Functional Approach for Working Professionals
Executive Summary
For many years, nutrition advice often sounded either too general to be useful or too technical to be lived. On one side there were broad rules that did not explain why one person improved while another stalled. On the other side there was the promise that deep testing would unlock the perfect diet. My own experience taught me something more practical and more powerful. The body usually tells a clear enough story long before highly detailed genetic testing becomes necessary, provided you know how to read the signals.
I came to this through necessity. I was dealing with cardiovascular disease, higher than normal hs-CRP, high homocysteine, low folate, high fasting insulin, visceral fat, and the kind of energy and mood swings that make daily life feel less steady than it should. On the surface, a person can still function, still work, still exercise, still look disciplined, and yet know that something is not right underneath. That was the turning point. I realised that the question was not simply which diet sounded healthy. The real question was what my biology was struggling with most, what signals it was responding badly to, and what sequence of changes would actually move function in the right direction.
What followed was not a discovery of one magical diet but a process of functional healing. With the support of knowledgeable functional practitioners, alongside my own training and certification in functional nutrition science, I learned to use symptoms, routine blood markers, body composition, digestive response, and lived feedback to build a practical framework for personal nutrition. I also learned the strategic value of using a continuous glucose monitor and repeat biomarker testing as tools to help interpret the body more honestly and make better decisions at the right time. Used properly, they helped reveal what was happening beneath the surface, where my meals were creating strain, where my blood sugar regulation was less stable than it appeared, and where progress was real rather than assumed. However, that data only became useful when interpreted through expert, evidence-based guidance.
I moved through phases. I began with removing bread because it was one of the clearest and easiest ways to lower a major source of metabolic noise. I then moved into a Mediterranean-style pattern because it improved food quality, reduced processed load, and gave me a more stable nutritional base. In time, as the pattern became clearer and my response became more measurable, I moved further into nutritional ketosis using a keto-level low-carbohydrate approach built around healthy fats and nutrient-dense foods, including homemade ghee from butter from grass-fed cows, olive oil, MCT oil, grass-fed meats, eggs, and oily fish.
That progression was a structured response to what my body was showing me. Over time, it helped bring my metabolic markers back into the normal range and moved my functional health into a far better place. More importantly, it taught me a framework that I now use in my coaching. I do not coach people into copying my exact diet. I use the same principles to help each person find the right nutrition pattern for their own biology, symptoms, goals, and stage of life. That is where personalised nutrition becomes real. It stops being a concept and becomes a guided process of finding what your body truly needs.
Why I Had to Stop Thinking in Diet Labels
One of the biggest mistakes people make is to start with a diet label rather than a biological pattern. They ask whether Mediterranean is better than low carbohydrate, whether plant-based is better than animal-based, whether ketosis is necessary, or whether one popular model is superior to another. I understand that instinct because I have lived it. When health becomes uncertain, people naturally want the right answer quickly. However, what I found is that the body does not care about food tribes. It responds to signals.
That changed how I looked at nutrition. Instead of asking what diet was supposed to be best in general, I began asking what my body was actually showing me. My markers were telling a story of inflammation, methylation strain, poor insulin handling, excess visceral fat, and unstable energy regulation. In simple language, the system was under pressure. It was not processing fuel cleanly, it was not regulating inflammation well enough, and it was not giving me the steadiness that real health should provide. Once I understood that, the work became clearer. I needed a framework that could read the body honestly and respond with the right sequence.
That is the foundation of the approach I now use with clients. Symptoms matter. Routine blood tests matter. Body composition matters. Digestive clues matter. Daily rhythm matters. Response over time matters. Continuous glucose monitoring, when used strategically, can also matter. It can help expose patterns that standard testing miss between appointments, especially the relationship between food, timing, stress, activity, and glucose control. Yet even here, the value is not in collecting more numbers. The value is in understanding what they mean and what to do next. When these layers are interpreted together, they often reveal enough to build a highly personalised food strategy.
