Rawls Whittlesey - Certified Nutrition and Wellness Consultant

I've always been into nutrition it seems, and for most of my adult life, I've really had to watch my weight. And over the years I've watched it go up and become harder and harder to get rid of! In high school and college I played sports, and never really had to worry about it, then in my late 20's after gaining about 25 lbs, I got myself into the gym and by my 30's was in the best shape of my life (at least I thought). Then came the back problems, and I ended up having back surgery which really limited my ability to do any major aerobic exercise. I continued exercising, but the drop in my workouts and no change to my diet didn't keep me in the same shape. Go figure! When work became more intense (stressful, long hours!!!!!) my workouts became less frequent. Then I just got to where I dreaded going to the gym and felt guilty when I didn't. I was feeling so out of balance, and nothing worked to help me lose weight, I had no energy, I was sure I was hormonal, and I didn't know what to do. I was fortunate enough to find an Integrative Medicine doctor, Dr. John Kim, and he helped me weed out fact from fiction when it comes to nutrition, inflammation and healthy living. He also introduced me to Dr. Andrew Weil (more about him later). Fast forward to 2008, and I was re-introduced to yoga by some really good friends when we went to a yoga retreat in Thailand (see my travel blog ). That was in June, and I've hardly started a day without yoga since then and I've lost 10+ lbs. Then my Dad got sick and his diet became extremely important; important to me because I dropped everything to take care of him and had to figure out how to keep him nourished properly.

As I began to research nutrition for my Dad's condition, I started realizing that I really liked this topic, I've known much of this information for a while, and it's all coming together for me now as more of a nutrition plan for life long health as opposed to a way to lose unwanted weight. That coupled with the yoga, and I'm making some important changes to live better! Since I've not been working (I "retired" from Delta Air Lines in June), and have been taking care of my Dad for the last six months, I decided that I needed to make the most of the free time I have, and started looking for a way to get certified as a nutrition consultant. That's when I found out about the American Fitness Professionals Association, and their Nutrition and Wellness Consultant certification. I found the course material and text books to be well done and up-to-date. I confirmed a lot of the information I already knew, and learned a lot more in the process. I learned the why's and why nots of some of the things I've learned over the years, and learned more about how to counsel individuals who need nutrition and wellness advice.

It's important for me to say here that I am not a Physician nor Registered Dietician and therefore, I strongly recommend you talk to your doctor before implementing any of the information, recommendations, and suggestions that you find in my blog. Each person has a unique make up and I am mostly speaking in generalities here. Wellness may look different for each individual so you should speak with someone familiar with your health history to develop your own plan.

I'm starting this blog to share my learnings and to help people understand how to take the tons and tons of nutrition information and make some sense of it. I hope to post some recipes and meal plans too.

So, the first bit of advice I'm going to give is to listen to the CD from Dr. Andrew Weil called "Taking Care of Yourself". It is excellent and is a good start towards helping understand what is really important when it comes to nutrition, supplements, exercise, and wellness. In case you aren't familiar with Dr. Weil, "Andrew Weil, M.D., is a world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, a healing oriented approach to health care which encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Dr. Weil is an internationally-recognized expert for his views on leading a healthy lifestyle, his philosophy of healthy aging, and the future of medicine and health care." I copied that from his website, http://www.drweil.com/. He's written a number of books and produced many CDs on these topics as well. His advice makes sense and I can tell you it's made a huge difference in my life.

One of the biggest things I've learned in the last couple of years is that inflammation is the root of all evil when it comes to maintaining a healthy body & mind. It is the underlying cause of most major illnesses. Here's what Dr. Weil has to say about the Anti-inflammatory diet and why it's important: "The anti-inflammatory diet counteracts the chronic inflammation that is a root cause of many serious diseases that become more frequent after age 60. Normally, inflammation occurs in response to injury and attack by germs. It is marked by local heat, redness, swelling, and pain, and is the body's way of getting more nourishment and more immune activity to an area that needs them. But inflammation isn't always helpful. It also has destructive potential. We see this when the immune system mistakenly attacks normal tissues in such autoimmune diseases as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus. And we now know that inflammation also plays a causative role in heart disease, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, as well as other age-related disorders, including cancer."

All that to say, you should think seriously about following Dr. Weil's Anti-Inflammatory diet. On his website is the Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid along with suggestions for how to follow it. Check it out!!!

I'll refer to the Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid frequently, because there are things that some people may find different than your basic USDA food pyramid. I've learned with my Dad's friends who so generously want to bring food over, but need to adhere to his dietary plan, that it's not always so obvious how to cook in a way that is anti-inflammatory. I hope I can help clarify what to cook, how to prepare it, etc., and I'll refer to Dr. Weil and others to do that frequently.

That's it for my first blog post. Check back often!