1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,560
Well, hello ladies and gents. 
Robert Sykes, Keto savage.com 

2
00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:05,440
and today I've got special guest
David Robinson on the line. 

3
00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:08,560
I met him at the Metabolic 
Health Summit this past January 

4
00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:11,200
and he is an accomplished 
author. 

5
00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:13,920
He has a pretty impressive story
as it pertains to his journey 

6
00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:17,440
through the ketogenic diet. 
He was diagnosed with epileptic 

7
00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:21,560
seizures or he had epileptic 
seizures when he was 28 years 

8
00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:25,120
old, followed the traditional 
path taking the medication. 

9
00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,080
Then he had a pretty profound 
awakening when he had a car 

10
00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:31,440
accident. 
Decided to dive deeper and look 

11
00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:35,560
at the ketogenic diet as a 
viable solution to coping and 

12
00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:39,120
dealing with the epilepsy. 
And that pretty much was the 

13
00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:41,760
catalyst for him totally turning
his life around, writing the 

14
00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:45,280
book, changing the nutritional 
pattern and the gist finding 

15
00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:47,800
true health via the ketogenic 
diet and lifestyle. 

16
00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,080
So very compelling story. 
Very interesting journey. 

17
00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:52,800
Thoroughly enjoyed having him on
the podcast. 

18
00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:55,200
I've got no doubt that you will 
take something from it so that 

19
00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:58,240
further delay, sit back, relax, 
enjoy the conversation with 

20
00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:10,520
David Robinson 
and we are live. 

21
00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:13,000
David, how are you, Sir? 
Good, thanks. 

22
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:14,000
How are you doing today, my 
friend? 

23
00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:17,200
I'm doing wonderfully well, man.
So we met in person at the 

24
00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:21,600
Metabolic Health Summit, I 
guess, this past January, and we

25
00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:23,320
were talking about a little bit 
everything. 

26
00:01:23,320 --> 00:01:24,560
I think I interrupted you, 
honestly. 

27
00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:26,960
You were talking with? 
Who were you talking with? 

28
00:01:26,960 --> 00:01:30,000
I believe the Keto Mojo team and
I, I jumped, right? 

29
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,720
Yeah, kind of made myself part 
of the conversation, so my 

30
00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:35,440
apologies. 
There No, no, not at all, not at

31
00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:36,960
all. 
It was great meeting you and and

32
00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:39,840
you know, I've been following 
listening to your podcast for a 

33
00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:41,240
long time. 
So I felt like I was meeting a 

34
00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:43,520
big celebrity here, you know? 
No, I appreciate it, man. 

35
00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:46,920
Definitely not a celebrity, just
another guy, but I I want to, I 

36
00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:48,640
want to peel the curtain back on
your story, man. 

37
00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:50,800
Like you've got a pretty 
interesting journey as far as, 

38
00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,720
you know, your epilepsy and then
that kind of being the countless

39
00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,720
for your journey to keto. 
So kind of give me just a back 

40
00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:58,120
story, man. 
I wanna I'm gonna flesh that out

41
00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:00,480
in detail. 
Yeah, yeah, for sure. 

42
00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:03,920
So, so it's funny, 'cause I, I 
did it backwards in a way, you 

43
00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:08,199
know, I found, I found low carb 
the lifestyle, you know, when I 

44
00:02:08,199 --> 00:02:13,720
was trying to lose some weight 
and you know, I, I hit 40 years 

45
00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,920
old, you know, started to 
develop a bit of, a bit of a 

46
00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:20,320
paunch. 
You know, I called myself a, a 

47
00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,280
middle-aged pathlete. 
You know, it's a weekend 

48
00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,080
warrior, you know, I was 
involved with the local rowing 

49
00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:29,480
team and all that, but still, 
you know, putting on little 

50
00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,440
weight by little by little. 
So I was trying one thing, 

51
00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:35,760
trying another. 
I tried, you know, paleo and, 

52
00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:38,040
and clean eating and all this 
sort of thing. 

53
00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:42,440
And actually what got me to 
finally try low carb was I don't

54
00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:43,720
know if you know Vinny 
Tordorich. 

55
00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,720
Yeah. 
But his, his thing is NSNG no 

56
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:49,680
sugar is no grains. 
And I said, wow, that's just two

57
00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:51,200
things, you know, cut out sugar 
is cut out. 

58
00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:55,080
That's not not a big deal. 
Little did I know it's that's 

59
00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:58,960
about 80% of the food that that 
you'll find in any supermarket, 

60
00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:01,840
right? 
But I said, well, let me, you 

61
00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:03,240
know, let me try this, let me 
check it out. 

62
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:05,360
And I'm starting, starting to 
have some success with it. 

63
00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:10,800
And, and his podcast Fitness 
Confidential, he does a, he does

64
00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:14,680
a similar, you know, a long form
interview every week with a 

65
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:18,040
different guest. 
So one week he had, he had this 

66
00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,240
guy Jim Abrams. 
And I don't know if you're, 

67
00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:26,080
you're familiar with Jim Abrams,
but he, yeah, you know who he 

68
00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:27,600
is. 
He's been around for a for a 

69
00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:31,160
very long time in this space. 
His son back in the back in the 

70
00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:37,240
early 90s, his son Charlie was 
two years old and, and started 

71
00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:40,360
having had epilepsy. 
He started having seizures, you 

72
00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:45,360
know, dozens of seizures a day. 
And so he had this incredible 

73
00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:47,720
story of, of just, they had 
tried everything. 

74
00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:51,240
They tried medication, they 
tried surgeries, they tried, you

75
00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:55,080
know, he was at the end of his 
rope and he happened to be in 

76
00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:59,600
the medical library. 
I I think it was UCLA and 

77
00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,840
looking through, you know, 
these, these neurology books 

78
00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:06,560
and, and kind of, you know, 
trying to find out anything he 

79
00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:08,680
could. 
And he, and he finds a reference

80
00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:13,080
to the ketogenic diet and, and 
so he goes to his, you know, to,

81
00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:15,680
to Charlie's neurologist and 
says, you know, hey, could we 

82
00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:17,000
try this? 
And they're like, well, we don't

83
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,800
really do that here, you know. 
And so you know, his story, he 

84
00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:25,720
went, of course, you know, being
a big Hollywood producer, he's, 

85
00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,920
he's the guy behind the airplane
movies and, and you know, some 

86
00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,080
of those really hilarious 
comedies from the 90s. 

87
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:38,880
And so he, he managed to find 
the one doctor in America, the 

88
00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:41,680
one neurologist who still 
practiced the ketogenic diet 

89
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:46,920
with his patients. 
And so, you know, it was, it was

90
00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:51,040
kind of serendipitous, I guess, 
that they, that they found this 

91
00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:53,280
guy John Freeman and became 
patients of his. 

92
00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:56,520
And, and lo and behold, you 
know, Charlie's seizures clear 

93
00:04:56,520 --> 00:05:00,760
up almost right away. 
So I so back to my story. 

94
00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:02,840
You know, I'm, I'm driving to 
work one day. 

95
00:05:02,840 --> 00:05:05,200
I'm listening to this and I'm 
like, Oh my God, that's, that's 

96
00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:07,280
crazy. 
You know, unbelievable story. 

97
00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:13,840
I'm listening to, to, to Jim, 
who's who's, you know, an older 

98
00:05:13,840 --> 00:05:17,800
man now he's in his 80s. 
He's he's breaking up in tears, 

99
00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:20,560
still telling the story, right. 
And I was like, wow, that, 

100
00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:25,400
that's incredible. 
And and so, you know, again, 

101
00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,040
backtrack all my story. 
I had been living with epilepsy 

102
00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:31,120
by that point for 15 years or 
so. 

103
00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:35,520
And you know, knock wood it, it 
was going well. 

104
00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:38,040
I was on medication and I took 
my pill in the morning. 

105
00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:43,200
I took my pill at night and, and
said, you know, it's able to 

106
00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:49,600
live, you know, a pretty normal 
life, but you know, sure enough.

107
00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,200
And so it's so, you know, I 
heard it and I, I didn't hear 

108
00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:56,400
it, you know what I mean? 
I sort of said, well, you know, 

109
00:05:56,400 --> 00:06:00,040
that's interesting, but you 
know, what I'm doing is working.

110
00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:01,640
Let's not rock the boat, you 
know what I mean? 

111
00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:08,920
And so Fast forward, boy, about 
a year from that, when my 

112
00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:13,720
seizures came back out of the 
blue and nobody knows why, you 

113
00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:17,160
know, whether it's, you know, 
just changes in hormones, 

114
00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:20,720
getting older, you know, whether
it's you develop tolerance to 

115
00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:22,120
the medication, whatever it 
might be. 

116
00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:30,120
But sort of in the worst way 
possible, I was, so I was, I was

117
00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:33,520
on a trip, on a camping trip 
with my brother. 

