Matthew’s story
Hi, my name is Matthew.
I joined the army in 1998. At that point I was just over 18 stone. BMI was new at the time and it said I was obese, which was ridiculous, I could bench press 140 and run up hills with artillery shells. That was the fittest I ever was.
My bipolar disorder surfaced and I had to leave the army. I went to uni to study biochemistry, then I eventually became a Chef.
I was put on olanzapine which made me rapidly gain weight.
I learned about keto from my best friend, a competitive body builder. Back then Dave Palumbo was the only person talking about keto, and it wasn’t even called keto yet. His version is nothing like what is generally accepted these days. I would do keto the body builder way, with a bulk phase and a cut phase. It was very difficult because the olanzapine messes with your insulin production and getting into ketosis way harder than for normal people. Year on year my weight slowly crept up.
In 2016 I was 25.5 stone.
I was riding my bike and a van pulled out on me.
It took a while to hit home how close I had come to death, and I start thinking seriously about my life. I wasn’t really doing anything, certainly nothing important and I was physically useless compared to the beast I was in 98
I had a lot of time in hospital and off work while my bones knitted together. So I had a lot of time to think and read. I realised that this was a second chance and I needed to sort my life out.
I read about the brain chemistry differences that keto brings and the associated neurological effects of long term ketosis and I decided to stop taking the olanzapine as keto should do a good job of replacing it.
I lost 8.5 stone in nine months with no real exercise except physiotherapy.
During that time I was surprised to find Facebook groups about “keto” so I joined a bunch. It quickly occurred to me that most people on those groups had never been taught how to cook. A lot of the food looked really tragic, especially the attempts at desserts. I fancied a lemon tart, so I made a keto lemon tart. I posted it, then the next recipe and the next etc. Eventually someone suggested I write a book, and foolishly I thought that was a good idea. I wrote a keto desserts book that only used ingredients available from small uk supermarkets.
My old neighbour’s six year old was put on a keto diet for her epilepsy. We talked at length and I worked with the family and their nhs keto nutritionist to help Poppy reduce her seizures from 200+ a day to one or two.
Easter came along and I decided to make her an Easter egg. I used diabetic chocolate and a few things. It wasn’t very good. The diabetic chocolate was very low quality. So I decided that I would work out how to make her something better for next year and I started making chocolate from scratch at home.
Lockdown happened and like a lot of other Chefs I was very badly treated. I needed to find a job but there weren’t any Chefs jobs, so I made one, and I started selling my keto chocolate. It has gone on to win several awards and I’m hoping for more this year.
Last year I got down to my lowest ever adult weight at 16 stone. Then I hit a new “major depressive episode” and ate my emotions a bit. I’m 18.5 stone right now with a very different body fat percentage than back when I was seventeen.
Maintenance is hard work.
So is running a small business.
If you want to see what I make these days my website is www.sweetketochef.co.uk
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