Why Transition Nutrition?
‘Healthy Happy Hormones’
Why Transition Nutrition?
I’d like to share a bit more information with you about how my approach is different to other ways to manage your health, so you can be sure if it is the right service for you. For many people with long-term conditions, complex health problems or frustrating symptoms, I am confident that the work I do can make a real, tangible difference to how they feel and their quality of life. That’s also a massive part of why I do this work!
I’ve already got a good understanding of what a healthy diet is, how can you help me?
My individual support work is not about recommending ‘a healthy diet’, but about developing the right diet for you, that will support your specific health history, symptoms, conditions, and circumstances. People often think what I do involves telling people to eat less chocolate and more vegetables (I do sometimes do this but also a lot more besides!).
The work that I do is also not just about diet. Even if you eat a fantastically healthy diet, designed specifically for you, it is virtually impossible to get everything you need for optimal health through food alone these days, due to the depletion of nutrients in our soil among other things. The health of your gut is also key in how you can absorb and utilise the nutrients you are eating.
Alongside dietary changes, I often recommend high quality and potent supplementation which can be very helpful in supporting your health and specific requirements. In addition to considering any recent testing from your GP, I may recommend other private testing to enhance our understanding about what is going on. And lastly, I always have a focus on lifestyle medicine – helping you make changes in other areas of your life that will support what you are looking to achieve.
Can I just do the research myself to work out how to manage my health problems?
In the age of information overload, you can ask any question of ‘Dr Google’ and you will usually find lots of (sometimes contradictory) answers. There is plenty of information out there – from Instagram, You Tube, your mum, and the lady in the post office queue. Books, magazines, and newspapers are awash with ideas to help you improve your IBS or manage your menopause symptoms.
Finding answers isn’t the problem but finding the right answers, and the ones that apply to you and the symptoms/conditions you have is a minefield.
Now, you may find some answers in doing your own extensive research – it may be a lengthy trial and error process – it may help you sort out some of what is going on, or all, if you are very lucky. All of these ‘hacks’ can be useful if you are generally well and looking to become a little bit healthier. However, if you are struggling or have some significant symptoms, the ‘DIY approach’ can be a long, hard road, which may prove fruitless.
Many of the people who come to see me are taking multiple medications and supplements and are not always clear why or how they work. I get that people just want to feel well and will try anything but this scattergun approach can be frustrating, costly, and frankly, sometimes, dangerous. Even though supplements may be more ‘natural’, they can interact with your prescribed medications and cause them to not work as well (or have a stronger effect on your body).
Alternatively, you could out-source the hard work to an expert like myself who is trained and experienced in piecing together the elements that can have the most impact on improving how you feel. I understand that prioritising your health can sometimes feel like a luxury, when other pressures on your finances may be great. But if how you feel means you are living a ‘smaller life’, then it may be time to explore a different way.
I have recently reconfigured my foundation programmes to include a ‘Pay as you go’ option, which is designed to make my support more flexible and affordable. I also have payment plans available for my Total transition programmes.
My GP and medical team support my health, why would I need Transition Nutrition?
In the UK, our healthcare system is focused on treating people at the point of disease or presentation of illness. The treatment provided, particularly in respect of chronic conditions, is predominantly pharmaceuticals which are generally targeted at reducing symptoms of the disease, rather than getting underneath what is going on.
What I do is NOT an alternative to working with your GP – nutrition and lifestyle support can complement the support you are already receiving. Long-term conditions – often medications sticking plasters etc, medications to deal with affects of others. not seeking to get to the root of what is going on. That is not to say that medications can’t be helpful (and life-saving in some situations) but that diet and lifestyle is also very powerful way to help you manage your health symptoms.
While the NHS is of course an extremely valuable provision, it is often left dealing with people at the point of acute illness or crisis (rather than taking a preventative approach). Staff time, particularly within General Practice, is often restricted as it is a universal provision and experiences huge demand from the public.
There is very little training of doctors or recognition of the impact of nutrition and other lifestyle factors on disease. In recent years, this has thankfully started to change with the work of the well-known Dr Rangan Chatterjee, who has increased awareness of the enormous benefits of this approach in the mainstream media and medical circles.
The work I do is fundamentally different in ethos to our healthcare system. I practice from a functional medicine approach. Here the aim is to establish the root cause(s) and the ‘why’ behind the presenting symptoms. For example, instead of prescribing a ‘Proton pump Inhibitor’ drug for acid reflux (NHS approach), I would seek to understand the reasons behind these symptoms and aim to rectify this through nutrition and lifestyle interventions.
