Nutrition Coaching
Eating a healthy diet is not about strict limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, improving your health, and boosting your mood.
There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to achieving better health, and for this reason, prior to initiating the coaching process, we will first assess your needs, likely limitations, and goals. We will then together define the best path towards long-term health, whether through an established programme such as the Metabolic Balance®, or a more holistic and flexible approach.
Switching to a healthy diet doesn’t have to be an all or nothing proposition. You don’t have to be perfect; you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy; and you don’t have to change everything all at once - that usually only leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan.
As your coach, it is my job to facilitate the implementation of healthier habits and to empower you to take responsibility for your own health. I will provide answers when needed, and guide you to the right decisions by asking the right questions. Fundamentally, I will be your partner in change.
What can you expect from me?
- A detailed dietary assessment;
- Body composition testing (depending on client’s goals);
- I will identify and clarify common nutrition myths and fallacies;
- We will discuss healthy cooking options;
- I will provide guidance regarding appropriate calorie consumption for safe weight loss;
- I will teach you how to read food labels;
- I will demonstrate and clarify healthy portion sizes;
- Finally, I will provide eating strategies for consuming adequate amounts nutrients necessary for the promotion of health.
Areas I can help you with:
Digestive dysfunction
Digestive health is critical. It can be considered the root of your health, as imbalances in the body often start with a challenged digestive process. The digestive system is involved in various important bodily processes, not only the digestion and absorption of the food we eat. Most importantly, it also houses our gut microbiome, a complex ‘superorganism’ that supports the optimal function of metabolism, immunity system and mental health.
Gut dysbiosis occurs when the delicate balance in the gut is lost and the ‘bad’ bacteria are more dominant. This can occur for many reasons including undigested proteins, stress, high sugar, refined carbohydrate diet, food intolerances (e.g. gluten) and use of medications, particularly antibiotics. Many diseases have a gastrointestinal dysbiosis connection.
Supporting optimal digestive function is important for addressing symptoms like bloating, flatulence and heartburn but also to manage a range of other chronic conditions that can be linked to gut imbalances, such as autoimmune disease, allergies, skin rashes and eczema, chronic fatigue and dementia.
Weight loss and weight management
Weight loss is not just about calories in and calories out. We have all been trying to do that for a long time with pretty dismal results. Fat gain is not simply calories in minus calories out; the body is so much more complex than that.
When you reduce the calories you consume, your calorie expenditure also drops. If you drop from 2000 calories to 1500, your body immediately reduces your energy expenditure and you may end up feeling tired, cold, hungry and sluggish. Your weight loss likely stops and may then start to come back.
Calories in and calories out are not completely independent; when you drop one, the other adjusts. Calorie counting is doomed to fail.
There are several variables that can contribute to weight gain. We work progressively through your body systems to see which is challenged and may be obstructing your weight gain.
It may be dietary related around the intake of carbohydrates and sugars (including alcohol).
It may be due to continual grazing through the day fuelled by emotional triggers that have very little to do with physical hunger.
Hormonal dysfunction
Hormones are our body’s messengers; they are transported through the body delivering messages from our organs to our brains and vice versa, to perform many body functions. They tell you when to eat, sleep, and even when to grow. They give us our appetite and sex drive and help us conceive and deliver babies. They help to make us happy, sad and crazy in love! While male hormones are pretty stable, female hormones are less so as they ebb and flow through the menstrual cycle. It may feel like we want to fight our hormones for about half the month and then feel at more ease in our bodies.
Our hormones help guide us through the transitions of life including puberty, pregnancy and menopause.
Optimal health and wellbeing
Optimal health is complete physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. It focuses on living with vitality, rather than focusing on the presence or absence of disease.
It is personal. We each experience our own unique version of health which is dependent on our individual circumstances.
When was the last time you awoke with bursting vitality and resilience?
Many of us live in a state of sub-optimal health with daily niggles, pains and discomforts that are signals that our body is out of balance. It becomes our new ‘normal’ and what we settle for. We may continue to become further disconnected from our body and these tell-tale symptoms until they shout even louder in order to demand attention for healing.
Wellbeing happens one choice at a time. It is an active process.