One of the wonderful aspects about CoreLife, and what drew me to this company in the first place, is its multi-faceted approach to your health. Numerous factors influence your overall health, well-being, and, yes, your weight. Whether you come to CoreLife for weight loss, a nutrition overhaul, or to improve your health, having a medical staff, personal trainers, and dietitians all under one roof provides you with all the best providers for your health, in one easy stop. Beyond that, each one of these professionals has a unique set of skills and education, that, when combined with their colleagues, offers the most optimal environment for success.
If you’ve come in to see me for nutritional education and planning, you may have noticed that ask questions about your medications, supplements, blood work, and medical history. To some, this may be surprising. “She’s the dietitian – why does she need to know about my blood work and sleep medication? Isn’t that the doctor’s job?” The doctor and I each look at this information, but we might respond to it a bit differently. For example, your doctor might see your high cholesterol and recommend a statin or some other cholesterol-lowering medicine. I see it and want to discuss your activity, smoking and drinking habits, and food choices. When I hear about your sleep medication, I want to make sure that you’re not experiencing any of the side-effects and nutrition interactions so many drugs produce. I also want to hear more about why you’re taking it. Perhaps your protein intake is inadequate and your body is unable to produce enough of the serotonin neurotransmitters necessary to aid in good sleep. Maybe your blood sugar levels are high leading to high cortisol levels, preventing good sleep cycles. Or perhaps your gut flora is out of wack.
What else do I look for? Well, I want to make sure that if your diet is deficient in a certain vitamin or mineral, you’re either supplementing it or adjusting your meals to compensate. I want to see if any of your blood work suggests an impending problem. For example, when your blood glucose gets into a certain range, you are considered pre-diabetic. This means that if you don’t change something about your lifestyle (probably diet and activity levels), you are likely to become diabetic. Once this happens, there’s no turning back, the damage has been done, you are a diabetic for life. However, if we catch it in this early stage, the pre-diabetic stage, we can often manage it with diet, exercise, weight, and other life-style change, putting you safely back in the non-diabetic, healthy range. If you could potentially prevent a disease that’s one of the top ten causes of death in this country, wouldn’t you? Or what about improving your blood lipid numbers (triglycerides, cholesterol, etc.) and blood pressure, potentially heading off, improving, or reversing the number one cause of death in the U.S., heart disease?
As the dietitian, I am concerned about all aspects of your health and how through dietary changes, we can improve it. It’s my goal to assess your most pressing needs and your actual nutrition desires so we can formulate a plan unique to you and most likely to result in success. You may have walked in the CoreLife door just hoping to fit into your old jeans, but if I can help you avoid a debilitating illness while assisting in your weight loss journey, wouldn’t you want me to? Working with a group of professionals like those at CoreLife gives me the tools and information necessary to provide you with the best possible care and nutritional advice. As Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine once said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Hope to see you soon!
Aubrey MS RDN