For the fourth episode of Flippin Health, George and Grant are joined by the “quiet change maker” Cliff Harvey.
He’s a researcher, clinical nutritionist, strength coach. He began with low-carb and keto diets back in 1998. He was also an athlete when he started out with keto diet.
Beginning the Change to Keto Diet
Keto diets were not that popular in 1998. So how did Cliff Harvey start?
Cliff shares that he learned all about it years before he started studying at AUT. It started with reading a bodybuilding magazine which featured an article on keto diet.
As an athlete, Cliff was looking to “lean up” and had been putting on weight before. He then followed the keto diet suggestions from the article and it gave him good results. Years later, while studying fitness training at AUT, Cliff had to do some nutrition papers. However, Cliff believed that many of the prescription ideas “didn’t really seem to make sense”. Cliff shares that there were emerging researches on protein intake. He started thinking about a “carb-appropriate idea”. In this idea, Cliff shares that when protein and fat are allocated first, what’s left becomes a person’s “carbon take”.
Starting the Journey to Being the Quiet Change Maker
A year after studying and getting kicked out of university classes, Cliff started his practice as a “quiet change maker”. Cliff first started working with rugby league teams and professional rugby players. He then went on to work with those who had severe metabolic disorders, and people over 200 kilos. Many of them bounced around from one practitioner to the other getting no results. What Cliff found worked for them was keto and low-carb.
The Rise of Keto and Low-Carb
21 years later, keto and low-carb diets are being practiced and Googled by people all over the world. For Cliff, he says it’s “nice to see it growing” despite the people who think that it’s just “a ridiculous fad”.
PhD, the “Carb-Appropriate Diet”, and being a “Quite Change Maker”
Cliff eventually took up a masters in ketogenesis. Then he moved forward to the doctoral thesis which he states leans more towards diet individuality.
As for “carb-appropriate”, Cliff tells us about the idea of a “spectrum of carbon types that are appropriate for different people.” Some people can benefit from a low-carb diet. Some benefit from a moderate level. And some people benefit from high-carb ones. The idea then lies in how to differentiate it and basically “individualising” it.
The Quiet Change Maker as an Educator
As someone who seems to have so many jobs, Cliff also finds it hard to make sense of what he does. But mainly, he sees himself as an educator. For him, giving talks and educating people about carb-appropriate and keto diet is in the field of education.
Rising from Depression
From his childhood to his high school years, our quiet change maker admits having bad depression. It was then diagnosed as bipolar. He was “highly functional” and could still “manage to succeed” despite being extremely depressed. Cliff also opens up that he had suicidal thoughts. He also shamelessly admits drinking and taking drugs back in high school to deal with the depression.
He further shares that he’s learned to conserve his energy and become aware of his hypomanic times.
Plus he gives his top tips for making time to meditate.
Listen to the full podcast here.
Check out our other podcasts here.
If you’re interested in learning more about low-carb and ketogentic nutrition, or mindfulness, check out our online courses.
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