118
00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:40,040
And I was driving home from, you
know, driving home from upstate 

119
00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:42,720
New York back to where I live 
here in the Washington, DC area 

120
00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:47,320
and started to feel lightheaded 
and started to think, you know, 

121
00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:52,000
uh oh, what's going on here? 
You know, my particular type of 

122
00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,000
seizures tend to, they, they 
originate in the, the hearing 

123
00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:58,960
portion of my brain. 
And so in addition to the music 

124
00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:02,960
that's on the stereo, I start 
hearing like other music on top 

125
00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:04,560
of it. 
It's, you know, sort of this, 

126
00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,840
what they call a auditory 
hallucination. 

127
00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,560
And I think, Oh my God, I think 
I know what this is, you know, 

128
00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:14,920
so I try to start pulling the 
car over. 

129
00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:17,600
I'm on a, on a highway, you 
know, pull the car over to the 

130
00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:20,680
side of the road. 
And next thing you know, I was, 

131
00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:24,480
I was in an ambulance, you know,
driving away, sort of you're 

132
00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:27,480
totally disoriented and look out
the little, the little ambulance

133
00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:29,640
window behind. 
And, and there's my car sort of 

134
00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:32,480
up on the grass sitting at this 
weird angle. 

135
00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:36,360
You know, I'm like, Oh my God, 
what happened? 

136
00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:39,120
And so that's really the, the, 
the point that was kind of the 

137
00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:43,360
catalyst for me when I, when I 
decided, OK, let's, you know, 

138
00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:45,080
let's take this thing a little 
bit more seriously. 

139
00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:50,520
Let me see look into this this 
keto diet thing and and see what

140
00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,160
I can do, see if it'll help with
my seizure control. 

141
00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:56,320
Rewind even further, you when 
you when you were first 

142
00:07:56,400 --> 00:07:58,920
diagnosed with epilepsy and 
getting the seizures for the 

143
00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:02,960
first time 15 years ago or so, 
you know, at that point, what 

144
00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:05,720
was, I mean, how, how old were 
you when that came on? 

145
00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:09,240
Was there any inclination as to 
what the countless for that was?

146
00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:11,720
What was your thought process 
when you first started getting 

147
00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:14,120
these seizures? 
Yeah, great question. 

148
00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:17,800
So I was 28 years old. 
I was living in New York City, 

149
00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:20,600
you know, the sort of bachelor 
lifestyle. 

150
00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:25,800
I had two roommates and so 
living with two other guys and 

151
00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:27,320
and up the West side of 
Manhattan. 

152
00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:30,840
I was a teacher, high school 
teacher, and so one of my 

153
00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:33,720
roommates was, was also a 
colleague, you know, also taught

154
00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:37,360
at the school where I taught. 
And, you know, we were just 

155
00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:40,320
hanging out one night and, and 
talking about what we're going 

156
00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:41,760
to eat for, for dinner or 
whatever. 

157
00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,520
And we're so we're just chatting
back and forth and all of a 

158
00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:49,640
sudden I started to feel like 
this really light headed 

159
00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:52,160
feeling. 
And actually as they were 

160
00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:55,320
talking, I could hear ever, ever
when you were a kid, you'd put 

161
00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:58,840
like a cardboard tube over your 
ear and, and, you know, it 

162
00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:01,360
sounds like everything's kind of
echoey at the end of a hall. 

163
00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:04,200
That's kind of what I was 
hearing as they were talking. 

164
00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:09,600
And so I, I remember I stood up 
to kind of like, you know, 

165
00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:12,560
thought it might, you know, 
shake my head, kind of clear, 

166
00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:15,400
clear my head. 
And, and that was it. 

167
00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,720
You know, I, I fell backward 
down into, I was in kind of one 

168
00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:21,920
of those easy chairs, you know, 
fell backward into the chair, 

169
00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:26,240
went into a full on seizure. 
And, and, you know, there's all,

170
00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,320
there's all different kinds of 
seizures, but mine follow the 

171
00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,400
sort of the, the, the, the one 
you see in movies, right? 

172
00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:35,960
The, the full on convulsions 
and, and what they call it tonic

173
00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:40,120
clonic seizure. 
And so yeah, kind of really came

174
00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:43,120
completely out of the blue. 
And so they were freaking out, 

175
00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:44,840
you know, of course my roommates
didn't know what to do. 

176
00:09:44,840 --> 00:09:46,840
They're running, running in 
circles. 

177
00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,200
They call 911. 
They're making so much noise, 

178
00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:53,400
yelling and screaming that our 
neighbors come from down the 

179
00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:55,720
hall and they knock on the door 
and they're like, what the 

180
00:09:55,720 --> 00:10:00,800
Hell's going on down here? 
You know this guy that we didn't

181
00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:02,160
actually get along with real 
well. 

182
00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:07,080
We used to call him the buffoon.
And so my roommate goes, you 

183
00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:10,240
guys say buffoon, go get an 
ambulance, go find us a name. 

184
00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:12,720
It's like, okay, And he runs out
of the house. 

185
00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:20,360
So what is going on here? 
But yeah, anyway, ended up in 

186
00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:23,360
the hospital for a couple of 
days and they did every test, 

187
00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:27,200
you know, they did Eegs, you 
know, which is they measured the

188
00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:32,520
brain waves, did an MRI, the 
brain scan, you know, battery of

189
00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:35,360
tests. 
And really nothing came up. 

190
00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:39,800
Nothing came up unusual out of 
out of the ordinary. 

191
00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:44,160
And so the doctors there. 
And now, as it turns out, my as 

192
00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:47,640
it happens, my younger brother 
grew up with epilepsy. 

193
00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:53,720
He had what they call, what they
used to call absence seizures, 

194
00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:58,560
which is where he kind of, you 
know, he might be in mid 

195
00:10:58,560 --> 00:11:02,840
sentence and just trail off and 
then kind of stare blankly into 

196
00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:05,280
the, into the distance. 
And what's happening at the time

197
00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:07,560
is the brain is actually having 
a seizure, even though it 

198
00:11:07,560 --> 00:11:11,000
doesn't have the, the motor, you
know, the motor effects of on 

199
00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:14,520
the muscles and everything. 
And then he'd come right back, 

200
00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:18,760
you know, after 30 seconds, 45 
seconds and not know that 

201
00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:22,000
anything had happened. 
So because there was that 

202
00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:26,400
genetic connection, you know, 
of, of my brother having it, 

203
00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:29,160
they, they said, well, OK, you 
know, it runs in families. 

204
00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:31,600
So likely this is, you know, 
epilepsy. 

205
00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:37,400
So they so they put me on 
medication and and it was you're

206
00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:40,280
asking, you know, what did my 
mind state at the time? 

207
00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:45,000
You know, it was a bit of a 
threw me for a loop. 

208
00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,680
I guess you could say, you know,
OK, what can I do? 

209
00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:51,640
What can I do? 
You know, luckily, like I said, 

210
00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:53,920
I lived in New York City at the 
time, so I didn't have a car, 

211
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:55,840
right. 
But but one of the things about 

212
00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:58,400
epilepsy is once you have the 
seizure, they take your license 

213
00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:01,480
away. 
So, OK, something to think 

214
00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:04,240
about, right? 
So, so it does really upend your

215
00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:08,640
whole life. 
But you know, I was fortunate in

216
00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:11,680
that I had good friends and, and
a good support system and 

217
00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:14,720
everything. 
I'll tell you one other funny 

218
00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:16,640
thing. 
I mean, maybe one of the reasons

219
00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:21,960
why I was why I guess you could 
say I'm biased toward diet or 

220
00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:27,360
other lifestyle treatments. 
They, they look me up, they look

221
00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:28,480
me up and down. 
Check me out. 

222
00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:33,080
They, they prescribed at the 
time I, it was Dilantin, which 

223
00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:36,840
is a, a epilepsy medication that
has been around for a very long 

224
00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:42,480
time. 
And what they prescribed was 100

225
00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:47,680
milligrams three times a day. 
What somehow ended up in my 

226
00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:53,120
little, in my little orange 
bottle there was 300 milligrams 

227
00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:55,000
three times a day. 
I'm not sure where the mistake 

228
00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:59,520
happened, but sure enough, I 
mean, after a week, I actually 

229
00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:04,000
ended up with toxicity, I think 
taking three times the amount 

230
00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:05,800
of, of medication that I was 
supposed to be taking. 

231
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:09,680
So when I'm wound wound up back 
in the hospital, I was like 

232
00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:15,080
having, you know, headaches and 
fevers and, and, and delusions 

233
00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:18,680
and weird dreams of rainbows 
and, and unicorns and things 

234
00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:23,240
like that. 
And so, so it's, it's been an 

235
00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:25,520
adventure from the start. 
I guess you could say that. 

