Low Carb and Keto Coaching

Changing the writing on the wall.

In my late 30s I was 35 kg overweight and could not go more than 2 hours without eating something, or I would have a sugar crash and get really grumpy, something I had endured my whole life. I was vegetarian, had severe irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, gastro-oesophageal reflux and intermittent high blood pressure. With a strong history of Type 2 diabetes on both sides of the family, I was well on the way to chronic ill health. I did very little exercise, had not been hill walking for years, and my knees creaked and were painful going up stairs.

What happened next was far from deliberate, but led me to where I am today. I lost my appetite and cut down my food intake dramatically for a month, and lost a lot of weight. Miraculously my sugar crashes disappeared. Later on medical research would be published showing that very low energy diets can reverse insulin resistance (and even put Type 2 diabetes into remission). This is undoubtedly what happened with me.

Then shortly afterwards, again totally accidentally, I had a severe allergic reaction to a badly cooked soya burger. It felt like I had drunk molten lead, my gut burned from top to toe. I could barely drink water for 2 days and it was 5 days before I could eat again. When I did, I was severely allergic to gluten, getting the same burning effect if I even had a crumb of bread. In an effort to work out what had happened I turned to the literature, and found out about LCHF - Low Carbohydrate High Fat - diets (they later modified it to “Healthy Fat”).

At that stage Dr Tim Noakes in South Africa, and a few others were pretty much lone voices in the wilderness. This was rather ironic, as Tim had taught me at medical school when he was furiously advocating carbohydrate loading for long distance running, so this was quite a turn-around. He had developed Type 2 diabetes himself, and was controlling it using an LCHF diet, which they call the Banting Diet after the discoverer of insulin. Tim was the subject of persecution by the dietician establishment in South Africa, to the extent of taking a complaint against him to the medical regulatory body. Thanks to a heroic effort by his supporters and defence team, he successfully defended himself. Seeing all this, and as I had already given up bread and beer anyway, I decided to go the whole hog and stop or drastically reduce all carbohydrates.

I fat-adapted with no particular problems, and the benefits were amazing. My weight dropped back down to where it was when I was a teenager, when I was very fit and half-starved at boarding school. I slowly lost most of my cravings and still had no crashes and loss of equilibrium. I found my energy was a hundred-fold better, I could easily come back from work having last eaten at lunch, mow the lawn and do some other chores before I felt the need to eat. I was back to hill walking, didn’t have to lug supplies of food around with me everywhere. And my knees no longer creaked!

Slowly the LCHF movement has gained momentum and spread across the world, becoming almost mainstream, as the Low Carb or Ketogenic diet. Research into what it is, how it works and the many benefits has mounted up, and there is even more on the way. One of the most exciting areas of promise is in mental health conditions, particularly ketogenic diets in schizo-affective and bipolar disorders. As we see the areas and conditions it has benefits for grow rapidly, we are now much better placed to talk about how and why it works, although we are all still learning.

Based on my personal journey and extensive study of the research and work being done in the area, I help people out of the chronic ill-health trap I was in. We now know that low carb and ketogenic diets work at a fundamental metabolic level, correcting the damage caused by excessive carbohydrate consumption. They do this by reducing inflammation and promoting healing of the whole body and mind. It is sustainable and continues to work for the rest of your life, helping protect you against heart disease, stroke, Alzheimers and many autoimmune conditions.

Contact me to discuss how I can help you get your health and energy back on track and prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and other inflammatory conditions.

Further Reading:

Metabolic Mind
https://www.metabolicmind.org

The Noakes Foundation
https://thenoakesfoundation.org/prof-tim-noakes/