The Pattern I Saw in My Own Body
Looking back, the important thing was not any single abnormal number. It was the pattern across them. Cardiovascular disease was already telling me that the stakes were real. Higher than normal hs-CRP pointed toward inflammatory load. High homocysteine and low folate suggested deeper metabolic and methylation issues. High fasting insulin pointed toward insulin resistance, which simply means the body is having to work too hard to manage blood sugar. Visceral fat added another layer because it is metabolically active tissue that drives wider dysfunction. Then there were the lived symptoms, namely energy swings and mood swings, which showed that this was not just a laboratory issue. It was affecting the quality of my days.
The continuous glucose monitor added another piece to the story. It did not replace blood tests. It helped me see how certain foods, meal combinations, timings, and life circumstances were affecting my glucose control in real time. It also showed me that what looks acceptable in theory can feel very different in the body. A meal that appears harmless on paper may create a very different response when eaten under stress, after poor sleep, or at the wrong time of day. That kind of insight can be powerful, but only when used carefully. A CGM is there to provide a clearer window into metabolic response so that better decisions can be made.
That combination of blood markers, symptoms, body composition, and glucose feedback matters because it is common in different forms among working adults who still appear to be coping. This is why I believe so strongly in a functional approach. It helps you see the pattern before the body has to shout louder.
Why I Began by Removing Bread
The first move was I removed bread. I began there because, in my case, it was one of the clearest, most repeatable sources of metabolic instability. It represented a concentrated and easy-to-overuse form of carbohydrate that did not support the direction my body needed to go.
The CGM helped confirm that decision. It gave me visible feedback that certain foods were creating a higher and less steady glucose response than I wanted, especially when combined with the wider context of stress, timing, and previous meals. At the same time, fasting insulin and other biomarkers helped me avoid the mistake of judging my health from a single meal response alone. One of the great errors in self-experimentation is to treat isolated readings as the truth. Real interpretation comes from looking at repeated patterns, matching them with the person’s symptoms and blood work, and then deciding whether the dietary change is lowering overall strain.
This is an important lesson. A good first step is often the one that reduces the most noise with the least confusion. Removing bread did not solve everything, but it immediately began to lower one major source of glucose and insulin demand. It also helped create contrast. Once a major dietary pressure is removed, the body’s response becomes easier to read. Hunger signals change. Energy shifts. Digestion changes. Cravings either rise or settle. That feedback is valuable.
In coaching, this is one of the reasons I do not rush people into complicated plans. The early moves need to reveal pattern as much as they create change. When that is done well, the person begins to feel that their body is becoming more readable. That is the moment where nutrition starts to feel less like a battle and more like guided understanding.
Why I Moved Toward a Mediterranean Pattern
After that first phase, I moved into a Mediterranean-style way of eating. It gave me a cleaner nutritional base built around whole foods, better fats, better protein, more food quality, fewer processed inputs, and a more stable overall pattern. It lowered inflammatory and metabolic load while allowing me to rebuild the foundations of eating well.
This phase was important because many people need a bridge before they need a destination. The body often responds best when change is sequenced rather than forced. A Mediterranean pattern helped me move away from processed food dependence and closer to a whole-food structure that was easier to sustain and easier to evaluate. It reduced friction. It also made clear that better health was not going to come from removing one food alone. It was going to come from changing the whole message I was giving my body.
This was also the stage where ongoing biomarker testing became especially useful. It allowed me to see whether the changes I was feeling were being reflected in deeper physiology. In evidence-based practice, symptoms matter, but symptoms alone are not enough. The body can feel better in one dimension while hidden strain remains in another. So I learned to use repeat testing to check whether inflammation, insulin regulation, nutrient status, and metabolic risk were truly moving in the right direction. That is what made the process grounded. It was not based on hope. It was based on response.
That same discipline shapes my coaching now. It is not enough for a person to say they think something is helping. Where appropriate, I want to see whether the pattern is improving in a way that matches both lived function and meaningful markers. That is where confidence begins to grow.