236
00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,560
So when, when you were 28 got 
diagnosed with with the epilepsy

237
00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:31,840
and you were having these 
seizures, they gave you 

238
00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:35,400
medication, you, you, you got 
that dosage dialed in and you 

239
00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:39,720
didn't really have any seizures 
from that point on until the car

240
00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:41,040
accident, 15 years. 
Later. 

241
00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:45,320
Well, yeah, I mean not exact. 
I mean, so I went so after that 

242
00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:49,840
first, after that first go 
around, I did, I started seeing 

243
00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:53,560
a neurologist regularly, you 
know, doing and, and taking that

244
00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:57,760
again, taking the medication as 
prescribed, got that dialed in, 

245
00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:00,360
as you said. 
And after about two years, I had

246
00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:03,120
moved, actually, I moved out to 
Colorado to go to grad school. 

247
00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:07,480
And so that's another great 
thing about, about, you know, 

248
00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:09,720
living with a chronic condition,
every time you move, you got to 

249
00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:12,840
find a new new Doctor, you know,
a new this and that and, and 

250
00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:15,920
start all over again. 
So I was talking to this 

251
00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:18,800
neurologist down in Colorado and
she said, you know, you've only 

252
00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:21,680
been, you know, it's been 2 
years they've been seizure free.

253
00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:24,720
And it, and it was true that, 
that the medication worked. 

254
00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:27,120
I didn't have any seizures for, 
for those two years. 

255
00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:30,400
And she said, you know, protocol
is, you know, and you, and she 

256
00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:33,280
said, you know, you've only had 
the one seizure really, that 

257
00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:36,440
you, they wait usually until 
you've had at least two, maybe 

258
00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:39,320
more before they start 
prescribing medication. 

259
00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:43,120
So do you want to try going off 
and, and the, and the medication

260
00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:46,400
Dilantin's pretty, the side 
effects are pretty harsh with 

261
00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,080
that. 
You know, your teeth, you come 

262
00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:52,840
start, start bleeding and, and 
you have all kinds of weird 

263
00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:55,160
problems. 
And so I said sure. 

264
00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:58,920
So, so I went off the medication
and then within a month or so, I

265
00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:02,240
had another seizure. 
And so then it was like, OK, 

266
00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:04,520
well, yeah, it looks like you 
really do need this medication. 

267
00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,800
So I was able at that point to 
switch to a different, a 

268
00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:09,560
different medication, Trileptal 
is called. 

269
00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:15,200
And that was what I was on. 
Like I say, for for ten years or

270
00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:19,360
more without without a problem 
until that sort of fateful day. 

271
00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:22,160
What what do they do with 
regards to your driver's 

272
00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:25,200
license? 
Like they like, is there like a 

273
00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:27,800
certain amount of time that can 
elapse without any seizures that

274
00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:30,240
they allow you to drive again or
how how's that work? 

275
00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:32,680
Yeah, yeah. 
And it varies state by state. 

276
00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:37,280
So some states are mandated 
reporting where the doctor, if 

277
00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:39,480
you go into a doctor and you've 
had a seizure, the doctor is 

278
00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:41,840
required to actually report you 
to the DMV. 

279
00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:46,760
Some other states don't have 
that, but you're expected to 

280
00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:51,240
sort of self report. 
But then there the, the amount 

281
00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,400
of time that so you have to 
establish, you know, seizure 

282
00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:56,800
freedom for a certain amount of 
time, but the amount of time 

283
00:15:56,800 --> 00:15:58,760
varies. 
I mean, so I live, like I said, 

284
00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:01,720
I live in Virginia just outside 
of DC in DC. 

285
00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:04,960
If I lived a mile away in DC, it
would be 12 months. 

286
00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:07,320
Where I am in Virginia at six 
months. 

287
00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:09,760
If I live a mile in the other 
direction in Maryland, it would 

288
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:13,120
be three months. 
So it's, it's actually pretty 

289
00:16:13,120 --> 00:16:18,240
arbitrary, you know, and that's,
that's one of the sort of one of

290
00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:20,200
the weird things. 
I mean, and I understand, of 

291
00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,320
course I understand the 
reasoning behind it. 

292
00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:25,560
You can't have someone, you 
know, behind the wheel driving 

293
00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:28,200
a, you know, 2000 LB vehicle, 
you know, if they're if they're 

294
00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:34,040
going to lose consciousness. 
But there is some, it, it does 

295
00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:37,560
bother me that there's something
sort of arbitrary about it and 

296
00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:39,920
something almost, you know, that
you, you don't hear the same 

297
00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:42,280
restrictions if someone has, 
let's say, a heart condition, 

298
00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:45,080
right? 
But there's, I think some of 

299
00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:50,080
this is, is a vestige of, I 
don't know if I'd call it 

300
00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:54,080
prejudice or, or, or, or 
stereotypes around people with 

301
00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:58,400
epilepsy, their capability to, 
to, you know, to function in the

302
00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:00,240
world and that sort of thing. 
Yeah. 

303
00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:01,880
No, that's that is interesting 
for sure. 

304
00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:04,520
I would have assumed that 
there's like a more standardized

305
00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:08,040
protocol, but seems to be at the
discretion of each individual 

306
00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:10,319
state. 
It is, it is, yeah. 

307
00:17:10,319 --> 00:17:13,079
And, and, and some of the 
organizations like the Epilepsy 

308
00:17:13,079 --> 00:17:16,960
Foundation have have done some 
good work advocating were more 

309
00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:20,920
evidence based, you know, 
protocols and things, but still 

310
00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:22,720
a lot, a lot of way to go. 
Yeah. 

311
00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:27,200
So, OK, so Fast forward now you,
you have the the accident and 

312
00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:29,880
that's kind of like the 
awakening for you to take things

313
00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:34,960
more serious to get nutrition 
dialed in, re refocus or kind of

314
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:37,800
get back dialed in with regards 
to what you'd learn on that 

315
00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:41,800
podcast with Vinny, What was 
that journey like? 

316
00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:44,440
Did you automatically just take 
out the, the sugars and grains 

317
00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:47,920
and hope for the best Or did you
like go 'cause I know with, with

318
00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:51,280
the traditional ketogenic diet 
for epileptics, I mean they're 

319
00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:53,680
doing like a four to one ratio. 
They're going super high fat. 

320
00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:55,720
Did you just, like, rip the 
Band-Aid off and go to that 

321
00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:58,400
degree? 
Yeah, no, good, good question. 

322
00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:02,880
So, and, and, and I'm glad you 
asked because, you know, it is, 

323
00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:08,480
it's important to clarify that 
I, that I did find a neurologist

324
00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:10,920
to work with a doctor. 
In fact, I went back to my own 

325
00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:14,640
doctor after that seizure while 
I was driving, you know, and 

326
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:19,640
then again, big scary event. 
I mean, my friends, my wife, I 

327
00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:22,880
had to call all my friends and 
then four of them came, you 

328
00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:25,640
know, drove 3 hours to come pick
me up and sort of, you know, 

329
00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:29,400
upended a lot of things for me. 
And I went to my neurologist and

330
00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:32,400
he said, yeah, I'm not too 
worried about it. 

331
00:18:35,360 --> 00:18:37,800
Well, I am. 
And he said, yeah, no, we'll, 

332
00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:39,480
we'll just up your medication a 
little bit. 

333
00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:43,520
And so I said, OK, well, let's 
try that. 

334
00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:45,800
So it so we did up the 
medication for a little while 

335
00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:49,720
and then I did have a second 
seizure another six months after

336
00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:53,360
that. 
And then he said, well, let's 

337
00:18:53,360 --> 00:18:56,280
let's up the medication again. 
And that's when I really said, 

338
00:18:56,280 --> 00:19:01,160
OK, let me let me really get 
check into this into this 

339
00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:05,680
dietary treatment thing. 
So I'm very lucky in the fact 

340
00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,680
that just an hour or so away 
from me is, is the Johns Hopkins

341
00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,880
Hospital, which is sort of 
doctor Eric Kossoff. 

342
00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:17,600
There is, is one of the and has 
been one of the the leading 

343
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:19,880
voices in dietary treatment for 
epilepsy. 

344
00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:23,040
Now he's a he's a pediatric 
neurologist. 

345
00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:28,880
So he, he works with kids, but 
he helped to found the adult 

346
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,720
epilepsy Diet center, which is 
there at which is there at 

347
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:36,080
Hopkins. 
So I, I was able to, to get 

348
00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:40,840
myself enrolled as a patient 
there and, you know, after a bit

349
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:42,920
of a waiting list and, and, and 
that sort of thing. 

350
00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:49,120
But so, so for six years now 
I've been, I've been in their 

351
00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:51,680
care and I've been working with 
the doctor, Doctor Savanka there

352
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:55,160
who's, you know, I'm very lucky 
that that one of the leading, 

353
00:19:55,280 --> 00:20:00,440
you know, world leading 
neurologist for, for ketogenic 

354
00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:05,680
diet is, is right up the road. 
But, but to talk, yeah, just to 

355
00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:08,240
talk a little bit about the, 
about the protocol they use. 

