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joans_empowered_nutrition

Registered Nutritional Therapist helping people feel healthier & more energetic using diet & lifestyle changes.
Special interest in breast cancer.

Remember, Christmas is just a few days—not the w

Remember, Christmas is just a few days—not the whole month! 🎄

Stick to healthy habits on non-party days, and your body will thank you. Small efforts = big results! 💪

I'll be sharing lots of practical tips for healthy Christmas habits in my Christmas Survival Guide workshop on Tuesday 17th December. Get your ticket via the link in my bio.

#MindfulLiving #ChristmasSurvivalTips #HealthyHolidays

So far this week I've been talking a bit about pre

So far this week I've been talking a bit about preparing for Christmas - not in terms of shopping and decorations, but how you can help yourself to feel your best through it. Today I have a few questions for you.

Do you finish work for the holidays only to find you fall ill and miss half of them?

Do you spend much of the festive season popping pills for indigestion?

Do you wish that you had more energy to enjoy the festive period?

Does your sleep suffer so that you end up feeling tired and grumpy?

The good news is there are lots of things that can help you feel great throughout the festive season, WITHOUT MISSING OUT ON ALL THE FUN AND CHRISTMAS MAGIC. I'll be talking about these in an online workshop at 7.30pm on Tuesday 17th December.

I will be sharing practical, easy to implement lifestyle and nutrition strategies that can have a powerful impact on your wellbeing over the Christmas period, allowing you to

🎅 have great energy every day
🎅 recover more quickly if you overindulge
🎅 have a more comfortable tummy
🎅 sleep better
🎅 avoid colds

If this sounds good to you, then head to the link in my bio, and click on Christmas Survival Guide Workshop

#SelfCareSeason #ChristmasSurvivalGuide

For sustained energy throughout the festive period

For sustained energy throughout the festive period, fuelling your mornings well is key!

Skip the sugary breakfast and power up instead 💪

Start your day with a mix of protein, healthy fats, and complex carbs (these include veggies). 🍳 Think spinach omelette, Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds, or smoked salmon, scrambled egg and avocado. (The smoked salmon / egg / avocado combo is one of my favourite holiday breakfast treats 😋)

Balanced breakfasts = stable energy & no mid-morning slumps. What’s your favourite go-to breakfast? 🍽️

For more Christmas survival tips, join my online workshop on Tuesday 17th December. Tickets coming soon!

#HealthyEating #BloodSugarBalance #WinterEnergy #BreakfastIdeas #ChristmasSurvivalGuide

How is it December already 😯? I hope that you

How is it December already 😯?

I hope that you are looking forward to everything good that the festive season has in store. However, I know that it can feel daunting!

Maybe you're recovering from treatment and feeling quite different to last Christmas. Maybe you're just trying to juggle it all - work, kids, elderly relatives, parties, cooking - and wondering how you will survive. You know you feel better when your nutrition and lifestyle are en pointe, but how do you do that during the holidays withut missing all the fun?

I've got you covered!

Soon I'll be sharing details of my Christmas Survival Guide workshop. This will be jammed packed with practical, easy to implement nutrition and lifestyle tips to not only keep you well throughout the festive season, but give you more energy to enjoy the holidays. Stay tuned.....

In the meantime, I'll be sharing short, snappy tips to help, because I know you are busy. Today. think about how you can spend a little bit of time investing in you energy by looking after yourself.

30 minutes of self-care a day = a healthier you. 🧘‍♀️ Relax, recharge, and avoid holiday burnout. What’s your go-to self-care ritual? 💆‍♀️

#SelfCareSeason #HolidayWellness #RechargeYourself #ChristmasSurvivalGuide

What's important to me to offer as a practitioner?

What's important to me to offer as a practitioner?

I've been rewriting the "About Me" section of my website. This has made me think quite a bit about what you might experience from me as a practitioner as a result of my values, experiences and personality. Every nutritional therapist will have his or her own approach. If you are choosing a someone to be in your corner and support you with your health, I think it's really important to choose an approach and a person that you feel comfortable with. This post tells you a little bit more about what makes me me.

🍏 I have been through a lot of health challenges, and I understand that life doesn't always go the way we plan. If things are tough for a client, I aim to be empathetic, gentle and pragmatic, rather than rigidly sticking to the "ideal" nutrition plan.

🍏 I understand what it's like to have had or to live with a cancer diagnosis. I understand what it's like to be in the oncology system, and I have felt the fears.

🍏 It's REALLY important to me not to be judgemental. My aim is to help my clients, not to criticise their choices. I didn't always eat well, and life is tough!

🍏 I tend to go quite gently, with food and straightforward lifestyle changes before supplements and tests. That doesn't mean I don't recommend supplements and tests if I think they will be helpful. I always consider the cost - I have budget constraints too! I also believe that we shouldn't overlook the huge power of foundational nutrition and lifestyle changes in the quest for things that can seem shinier or more exciting.

🍏 "Knowing my stuff" is vital to me.

🍏 I like to explain the effects of nutrition on the body. It just brings me joy to do this.

🍏 Listening to my clients' health stories is a huge privilege. Every health story holds the keys to health transformation.

🍏 My aim is to encourage nutrition choices that feel good and are delicious as well as being beneficial for health. Joy from food is important and I feel strongly that knowing that you are choosing food which is deeply nourishing can be a source of empowerment and joy.

