Today I am going to share WHO is behind Live Vitae, and my story so far. Fasten your seat belt as I will be authentic and transparent with you, which is an extremely important value of mine.

Who is Live Vitae?

Full name: Ryan Carter
Age: 34 (as I write this in November 2020)
Date of Birth: 16th September 1986 (add it to your calendar :-)
Born: Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, (suburbs of London) United Kingdom
Siblings: 2 sisters – I’m the middle (apparently the weird one, but I don't think so...)
To clarify the forever questions both in real life and the virtual world. I am not a viking with my long hair, nor Australian, with my sandals and short wear, 24/7, 365 days a year.

MY JOURNEY: FROM DRUG-DEALER TO NUTRITIONIST...

Got your attention? I truly believe that being authentic, transparent, and showing vulnerability is a unique skill in this modern society. So here’s my real, unfiltered story.

I had a fairly standard upbringing. Grateful to have seen a number of countries and cultures, opening my mind so early on. I went to a fairly typical school – the usual sport activities and paper round job in my early teens. Then things started getting interesting. I got a bit lost within myself, and was looking for a community, belonging, identity...

I started graffitiing – my school, buses, local area, train tracks. My tag was “Trim”. Got suspended from secondary school, got a reprimand by the police. I then started a grime crew called “Frontline Soldiers / F.L.S” with me being the leader and MC. We did local pirate (illegal) radio stations, internet video radio, and we got our song on Kiss 100 FM (although at 2am in the morning, still impressive). See us in action at laylowfm.

Next came selling cannabis. This grew and things escalated to a point when I was getting the attention of people you would not invite round for a Sunday roast with your family. Essentially, I got beaten up (not the first but most extensive), held at gun and knife point, and robbed.

I got kicked out of home, rightfully. Lost all my social connections to 23 years of my life, and had to relocate to my uncles in North West London.

I had no real idea what I was doing, where I was going, and only had the support of my girlfriend at the time, who traveled to see me and support me which I’m incredibly grateful for (and who further helped change my life around when I became anorexic at 55kg, 2-3 years later).

The story continues…

After a few months, my dad allowed me to work in the family business; an antique shop on Portobello Road, London. It’s a historic and famous shop in London (featured in the Paddington Bear film, and much more) which has been in my family since 1887.

I began grinding and working away and saving up money. I took a passion for the business, believing I would one day be running it. I moved out of my uncles and lived with my girlfriend, near Notting Hill. I thought things were going well, but I had no real friends as such, and I felt very alone. My girlfriend was progressing in her own career, and had the opportunity to relocate to work in a top hairdressing salon in Liverpool.

While living on my own, I got inspired with food television programmes: Masterchef, Great British Menu, and Rick Stein. This sparked a flame in me, having got my only A in GCSEs in food technology. I was on to something. I cooked as much as possible, bought as many cook books, started eating out at restaurants, understanding more about food and culture. Reflecting back, it wasn’t health-orientated food to say the least, but it was a step in the right direction to better things.

THE HEALTH BREAKDOWN

My health, unknowing to me, started to decline. I noticed losing my sex drive, and I became complacent. I didn’t think much about it at the time. I joined a gym, to help the ‘fluff’ which accumulated from having no physical movement since my adult football league days. I had no idea what I was doing. I did some cardio, threw some dumbbells around, and used machines going through the motions.

I began to experience endorphins from the gym. I found a routine and a sense of purpose in my life. As a result of being a hermit and lacking the confidence to engage with other humans, I was alone. I now had all the time and ability to control my life around the gym and food. For some unknown reason, I was attracted to the process of weighing myself daily. Perhaps with the belief that what you weigh on a scale represents something of true value, and decreasing it gave me dedication and control.

As you can imagine, it was a recipe for disaster of my emotional, mental, and physical self. Unintentionally, I did fast cardio and believed that doing weights makes you leaner, bulky - the type of look that I want. My nutritional knowledge came from my mum, government, and the media. I believed that carbohydrates are the cornerstone of health and weight, and eating a boat load of tropical fruit was “good”. Fat was a filthy word, protein had no importance, and minerals and vitamins didn't exist.

I wilted away, reaching a low point of 55.3 kilograms. I was a stick. Essentially, if there was a big breeze of wind, I was off. My girlfriend had more body mass than me – she was 5”6, I’m 5”10. I found myself deluded, down a severe rabbit hole, and unapproachable. I had trapped myself with my distorted view of health, life, and of support to pull me out from my own bullshit.

THE EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN

Then one night at my girlfriend’s parent’s home, I had a breakthrough. Having been worried about my obsession with exercise and fixation on food, my girlfriend had no option but to send an alarm to her parents to send the shots (verbally) to my impermeable brain that I was destroying my body and life.

I finally broke down. I do not remember ever being emotional or crying, but this time my world blew up. I accepted that I was self sabotaging, blinded by my mental issues, and was finally accepting and willing to get help.

The next part was not an easy step by any means. I will summarise it as succinctly as possible. In the gym, I’d become aware of a personal trainer, who seemed different to the rest. He was doing some bizarre movement mechanics, he seemed caring, genuine and I felt he held no judgements.

I finally built the courage to finally approach him more so than our mutual ‘hello’ exchanges when the gym doors opened, and asked for his help. I think in our first conversation together I broke down in tears. Just thinking about this moment brings a tear to my eye.