356
00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:11,200
They use what's called modified 
Atkins diet there. 

357
00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:19,640
And so it's, it's basic, it's 
similar to the induction phase 

358
00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:22,840
of the the classic sort of 
Atkins. 

359
00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:29,760
The old Atkins book where it's 
about 65% fat by calories, about

360
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:36,480
65% fat, about 30% protein and 
about 5% carbohydrate. 

361
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:41,200
And So what they do, they have 
an intake where, where I went in

362
00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:44,920
and, and they did a whole class,
you know, they had a group of us

363
00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:47,360
that they taught us, you know, 
what's a carbohydrate? 

364
00:20:47,360 --> 00:20:50,720
What's a, you know, what are 
fats, What are the, and, and 

365
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:54,440
guide us through eating 
guidelines. 

366
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:58,640
And, and their guideline is 
basically stick to 2020 grams of

367
00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:02,840
net carbs per day. 
And then they, you know, kind 

368
00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:05,800
of, and, and they had injured, 
they, they, you know, set us up 

369
00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:10,080
on a chronometer, you know, just
a food tracking app to kind of 

370
00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:12,400
track and to figure out, you 
know, the macros and that sort 

371
00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:15,880
of thing. 
And even that, you know, they 

372
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:19,080
sort of they say, you know, 
after six months or so, once you

373
00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:22,040
once you've got the got it down,
you know, and you kind of know 

374
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:25,520
because you do know after a 
while, you know, you can kind of

375
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:26,960
in the back of your mind track 
it. 

376
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:30,560
So, so I actually don't 
sometimes I track just to if 

377
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,120
I'm, if I feel like I might be 
slipping, if I might have some 

378
00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:37,480
carb creep, but but I don't 
actually even even track my 

379
00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,280
macros every day. 
But yeah, so that so it's and 

380
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:45,120
and it's actually, you know, you
mentioned the four to one, which

381
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:48,080
is the classic ketogenic diet, 
the one that's been around 

382
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:56,560
since, what is it 1921 where the
first doctor, Russ Conklin from 

383
00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:59,600
I think it was the Mayo Clinic 
came up with the the ketogenic 

384
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:02,040
diet for epilepsy. 
And, and that was the main 

385
00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,440
treatment for a long time 
actually, that the, the more 

386
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:10,120
before there was medication, 
there was this diet. 

387
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:14,280
And then over the years, 
different protocols have been 

388
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:17,720
developed that are a little bit 
less, less stringent, I guess 

389
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,040
less harsh than the four to one.
There's a three to one. 

390
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:22,960
There's, like I said, the 
modified Atkins diet. 

391
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,160
There's even a diet where it's 
even more liberal with carbs, 

392
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:32,200
but you supplement MCT oil like 
every meal and every snack. 

393
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:34,800
You're sort of supplementing MCT
oil throughout the day. 

394
00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:37,320
Yeah, I would imagine there's 
like a threshold for each 

395
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:40,320
individual, like they're going 
to be more sensitive to the 

396
00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:43,760
macro distribution than others. 
So you kind of just, you know, 

397
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,560
start and figure out what that 
threshold is for for you. 

398
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:48,840
Yeah, that's right. 
That's right. 

399
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:52,880
And, and it seems like it seems 
like many of the clinics that 

400
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:55,520
I'm aware of now or start with 
something that's a little bit 

401
00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:58,320
less restrictive. 
And then if it's not working, 

402
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,760
then they go more restrictive 
versus, you know, it used to be 

403
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:05,160
more of a, you know, the older, 
the old days that they would 

404
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,560
start with a three day fast in 
the hospital, right, to to 

405
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,840
really kick you into ketosis and
then start with a four to one. 

406
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,400
And if it's working, OK, we can 
ease back a little bit. 

407
00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:18,360
But it seems like different, 
different centers use different 

408
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:20,840
protocols as far as that goes. 
Yeah. 

409
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:24,520
And so how old were you when you
were going through that program 

410
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,800
initially? 
So that would that was six years

411
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:28,760
ago. 
I'm 49 now. 

412
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:33,440
So that was, that was, yeah, 43 
years old when I when I started 

413
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:34,480
there. 
Gotcha. 

414
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:38,280
And at that point, were you, 
were you pretty optimistic about

415
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,360
the dietary interventions being 
the, the thing that's going to 

416
00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:44,120
work for you? 
Were you hesitant to remove the,

417
00:23:44,120 --> 00:23:46,240
the medication? 
Were you just trying to find a 

418
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:48,480
way to remove the medication? 
Like what was your mindset 

419
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:50,640
there? 
You know my mindset. 

420
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,240
I'm glad you asked because I I 
to be and, and I'm always trying

421
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:56,600
to be completely transparent. 
I'm still on medication. 

422
00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:00,120
As a matter of fact, I've been 
able to transition to an even 

423
00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:04,200
less invasive, you know, less, 
less difficult medication, one 

424
00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:08,920
that's more modern, you know, 
newer, has better side effect 

425
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:13,480
profile and and a fairly low 
dose as well. 

426
00:24:14,120 --> 00:24:17,000
But my my approach is just let's
throw the kitchen sink at this 

427
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:17,880
thing. 
You know what I mean? 

428
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,280
If there's a chance that that 
eating this way is going to 

429
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:25,240
help, you know, keep seizures 
away, you know, and then then 

430
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:27,680
let's go for it. 
And, and I really have come to 

431
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,880
believe too, that eating this 
way is, is the best, is the best

432
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:34,760
way to eat for our brain in 
general, you know? 

433
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,720
No, I totally agree, man. 
I feel like I've got, you know, 

434
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:39,760
I've had clients over the years 
that have had like, you know, 

435
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:42,720
medical conditions and whatnot. 
And it seems that at the onset 

436
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:47,640
that having those conditions is 
like a negative, like it makes 

437
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,160
you hindered in some form or 
fashion. 

438
00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:52,400
But I think at the end of the 
day, like, it just really 

439
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,680
tightens the, the margin of 
error and, and creates a better,

440
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:00,960
you know, window to look through
life with as far as like what 

441
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:04,880
should I allow and not allow 
into my, my, you know, diet, my,

442
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:06,960
my activity profile. 
And I feel like you can gain a 

443
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,400
lot more clarity as to what is a
positive or negative into your 

444
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:14,440
life much more expeditiously 
when you have those ailments, as

445
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:17,240
opposed to someone that 
seemingly has no ailments, but 

446
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,360
then just often times as a 
result of that allows a lot more

447
00:25:20,360 --> 00:25:22,240
things into their life they 
probably shouldn't. 

448
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,360
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
I mean, you know, I've thought 

449
00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:29,680
about that a lot over the years.
I mean, would I go so far as to 

450
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:33,880
call it a gift? 
Maybe not, you know, but but you

451
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:35,960
know, I wouldn't go so far as to
call it a curse either. 

452
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:38,920
You know, it's, it's a it's a 
part of my life and it's 

453
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,280
something I need to deal with 
and it but it's not, it's not my

454
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:43,760
entire life. 
It's not my identity. 

455
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:48,520
It's not, it's something that 
that I, you know, everybody's 

456
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:52,880
got a something right. 
And so, and, and you know, 

457
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:54,960
you're right. 
I mean, I have thought about how

458
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:59,320
it, it has forced me to, about 
to take better care of myself 

459
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:02,040
really, you know, take better 
care of my body and my brain. 

460
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:05,720
You know, the, the, the first, 
again, going back to when I 

461
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:11,000
first heard about this, one of 
the, one of the resources that 

462
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,440
the Charley Foundation has on 
their website is a, it's APDF 

463
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,760
called Does What I Eat affect my
seizures? 

464
00:26:18,360 --> 00:26:21,400
And that was the 1st, first time
I'd ever heard that question, 

465
00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:23,720
right? 
How many of us even think that, 

466
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,880
oh, what I eat has anything to 
do with how my brain functions, 

467
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:29,640
right. 
In our culture, we're kind of, 

468
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,040
we're kind of conditioned to 
think, well, the brain's over 

469
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:34,880
here, the body's over there. 
Two totally different things. 

470
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:39,880
And you know, so, so even just 
the awareness of that has been 

471
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:43,920
has been a gift for for sure, 
No. 100%, man. 

472
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,040
Did you notice a pretty profound
improvement in, you know, how 

473
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:49,760
you were feeling and as it 
pertains to the epilepsy 

474
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,320
specifically and then just what 
we can kind of branch out from 

475
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:54,880
there in a second. 
But as far as the epilepsy is 

476
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:58,120
concerned, did you notice a 
pretty stark contrast as soon as

477
00:26:58,120 --> 00:27:00,000
you started implementing the 
diet? 

