What’s in a nutrition consultation?

What can you expect from your nutrition consultation?

Our aim is for each guest to leave healthier than when they arrived, both physically and nutritionally, and apart from the delicious, nutrient-dense meals that our chefs prepare for you each day, you’ll receive a private consultation with one of our nutrition experts during your stay.

When it comes to nutrition and optimal health, there is no one-size-fits-all and our nutritionists will put together an individualised programme for you to help you achieve your health goals, whether that be to address a few health symptoms or just to promote healthy ageing, or anything in between.

In preparation for your consultation, you’ll be asked to complete a short questionnaire upon arrival that provides our nutritional therapist with some initial information about you and any health concerns, conditions or symptoms you may be experiencing. Here you can list any medications you’ve been prescribed, any supplements that you’re currently taking and what a typical day looks like for you in terms of food and drink.

Your personal nutrition session will last 45 minutes on a retreat and is typically broken down into three parts; information gathering, explaining and educating and finally, negotiating the programme you’ll take home. If you are having an online consultation at home, this can last up to 90 minutes.

The session typically begins with a confidential discussion about your health history and your current diet and lifestyle. This allows our nutrition practitioner to get a better understanding of who you are, your health background and your food and drink preferences. With some skilled questioning they’ll start to get a picture of any potential underlying imbalances that may be contributing to a set of symptoms, or the obstacles that may be preventing optimal health and vitality. Finally, at the end of this initial fact-finding stage, you will agree your health goals for the session. From here, the consultation shifts gears and our therapist will take the time to explain things to you so that you come away with the knowledge and understanding about how your body works, helping you to make the connection between your current state of health, the role that nutrition plays and the diet and lifestyle choices you can make and how they relate to your health goals.

The consultation ends with you working together to figure out how to fit the diet and lifestyle changes that you have agreed to into your routine back home. This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, and there really is no one-size-fits-all. We all have different routines, different tastes and preferences, and different schedules to keep and our nutrition expert will work with you to navigate the obstacles so that you have a programme that works for you. Often, specific nutritional supplements may be recommended to support your health and these are always carefully considered with safety paramount. Our ultimate aim is for you to not only leave a little healthier than when you arrived but to also empower you with the knowledge that you need in order to take a little bit of in:spa home with you.

Mike Murphy, in:spa nutritionst