My 2025 Functional Blood Work: Gut Health, Protein, and the Hidden Clues - Part 3
My gut health story goes back to around 2010, when I was deep into the endurance world — marathons, triathlons, and Ironman events. At the time, I thought endurance athletes were the fittest people on the planet. That more hours, more miles, more pain meant more health.
It took a few years (and plenty of symptoms) to realise just how wrong I was.
Endurance sports can do a number on your gut — especially when training volume is high, sleep is poor, stress is chronic, and recovery is an afterthought. If you want to read more about how that chapter impacted my health.
My 2025 Functional Blood Work flagged a 62% probability of GI dysfunction.
The Gym That Proved I Wasn’t Crazy
In 2014, I co-founded Momentum Training, a gym tucked away in East London’s gritty backstreets. To most people, it looked like just another CrossFit box.
To me, it was everything.
It was the moment I finally proved, to myself and everyone else, that I wasn’t crazy.
Six years earlier, I’d walked away from a secure, well-paying corporate job in Australia. Four years before opening the gym, I’d stepped off the corporate ladder entirely to become a personal trainer.
I left behind the suit, the steady paycheck, and the “respectable career” I’d worked so hard to build.
My dad thought I was nuts. My mates didn’t get it.
My 2025 Functional Blood Work – Part 2: Kidneys, Creatine & Context
In Part 1 of this series, I broke down my immune system results and what they meant through a functional medicine lens. Today, we’re diving into my kidney function — a system that showed up as needing attention in my report.
According to the functional blood work algorithm, I scored a 77% probability of kidney dysfunction.
Now, that might sound dramatic — but let’s take a breath and look at what’s really going on.
My 2025 Functional Blood Work: Immune System - Part 1
Earlier this year, as part of the Midlife Mavericks Blood Work Workshop, I took a deep dive into my own blood results. And let me tell you — it's a strange mix of confronting and empowering when your own blood starts whispering secrets about your health.
My results are in, and I’m sharing them with you — not because I want sympathy, but because I want more men to take their health seriously before the wheels fall off.
Men in Midlife: You Probably Need to Eat More, Not Less
When most men in midlife think about losing weight or getting healthy, the first instinct is to eat less. Skip breakfast. Cut calories. Try intermittent fasting. Maybe just have a coffee and tough it out until lunch.
Sound familiar?
This might feel like discipline, but the truth is: many men are unknowingly under-eating—especially when it comes to nutrients, not just calories. And it’s wrecking their energy, hormones, metabolism, and long-term health.
Let’s break this down.
Why the Dad Bod Isn't Harmless—And What You Can Do About It
When we think about muscle, we often picture movement and physical strength. While it's undeniably crucial for locomotion and performance, muscle plays an equally vital role behind the scenes—boosting metabolism, supporting fat loss, and enhancing overall health. As men navigating midlife, building and preserving lean muscle isn't merely beneficial—it's essential.
Yet most men in midlife aren't training effectively to support their health, boost testosterone, and decrease the risk of obesity and chronic disease. Look around any office and you'll likely see a worrying trend: many men are overweight and undermuscled.
Diet is certainly important, but alone it's insufficient. Cutting calories, intermittent fasting, and skipping meals might seem effective short-term, but these methods can slow your metabolism, often leading to weight regain once regular eating resumes.
There’s a far better solution—one that allows you to eat like a man, boost your metabolism, and lose belly fat sustainably.
Why Men in Midlife Need to Eat MORE Protein, Not Less
For decades, we've been fed a dangerous narrative:
"Eat less red meat."
"Cut down on saturated fats."
"Animal protein is bad for you."
Meanwhile, Big Pharma and Big Food have profited massively as our health has declined. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and muscle wasting have all skyrocketed. Coincidence? Not likely.
One of the biggest tools they used? The Food Pyramid.
Designed in the late 20th century, the Food Pyramid demonised nutrient-dense foods like red meat and saturated fats while promoting grains, refined carbohydrates, and processed foods as the foundation of a "healthy" diet. It steered us away from the very foods that sustain strength, vitality, and metabolic health — and into a carbohydrate-heavy, inflammatory diet that has fuelled modern chronic diseases.
If you're a man in your 40s, 50s, or beyond, it's time to open your eyes: you need MORE protein, not less. Especially high-quality animal protein.
Here's why:
The Modern Testosterone Decline: What Every Midlife Man Should Know
Since the 1980s, studies have documented a consistent decline in average testosterone levels among men. One prominent study found that testosterone levels have been decreasing by about 1% per year, independent of aging. This means that a man in his 30s today may have significantly lower testosterone levels compared to a man of the same age in previous decades. [1]
While aging naturally leads to a gradual decrease in testosterone, the accelerated decline observed in recent decades suggests additional contributing factors.
Here are five of the key lifestyle and environmental influences:
From Warrior to King: The Rite of Passage Men in Midlife Are Missing
There comes a time in every man’s life when the armour starts to feel heavy. You’ve fought hard — for your family, your career, your health, your identity.
You’ve worn the Warrior's badge with honour: strength, discipline, sacrifice, and drive. And for years, it served you well.
But now… something feels off. The grind that once gave you purpose now feels hollow. You look in the mirror and barely recognise the man staring back. You feel disconnected — from your body, your partner, your mates, your kids, your purpose.
You keep trying to push through it, like you always have. Because that’s what the Warrior does. He fights. He endures. He strives to wins. But what if midlife isn’t a battle you’re meant to win with brute force?
What if the discomfort you’re feeling isn’t failure… but a rite of passage?
The Gut-Histamine Connection: Why I’m Starting a 60-Day Gut Protocol
Last week, I shared my journey with histamine intolerance—how certain meals were wrecking my sleep, leaving me wired at night, foggy in the morning, and wondering what was going on inside my body.
What I didn’t realise at the time was that the real issue wasn’t just the food. It was my gut.