I’m a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner and a personal trainer. Most of my clients are in mid-life and want to feel well, move without pain and stay strong for the decades ahead. Many have been told their tests are “normal” but still don’t feel right.
How I work
Reading test results is one part of the job. The bigger part is what happens when the plan meets real life: where the rubber hits the road. That’s where experience counts.
In training, it means changing the session on the spot for pain, stiffness, a bad night’s sleep, stress, or a day when someone needs to let off steam. Sometimes that’s slow, precise technical work; sometimes it’s hard physical work, with bodyweight, kettlebells, Swiss balls, bands or boxing pads. Even when a client turns up not in the mood, my job is to get the right work done, and most leave glad they didn’t cancel.
In nutrition, it means working out what someone will actually do, then adjusting as their results and their life change. I plan nutrition and movement together, so the plan agrees with itself.
Background
- Boxing: training every day to fight from 17; athletics coaching from 18.
- Glasgow first, then Edinburgh from 1993: boxing fitness, circuit and sparring classes, then a personal training practice built on strength, weight loss, corrective exercise and nutrition.
- Swiss ball training led me to Paul Chek’s work, then metabolic typing and thyroid blood testing. Testing first since 1994.
- Ran Balanced Fitness in Edinburgh, a centre with personal trainers, physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors and massage therapists.
- Co-founded Omnos, an early functional lab data platform.
- Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P) since 2009.
Training and qualifications
FDN-P since 2009 · BSc (Hons) Developmental Biology (Glasgow) · MSc Coaching Studies & Applied Physiology (Heriot-Watt University) · Working with people since 1988 · Testing first since 1994
BSc (Hons) Developmental Biology (Glasgow). PG Dip. MSc Coaching Studies & Applied Physiology (Heriot-Watt University). FDN-P. Neurogistics Certified Brain Wellness Practitioner. I’ve trained with Reed Davis (FDN), Bill Wolcott (metabolic typing), Bryan Walsh (biochemistry) and Paul Chek (movement). Author of the Test, Don’t Guess books and Metabolic Natures, Volume 1.
Who I’ve worked with
Hundreds of clients over nearly forty years, including physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, personal trainers, and Pilates and yoga teachers, as well as people who’d never trained in their lives.
How I treat evidence
Every recommendation on this site carries its evidence grade. My own working targets are labelled as mine. When I get something wrong, I say so: see Corrections and What I Got Wrong.
Where and how
At your home in the Edinburgh area, by video or by phone. Test kits post anywhere in the UK and abroad.