The principles and practices described here — including keto, intermittent fasting, and OMAD — reflect personal experience and are for informational purposes only. They do not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Dietary approaches that work for one person may not be appropriate for everyone. Consult a qualified healthcare professional before making significant changes to your diet, especially if you have a pre-existing medical condition, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or take prescription medication.
Not a diet. Not a protocol. These are the things I learned — mostly by getting them wrong first — about what it actually means to eat with intention.
For a long time, eating was how I marked the end of hard things. Long meeting done — eat. Big deadline cleared — eat. Rough week — eat whatever. That framing made every moment of stress a justification for eating poorly. When I started treating food as the fuel the body actually runs on, the decisions changed. Not perfectly. But consistently enough to matter.
I don't count carbs. I don't weigh food. I track two numbers: fat and protein. After years of eating keto, my body knows what it's running on. Most of the noise — cravings, afternoon crashes, the pull toward something sweet when work gets difficult — went quiet. Removing the wrong inputs removed most of the interference. This isn't a diet. It's a different operating system.
I used to think hunger was always a signal from my body. Sometimes it is. More often, it was a signal from the clock, from boredom, from stress, from seeing someone else eat. Fasting taught me to tell the difference. Most hunger waits. Most cravings pass in ten minutes if you don't negotiate with them. That distinction alone changed how I eat.
One meal. One day a week. Late in the day, after training. I've done it for years. It sounds extreme until you've done it fifty times and realized that the discomfort is manageable and the clarity on the other side is real. Friday OMAD is the clearest my mind gets all week — not because I've earned something, but because I've practiced sitting with hunger and choosing not to react. That's the real training.
I have never had a week where my eating collapsed and my thinking stayed sharp. They track each other. When I'm reactive with food — grabbing something because I'm tired, eating past full because it's there — I'm reactive everywhere else too. When I eat with intention, I think with intention. This is not motivational content. It's thirty years of observation.
I don't eat perfectly. I travel. I have dinners that don't fit the framework. Some weeks the window shifts or falls apart entirely. The goal was never perfection — it was a practice I can sustain for twenty more years. The person who eats reasonably well for three decades outperforms the person who eats perfectly for six months. Every time. The discipline is choosing the boring long game.
Honest answers to what I actually get asked about how I eat.
On keto, probably not — at least not forever. The satiety from fat and protein tends to self-regulate intake better than low-fat eating does. That said, if you're not seeing results after four to six weeks of honest effort, tracking for two weeks gives you data to work with. I use it as an occasional check-in, not a daily practice. Tracking serves the outcome, not the other way around.
On OMAD days — Fridays for me — I drink black coffee in the morning and water throughout the day. I eat one meal late in the afternoon after training. Usually a ribeye or salmon with vegetables and some fat. Nothing before, nothing after. The simplicity is the point. One decision instead of five.
Calories do. Black coffee and water don't. Most electrolytes won't break a fast meaningfully. A tablespoon of MCT oil won't either, for most purposes. What matters is what you're fasting for — if it's autophagy, you're more sensitive to this. If it's insulin management and fat adaptation, a small amount of fat won't derail you. Don't overthink the edge cases. Do think carefully about your eating window.
Two to four weeks before the brain fog and fatigue lift. Four to eight weeks before gym performance feels normal again. About twelve weeks before you feel genuinely fat-adapted. Most people quit during weeks two or three — which is the hardest window. That's the adaptation phase, not evidence that it doesn't work. The people who get through it almost universally say it was worth it.
I don't have them. Not because I'm rigid — because I know what they cost. One high-carb day takes me two to three days to recover from metabolically. That's not a trade I make anymore. If you're starting out and need strategic refeeds, fine. But most "cheat days" are just cravings dressed up as a plan. Be honest about which one it actually is.
Meat and vegetables. Almost every restaurant can do this. I ask for sauces on the side, skip the bread without making a thing of it, and don't explain my eating to anyone at the table. The harder part is eating out on a fast day — I either break the fast intentionally and own it, or I order sparkling water and eat later. I don't make it anyone else's problem.
Yes — electrolytes especially. Keto causes significantly more sodium excretion. Without replacing sodium, potassium, and magnesium, you'll feel worse than you should. This gets misattributed to the diet being unhealthy. It's your kidneys doing their job in a changed metabolic state. Fix the electrolytes and most of what people call "keto flu" disappears within a day.
I've been eating this way for years. My bloodwork is something my doctor looks at and nods. That's not a clinical trial — it's one person's data point. But the lived evidence is clear enough: energy is consistent, sleep is better, gym performance is good, and I don't spend my afternoons in a fog. The long-term research on keto is still maturing. For me, the daily evidence is sufficient to keep going.
Because after years of eating this way, I know which foods are compatible with ketosis and which aren't. Tracking carbs is useful early on — it teaches you where they hide. Once that's internalized, tracking protein and fat is enough. If ketosis is happening, the carbs are already low enough. The tracking should serve the outcome, not become an end in itself.