478
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:04,480
I did. 
I did notice, I noticed having 

479
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:06,520
more energy. 
I noticed, you know, I would 

480
00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:09,600
definitely like pre before I 
started the diet, I would get 

481
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:11,720
the afternoon slump, you know, 
3:00. 

482
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:15,440
I was looking for a snack or a 
cup of coffee or something to 

483
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:20,160
get me through the afternoon. 
You know, definitely profound 

484
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:25,400
influence on, on the energy 
levels throughout the day and, 

485
00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:27,760
and hunger levels. 
You know, the leptin and the 

486
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:32,880
ghrelin, All the stuff you read 
about just gets sort of brought 

487
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:36,000
under control, you know, So 
wasn't having having. 

488
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:39,720
I haven't been hangry in years, 
you know what I mean? 

489
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:41,440
Yeah, no, that's good for sure, 
man. 

490
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:43,760
What else? 
Like when you were when you were

491
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:47,360
first starting, were you finding
it difficult to find foods that 

492
00:27:47,360 --> 00:27:49,440
fit the criteria? 
Was that pretty easy to do, 

493
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:50,960
especially with the chronometer 
M? 

494
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:54,840
Yeah, no, you know, once you 
start, once you kind of get your

495
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:58,960
head around it and you know, I'm
sure, you know, Doctor Robert 

496
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:03,440
Saivas, he's got this this 
perspective. 

497
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,760
He talked talks about carb 
addiction, right. 

498
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:07,720
And then being the carb 
addiction doc and you start to, 

499
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:13,880
you know, he talks about how how
vegans have this, whether you're

500
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:16,400
whether or not you like the 
vegan diet, they have this 

501
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:18,840
perspective where they look at a
piece of meat and say, that's 

502
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:20,520
not food, that's something 
horrible. 

503
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:24,040
I would never touch it, you 
know, and in order to succeed, 

504
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,280
what I found is that I have to 
think it that way about carbs, 

505
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:31,440
you know, and they look at, you 
know, a piece of pizza or a 

506
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:35,000
doughnut or or whatever and just
say that that's not food and I'm

507
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:37,600
not going to touch it. 
It's, it's not even part of my 

508
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:41,640
world, you know what I mean? 
And so there's a lot I think of,

509
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:45,520
of the mindset shift is a, is a 
big, big part of it. 

510
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,400
And then once you, once you were
able to adopt that mindset 

511
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:52,960
shift, you can start to look 
around, you know, and it 

512
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:54,600
actually, I think it becomes 
simpler. 

513
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:58,160
You know, the first thing I did 
was, was to start eating hard 

514
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:00,920
boiled eggs. 
I would get a dozen eggs, you 

515
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:05,520
know, Sunday afternoon sometime.
I'd just boil them up, put them 

516
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:09,440
in the fridge and said, OK, you 
know, mornings because I used to

517
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,720
before that I was into the, you 
know, the smoothies, the cereal,

518
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:16,880
whatever might be. 
And it's so much easier to grab 

519
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:19,160
2 hard boiled eggs out of the 
fridge than it is to make a 

520
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:21,320
smoothie with the vegetables and
the juice and the blah blah, 

521
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:23,120
blah. 
So I was like, all right, this 

522
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:27,320
is great, you know, so, OK, 
breakfast done, taken care of, 

523
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:29,920
right? 
Dinner. 

524
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,760
I do the cooking in the house, 
so, so that helped as well 

525
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:36,720
because I can control what goes 
into what goes into dinner, 

526
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:38,480
right? 
So OK, dinner's going to be a 

527
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:42,400
piece of meat and a vegetable. 
Saute it up, you know, some 

528
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,480
olive oil, boom, done. 
And then lunch is going to be 

529
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:50,640
leftovers of the night before, 
you know, So once you sort, I 

530
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:54,840
feel like once you sort of 
understand the, the, the 

531
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,360
parameters, the rules, you know 
what I mean, then then the 

532
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:00,440
details become a lot easier to 
fill in. 

533
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,760
Yeah. 100% man, I feel like 
they're especially now, there's 

534
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:07,840
just way too many options for 
what to eat and a lot of it is 

535
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:09,480
not food. 
Like especially all these, you 

536
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,840
know, heavily processed, hyper 
palatable, you know, lab created

537
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:14,680
foods. 
Like I, I think it's totally 

538
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,760
reasonable to look at that and 
view it as this negative 

539
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:20,840
connotation that is not food, 
you know, mentality. 

540
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:25,440
So I, I, I like that, you know, 
example you with the, the vegans

541
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,120
and meat and a lot of people 
like they throw shade on that. 

542
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:29,600
They're like, Hey, you gotta be 
able to eat everything in 

543
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,400
moderation. 
Having any form of elimination 

544
00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:34,000
is an eating disorder in and of 
itself. 

545
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:35,040
And I totally disagree with 
that. 

546
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,880
Like some people are definitely 
better suited to eliminate as 

547
00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:40,040
opposed to moderate. 
And like, when you're looking 

548
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:43,200
through it as far as moderating 
some of these prepackaged junk 

549
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:46,560
foods in the 1st place, like I 
don't even feel like removing 

550
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:48,720
that is a disservice at all. 
Like I don't feel like I'm 

551
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:51,600
missing out by not having that. 
Right, right. 

552
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,160
Do I need to moderate, you know,
polysorbate 80 and and other all

553
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:57,880
these additives that are 
chemicals that are not even, you

554
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:02,360
know, found in nature, you know,
or am I better off just without 

555
00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:04,200
them completely? 
Well, I would say just get them,

556
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:06,480
get rid of them completely. 
You know, 100%. 

557
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,760
So with you being the the 
primary chef in the house, I 

558
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:11,760
guess your wife is kind of doing
keto now by default, right? 

559
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:14,920
A little bit, a little bit. 
So, so she's from the 

560
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:16,640
Philippines. 
And so in the Philippines, it's 

561
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:20,640
not a meal without rice, right? 
You try to, you try to serve a 

562
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:23,160
meal without rice, you're going 
to get kicked out of the house. 

563
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,920
So I, I'll make, you know, I'll 
make something, you know, gosh, 

564
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:30,640
and I've, and I've learned to 
make some, some Filipino 

565
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:34,200
recipes, you know, adopted for, 
for a low carb like adobo is 

566
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:35,680
big, you know. 
Yeah. 

567
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,080
So make a nice chicken adobo 
chicken with soy sauce, the 

568
00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:42,120
vinegar and all the good stuff. 
And she makes the rice and I 

569
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:47,000
just have the chicken, you know?
So it's so we make it work, you 

570
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:48,280
know? 
You couldn't get her bought into

571
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:50,000
cauliflower rice, and that 
wasn't the same thing. 

572
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:55,040
We tried, she did. 
She did go for it for a little 

573
00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:57,360
while, but you know, she goes 
back and forth, yeah. 

574
00:31:58,120 --> 00:31:59,800
Yeah, cauliflower rice is 
definitely the same thing as 

575
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:01,240
rice. 
There's that miracle rice too, 

576
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:03,840
which I'll do like when I'm 
trying to go ultra low calories,

577
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:05,800
but that is just eating like 
water balloons, you know? 

578
00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:07,920
Is it? 
Yeah, yeah, No, I haven't tried 

579
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:08,840
that one. 
OK. 

580
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,200
Yeah, you're not missing. 
Out but but, but even she has 

581
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,760
noticed like so, so we never 
have wheat, you know, but once 

582
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:18,000
in a while she'll have a piece 
of bread and she's noticed that 

583
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:22,120
her that her joints, you know, 
her, her knuckles start to hurt.

584
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:24,760
You know, she gets a little bit 
of a rheumatoid reaction to 

585
00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:25,840
that. 
Yeah. 

586
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:29,760
I mean gluten, man. 
Like we're just plain simple, 

587
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:32,760
not designed to breakdown and 
assimilate gluten like that. 

588
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:34,600
Like everyone is gluten 
intolerant. 

589
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:37,560
Not it's varying degrees, like 
some people can notice it more 

590
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:41,160
profoundly than others, but as a
species we are 100% not designed

591
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:42,920
to to breakdown and assimilate 
gluten. 

592
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:45,560
Yeah, no, absolutely. 
And, and in fact, even in the 

593
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,400
epilepsy world, there are people
who that's all they need to do. 

594
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:50,360
They don't even need to go 
ketogenic. 

595
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:53,120
They'll they eliminate gluten 
and it'll and the seizures will 

596
00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:55,320
go away. 
Yeah, that is super interesting.

597
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:59,240
The, the psychological component
is, is really component to me. 

