What happens during a nutritional consultation?
Consultations take place at my office, and are one-on-one. Using an integrative approach, I will customize a program for you including dietary recommendations, lifestyle modifications and vitamin and herbal therapies to help you achieve optimal vitality and well being. As a registered pharmacist, clients currently utilizing traditional drug therapies to manage illness will also benefit from my unique ability to integrate pharmacology with holistic protocols. By understanding your personal needs, I can help you gain greater control over your own health. I will explain how food affects metabolism, brain chemistry, and all systems in the body, helping you gain an understanding of how what you are eating may contribute to your current problems and how other foods can help contribute to the solution.
Together we will develop an insight into the psychology behind certain eating habits and addictions to help bring conscious awareness to these behaviors so that we can affect positive change. Improved understanding will empower you with a new relationship to food and the basis with which to develop your body’s innate wisdom, leading to a happier, healthier standard of living and magnificently improved quality of life!
Nutritional therapy may Include:
- Assessing diet and making changes to achieve specific health goals
- Therapeutic diet plans to help support prevention or treatment of disease
- Vitamin/herbal formula assessment and recommendations
- Medication and vitamin review to determine compatibility
I don’t feel I am that nutritionally savvy and sometimes get overwhelmed by all the mixed messages I hear through the media. How can a nutritional consultant help me?
If you know absolutely nothing (which is rarely the case), you will find it fascinating to discover how what you eat is connected to how you feel, think and look. (Have you ever heard the saying ‘you are what you eat’?) What and how you eat may even be causing or exacerbating a physical or emotional condition that you are experiencing. You’ll be inspired when you learn the ways in which an integrative food and nutrition plan is also the key to improved health and well-being. If you want to be healthier and your effort supports your intentions, your results may be extraordinary.
I am already very nutritionally aware, how can a nutritional consultant help me?
If you are already very nutritionally aware and have been making conscious healthy choices for some time, you are a prime candidate for appreciating the benefits that more subtle and strategic changes to your existing health and nutrition plan can effectuate. Implementing diet and lifestyle changes may also be less intimidating for you, and you will typically require less general ‘convincing’ of the true power of proper nutrition, because you already have positive personal experiences to refer to. The results you experience will take you to a level of optimum health that many find elusive or are unaware exists.
I have also found that it is not uncommon for many people to be implementing healthy lifestyle plans which include food and nutrition choices that they once established or became aware of in their teens or 20′s. This information may be outdated, incorrect, or simply not best suited to their current state of health. Without exception, their bodies have dutifully supported (or endured) many years of life (and food) experience since acquiring that knowledge, and therefore their starting points and goals tend to be drastically different by this point in their lives.
Health conscious clients often most appreciate that they can have a professional nutritionist available to them for a dedicated time on a regular basis, to help them sort through the wealth of health information (often biased and conflicting) available to them online and in the media, and to be able to discuss their experience and progress with someone who cares about their personal goals and understands their individual circumstances.
How long before I see results?
During your initial consultation I will be able to offer you specific tips and actionable ideas that you can immediately put into practice. Many clients experience some results very quickly, such as increased energy or perhaps some weight loss. However, in my extensive experience it is the clients who commit to improving their health over a longer period than two or three sessions that are most successful and achieve sustainable results.
Do I need to have multiple consultations?
No. Every client is unique, and you can choose to have as few or as many sessions as suits your preference. However, my experience is the following:
My clients consistently report a great increase in their motivation after their very first visit. They begin noticing how integrating Nutrition Therapy into their wellness program can help heal their bodies and they are inspired to continue in order to improve their overall health. Without continued support and guidance over longer durations, however, clients often find it difficult to sustain this motivation and more often than not fall back into old patterns, invariably missing out on the many significant health benefits that take longer to achieve with lifestyle and nutrition modifications implemented over longer periods.
In the current ‘on-demand’ climate of today, many people feel short-changed if they cannot purchase what they desire for a monetary fee or acquire it rapidly through a short, albeit focused effort. These expectations often mislead the client into thinking miracles can happen overnight. While it is true that implementing small lifestyle changes can reap unexpectedly positive results fairly quickly, it is disheartening to occasionally experience a client lose focus or intention when specific results are not instantaneous. The truth is that most adults have spent significant years creating the body of health they currently inhabit, and it may take a strong resolve and unprecedented commitment in order to guide the body towards the measurably improved health and well being they aspire to.
As a Nutrition Therapy Consultant, I practice in this field because I love what I do, and I know that tremendous results are achievable. I have witnessed many, many clients make positive transitions and create priceless change in their lives when they make the decision to include nutrition therapy as part of their long-term health plan. The body is incredible and amazingly receptive, and so some wonderful results are certainly achievable in a short amount of time – while others takes longer to achieve.
What I have found is that some of the most profound changes that take place with my clients, are positive adjustments in their mental attitudes and outlooks. These changes typically manifest over prolonged periods. The dedication of the client towards their goal, with the advantage of gradually enhanced health and mental clarity, accompanied by the education, knowledge and support that I am able to offer them during their conscious journey to improved health, ultimately reap the rewards that at one point seemed elusive, and the satisfaction and rewards are boundless.