Benefits of a Nutritional Consultation
There are a great number of benefits of having a nutritional consultation where someone who is totally independent, knowledgeable and supportive of your goals helps you to identify the areas in which you can make the most difference so you can achieve your overall health and well being goals faster.
Here are a few ways that it could help you;
Tailored advice for you
Rather than just getting general healthy eating advice, you will receive tailored specific advice for you on the most effective changes you could make! We could probably all guess that an apple is going to be more nutritious for us than a doughnut, its not as if its all rocket science! But often the key is understanding where you can make the most important changes for your lifestyle and just how to make these happen. This is what a good nutritional consultation should show you.
Education on how food and metabolism works
In a good nutritional consultation you will learn the basics of how fats, carbohydrates and proteins all work in the body – how they work and what foods they come in. Once you understand the roles of each of these (hopefully in plain English) and how important they all are in their correct balance, along with how the metabolism works you can use this knowledge for the rest of your life to help you make wise choices!
Practical strategies and ideas on how to make it happen
Once you know the things that you can change that will have the biggest impact on you reaching you goals, you then need simple effective down to earth ways to make it happen. Your consultant should assist you with addressing issues such as having healthy choices on hand with you at work, when travelling, weekend habits, what to do when socialising, fitting in with your family, how to shop and understand labels and how to prepare quick easy nutritious meals. Everyone has different issues affecting their eating such as shift work, time available, social commitments, their food budget etc and these should all be taken into account.
Realistic goal setting
Just as with most things to do with health and wellbeing – good things can take time. Where you might have a weight-loss goal for example, in a consultation you can get a clear idea of what is realistic in terms of losing weight. Clients that have taken 10 years to put 20-30kg on may want to lose it all in 10 weeks, though this may not be realistic, sensible or even healthy! In a nutritional consultation you will learn to understand what is realistic and so set yourself up for success.
Peace of mind
Getting good professional advice means that you can have peace of mind knowing that the strategies you will try are sound. There are countless fad diets and eating plans out there that all seem to contradict each other and much of what is circulated is just not healthy, practical or even effective. Its not surprising that its hard to know what to listen to! Once you understand how your body actually works and the sorts of patterns that can help and harm your progress you will be in control and able to make wise choices for the rest of your life.
Get out of the diet cycle
By having a structured nutritional consultation you can learn what really works and what really doesn’t and use this knowledge to your advantage. Diets have been proven to slow down the metabolism and increase the enzymes in the body that actually store fat. This results in yo-yo dieting where initial weight loss gains are ruled out by subsequent weight gain when the diet is stopped. If you want to get out of this cycle then a good nutritional consultation is for you!
Ongoing accountability and support
By undertaking a nutritional consultation you should receive on-going support and follow up to see how the changes you’ve decided on are working for you and to adjust these as you go. Knowing that you are accountable to someone else can assist in establishing a new habit (which generally takes around 6 weeks.) You can also contact your consultant with any questions or queries you have along the way.
Fresh ideas for a fresh start
What a difference it can make to have some new ideas of ways to make the meals and dishes you currently eat that much better for you. How would you like fresh ideas ranging from new recipes and snack foods to ways to get the family on board with your new healthy eating lifestyle? Its also nice to try out something new and so often clients find they enjoy the new healthy alternatives more than the sorts of things they used to eat – it just took that help to discover them!
Overall
Its been proven that while exercise is a key ingredient in changing your body shape or body composition and in preparing for sporting events; addressing issues to do with diet and nutrition also have a huge role to play. The bottom line is that clients that take a structured approach to improving their nutrition get better results.
