I know what you might be thinking "what does holistic even mean?" I know that when I first heard the term 'holistic nutrition' I thought to myself "what the heck is that?" However, I was intrigued. So, I dove head first into it by taking the Holistic Nutrition program offered by the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and graduated in 2014 as a Registered Holistic Nutritionist.
The word holistic encompasses body, mind, and spirit. This means that the whole body is looked at instead of our body being compartmentalized or as a machine - think current western medical system. Going further, when you begin to take a look at your diet and you want to make changes, first and foremost that is amazing, but secondly if you only look to change your diet (one piece of the puzzle) you might not get the results you are looking for because you don't change anything else such as your stress levels, your mental health, etc. That is where holistic nutrition takes a look at you as a whole - body, mind, and spirit.
With that being said as a holistic nutritionist I can give recommendations on things that can be removed from your diet as well as added in to benefit your health and wellness, but also supplement recommendations, as well as looking at your lifestyle - maybe you are really stressed out with family life, work life, your social life, you can receive recommendations on things such as doing physical activity, meditating, doing something for yourself or something YOU love.
Therefore, as a holistic nutritionist I not only look and focus on your diet but I take a look at your stress levels as well and then can recommend things to help support you to better your health and wellbeing.
What I am getting at is holistic nutrition takes in to account the whole picture or paradigm. Instead of just focusing on one area of your life, it looks at it all and then you can obtain recommendations to begin to better your health and wellbeing and therefore your life. The hardest part for people can be that they are the only ones that can help themselves. As a holistic nutritionist I am here for support and to give recommendations but ultimately you are the one that has to make the changes and that can be extremely hard for some people (it was for me at the beginning too!).
I would like to finish with stating I am not a medical doctor and therefore you should also seek medical advice before starting something new, but I can speak from my own personal experience that holistic nutrition is amazing and it has completely changed my life.
Holistically Humble,
Katie
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