This One’s Personal.

While updating our Client Onboarding Guidelines this week, I found myself going off on a bit of a rant.

Fifteen years ago, my cousin died of a heart attack. I was too broke to fly back for the funeral. I’ve regretted that ever since.

So when I see dangerous diet trends gaining traction — the kind that could quietly send someone else’s cousin to an early grave — I can’t stay quiet.

Let me be clear: I don’t dispute that some people have had success with the Carnivore diet in addressing certain health issues. That’s great, and I don’t take issue with people sharing those experiences.

What I do take issue with is when those anecdotes are twisted into broad recommendations. Worse: when they’re paired with anti-science claims about seed oils, and used to justify sky-high saturated fat intakes.

This boom in saturated-fat-pushing, seed-oil-demonizing advice?

It’s not going to end well for a lot of people.

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Further Reading

📘 From Sigma Nutrition:

• ​Cholesterol, Lipoproteins & Lipids: Understanding CVD Risk​
• ​The Impact of Diet on Blood Lipids​
• ​How Diet Influences Heart Disease Risk​
• ​The History of Fat, Cholesterol & Heart Disease​ (Podcast)

🧠 From Uproot Nutrition:

• ​A Comprehensive Rebuttal to Seed Oil Sophistry​

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Now in his 30s, he moved from Canada to live in Vietnam with his wife, but he is still chasing the same goal that’s been with him for half his life: to finally see abs. But as he tries to diet down, self-doubt, conflicting advice, and the temptation to “adjust something” too soon keep creeping in.

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Don’t be fooled by how fit he looks.

Don is 6’4”, 180 lbs, lean, and strong—but what makes his story special isn’t what you see now. It’s the journey he has been on.

He’s a 41-year-old father of three who used to weigh 250 lbs. He’s yo-yo dieted for over a decade. He even got liposuction once because he thought it would help him feel “enough.”

But what really changed his life was when he broke the all-or-nothing mindset that held him back.

And in this conversation, Don shares exactly how he did that. We explore what he needs to do next, with a particular focus on troubleshooting his training, so that he doesn't get caught in cycles of injury as he has done in the past.

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He’s been shredded at 189, bulked up to 227, and now he’s trying to land somewhere in the middle — strong, athletic, and confident… while still keeping up with the demands of parenting, working out, and running a small business.

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Now at 44 years old, he’s sitting at a lean and healthy 155 — and more importantly, he feels in control for the first time in his life.

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Let’s get to it.

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We talk about what finally pushed him to commit, how he gained 30 pounds and made the biggest strength gains of his life, and why cutting back down now feels surprisingly difficult — despite having done it before.

This is a conversation about late-stage gains, body image rewiring, and what happens when you finally give yourself permission to grow.

Let’s dive in.

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Michael wants to set a better example for his four kids, especially his son, who’s now lifting and developing his own self-control. He’s wrestling with how to stay consistent, how to eat in a way that balances discipline with family joy, and how to shift from "perfect or nothing" to something sustainable.

He’s not just chasing fat loss — he’s trying to break a generational pattern before it repeats.