The other key element to this, is that I seek to identify when systems of the body are showing signs that they are under pressure before a disease is diagnosed. With the right support, the body can come back into balance and further complications may be avoided.
I’ve got multiple complex health problems – how can you help me if you are not a doctor?
Due to the way the NHS works, it is also not necessarily well equipped to deal with the complexity of some long-term conditions and the links between them, due to different consultant specialisms. This means different health conditions are often treated separately and in isolation of each other.
As an example, the other day I was talking to a client who had high cholesterol, was pre-diabetic and had significant digestive symptoms. She had been advised to reduce her fats (because of cholesterol), reduce her carbohydrates (because of pre-diabetes) and was struggling to digest proteins due to her gut issues. She was also losing weight fast which was not desirable as she was already underweight. This kind of advice is not helpful as it left her nowhere to go and nothing to eat (we only have carbs, fats, and proteins to choose from!)
While it’s far from simple, we were able to work through a holistic approach to support her whole body and start to address the underlying causes of her symptoms and out-of-range readings.
Can you just provide me with a plan of what to eat so I feel better
It is important to me that my clients are successful in achieving their aims, so I generally avoid just providing information or recommendations*.
We all know that we could benefit our health if we did more of, or less of, certain things…but often making those changes and keeping them going independently can be hard. I have a Facebook group where we focus on implementing more generic diet and lifestyle changes that can be very supportive.
The fact is, even when you know what to do, it’s not always plain sailing. Making changes can be challenging, as can finding the right tools, products, recipes etc. Accountability (knowing that someone is ‘on your case’, but in a friendly, supportive way) can be very helpful in making changes.
I provide a degree of coaching to help with motivation, alongside emotional and more practical support in all my programmes. My Signature programme, ‘Bloom’ provides the greatest level of coaching, for people who are serious about making changes.
*My single sessions use a coaching approach but do not include coaching follow-up, unless a further programme is booked. They can serve as a good first step but usually more intensive support is needed.
Working With Me
We are just like plants really! Stick us in a some good quality soil (a positive environment) and nourish well with the right nutrients and plentiful hydration, depending on our needs. Provide resilience against toxins (support our detoxification and elimination) and other enemies (like stress). And give us a good quantity and quality of rest (yes, plants sleep too!). And just like plants, with a nourishing diet and lifestyle, our mind and body can do their best for us and we can thrive!
Can you tell me the best things to eat for fibromyalgia (or insert your condition here)?
I am regularly asked what one should do for this condition or that. While I may be able to provide some guidelines for a specific condition, this is not the most effective approach.
Different drivers or underlying causes may vary significantly from person to person with the same diagnosed condition and the same condition may affect people quite differently. While I consider any diagnosed conditions, it is much more important to focus on the person and investigating fully what is going on for them to get the best results.
For example, Tom, a man in his 30’s (diagnosed with fibromyalgia and asthma as a child) may have quite different needs to Kate, in her 50’s (also diagnosed with fibromyalgia, in perimenopause, and suffering with ‘long covid’). The body works as a whole and everything has the potential to influence everything else. A holistic approach aims to support the whole body. Everyone is an individual and is affected in different ways, although there are patterns
How do I know that your services are good quality?
Other than dieticians, nutrition practitioners are not regulated by statute. This means that anyone, with poor, little or no training can set themselves up in business and provide services to the public.
In response to this, and to ensure that the public are protected, the Professional Standards Authority (the regulatory body that oversees standards of practice all areas of health and social care) have set up accredited registers. To become and stay registered, Nutritional Therapists (and other practitioners) need to evidence they have met specified requirements around quality of qualifications and Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Practitioners do not have to register but this provides assurance to the public.
You can be confident that a practitioner who is a full member of BANT and appears on the Professional Standards Authorities Accredited Register is properly trained, qualified, and insured. Registered Practitioners must undertake and log annual Continued Professional Development (CPD) to retain membership and accreditation.
Are you able to guarantee that I will get better by working with you?
Like many things in life, it is impossible to provide a guarantee as to what results that you will get from us working together – there are just too many variables and as mentioned, we are all biochemically individual, which makes predictions as to how you will respond difficult.
However, please know that small, targeted actions can be really powerful – when people commit to the process, they regularly achieve outstanding results.
My promise to you:
- I will only take you on as a client if I truly believe that I can help you to achieve what you are looking for. I am passionate about helping my clients get results and I care deeply about helping you get to that point.
- I am committed to keep going and to support you, and continue researching until we find the right formula, as long as you wish to continue working together
- I will always strive to work with you in a manner and pace that fits with your style and will endeavour to be flexible in providing the type of support you feel that you need.
I will never judge you and we will start from where you are, without expectations.