Fernando, a Brazilian-born, but American influenced personal trainer, was the human who transformed my life. He added much needed connection, confidence, friendship, guidance, and support in all aspects mentally and physically to my health. He catapulted my learning, understanding, and integrated purpose into my life. He introduced me to the paleo diet movement and bulletproofed which transformed my cooking and food choices.

I was reading, listening to podcasts, absorbing as much information as possible. Things were now really changing for the better. I was putting on muscle mass, gaining strength and more importantly beginning to feel like myself again.

ENTER THE PARASITE

The relationship with my girlfriend ended mutually and understandably. My life seemed more on track, but still focused on food and exercise. I decided to have a stint of travelling, taking myself to do a safari excursion in Tanzania, followed by a week of touring Zanzibar in shacks. I picked up a horrendous bout of food poisoning, aka a parasite.

I came back to the UK, in need of help, went to my GP who prescribed an antibiotic to solve the problem. It worked for a few weeks – until I got hit by a bus (not literally) with sporadic fatigue, muscle aches, digestive issues (bloating, diarrhoea and gas, which is not normal). A week or two later, I felt a weird nerve sensation, and I’d got shingles up my lower back. I was bed ridden for a few days with severe pain.

MERCURY AND MOLD TOXICITY

While my body seemed to be looking better, on the inside (where it matters), was breaking down with the demand I was placing on it. I was on bodybuilding training where protein was the most important nutrient. I acquired the taste for bluefin tuna sashimi. I was buying around 1-2 kilograms per week, raw and the best quality of course. (If you're gonna poison yourself unknowingly with mercury, you might as well enjoy it with the best tasting highest quality possible).

My gut was inflamed. I had severe brain fog and confusion. My sleep was non-existent. Sex drive was in the toilet, but hey, I still looked sort of decent! After realising that my GP and the medical system was not willing to help as I was “normal” with no limb hanging off to warrant the need for medication like statins, I started to dip my toes into the ideology of function medicine. I reached out to Matt Lovell, a sports nutritionist who helped and ordered some tests to look deeper into my body.

We moved the needle to a degree, then I saw Tamsin Lewis, who I heard on Ben Greenfield’s podcast. She helped move the needle a little more but again, there was a piece of the puzzle still missing.

I did more reading and studying on what I thought was a histamine issue. I stumbled on Chris Kresser’s podcast who mentioned the association of mercury and histamine sensitivity. This got me thinking about the excessive amount of mercury I was ingesting, so I stopped. I got entangled with an awesome friend Tim Gray from the UK Bulletproof community and tipped me off to his nutritionist at the time, who discovered that the root cause was a mold toxicity.

It is indeed a mold toxicity since my health declined the moment I worked in my family’s business which as I have mentioned is an antique shop. It has a damp basement, and housed two molds, which have covered that place throughout.

THE NUTRITIONIST CHAPTER

I had to make a decision and say goodbye to the possibility of taking over the family business, and find a new career. As a result of my endless rabbit hole, reading, and understanding of health and nutrition, it sparked my interest in learning in a subject I became so passionate about. I enrolled on a science access course (A level equivalent) to gain entry to a nutritional diploma with one of the world's most reputable institutes, the Institute for Optimum Nutrition. Four and a half years later, I qualified as a registered Nutritional Therapist, registered with B.A.N.T and C.N.H.C, and able to work with clients all around the world.

While obtaining this qualification part time, I was working as a hyperbaric oxygen chamber technician in central London. I worked directly with a top 10 world tennis player as his health coach and cook. I also worked in one of London's premium health clinics as a health coach. In addition to qualifying as a level 3 personal trainer with LDN muscle, I completed several advanced courses with leading experts such as Dr. Ben Lynch, Dr. Bryan Walsh (Metabolic Fitness Pro), Dr. Jill Crista, Applied Functional Medicine Mentoring Program (AFMMP) , and also qualified as an Oxygen Advantage breath-work practitioner with Patrick Mckeown.

It was this transition period in my life with losing so much in terms of community, relationships, that I have learnt the most about myself. I have no regrets, only gratitude for what has led me on to become one of the leaders in health optimisation that I am today. I really dug deeper from the beginning of my course with innate passion, forever asking questions, and curiosity with my learning to uncover wisdom from all fields of health, from all leaders and mentors who catapulted me to who I am now, both personally and professionally. Even to this day, I complete a book each week alone, on top of further research, while working with clients around the world as a nutritional therapist.

Cinzano, P., Falchi, F., Elvidge C.D. 2001, The first world atlas of the artificial night sky brightness, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society.

Thank you for making it this far!

Understanding my story might resonate with you with something similar (hopefully not the drugs!). It might spark your interest to become a nutritionist like myself, or just get to know me better, or even reach out for help / support in working together.

Thanks for joining me and many others like yourself here, our tribe on becoming an insider, wanting to do better, achieving your goals, live optimally in a state of abundance, energy and flow. I hope you’re ready for my next newsletter ‘cause it’s coming your way pretty soon…

Ryan Carter, wearing blue blocking glasses in London. Biohacking a modern toxic environment.

Registered Nutritionist mBANT and Health & Performance Optimisation Coach

P.S. I’d like to say thank you to my team in the background, who you do not see, who align and help me maintain my values with keeping my content authentic and not just another newsletter pushing products and bullshit.