Happy New Year and a Happy New You

Did you over-indulge during the Festive Season - eating too many chocolates, sweet and fatty foods and drinking more than usual? Have some excess pounds crept on? Are your joints aching or your skin looking more unhealthy? Are you feeling run down and low in energy after the whirl of planning, shopping, attending nativity plays and Christmas fairs, catering for friends and family and juggling hundreds of “domestic“ balls in the air?

If this sounds like you, perhaps 2004 is the year to think about you and how to get your health and well-being back on track. One of the most important ways of doing this is by looking at improving the way you eat. Food, used correctly can make you incredibly energised and healthy and help you lead and cope well with an active life - so essential when you have young children and many demands on your time. Used incorrectly, food can become your worst enemy, robbing you of your innate vitality, causing degenerative diseases and obesity, making you feel low and anxious, robbing you of a healthy body and mind - and dramatically affecting the quality of your daily life.

As a Nutritional Therapist, many people seek help with any health problems that have been niggling them and are now getting to be of greater concern. These may include chronic conditions such as joint problems, bloating and irritable bowel, chronic headaches, feeling tired all the time or feeling drowsy and listless in the afternoon when energy and good humor are particularly needed to cope with homework, teatime, ferrying children to after-school activities and the copious demands of after-school time. Others may be suffering from PMT or skin problems such as recurring acne or eczema or simply feel run-down with frequent colds, sore throats or chesty coughs. Not the best scenario for coping with the busy demands of family life. Many seek help in losing weight after the festivities of Christmas, whether to lose just a few pounds of for a long-term weight problem where the pounds are just piling on and past diets have simply not helped.

Consulting a registered Nutritional Therapist for support and advice can help transform how you look and feel in 2004. Just cutting down on food, trying to eat a “ balanced “ diet or taking a vitamin pill or the latest fad supplement from the supermarket or chemist isn’t always the answer to better health or weight loss.

Nutritional Therapists will plan a personalised dietary regime for every client they see, based on their particular health problems, and individual lifestyle. After all, it’s no good telling a busy mum to follow a diet with a complicated breakfast, a labouriously cooked meal at lunchtime and then a three-course dinner in the evening ( and that is after they have also cooked a meal for their children at teatime!). Many diets in the newspapers and diet books expect you to do this on a daily basis. No wonder most people who follow any sort of regime without personalised help, give up in despair after a few weeks. We aren’t all Domestic Goddesses after all!

So make 2004 the year that you decide to nourish your body with the best foods to address your health issues and enjoy being what you were always meant to be - slim and trim, vibrant, bursting with health and fully re-charged!

Fleur Brown is a Registered Nutritional Therapist with over 10 years of experience. She has helped many hundreds of clients to better health from her practice in Tunbridge Wells. Call her on 01892 616621