat at all? Why not just eat chicken breast and a handful of walnuts? The answer, as I found out, required understanding that not all fats have the same job description. Fuel vs. Parts: The Construction Analogy You need fat for two very different purposes in the human body. Think of it like building and running a car. Structural Fat ("The Parts"): You need specific fats to build cell walls, synthesize hormones, and support your brain. T...