Why I Finally Moved to Ketosis
The final move was not pre-decided. I arrived there because the evidence in my own body kept pointing in that direction. As I learned more from my symptoms, markers, and response, it became increasingly clear that a keto-level low-carbohydrate approach was the right tool for my biology. This was not about chasing ketones as a trend. It was about creating a metabolic environment that reduced insulin load, improved energy stability, helped shrink visceral fat, and gave my system a cleaner fuel pattern.
So I moved into ketosis through a nutrient-dense, whole-food approach built around healthy fats and high-quality protein. I used homemade ghee made from butter from grass-fed cows milk, olive oil, and MCT oil as key fat sources. I centred my eating around grass-fed meats, eggs, and oily fish. That gave me satiety, steadier energy, better fuel utilisation, and a stronger nutritional base. More importantly, it matched the pattern my body had been showing me all along.
The data helped confirm what the lived experience suggested. My glucose became steadier. My energy became calmer. The pattern of reactivity began to soften. However, the meaning of ketosis in my story is not that it is superior for everyone. It is that it was the correct therapeutic match for me. That is an important distinction. In my work, I use that lesson carefully. Some people need a gentler first phase. Some need to restore nutrient density and rhythm before going lower in carbohydrate. Some benefit from Mediterranean principles. Some benefit from a deeper ketogenic approach. The skill is not in naming the diet. The skill is in knowing when the body is ready, when the pattern supports it, and how to guide it without unnecessary confusion.
What Changed in My Health
Over time, the pattern shifted. My metabolic numbers came back into the normal range. My functional health moved into a far stronger place. The instability that had once shown up as higher fasting insulin, inflammation, visceral fat, and uneven energy began to give way to better control, better clarity, and better resilience.
That change happened because I stopped treating food as a collection of isolated rules and started using it as a biological signal. I learned how to read what my body needed. I adjusted in sequence. I watched the response. I kept what worked. I refined what did not. I used CGM data and biomarker testing strategically, not obsessively, and always with the aim of improving interpretation rather than collecting more information than I could use. That is what made the process dependable.
This is also why I speak with conviction about personalised nutrition. I know what it feels like when the body resists change. I know what it feels like to have the discipline and still not get the result. I also know what it feels like when the right sequence begins to unlock the system. The body becomes more stable. Hunger becomes quieter. Energy becomes more even. Mood settles. Recovery improves. Numbers improve. The person does not simply lose weight or change a lab marker. They begin to live in a body that feels more trustworthy again.
The Framework I Now Use in My Coaching
What I discovered through my own health journey became the framework I now use in my coaching. I do not impose my exact food choices on every client, because that would miss the whole point. The real principle is not that everyone should eat as I do. The real principle is that each person needs a way to identify the dominant pattern in their own biology and then match nutrition to that pattern with intelligence and sequence.
So in my work, I help people look at the body through a functional lens. I look at symptoms, daily energy, cravings, digestive response, body composition, blood markers, lifestyle rhythm, and the interaction between stress and nutrition. Where useful, I also use CGM and selected biomarker testing as part of that picture, because they can help clarify progression, guide decision points, and reduce guesswork. However, this is always done within informed, evidence-based guidance. The aim is not to flood a person with data. The aim is to know what matters, what to monitor, what to ignore, and when a change is truly justified.
From there, the right dietary path becomes clearer. For some, the first move may be to remove the obvious metabolic disruptors. For others, the body may need a steadier whole-food Mediterranean-style base. For some, especially where insulin resistance, visceral fat, and metabolic instability are central, a deeper low-carbohydrate or ketogenic approach may be the right next step. The point is not the label. The point is the fit.
This is where experience matters. Many people know enough about nutrition to confuse themselves. They have tried healthy eating, low fat, low carb, fasting, clean eating, supplements, and exercise plans, yet still feel stuck. Usually the problem is not lack of effort. It is lack of sequence, lack of interpretation, and lack of a framework that links the body’s signals to the right intervention. That is the gap I now help people cross.