598
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:02,640
Like I feel like there's, you 
know, like Chris Palmer's 

599
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:04,680
putting out some great work 
right now as far as the, the 

600
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,440
psychology around, you know, 
what you're eating and how that 

601
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:11,720
impacts things, especially with 
the the rise the of people 

602
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:15,280
suffering from depression and 
all the SSRIs and just the 

603
00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:17,920
medications involved in that. 
And I feel like if if we can 

604
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:21,120
just simply improve what people 
are eating and then so much of 

605
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:24,000
that can be resolved relatively 
quickly and painlessly. 

606
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:27,280
Yeah, yeah. 
No, I, I agree completely. 

607
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,560
His, his book is fascinating. 
I read it and I had the 

608
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,440
opportunity to meet him at that 
the Metabolic Health Summit. 

609
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:39,120
I was, I, I, I, I talked my way 
into being in the, the, the book

610
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:42,560
signing the first night. 
And so they set me up with a 

611
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:44,200
little table and I've got my 
books there. 

612
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:47,360
And sure enough, right next to 
me is Chris Palmer and he's got 

613
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:50,360
a line going out the door, you 
know, and here's me, nobody's 

614
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:51,680
heard, nobody's heard of me, 
right? 

615
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:55,560
But I ended up, I finally just 
got up and started talking to 

616
00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:58,920
people who were in line to, to, 
to meet him, just had something 

617
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:02,120
to do. 
But yeah, he's great, a great 

618
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:03,960
guy. 
And I actually went and I, and I

619
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:06,080
said to him, thank you for 
helping me to understand my 

620
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:11,199
epilepsy, because a lot of his 
research and his, his book Brain

621
00:34:11,199 --> 00:34:15,480
Energy, you know, is based on 
epilepsy research and connecting

622
00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:17,639
it to mental health research, 
right? 

623
00:34:17,639 --> 00:34:22,920
And, and so you know, who, who, 
how did it take us this long to 

624
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:27,639
kind of realize that, Oh, wait, 
you know, psychology and 

625
00:34:27,639 --> 00:34:31,280
neurology, they're both dealing 
with the same organ. 

626
00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:32,880
You know what I mean? 
Like. 

627
00:34:33,679 --> 00:34:36,280
Yeah, 100%. 
And it's kind of crazy because 

628
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:39,199
like right now, I mean, you've 
been doing this for a while, 

629
00:34:39,199 --> 00:34:43,040
like keto kind of saw its, its 
peak probably in 2017, 

630
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:46,199
2018-2019. 
And then now it's kind of like 

631
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:49,360
like there's carnivore, but 
it's, it's kind of like getting,

632
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,040
you know, hedged that as this 
like quote UN quote fad diet. 

633
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:54,719
But then it's like all you, all 
this science and research is 

634
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:58,560
coming around around the 
ketogenic diets as it pertains 

635
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:02,040
to, you know, Cancer Research 
and, and neurological health and

636
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:03,880
function. 
It's like, how can you not 

637
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:05,440
excited to be in this keto 
space? 

638
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,600
Like, how can one possibly 
assume that it's just some fad 

639
00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:10,680
that's gonna go on the wayside 
when all this research just 

640
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:14,400
keeps coming out and out? 
No, exactly, exactly in my, in 

641
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:16,920
my book, I call it the 100 year 
old fad diet, right. 

642
00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:20,600
So everyone thinks it's this big
fad, but it's been, you know, as

643
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:23,600
you know, it's been around for 
100 years as a as a treatment 

644
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:26,120
for epilepsy. 
And, and if you look at there's 

645
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:29,400
this cool feature on, on pub Med
where you can put in a search 

646
00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:33,520
term and it gives you a graph of
how many papers were published 

647
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:36,880
each year with that topic. 
And so if you put in ketogenic, 

648
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:41,480
you just see this flat line 
right around zero for, for years

649
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:43,680
and years and years, you know, 
maybe one or two papers each 

650
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,240
year. 
And then all of a sudden in the 

651
00:35:45,240 --> 00:35:48,280
last 10 years, it just spikes up
like crazy. 

652
00:35:49,720 --> 00:35:52,000
And I think it's only going to 
keep going, you know, because 

653
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:56,560
the thing at that, at that 
conference, you could just feel 

654
00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:00,120
the energy, the excitement. 
You know, I just felt like 

655
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,320
everybody I talked to knew that 
we're sort of on the cutting 

656
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:07,840
edge of something that's that's 
only expanding and that that 

657
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:09,480
we're only beginning to 
understand. 

658
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,880
You know, I mean, you talk to 
when I certainly when I started 

659
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:20,080
2016, you know, there there was 
I, I was being trained on, OK, 

660
00:36:20,240 --> 00:36:22,520
we know this works. 
We know this thing helps reduce 

661
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:25,040
seizures. 
We have no idea why, right? 

662
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:29,400
So 100 years, I still don't know
why exactly, but it does work 

663
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:31,480
and we're starting to understand
why there. 

664
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,560
But it looks like there's a 
bunch of different mechanisms, 

665
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:36,400
right? 
There's anti inflammation and 

666
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,960
there's the energetics of the 
brain and there's the gut 

667
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:43,800
microbiome, you know, whole 
whole new area of research there

668
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:46,040
as well. 
Yeah, no, I'm super excited 

669
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:48,240
about, I think I'm, I'm 
incredibly optimistic about the 

670
00:36:48,240 --> 00:36:51,040
future of the diet as a 
lifestyle. 

671
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,120
And, you know, like I'm just 
excited and, and honored to be 

672
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,200
part of it 'cause I feel like we
are on the cutting edge. 

673
00:36:56,200 --> 00:36:58,560
And I feel like there's just, 
you know, take all the 

674
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:00,280
scientific studies and throw 
them out the window. 

675
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:01,840
Just look at all the anecdotal 
evidence. 

676
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:03,840
Like half the people that are at
these conferences are there 

677
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,840
because they've drastically 
improved their own health or 

678
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:09,280
they know someone in their 
family that has that's, you 

679
00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:11,320
know, gained them years of their
life back. 

680
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:13,680
And it's like once you've 
experienced that, you can't 

681
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:16,880
unknow it. 
And then it just becomes like a,

682
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:18,720
a part of your identity. 
It becomes something that you 

683
00:37:18,720 --> 00:37:20,600
want to share and help others to
achieve as well. 

684
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:23,840
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. 
You know, I was looking around 

685
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:28,160
at the conference and you know, 
there was in the presentations 

686
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:30,200
fell into basically two camps, 
right. 

687
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:33,280
There's the pH DS who are who 
are presenting the latest 

688
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:35,400
science and most of what they're
saying is completely over my 

689
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:40,120
head, but you know, that's fine.
And, and then there's like the M

690
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,480
DS that are talking about how 
they use it in their clinic with

691
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:47,920
patients, you know, and then, 
and so the, the, the attendees 

692
00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:50,640
are also, you got the pH DS, you
got the M DS, you got the, the 

693
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:55,200
students and you got the people 
who are trying to heal and the 

694
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:56,680
people who are trying to 
optimize. 

695
00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:00,120
And it's kind of, that's kind of
interesting to me that that this

696
00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:03,360
one thing, this one ketogenic 
diet, it can help, can help 

697
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,200
people heal, you know, if 
they're needing to heal, that 

698
00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:09,200
can help people optimize if 
they're trying to, you know, win

699
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:11,040
athletic competitions or 
whatever it might be. 

700
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:13,480
Yeah. 
And I think I mean, if you if 

701
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:16,320
you just step back and look at 
it holistically, that makes 

702
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:18,400
sense. 
We are so far removed from what 

703
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:21,440
we are designed to eat as a 
species that the closer we 

704
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:25,520
return to that, it would stand 
to reason that we would heal. 

705
00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:29,360
We would mitigate these pain 
points and inflammation and 

706
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:32,120
chronic, you know, stressors on 
the body and that we would 

707
00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:35,800
optimize performance and overall
recoveries and strength metrics,

708
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:39,200
endurance components like all 
these things would improve in 

709
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:43,800
the context of a properly 
formulated species specific diet

710
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:47,440
that lo and behold, I think is 
pretty eloquently illustrated by

711
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:49,760
a well formed ketogenic diet. 
And if you get that dialed in, 

712
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:51,360
everything else will improve as 
well. 

713
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:54,400
Absolutely, absolutely. 
Yeah. 

714
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:59,000
And it's it's fascinating to me.
And and, you know, it's again, 

715
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,960
you know, it's a journey. 
I'm not perfect for sure. 

716
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:05,160
You know, I've stumbled, I've 
had, you know, screw ups along 

717
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:10,200
the way, but, but just, you 
know, being part of this thing 

718
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:13,880
and being, you know, being I, I 
often say, you know, and there's

719
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:15,720
a sense of agency with it, 
right? 

720
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:19,680
I mean, when I was first, again,
going back to when I was first 

721
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:22,440
diagnosed with epilepsy, it was 
like, OK, well, looks like 

722
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:24,800
you're going to be on medication
for the next 50 years or so. 

723
00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:28,640
All right, You know, take this 
pill and, and, and good luck. 

