As a 15 year professional with a Masters Degree in Sports Nutrition I am always looking at the scientific literature and determining the best way to teach my clients nutrition. Nutrition counseling that deals with “ real world” nutritional challenges of everyday hectic life is vastly different than counting calories or points or buying pre packaged foods, shakes, or bars, like most commercial weight loss programs. The Food Pyramid is not enough.

I just recently had the opportunity to teach a 5 - week Anti-Aging, Weight Loss Class and here’s what we learned.

1. The one hour individualized initial consultation before the group workshop begins allows for a one on one individual interaction. You discuss with me how you eat, what you like to do, your most difficult challenges throughout the day, your specific goals. We measure your body fat, lean mass, calculate metabolic rate, review blood labs, etc. If there are specific medical or nutritional needs for you or your family that we can discuss this privately. Everyone felt like the individualized consultation helped him or her learn how to start eating healthy with our fast paced hectic lifestyles. We concentrate on managing your blood sugar and specific foods, which decrease your risks for diseases and aging. Most participants had goals to reduce body fat, lower cholesterol, and increase energy levels throughout the day. Some had goals to better manage the progression and pain of arthritis and some were advanced in their level of understanding and some had a basic understanding of nutrition.

2. Each week specific foods, combinations, and nutritional goals were discussed. The group left with specific nutritional goals so that they could come back the following week to discuss what they liked, what worked and the challenges with incorporating new things to eat and how to present them to the family or incorporate them while eating out. Whether you are a nurse at the hospital who’s a lifetime weight watchers member or a yoga instructor you will understand which foods to eat that will accomplish your nutritional or medical goals throughout your daily.

3. The group interaction and questions from the different lifestyles and experiences of each participant was extremely interesting and challenged me the most. Clients with different levels of nutritional knowledge and vastly different lifestyles came together with everyday lifestyle issues. Hearing about different applications of food to diverse lifestyles can help everyone in the group. Listening to other individual’s questions and answers stimulated a quality learning experience. I was challenged often when a specific question was asked by one participant, because I needed to answer the question not only for the individual who is asking the question, but also, change the answer for the other individuals and their specific nutritional and medical needs. For example, an individual with arthritis who is happy with her weight wants to know why we are incorporating some flax seed meal or olive oil to specific foods throughout the day. After you explain the benefits of the omega fats to the arthritic client, the client with high cholesterol wants to know why we are limiting his intake of omega oils, when this individual could also benefit from the omega fats. The reason is, the high cholesterol client would also like to decrease body fat, therefore, I had to recommend other sources. On a side note, unfortunately, farm raised salmon has no omega fats, since it is not exposed to the algae that allows the fish to make these fats, so that was not an option.

“Now I know what to eat and how to shop for food”. Before the workshop, I never really liked to cook. The 5-minute recipes have really helped me tremendously. I love the Detox Soup!!!

I have more energy, I feel more focused, and it was a beautiful, educational experience.

“It was very interesting to see that it’s not always the QUANTITY of food that you eat, but very often it is the QUALITY of food that you eat. It’s nice to know you can lose weight without dieting and being hungry. I used to think I had no will power.”

“Motivation was always the wall that stopped me from eating healthy. Through the workshop with Chris, I now have the power and desire to give the best gift I could give myself… a Healthy fit body”.