New Approaches for Your Journey to Optimal Health

Would you like to lose weight and feel better…improve your eating habits and energy levels…make your self-care a priority…gain knowledge about choosing the right foods…enhance your overall health and happiness?

Go beyond the frenzy of confusing diets to unlock the gateway to weight loss, increased energy, and healthy living.

Could one conversation change your life? Find out by scheduling a complimentary consultation with Brianna Harrington, a Certified Holistic Health/Nutrition Counselor. Brianna is a graduate of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and is the newest member of our professional wellness team. During your consultation, you and Brianna will discuss your unique situation in depth and determine how she can help you reach your personal goals. Nutrition changes everything, and as your daily diet changes, every aspect of your life starts to shift in another direction. Imagine what your life would be like if you had clear thinking, energy, and enhanced health every day.

Build a Foundation in Twelve Weeks

Following your complimentary appointment, embark on a 12-week personalized nutrition support program. Work with Brianna one-on-one to discover the food and lifestyle choices that not only allow you to reach your health and weight goals, but help you pave the way for optimal health, vitality and longevity.

Here is an outline of each weekly session:

Week #1: Consultation and health and nutrition profiling
Week #2: health and nutrition profiling results and upgrades
Week #3: Sugar and cravings
Week #4: Greens and smoothies
Week #5: Meal planning
Week #6: Grocery store tour
Week #7: Protein
Week #8: Fat
Week #9: Recipes
Week #10: Self-care
Week #11: Goal setting and follow-up health and nutrition profiling
Week #12: health and nutrition profiling results and review of accomplishments

Brianna will also provide you with further support outside of the health and nutrition sessions with the following:

• Individualized session guides
• E-mail support between sessions
• Recipes with a recipe binder
• Food samples and self-care items

Schedule your complimentary session with Brianna using our online scheduler.

The Health and Nutrition Phone Coaching Program

Health and Nutrition Profiling
--The process
--What are the benefits
--Why test for minerals
--What can cause a mineral imbalance?
--Can vitamin requirements be determined from a mineral test?

Super Food Upgrades

The Health and Nutrition Phone Coaching Program

Are you interested in transitioning to a healthy lifestyle, but feel that your busy schedule prevents you from taking the first steps?

Have you ever wanted individual attention and support with gaining healthy eating habits, but can’t find the time to sit down with some one face to face?

Plaza Fitness at Stuyvesant Plaza understands the needs of their clients, and that is why they offer The Health and Nutrition Phone Coaching Program.

The Health and Nutrition Phone Coaching Program is the same as Plaza Fitness’s Personal Nutrition Support Program, only with sessions conducted over the phone. Now you can gain the information and support you need without leaving your office or your home.

The Health and Nutrition Phone Coaching Program includes:
• A 45-minute phone session with a professional health counselor
• A full set of notes sent via e-mail after each session
• Video educationals sent via e-mail
• A variety of quick and easy nutritious recipes sent via e-mail

Health and Nutrition Profiling

Health and nutrition profiling is an invaluable screening tool which allows a correct program of diet and healthy lifestyle changes to be designed for each individual's specific needs. The three areas of analysis are:

• Nutrient mineral/electrolyte levels in the body's tissues are measured including Calcium; Chromium; Magnesium; Selenium; Sodium; Phosphorus; Potassium; Nickel; Iron; Cobalt; Copper; Molybdenum; Manganese; Lithium; Zinc; Boron
• Toxic metal levels to determine the heavy metal load in the body including Lead; Mercury; Cadmium; Arsenic; Aluminum
• Significant mineral ratios that help determine carbohydrate metabolism, thyroid function, level of inflammation, adrenal reserves, copper toxicity, tissue breakdown, and calcium shell.