724
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:32,280
And you sort of that puts all 
the power in the hands of the 

725
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,160
the doctor, right? 
Because I don't know one 

726
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:37,360
difference between one. 
Yeah, there's 25. 

727
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:40,280
Sure. 
There's 2526 medications on the 

728
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:42,840
market for epilepsy. 
I don't know which one's better,

729
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:44,440
which one's going to work, which
one's not. 

730
00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:49,560
You know, it's all it's, you 
know, it's all Greek to me as a 

731
00:39:49,560 --> 00:39:51,680
patient. 
But here's one thing that I know

732
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:54,320
that I can control. 
And here's one way that I know 

733
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:58,720
that I can participate in my 
treatment, you know, And there's

734
00:39:58,720 --> 00:40:00,160
something very empowering about 
that. 

735
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:02,480
Yeah, I think there's something 
incredibly empowering about 

736
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:04,280
that. 
And I mean, like just the the 

737
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:08,080
compounding effect of what we 
eat every single day and its 

738
00:40:08,240 --> 00:40:10,360
impact on our livelihood and 
existence. 

739
00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:13,200
Like when you just take the 
guesswork out of it and you 

740
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:17,280
return to that empowering nature
of, you know, having control 

741
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:19,840
over what food you're preparing,
where you're sourcing that food,

742
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:22,240
how you're cooking that food, 
what you put into your body. 

743
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:25,080
Like you just feel like you're 
now in control of your own 

744
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:27,120
health and destiny. 
And I feel like we're so far 

745
00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:29,320
removed from that and 
everybody's leaning on whatever 

746
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:32,440
the doctor says or whatever 
medication schedule they're on. 

747
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:34,760
I feel like, you know, the 
further we can get from that and

748
00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:38,440
the closer we can get to just 
how we should be eating, the 

749
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:39,960
better for sure. 
I think the conferences are a 

750
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:43,160
great way to to illustrate that 
because it shows people, you 

751
00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:45,480
know, that they're not alone in 
this journey. 

752
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:46,520
And I think that's the main 
thing. 

753
00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:49,560
Like people need to have some 
sense of camaraderie and know 

754
00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:52,560
that other people are are doing 
something that they can resonate

755
00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:54,240
with. 
So like you having gone through 

756
00:40:54,240 --> 00:40:56,960
this from an epileptic 
standpoint, you know, and having

757
00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:59,640
dealt with seizures, people that
have gone through a similar 

758
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,400
journey themselves can 
appreciate what you're saying 

759
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:04,520
heck of a lot more than they'd 
be able to resonate with what 

760
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:05,960
I'm saying, having not gone 
through that. 

761
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:09,080
So you can touch people and, you
know, get them on the right 

762
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:12,240
track, which is, I'm assuming, 
part of the reason why you why 

763
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,560
you wrote your book. 
Yeah, no, exactly, exactly. 

764
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:19,480
You know, so, so the book was 
sort of my, my lockdown pandemic

765
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:24,520
project, you know, back in 2020,
I had, I had the opportunity to,

766
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:29,440
to join this book writing online
book writing class and start 

767
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:30,840
thinking, well, what am I going 
to write about? 

768
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:32,320
You know, so I'm trained as a 
writer. 

769
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:34,440
My background is as a writer. 
I'm an English teacher. 

770
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:36,800
So what am I going to write 
about? 

771
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:41,120
And I decided, well, let me, let
me, you know, I've been doing so

772
00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:43,600
much reading about this and 
listening to so many podcasts, I

773
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:47,520
might as well to, you know, try 
to write about my, my experience

774
00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:49,640
and, and about this whole 
ketogenic diet thing. 

775
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:53,400
And I finally said, well, you 
know, let me write the book that

776
00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:58,160
I wish I had when I'd started, 
you know, not so much a how to, 

777
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:02,440
but you know, a, a companion 
along the journey, if, if that 

778
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:06,000
makes sense, you know, And so 
the first part of the book is, 

779
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,320
it's, it's kind of a weird book 
'cause it's three different 

780
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:10,440
things in one, right? 
It's part, first part is sort of

781
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:12,800
my own, my own experience, my 
own journey. 

782
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:16,800
The second part is profiles of 
other people who have, who have 

783
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:22,320
gone down this road, both other 
patients, entrepreneurs, you 

784
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,760
know, a number of doctors and 
researchers, a number of people 

785
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:28,280
in this space. 
And then the third part is, is 

786
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:33,320
sort of principles, you know, 
the power of community, right? 

787
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:37,840
The power of everything's. 
Every chapter in part three is 

788
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:39,760
the, the power of one thing or 
another, right? 

789
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,000
The power of thinking 
differently and being a 

790
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:46,440
maverick, you know, and, and 
using sort of bringing together 

791
00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:49,960
all those my story, yes, but all
those different people that I've

792
00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:53,240
talked to dozens of, of 
interviews and what themes 

793
00:42:53,240 --> 00:42:57,280
emerge and that kind of thing. 
So hopefully, you know, a number

794
00:42:57,280 --> 00:43:00,680
of, of folks have reached out to
me and said that actually the 

795
00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:03,840
best, best review I ever got was
I got a message on Instagram 

796
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:06,560
and, and a woman said, thank you
for writing this book. 

797
00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:08,760
I, I don't feel so scared about 
what's happening to me. 

798
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:12,080
That's awesome. 
And I was like, wow, my God, you

799
00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:16,280
know, that's, that's more than I
could ever have have hoped for 

800
00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:18,160
you. 
Know that's that's truly 

801
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,520
amazing, man like that. 
And when you write a book like 

802
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:24,120
you're able to just scale your 
reach and you're, you're 

803
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:26,760
impacting people in ways that 
you'll never even know and that 

804
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:29,600
that's a good thing, man, that's
a positive thing because like, 

805
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:32,600
like I said, I'm all for the 
studies, I'm all for the 

806
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:34,080
research. 
Like we need that. 

807
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:35,960
But people resonate with 
stories. 

808
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:39,000
They resonate with, you know, 
human interaction. 

809
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,560
They resonate with anecdotal, 
you know, evidence. 

810
00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:44,960
And I feel like a book written 
like that is the best way to do 

811
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:46,640
that. 
Yeah. 

812
00:43:46,720 --> 00:43:47,600
Yeah. 
Well, thanks. 

813
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:48,840
Thanks, man. 
I appreciate that. 

814
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:51,280
You bet, you bet. 
Well, what's in the pop up for 

815
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:52,320
you, man? 
What, what what do you got 

816
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:53,720
coming? 
What's exciting you now? 

817
00:43:53,720 --> 00:43:56,480
And, and is there another book 
at some point in the future that

818
00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,080
what, what are you thinking? 
I'm I'm thinking there is. 

819
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:04,320
So I continue to write. 
I write unremarkable brain.com 

820
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:08,280
as my website and you if you go 
to that, that side, it takes you

821
00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:10,920
to my sub stack page where I 
write a newsletter every week. 

822
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:16,560
And you know, it's, it's sort of
wherever my curiosity takes me 

823
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:18,440
at this point. 
You know, I've gotten really you

824
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:20,640
mentioned that like the food 
system and where does our food 

825
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:22,600
come from? 
So I do posts about that, you 

826
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:26,840
know, I do posts about the 
latest research, whatever study 

827
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:31,440
has come out recently, you know,
whether it be, you know, a 

828
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:33,520
profile. 
I did an interview with Doctor 

829
00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:35,800
Mary Newport about Alzheimer's 
and her research. 

830
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:41,960
And so just sort of, you know, 
different, just different topics

831
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:46,120
and always with sort of that, 
that sense of humor and and down

832
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:48,560
to earth kind of approach, you 
know, it's I don't try to get 

833
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:52,760
too sciencey or too, you know, 
too cerebral about it, but just 

834
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:56,000
telling the stories and, and 
finding out, finding out what's 

835
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:59,320
going on in the world. 
So, yeah, I've been doing, I've 

836
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:02,160
been doing that for the last 
couple of years and, and 

837
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,240
continuing to research, continue
to write. 

838
00:45:06,240 --> 00:45:11,280
I'm also because I just, I'm, 
I'm a learning junkie, you know,

839
00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:15,920
I'm working on my certification 
through nutrition network on 

840
00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:20,720
becoming a, a nutrition advisor.
So who knows, Maybe I'll, I'll, 

841
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:23,400
I'm not sure if I'm going to 
move into the, the coaching 

842
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,680
space or any of that, but you 
know, it, it's right now it's 

843
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:29,000
for my own learning. 
But we'll see, We'll see. 

844
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:30,800
Maybe I'll start working with 
some folks. 

845
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:33,000
What is Nutrition Networks 
framework like? 

