Nathan is 47 years old, married, and a father of three. He spent 11 years traveling in the U.S. Army and several years as an operative in the U.S. Intelligence community. He says he had always worked out and stayed fit without following a particular diet and ate whatever he wanted.
Nathan’s Background and Health Issues
In his early forties, Nathan began noticing more injuries and what he thought were age-related issues. He showed signs of adult acne, radial neuropathy, premature balding, and skin tags. He also developed symptoms of inflammation, such as gingivitis, tinnitus, and plantar fasciitis.
“In hindsight, I was intensely sick. I was very insulin resistant and probably pre-diabetic. I put my body through a lot. Between the stress of my job, a poor diet, and everything I went through, I’m confident that my metabolic health was damaged. The only thing I was doing well for myself was lifting weights and exercising.”
Nathan’s Switch to Ketogenic Diet
Looking for a way to improve his health, Nathan began a ketogenic diet in 2016.
“I ate bacon and eggs for breakfast and steak or salmon for dinner. I usually had a big salad for lunch with bacon and avocado. One day, I was too lazy to make my salad, and the next morning, my gums didn’t bleed when I flossed. It hadn’t been like that in ages.”
Nathan skipped the salad for a second day and noticed new hair growing on top of his head, and the ringing in his ears from tinnitus was gone. “I realized the difference between me and optimal health was a salad!”
Nathan credits a ketogenic diet for improving his body composition and restoring his energy levels but says, “I did not recover my health until I went carnivore in 2019.”
Nathan’s Recovery with Carnivore Diet
In August 2022, Nathan suffered a health scare that stopped him in his tracks. One day, he was at work, and suddenly his hands and feet went numb. Within 48 hours, he was almost completely paralyzed from a neurological condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS).
Nathan’s doctors expected him to be hospitalized for up to eight weeks and would need several months more of physical therapy to regain the movement, feeling, strength, and endurance he had lost.
However, he walked out of the hospital just two weeks later. He went to one outpatient physical therapy appointment, and the doctor told him he didn’t need to return.
“I view the last several years of following a ketogenic and then a carnivore diet as making deposits into my health account,” Nathan explains. “When I got hit by GBS, I was able to recover in such a way that it didn’t have the same impact on me that it has had on others who end up in wheelchairs. Twenty days after it happened, I was playing in the front yard with my kids.”
Since his full recovery six months ago, Nathan has enjoyed traveling in his RV with his family and also runs a coaching and consulting business out of his home in Texas.
Nathan’s Health Journey and Coaching Business
“We all have the same goals. We all want to be happy, healthy, and fit. How do you build the daily habits to get there? My approach to lifestyle design helps put you on a path to get where you want to be.”
