Well I’ll kick off!
My name is Matt Straight, creator of the KETOFAST program. After a childhood being teased by kids for being overweight, never swimming in public because I was ashamed of my body and my, what the kids called “Man Boobs”, I decided to get into the fitness industry back in 1999 as a gym receptionist.
From there I learned how to drop the weight through exercise and better food decisions and in 2000 became a certified personal trainer and in 2002 I studied to become a Nutritionist as I could clearly see that exercise alone will not achieve results. It’s what we put in our mouths today which determines the quality of health we receive tomorrow.
Over the years I have competed in three body building competitions (I now wouldn’t recommend it!), achieved personal trainer of the year back in 2004, have been interviewed by various TV programs to give advice on how to choose trainers and given talks all over the world about health and nutrition as well as personally helping over 1000 people better their relationship with food through personal face to face and Skype consultations. I have set up and run 11 health clubs in the Philippines, India, New Zealand and Australia and had a blast!
Since 2011, I have run an online nutrition consulting business http://www.theonlinenutritionist.net which has allowed me to keep in touch with clients all over the globe.
So that is what I have done, but that is not who I am.
I am a person that has dedicated his life to helping others achieve health, but what I have realised over the years is that I can help someone for a session, for a day, for weeks, but as soon as I stop coaching them, as soon as they no longer feel accountable, they would go back to eating the same way as before and in many cases, put the weight back on. To be honest, it has been hard to not become cynical and feel bad for taking peoples money for my services knowing full well there was an 85% chance they will fail.
I started to wonder why people couldn’t seem to regulate their body weight and appetite through a “normal” healthy diet and exercise. While constant coaching and holding people accountable can achieve short term results, it is restrictive and quite often comes with forced behavioural changes due to external pressure. This encourages us to make decisions out of a place of guilt as opposed to empowerment, creating a negative relationship with food. I had athletes who were doing ten or more hours of exercise per week and they too couldn’t regulate their body weight. I have always exercised five to six times per week, but still unless I was super strict, I could drop body fat and this didn’t make sense. If I as a nutritionist of 16 years and personal trainer of 18 years couldn’t lose fat weight without thrashing my body with excessive exercise, what hope did my clients have?
It wasn’t until my dear Mother developed pancreas cancer and a friend of mine suggested I look further into the ketogenic way of eating that I realised the very real health benefits of eating a very low carb and high fat diet. Unfortunately we found Mum’s cancer too late and lost her to the disease. There isn’t a day go by that I don’t miss my beautiful Mum and I can’t help but wonder if we had caught it earlier and got her on a ketogenic diet, if we could have saved her.
When we knew Mum had very little chance of surviving, as a nutritionist I frantically researched everything I could in regards to how to best tackle cancer from a nutrition standpoint. And all my research pointed to the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting. I wrote myself a meal plan and followed it to the T and I was blown away by the results. The fat lass was quick but that wasn’t my main aim. It was better health and better energy that I was looking for and that is exactly what I got.
Since 2010, no matter what I did, I couldn’t get my weight down from 89-90kg. I was stuck. However after the first week on the KETOFAST program I lost two kilos (4lbs). The following week I dropped another three kilos (6.5lbs) The third week I lost another two kilos and I am now at my healthy weight of 82kg and maintaining muscle mass and staying lean. Sometimes it hard to believe that after all these years, its been so easy and I have done it eating cheesy omelettes with bacon and meals I love!
I no longer crave carb rich foods. I can control my appetite without having to think about it. I have constant energy throughout the day and my exercise performance is better than ever. I just feel great, strong, happy and healthy and that is why I am so passionate for people to try this way of eating. If you can get through the first 28 days, it will seriously change your life forever.
Thank you for reading. I look forward to hearing from you and getting to know you as you inborn on your journey into ketosis with the KETOFAST program.
All the best,
Matt
It wasn’t until my dear Mother became sick with Pancreas cancer that I started looking into ways to help her combat the cancer with nutrition that I started heavily researching the Ketogenic Diet and the benefits of