846
00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:39,240
Oh, so they're the the they're 
run under Tim Noakes in South 

847
00:45:39,240 --> 00:45:43,360
Africa and the Nokes Foundation,
and they're the educational arm 

848
00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:48,000
of the Low Carb USA 
organization, which is now 

849
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,400
called the Society for Metal 
Metabolic Health Practitioners. 

850
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:54,600
I just had one of their 
representatives on my podcast 

851
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:58,120
and we're talking about it and I
think it's super compounding. 

852
00:45:58,120 --> 00:46:00,760
Like I love what they've got. 
So I'm excited to hear what 

853
00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:03,960
you're you're thinking of it 
from a user, from a participant.

854
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:06,640
Yeah, yeah. 
And so and I went to their 

855
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:09,760
conference a couple years ago 
down there in Florida. 

856
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:13,760
Great organization, great people
who are just in it for, you 

857
00:46:13,760 --> 00:46:16,320
know, in it for the love of it. 
You know, you get the same kind 

858
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:19,640
of energy that that I think I'm 
sure you could feel it. 

859
00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:23,480
Metabolic Health Summit, there's
that energy there where they're 

860
00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:27,440
really just trying to trying to 
help people and trying to unify 

861
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:32,840
this, this mission of bringing, 
bringing metabolic health into 

862
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:36,720
the mainstream. 
And so, and so, yeah, I, I'd 

863
00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:40,560
gone to the, the conference and 
met some folks and one of the, 

864
00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:42,880
one of the people that I met 
there was working on his 

865
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:44,880
certification. 
And So what is that, you know, 

866
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:47,800
what's that all about? 
And so it's an online course, 

867
00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:52,160
you know, and, and the number of
videos and, and modules that you

868
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:57,840
work through about everything 
from everything from diabetes 

869
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:03,000
reversal to, you know, to weight
management to, to, you know, 

870
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,560
they, they do touch on neurology
and epilepsy. 

871
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:10,600
They touch on sort of all the 
aspects of all the aspects of 

872
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:13,120
metabolic health. 
And then within that they also 

873
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:15,960
have specialized courses. 
So I took this, I also took the 

874
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:21,280
specialized neurology course 
that they have, they have 

875
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:26,040
courses on, also on, on, you 
know, exercise and then exercise

876
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:28,760
Physiology and stuff. 
So really fascinating stuff. 

877
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:31,520
And that did a great job putting
up putting together, you know, 

878
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:35,560
again, some of the biggest names
and, and, and some of the 

879
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:39,160
biggest experts in the space. 
Yeah, I, I perused their website

880
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:41,040
after having her on the podcast 
and it seemed like they've got a

881
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:43,600
pretty comprehensive list of 
just different topics to learn 

882
00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:45,400
about. 
So I, I think what they're doing

883
00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:48,200
is, is awesome work for sure, 
especially what they're doing in

884
00:47:48,200 --> 00:47:51,640
South Africa and just that 
region as it pertains to, you 

885
00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:52,920
know, food quality there 
locally. 

886
00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:55,720
I think they're making some 
massive gain waves there as 

887
00:47:55,720 --> 00:47:57,800
well. 
Yeah, yeah. 

888
00:47:57,800 --> 00:48:00,720
And that's, and that's the cool 
thing about it too, is that, you

889
00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:04,520
know, they have, you know, of 
course you've seen the same, the

890
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:09,520
same news stories on TV that I 
have, you know, about poverty 

891
00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:13,320
and, and, you know, the the, the
underprivileged folks in South 

892
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:15,200
Africa. 
But they've, they've really made

893
00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:21,000
it, you know, made it clear that
you could do this even in, you 

894
00:48:21,040 --> 00:48:23,560
know, even if you are an 
underprivileged person and 

895
00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:26,280
you're not, not, you know, you 
don't have to be wealthy to live

896
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:28,320
low carb. 
Totally, totally, totally 

897
00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:31,520
talking about sub stack, man. 
Like I've heard a lot of people 

898
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:35,160
reference that. 
I've not done any significant 

899
00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:37,000
research on my own. 
That's basically like where you 

900
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:40,600
write your content and that's 
accessible to anybody that wants

901
00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:42,440
to read around. 
Like what what is the benefit of

902
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:45,080
that versus like having like a 
newsletter or something? 

903
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:48,040
I guess it is a newsletter. 
Yeah, it is, it is I, I've tried

904
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:51,160
a couple of different blogging 
platforms like blogger.com back 

905
00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:53,600
in the day. 
And this one. 

906
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:58,320
I, I, it's so a couple of things
about it that I really like is 

907
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:00,440
that it's very intuitive. 
You know, you don't have to 

908
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:03,360
spend a lot of time on design 
and, and those sorts of things. 

909
00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,080
You know, it's, it's designed 
for writers who just want to 

910
00:49:06,080 --> 00:49:11,480
write basically. 
And it is it, it enables you to,

911
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:15,440
if you want to publish your post
as a news, as a newsletter to 

912
00:49:15,680 --> 00:49:17,920
straight to people's inboxes, 
you can do that. 

913
00:49:19,240 --> 00:49:24,240
They have, they also have layers
where you can, you can add a, 

914
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:27,960
like a, a paywall, you know, and
put certain posts behind a 

915
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:30,360
paywall or not. 
I haven't done any of that yet. 

916
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:32,440
All my, all my stuff is up there
for free. 

917
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:36,120
People just, you know, go to my 
website and sign up or not sign 

918
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:37,200
up. 
You can click through without 

919
00:49:37,200 --> 00:49:38,840
signing up and just read what's 
on there. 

920
00:49:40,720 --> 00:49:45,480
And but they also do they, they 
sort of seem to be adding 

921
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:48,720
features every year. 
So, so now you can actually post

922
00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:53,360
a podcast and it will create the
RSS feed to go out to, you know,

923
00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:57,400
to go out to the podcast 
platforms and videos and all 

924
00:49:57,400 --> 00:49:59,200
kinds of things. 
So it's a lot of fun. 

925
00:49:59,240 --> 00:50:03,840
You know, it's, it's a, it's a 
good, it's my creative outlet, I

926
00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:04,960
like to say. 
Yeah. 

927
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,800
No, I like that for sure. 
So is it kind of like did you 

928
00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:11,000
ever use medium? 
No, I never did. 

929
00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:14,320
But yeah, I think it's it's kind
of similar to medium as well, 

930
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:16,440
Yeah. 
Yes, my concept and what what is

931
00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:18,880
the? 
So the website for the sub stack

932
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:20,120
is separate from your main 
website? 

933
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:22,480
Or is all one in the same? 
It's one in the same. 

934
00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:25,720
It's just I, I, I bought the, 
the domain 

935
00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:30,400
unremarkablebrain.com. 
And so it just refers to, you 

936
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:33,080
know, if you, if you put that 
into the browser, it'll refer 

937
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:35,560
you to 
unremarkablebrain.substack.com. 

938
00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:36,400
Same thing. 
Yeah. 

939
00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:38,240
Nice, nice. 
Well, I will definitely link out

940
00:50:38,240 --> 00:50:39,640
to that and make it easy for 
people to find you. 

941
00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:42,800
I'll be doing some perusing 
myself because you're writing 

942
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:44,960
about the same topics that I 
find interesting as well. 

943
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:47,800
So I'm, I'm excited for it, man.
I'm excited to see what the 

944
00:50:47,800 --> 00:50:49,200
future holds. 
Are you going to be going to any

945
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:52,240
other conferences this year? 
I appreciate it, man. 

946
00:50:52,240 --> 00:50:59,200
I hopefully, I definitely have 
my sights on Low Carb USA in 

947
00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:04,200
January when in Boca. 
I was hoping to get out to, to 

948
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:06,960
San Diego for their for their 
conference in August, but I got 

949
00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:08,760
some work obligations I can't 
get out of. 

950
00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:13,120
So yeah, just keeping an eye on 
on what's going on and, and 

951
00:51:13,120 --> 00:51:14,880
what's coming up here. 
Very nice. 

952
00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:17,040
Well, if I am going to be going 
to any of those as well, I'll 

953
00:51:17,040 --> 00:51:18,960
definitely let you know. 
We'd love to see you again in 

954
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:20,920
person, man. 
Absolutely. 

955
00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:22,920
Well, David, I certainly 
appreciate the time. 

956
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:24,080
I appreciate the work you're 
doing. 

957
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:26,800
I'm so grateful that you have 
discovered the ketogenic 

958
00:51:26,800 --> 00:51:30,960
lifestyles way to mitigate the 
epileptic seizures, and doing so

959
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:34,560
has allowed you an outlet to 
create content that has likely 

960
00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:35,840
improved the lives of many 
others. 

961
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:39,880
So keep doing the good work man.
Thanks man, I appreciate it and 

962
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:41,840
thanks for having me on. 
My pleasure to be man. 

963
00:51:41,920 --> 00:51:43,600
My pleasure. 
Till next time man, take care. 

964
00:51:44,560 --> 00:51:44,960
You too.