There Is No One Size Fit All Checklist
There is a reason this work cannot be reduced to a simple internet checklist. The principles can be explained, but the real value lies in how they are applied. The body is always speaking, but not everyone knows which signals matter most, which ones are secondary, and which change should come first. Even when people have access to CGM data, lab reports, or symptom tracking, they can still misread the story. Numbers can reassure falsely. They can also alarm unnecessarily. Without the right framework, more information often leads to more confusion.
That judgement is what protects people from doing too much, moving too fast, or choosing the wrong strategy for the wrong pattern. It is also what helps separate a temporary dietary reaction from a meaningful therapeutic direction. One glucose rise does not define a person. One improved week does not complete the journey. One lab value does not explain the whole system. The real process is more careful than that.
This is why people often fail even when they are motivated. They may have the right intention, but not the right order. They may choose a diet that is good in theory but wrong for their current physiology. Or they may choose a useful diet but apply it without the nutritional quality, timing, adjustment, or follow-through that makes it work safely and effectively.
So yes, there is a framework. Yes, it can be learned. Yes, it can change lives. However, the real process is more precise than simply being told what foods to eat. It is a guided method of seeing the body clearly, choosing the right signal, interpreting progress properly, and refining that signal until the body starts responding the way it should. That is why coaching matter
Guesswork Also Does Not Help
If there is one truth at the heart of this work, it is this: the personal diet is not found by guessing, copying, or following food fashion. It is found by learning how to read the body and respond in the right sequence. That is what I had to do for myself, and it is what I now help others do through my coaching.
My own path moved from no bread, to a Mediterranean pattern, and then to ketosis through a nutrient-dense, low-carbohydrate approach built around healthy fats and high-quality animal foods. That path helped take me from cardiovascular risk, inflammatory burden, metabolic dysfunction, visceral fat, and unstable energy to normal metabolic numbers and far stronger functional health. It was supported by careful observation, strategic CGM use, repeat biomarker testing, and informed interpretation grounded in evidence rather than assumption. More importantly, it taught me a practical framework for how real transformation works. That framework now sits at the centre of my coaching. It is how I help people stop chasing diets and start finding the food strategy that truly fits their biology.
About Mathew Gomes
Functional Health, Nutrition & Longevity Coach
Many senior professionals slowly lose energy, metabolic health and resilience with age and end up managing blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, gut issues or chronic stress with long-term medication while the underlying loss of function continues.
Mathew Gomes is a certified Functional Health, Nutrition Practitioner (American Academy of Functional Health) and Executive Coach (ICF, EMCC) who helps professionals understand and correct the root causes behind this decline.Using structured assessments of how seven core body systems function – energy, cardiovascular, metabolic, digestive, immune, hormonal, and nervous – Mathew translates the science of nutrition, lifestyle and recovery into a clear, practical plan integrated alongside medical care.
Doctors manage disease; meanwhile Mathew restores function – so the body works better again, dependence on medication can reduce, resilience returns, and professionals regain the energy and health to live and perform fully for the long term.
Disclaimer
This white paper is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, prevent, or provide medical advice for any disease or health condition.The author is a Functional Health, Nutrition and Longevity Coach, not a medical doctor. The content presented reflects a functional, educational perspective on health, lifestyle, nutrition, and risk factors, and is designed to support informed self-care and productive conversations with qualified healthcare professionals. Nothing in this document should be interpreted as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a licensed physician or other qualified healthcare provider. Readers should not start, stop, or change any medication, supplement, or medical treatment without consulting their prescribing clinician.Individual responses to nutrition, lifestyle, supplements, and coaching strategies vary. Any actions taken based on this information are done at the reader’s own discretion and responsibility. If you have a medical condition, are taking prescription medication, or have concerns about your health, you are advised to seek guidance from a licensed healthcare professional before making changes.