You can read more about me by finding my website in my bio link, then clicking on "About Me".

How does immunity relate to inflammation when it c

How does immunity relate to inflammation when it comes to cancer?

An immune system that's functioning optimally can be pretty good at picking up individual cancer cells or defective cells and getting rid of them before they can form a tumour. However, once there is an established cancer, the situation unfortunately changes a bit.

Tumours are skilled at disguising themselves from the immune system, and they can even recruit immune cells to support their survival. Sneaky, aren't they?

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't support your immune system - it still has a role in preventing cancer spread, as well as supporting your overall health. A big part of immune support is minimising chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation involves the release of immune molecules (cytokines) that can be involved in cancer growth or spread. Plus, if the immune system is busy in an inflammatory state, it is less likely to mount a calm, targeted, specific anticancer response.

Thankfully, there is a lot you can do with nutrition and lifestyle to reduce inflammation. An anti-inflammatory diet is a great place to start, and we now have evidence that this benefits outcomes in several cancer types. Anti-inflammatory foods to eat can include:
- plenty of brightly coloured vegetables
- herbs and spices
- fruit, especially berries
- oily fish
- other healthy fats such as extra virgin olive oil, nuts and seeds
- green and black tea
- pulses and wholegrains

Of course, the flip side of this is avoiding inflammatory diet patterns. However, starting by following an anti-inflammatory pattern and growing to love it will gradually crowd out a more inflammatory diet. And note that it's the overall dietary pattern that's important, not declaring a few foods to be superfoods while demonising certain others.

#antiinflammatorydiet #anticancerimmunity #integrativeoncology #nutritionaltherapy #cancernutrition

"What's the best diet for me to follow with (or af

"What's the best diet for me to follow with (or after) cancer?"

That's a question that every nutritional therapist who works with people with cancer will have heard a lot. I get it - it's a question I asked my oncology team when I was first diagnosed. (The reply I got - "Just eat a healthy balanced diet" - is still guaranteed to wind me up, as it means so little!)

There is plenty of generalised cancer nutrition advice available that is based on the results of large studies. From these we know of the benefits of a diet predominantly based on plants, and the benefits of an anti-inflammatory diet. The research has to look at the effects of a particular dietary approach on large groups of people so that we can be sure that the conclusions are statistically significant. However, any dietary approach will only reduce risk and is not a guarantee.

Does this mean that the general advice is right for you, right now, with your health as it currently is? Maybe. But personalising nutritional therapy for you can aim to address your particular issues.

Maybe you'd like to eat more plants, but your digestion hasn't been the same since chemotherapy and you can't manage it. Maybe you have another chronic health condition as well as cancer and you're confused by conflicting dietary advice for the two. Maybe you feel that some types of "healthy" foods just aren't good for you, but you don't know whether to trust that or not. Maybe you'd love to eat a more nutritious diet, but you are just too tired....

The second picture shows some of the factors that I consider when working with someone who's had a cancer diagnosis, with the aim of influencing the environment in the body to make it less hospitable to cancer. From a health history, current symptoms, and sometimes testing, we can work out which areas to focus on, which are priorities. Then the nutritional therapy becomes personalised.

Over in my Facebook group, we are (slowly!) discussing these different factors as they impact cancer. You are very welcome to join us if you'd like (link in bio).

#nutritionforcancer #personalisednutrition #personalisedcancernutrition #integrativeoncology

As an accredited @digestion.with.confidence practi

As an accredited @digestion.with.confidence practitioner, one of the conditions I can help with is low stomach acid.

We can only produce stomach acid when our nervous system is in the "rest and digest" mode (as opposed to "fight or flight"). We also need to produce stomach acid at the right time to help us digest our food.

Just think about he busy-ness of our modern lifestyles for a moment. Think about how many people feel that there is no time, at work or at home, to take time out to fully relax around eating. Is it any wonder that so many experience the symptoms associated with low stomach acid?

Taking time away from the busy-ness to eat in a relaxed way is a great first step towards optimising your digestion.

#acidreflux #heartburnrelief #nutritionaltherapist #digestionwithconfidence #stomachacid

There's a common belief that acid reflux is caused

There's a common belief that acid reflux is caused by "too much acidity". It's not. Your stomach is meant to be highly acidic - if it's not, it significantly impairs the digestion of food in the stomach.

Acid reflux is caused by stomach acid being where it shouldn't be: in the oesophagus. There are several aspects of our modern lifestyles that increase the chances of stomach acid backing up into the oesophagus.

Proton pump inhibitor medications like omeprazole block the production of stomach acid and so can relieve the pain of heartburn and importantly also prevent the oesophagus from being damaged. However, they don't address the reasons that reflux happens, and over time, the resulting lack of stomach acid can lead to further digestive problems such as nausea, bloating and constipation or diarrhoea.

As an accredited @digestion.with.confidence practitioner, I can help you address nutrition and lifestyle factors to optimise your digestive function, reduce reflux and protect your oesophagus, whether you are on a proton pump inhibitor or not.

If you'd like to find out more about how I can help you with your acid reflux symptoms, then book a free, no obligation call with me via the link in my bio

#acidreflux #heartburnrelief #nutritionaltherapist #digestionwithconfidence #gastroesophagealreflux #gastroesophagealrefluxdisease

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