Whole Person Nutrition

Holistic Nutrition  

 

Whole-person, holistic nutrition consultations ranging from learning the basics of wholesome, healthful eating, to recognizing, understanding, and managing emotional eating and disordered eating. Nutritional guidance is offered as part of Mentoring and Lifestyle Therapy for Women, Food for Thought Yoga Therapy™, The Nature of Yoga Therapy™, and Comprehensive Therapy Programs—recognizing the relationship between our mental and physical health, the environment, and the food we take in.

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You have undoubtedly heard the adage "food is medicine"... and indeed, it is. In our modern, urbanized societies, we forget that the world's most potent medicines and food medicines are derived from natural sources (albeit sometimes in disguise): orchids from the highest canopies of the Amazon rain forest, willow bark, nettles, as well as dandelion leaves, button mushrooms, and your oats at breakfast are but a few examples which many of us may have at any given time in our cupboards, fridge, or medicine cabinets. Would it not be wonderful to see food sources as natural healing sources, both for the body and mind?

 

Down-to-Earth Nutrition

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Food these days does not look appetizing—wrapped in plastic zipper-pouches or stored in waxed boxes—nor does it smell or taste nourishing or sustaining. How many can say that they have wandered through an organic, pesticide-free apple orchard lately, or when they were a child? Few of us, unfortunately. The smell of such an orchard on a warm, late-summer day is amazing: the apples picked from laden branches are fragrant, honey-sweet, and full of juice. If this sounds idyllic, keep in mind that until a few decades ago, this experience was quite common, and still is in parts of the world. Strawberries with a rich, intense flavor were readily found on the edge of forests, in mountain meadows, and in our back yards. They have all but vanished, replaced at the local grocery by outsized, tasteless, genetically modified mimics. Milk came straight from a cow, not from a red and white plastic container at the supermarket, and eggs were often still warm when hastily plucked from under an irate hen.

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Whole Person Nutrition helps simplify individual and family eating for health and wellbeing, while also considering lifestyle, health-related circumstances (ASD, PD, Celiac), and preferences (vegetarian, vegan, lacto-ovo etc).

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• Individual, in-home consultations with a holistic nutritionist in Bloomington. We do not provide or up-sell supplements, nor do we subscribe to fad diets and trendy smoothies.

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• Farmer's market, co-op or local grocery visits to learn about healthful foods, organic vs. non-organic, whole foods and processed foods, additives / preservatives which can affect digestion and impact health.

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• How to buy in bulk, cook in batches, and why that can significantly impact your family's financial ability to eat wholesome, healthful meals—at every meal.

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• Ayurvedic guidelines and informed nutrition and food choices, specific considerations for those with MS or Parkinson's as well as those with celiac disease or who are on the spectrum.

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Lifestyle habits, emotional eating, stress / anxiety, and yes, how we learned to eat when we were children—these often overshadow our innate, natural sense of what our body needs, or does not want. These candid messages or often tied to non-beneficial lifestyle and poor eating choices, resulting in low-quality sleep, headaches, irritability, sense of anxiousness, cravings, and overall achiness. This has led to a society of disordered eating, which can lead to eating disorders, particularly in young women and teens, but increasingly in middle-aged women. Mentoring and Lifestyle Therapy provides emotional support, yoga for life-changes and managing stress, as well as nutritional guidance. 

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Whole Person Nutrition does just that: the whole person is nourished, not simply the body. Physical, emotional, mental, and for some, spiritual aspects of life are interwoven. We understand this intrinsic relationship and do not provide nutritional counseling by itself, instead providing whole person support. This can be particularly helpful for those challenged by disordered eating or recovering from an eating disorder.