The Process

Health and nutrition profiling allows you to gain more specific knowledge about your unique needs. You can begin the process by meeting with Brianna, our Holistic Health and Nutrition Counselor. In the appointment she will ask you a variety of health and lifestyle questions that are significant to the results of the test. She will then collect a hair sample from the back of the scalp and mail the hair sample and your health information to the laboratory. A follow up appointment with her will be made two weeks later. In this appointment the results will be presented and explained, and specific health and nutrition recommendations will be given starting now and continuing through 10 more sessions. At the eleventh session another hair sample will be taken, along with an update form that contains all of the nutrition and lifestyle changes you have made since starting. The twelfth session to review the lab results will be made 2 weeks later.

What are the Benefits?

• It addresses your individual bodily needs.

• It gives you more accurate results with a non-invasive approach

• It gives you the facts about your body before you are chronically ill or struggling with a disease.

• It assists you in keeping your nutrient supply at an optimal level.

Why Test for Minerals?

Trace minerals are essential in countless metabolic functions in all phases of the life process. For example:

Zinc is involved in the production, storage, and secretion of insulin and is necessary for growth hormones.

Magnesium is required for normal muscular function, especially the heart. A deficiency has been associated with an increased incidence of heart attacks, anxiety, and nervousness.

Potassium is critical for normal nutrient transport into the cell. A deficiency can result in muscular weakness, depression, and lethargy.

Excess sodium is associated with hypertension, but adequate amounts are required for normal health. In the words of the late author and noted researcher Dr. Henry Schroeder, trace elements (minerals) are "...more important factors in human nutrition than vitamins. The body can manufacture many vitamins, but it cannot produce necessary trace minerals or get rid of many possible excesses."

What can Cause a Mineral Imbalance?
There are many factors to take into consideration, such as:

Diet - Improper diet through high intake of refined and processed foods, alcohol, and fad diets can all lead to a chemical imbalance. Even the nutrient content of a "healthy" diet can be inadequate, depending upon the soil in which the food was grown or the method in which it was prepared.

Stress - Physical or emotional stress can deplete the body of many nutrients while also reducing the capability to absorb and utilize many nutrients.

Medications - Both prescription and over-the-counter medications can deplete the body's stores of nutrient minerals and/or increase the levels of toxic metals. These medications include diuretics, antacids, aspirin, and oral contraceptives.

Pollution - From adolescence through adulthood the average person is continually exposed to a variety of toxic metal sources such as cigarette smoke (cadmium), hair dyes (lead), hydrogenated oils (nickel), anti-perspirants (aluminum), dental amalgams (mercury and cadmium), copper and aluminum cookware, and lead-based cosmetics. These are just a few of the hundreds of sources which can contribute to nutrient imbalances and adverse metabolic effects.

Nutritional Supplements - Taking incorrect supplements or improper amounts of supplements can produce many vitamin and mineral excesses and/or deficiencies, contributing to an overall biochemical imbalance.

Inherited Patterns - A predisposition toward certain mineral imbalances, deficiencies, and excesses can be inherited from parents.

Can Vitamin Requirements be Determined from a Mineral Test?

Minerals interact not only with each other but also with vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Minerals influence each of these factors, and they in turn influence mineral status. Minerals act as enzyme activators, and vitamins are synergistic to minerals as coenzymes. It is extremely rare that a mineral disturbance develops without a corresponding disturbance in the synergistic vitamin(s). It is also rare for a disturbance in the utilization or activity of a vitamin to occur without affecting a synergistic mineral(s).

For example, vitamin C affects iron absorption and reduces copper retention. Boron and iron influence the status of vitamin B2. Vitamin B2 affects the relationship between calcium and magnesium. Vitamin B1 enhances sodium retention, B12 enhances iron and cobalt absorption, and vitamin A enhances the utilization of zinc, while antagonizing vitamins D and E. Protein intake affects zinc status.

Therefore, evaluating mineral status provides good clues of vitamin status and requirements. Continuing research involves the recognition of many synergistic and antagonistic interrelationships between minerals and vitamins.

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