EVIDENCE

An N of 1 exploration means the sample size is just you — "N" is the number of subjects, and here that number is 1. Instead of relying on a population average or someone else's claim about what should work, you track your own body's real data over time and let that be your evidence. This is the practice at the center of Ditch the Dogma: not taking something on faith, but testing it on yourself and seeing what's actually true for you.

Morning Pages is a practice created by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist's Way. The idea: first thing when you wake up, before your phone or anything else, you write three full pages by hand — longhand, not typed. There's no topic and no goal. You just keep your hand moving and write whatever comes to mind, even if that's "I don't know what to write" over and over. It's not meant to be good writing, and you're not supposed to reread it right away. The point isn't the pages themselves — it's clearing out the mental clutter first thing in the morning so you can hear your own thoughts more clearly underneath the noise.

Cardio zones measure how hard you're working during exercise, from easiest (Zone 1) to most intense (Zone 5). Most heart rate monitors, watches, or fitness apps will show you which zone you're in as you work out. After your workout, add up roughly how many minutes you spent in each zone and type those numbers into the boxes below — they don't need to add up perfectly, just estimate as best you can.

As you fill in minutes, a bar automatically appears showing the share of your workout spent in each zone, like this example:

The Glucose Ketone Index (GKI) was developed by cancer researcher Thomas Seyfried as a way to track how deep a state of ketosis someone is in, originally for metabolic therapy research. Lower numbers mean deeper ketosis (more ketones relative to glucose).

GKI	What it generally means
Less than 1	Peak therapeutic ketosis — the deepest level, used in intensive metabolic therapy research
1 – 3	High therapeutic ketosis
3 – 6	Moderate ketosis
6 – 9	Mild / low ketosis
9 – 10	Borderline, minimal ketosis
Greater than 10	Not in ketosis — typical of a standard diet

Your circadian rhythm is your body's internal ~24-hour clock. It controls far more than just sleep — it times your hormone release (like cortisol and melatonin), body temperature, metabolism, and digestion. The main thing that keeps this clock set correctly is light hitting your eyes, especially sunlight.

Morning sunlight (ideally within the first 30–60 minutes of waking) tells your body "the day has started." It triggers a healthy morning cortisol rise for daytime alertness and sets a timer for when melatonin will naturally rise again that night — roughly 14–16 hours later. Skipping this, or getting most of your light from indoor artificial lighting instead, can leave that internal clock poorly set.

Sunset light in the evening reinforces the transition toward night, helping your body wind down on schedule. It also matters what you avoid: bright artificial light and screens late in the evening can delay melatonin release and push your whole clock later, which is part of why evening light exposure (getting it, and limiting competing bright light) supports better sleep onset and quality.

A well-set circadian rhythm is linked to better sleep, steadier mood, and healthier metabolic and immune function. A chronically disrupted one is linked to the opposite.

Resonance breathing finds the exact pace where your heart-rate rhythm swings the widest and smoothest right along with your breath — that "sweet spot" pace is your personal resonance frequency, and practicing at it is what creates the calming, nervous-system benefit.

Setup: sit upright with feet flat, same relaxed posture every trial. Breathe quietly through your nose — don't breathe deeply or forcefully. Use the free Elite HRV app with a Polar H10 chest strap — not Whoop, Oura, or other wrist wearables, which aren't accurate enough beat-to-beat for this. Do 2–3 minutes of easy warm-up breathing around 5.5–6 bpm before you start.

Run 5 trials, in this order. Each trial is 2 minutes of breathing at that exact pace, followed by 2 minutes of quiet rest before the next one. Don't hold your breath between the inhale and exhale.

Pace	Inhale	Exhale
6.5 bpm	3.7 sec	5.5 sec
6.0 bpm	4.0 sec	6.0 sec
5.5 bpm	4.4 sec	6.5 sec
5.0 bpm	4.8 sec	7.2 sec
4.5 bpm	5.3 sec	8.0 sec

After each trial, note: how comfortable it felt, any air hunger, dizziness, or urge to sigh, your average heart rate, and whether the heart-rate wave looked big, smooth, and rounded — versus small or jagged.

Choosing your rate: pick the pace where your heart rate rose clearly on the inhale and fell clearly on the exhale, making the biggest, smoothest wave — not just whichever pace had the lowest average heart rate. If your app shows LF power, the highest LF power supports the same pick. If two paces look close, go with the slower one only if it still feels easy; if it causes strain, air hunger, or dizziness, choose the faster of the two instead.

Most people land at 5.5, 5.0, or 6.0 bpm, but don't assume it's 6.0 by default — the whole point is finding your best rate, not a one-size-fits-all number.