How has your start to 2025 been?
Mine has been humbling thanks to the grumbling of my appendix over 2 days, so much so that on the 3rd day it was forcibly ‘removed from its place of residence’!
Being unwell brings up all sorts of stuff for me. Many questions (Why do we still not really understand the aetiology of appendicitis in adults? How is it possible that RLQ tenderness was my only symptom with a CRP of 17 and neutrophils of 10X?! ) and a mini-existential crisis: I mean being a health professional who’s ‘sick’, makes me feel not only confused (‘But I live such a healthy life compared to most!!’ and ‘I thought I knew stuff!’) but also a sense of shame.
As peddlers of ‘wellness’ we feel we should never suffer illness, right?!
The inner-academic (the sensible one😂) says, ‘That’s such an antiquated binary view of things….surely we’re all just different proportions of wellness & illness, at different times of our lives?’
However, I’m acutely aware ‘purism’ or ‘perfectionism’ continues to infiltrate my, and my profession’s ideology – which I personally have to work on pushing back against.
In a broader sense, re-examining these core beliefs & the prescribing practices that flow from them and, as a result being personally brought down a peg or 10, is really just a continuation of my 2024. Last year I developed The Nutrient Prescriber’s Program and in doing so, put an end to my own ‘age of innocence’. Or should that be ‘age of arrogance’? Both. In spite of being known for my knowledge in nutrition and teaching at universities and colleges, delivering foundational nutrition education to doctors etc, when we dedicated the year to researching the very latest evidence about each micronutrient, in order to create a clear prescribing framework and answer the questions: What form? How much? How often? and For how long? I was shocked by the revelation about just how wrong I have been about so many things.
But I had no choice but to keep delving into the discomfort – praccies were waiting, already engaged by the first few modules & their minds already blown.
Writing each new module we pushed into new frontiers, new ways of thinking, with respect to form, dose, timing, duration, combinations etc. I’m not going to lie, it was a scary ride, for us all(!) but an essential one – because you can’t grow if you’re not prepared to know. When celebrities accept awards and start by saying, ‘This is so humbling’, it always confuses me…I think, no, humbling would be losing! And as heath professionals, being humbled, would be recognising where we’re wrong, being prepared to push back against our desire to stay the same and stay safe (not challenge ourselves) and instead seek the honest answers. Both our original training in nutrition and our prescribing practices are based on beliefs that don’t stack up in the light of day. It’s true. This year I wish you the courage to undertake this journey of relearning nutrition with me.
Are you ready for a revolution in nutritional prescribing?
The Nutrient Prescriber’s Program is a structured process for creating prescriptions that’s systematic, scientific and more likely to produce successful outcomes. You’ll gain a reliable and robust framework to answer key questions such as: Which form? How much? How often? And, for how long?
Dive into the pharmacokinetics of micronutrients, their various uptake pathways in different scenarios, how they work in networks & how co-prescribing in the right ratios is essential for efficacy and safety, rather than as ‘single nutrient solutions’.
Join us in February for Rachel’s last year of mentoring or work through 10 transformative modules at your own pace. Click here for more details…