What can you expect from a Nutrition Consult?
You’ve taken the first steps in searching for a local nutrition consult on the gold coast. Now you’re wondering what exactly you can expect from your planned nutrition consult. Read on to find out.
Personalised Nutrition Consults
During a nutrition consult at Beta Me Nutrition & Naturopathy, you will come to understand that your body and its needs are unique to you. While you may present with a similar health concern to one or several other patients, the treatment for you will be completely different. This is because, as a holistic nutritionist, I look at you as a whole person, not only your primary symptom presentation. This allows an understanding of underlying causes and potential deficiencies in your pathology or diet. From here, how to personalise your nutrition treatment plan based on the whole picture becomes clearer.
When personalising Nutrition plans, considerations such as:
- Family history
- Personal medical history
- Current food diary
- Previous eating habits
- Deficiencies, both dietary and within pathology
- Lifestyle
- Pathology
- Your stress levels
- Exercise levels
- Your financial situation
- Goals and timelines to achieve those goals
As you can imagine, each of these points vary greatly for every person. Because of this the personalisation process is essential in successful outcomes.
The result of an individualised nutrition consult and treatment are personalised eating plans that suit your unique and specific needs. These personalised eating plans are focused on working for you. With your lifestyle and commitments in mind together, we adapt strategies to make them easier to follow and adhere to.
Local Knowledge Understanding and Support
Having a local nutrition consult in your Gold Coast area can greatly benefit treatment outcomes. A nutrition practitioner with local area knowledge ensures an understanding of the best qualities of the Gold Coast. This includes knowing how to access healthy foods such as supermarkets with specific food items and the best markets to save money and improve nutrition quality. From a holistic perspective, having knowledge of local allied health practitioners to support treatments can be of great value.
When considering this wonderful place we call home here on the Gold Coast, the lifestyle in which we live must be factored into your care. Many people living on the Gold Coast enjoy the sun, surf and the mountains. However, we are also hard working. In clinic, I frequently see shift workers, those who actively engage in outdoor activities for work or leisure and have busy family routines present for nutritional guidance to support the lifestyle they live. We are lucky to have some of the best markets, access to fresh produce, seafood and dining out options. Knowledge of what’s available to the Gold Coast community makes continuing to live the magical Gold Coast lifestyle, while remaining healthy and focused on your goals simple.
What Does an Initial Nutrition Consult Involve?
During your first nutrition consult, together we will delve deep into your health history. The aim is to uncover any hidden causes and triggers of your presentation. We go as far back as birth in some cases. Our birth and life tell us a story of your health as it presents today. This health history will include your own, as well as any significant health related information in your family.
Your current medication and supplement regime is discussed in detail. This includes brand names and dosing to determine necessity, efficacy, quality and possible interactions. Of course, we will discuss your symptoms or condition in detail as well as set our goals with timelines to strive for.
Prior to the appointment, you will be asked to complete a food diary and email pathology to discuss during the consult. As a result, some on the spot suggestions regarding diet and lifestyle can be provided to begin improving overall nutritional intake.
From there, your practitioner will wave you off with a friendly smile and a promise to put together a detailed, yet easy to follow plan to follow over the coming days. A full treatment plan is developed after the nutrition consult has ended. This allows the coordination of all elements of your health, pathology, dietary intake, medications and supplement needs, ensuring your plan is right for you.
Continuity of Care
After the initial nutrition consult, where your current health status has been benchmarked, these benchmarks are used to track and guide follow up appointments. Follow up appointments are usually scheduled for 2 weeks after your initial nutrition consult.
Because the clinic is local, face-to-face follow up nutrition consults provide opportunities for physical tracking of progress with tools such as measurements, Body Impedance Analysis (BIA) assessments, blood pressure, physical observations and in depth review of food diaries and pathology.
Follow up nutrition consults provide accountability, are aimed at motivating and troubleshooting any challenges and adapting to your ever-changing life circumstances.
Realistic Expectations
Change takes time. It can be difficult to implement even the smallest changes. Having access to a nutritionist who understands that and can gently motivate you towards reaching goals is paramount to success. At every stage of your journey, your nutrition practitioner will set realistic expectations that you both agree on. This means working at your pace with gradual yet sustainable changes that seamlessly become part of life.
Nutrition is Important at Every Life stage
Whether you are pregnant, have just had your baby and are in your postpartum period, an active adult, a teenager with neurodiversity or an older adult with chronic diseases and many pharmaceutical medications, nutrition is important to everyone, and requirements are unique to everyone. Advice should always be tailored to your biological, economic and lifestyle needs.