1. We focus on goals with a long term perspective. Most diets come with rebound effects and put you back were you started. When you work to implement change through routine and habit formation, weight loss will be a side effect, as well as:
- Having more energy in the mornings
- Getting a better quality of sleep.
- Feeling able to perform your best during the day.
- Having more confidence in yourself and your abilities, feeling both mentally sharper and physically strong.
- Finding relief from digestive discomfort and overall inflammation in the body.
- Feeling empowered to take on new goals in life.
- Most importantly, be able to do the things you love – better than before.
2. We make healthy digestion a priority. Your gut is the gate keeper to health. Proper breakdown, nutrient absorption and utilization as well as elimination is your guts main game! A weak link in any one of these functions can cause your overall health to remain in a limbo land of nuisance symptoms. It is not until the body decides that it is finished coping and the homeostasis scale tips into the realm of disease.
Improving your digestion is often the first step in experiencing more energy, weight loss and healthier skin! Not only this; gut health is now being recognized, more than ever before, for its connection to everything from brain function to immune health!
3.We are whole food advocates. Nature is truly amazing. It literally serves up what we need, exactly how we need it. We recommend whole foods and nose to tail nourishment, not only because it contains the vitamins we are looking for, but because our body knows best how to absorb and assimilate it due to other key ingredients included in that food!
4. We don’t follow any standardized food guide. With an understanding of how unique each and every one of use are biochemically, we know that what may work for one person, may not work well for someone different. By creating a personalized health plan involving your diet, supplements and lifestyle, we tailor our advice to you and only you.
5. Education is empowerment. Our most important role is to help you understand how specific foods recommended are working to support the body’s function. It is not enough to simply recommend a food. We also share with you information on storing and cooking practices used to optimize nutrient bioavailability in those foods.
In many circumstances we are willing to be very hands by coming into your home for one on one support in the kitchen doing recipes and meal preps for the week or guiding you in the grocery store learning to read labels and understand the health claims you see mean.
6. Being healthy is not just the absence of disease. A holistic nutritionist will help you to truly listen to your body’s subtle messages. We believe that the body is always working to maintain balance within itself and not working against you. By supporting it with the nutrition and self care it needs, that balance will follow.
7. Get to the root cause of symptoms. While many people attempt to cope directly with their symptoms, a holistic nutritionist will help you discover underlying imbalances that may be connected to your health problem and support specific body systems to bring balance. This strategy becomes the corner stone of your health plan.
8. We give you someone to be accountable to. There are a number of success techniques out there and this is a solid one we can provide. We are here to be that person for you as you overcome challenges and most importantly… learn to become more accountable to yourself through love and acceptance – not guilt, shame or fear.
9. We take the time to listen. You deserve all the time it takes to understand how your family history, your experiences, your diet, lifestyle, relationships, stress levels, occupation affect you. These are often overlooked yet very important clues to your wellbeing and addressing them can be key to chronic issues.
10. Holistic health considers 4 realms. Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. We are ready to make connections in all aspects of your life, in order to get a better understanding of how to guide you best.
11. We promote sustainability, environmental stewardship and connection to nature. “Vitamin N”, as award winning journalist Richard Louv calls it, referring to ecopsychology or ecotherapy which examines the connection between human well-being and the health of the planet. h
“Food can be the greatest form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison.”
― Ann Wigmore, founder of the renowned Hippocrates Health Institute and internationally acclaimed holistic health educator, taught that what we eat profoundly affects our health.
A final note,
Depending on where you live, anyone can call themselves a “holistic nutritionist” or even a “nutritionist” (which is actually a regulated health profession equivalent to dietitian depending on the province or state.) This can make it difficult to know whether the advice your getting is coming coming from someone with a standardized education in the field of human physiology, health and nutritional science.
It is crucially important that any practitioners you seek out have specific qualifications:
- Your holistic nutritionist should have certification number from an accredited school connected to an organization that is working to create standards in scope of practice and a code of conduct.
- Ensure that they have gone through a formal training program dedicated to safely recommending certain foods and supplements especially if you are someone on medications or have a known health condition.
- Don’t forget – Your doctor must always be aware of what changes you plan on making regarding your diet and lifestyle, especially when your are on medications or have a medical condition.
Below, are some resources to help you understand more about holistic nutrition professionals and what is being done within our industry to hold us accountable to scopes of practice, ethics and continuing competence.
There is also a link to the school that I attended.
- https://csnn.ca/industry/role-of-csnn-grads/
- https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/10/05/dietitian-vs-nutritionist_n_996570.html
If your ready to get started right now, you can reach me here!