“You're diabetic now.”

As I gained 100 pounds, I didn't feel like I looked that different. I'd check the mirror and think: “I look good.” “Getting a little bigger, but still sexy.” “I haven't changed that much.”

The truth is: I had changed. A lot. But my brain didn't want me to notice. Your brain is the most energy-hungry organ in your body. It runs on calories. It loves when you eat more. It wanted me to stay overweight. It was doing exactly what evolution designed it to do: keep me full, safe, and rested.

“We can't rely on what we think about our health. The mirror will lie. Our brain will justify. But the numbers won't.”

Then came the blood test. March 2023. My doctor turned to me and said: “You're diabetic now.” Blood sugar 6.5. Reference range: below 5.7. I was floored. Despite my weight, I still considered myself a healthy person. I was wrong.

I immediately started using AI — ChatGPT had just launched — to help me understand my diet and health. I co-founded TheGain.ai to research, study, and help others understand the risks and opportunities of using AI. I attended conferences, hackathons, and tech events. All while quietly using AI to transform my own health.

I had to stop trusting the mirror. And I had to stop letting my hungry brain decide when and what to eat. Every few hours, I was eating. For comfort, for habit, for boredom — anything but nutrition.

Then one day, I saw an old photo of a skinnier version of myself. I remember thinking: “Ah... another life.” But then it hit me: it doesn't have to be. So I taped that photo up and started talking to myself. When I looked at it: “That's you.” When I looked in the mirror: “That's not you.”

That shift made me see things differently. So I started tracking.

“Because what gets measured gets managed. And it's a lot harder to lie to yourself when you're staring at the truth.”

Here's the lie no one talks about: the 2,000-calorie number isn't real for everyone. My Basal Metabolic Rate is just 1,610. That's how many calories I burn if I sit around and do nothing all day. If I didn't walk those extra 10,000 steps and relied on the 2,000-calorie number to guide my diet, I would slowly gain weight. The standard calorie recommendation is a food labeling reference — not a health plan.

By October 2024, what started as a personal experiment became something bigger. As a software engineer with 24+ years of experience, I started seriously building Healthy Choices — tracking not just calories, but 26 health categories. Vitals, medications, conditions, lab results, sleep, stress, activity. The AI identified patterns no calorie counter would catch: blood pressure spiking after specific meals, sleep deteriorating from evening processed foods, nutrient gaps my medications were creating.

I started thinking of weight gain like credit card debt. Spend what you want when you need it, but don't carry the debt. That debt — the extra weight — has interest charges in the form of inflammation, aging, and chronic disease.

I enrolled in Stanford's AI & Longevity Lab to deepen my understanding of biological aging. In 2026, I incorporated AI Me Technologies as a Delaware corporation to make everything publicly available. For nearly three years I had been building quietly — no public announcements, no fanfare. I didn't want to say anything until I felt it was truly ready. I've been testing on myself, and I am the proof.

“This wasn't easy. But it was possible.”