Food is Medicine RVA groups
A six month series designed to optimize your immune system, reverse inflammation and chronic illness
These groups are designed to be an affordable way to receive health coaching using group support for diet and lifestyle changes to create optimal wellness. Now more than ever we need to develop a strong and resilient immune system and the Food is Medicine RVA groups are designed to do this.
The first session focuses on a strategies to help you with habit changes and goal setting. We also introduce a tool to be used weekly to help keep you stay on track as you move forward. These strategies for habit change and goal setting are the foundation for the rest of the program.
Following this, each additional session starts with an information-packed lecture focusing on a specific health area followed with group discussion and interaction. As we bring up issues and concerns relevant to different members, there will be ongoing support through the group's private Facebook page as well as follow-up emails. Each group's Facebook page is a great platform to dive into greater detail to the topics and areas of concern that were raised during each meeting. It is also a great place to ask additional questions, share recipes, request extra support or share a success!
The program is designed to help you make one to three changes at a time, either weekly or monthly, to ensure your success as you develop new habits. You will be amazed how quickly just a few changes at a time add up and you start to see a real impact on your health.
Functional medicine principles are used to identify the root causes for your health concerns
We will be examining how our foods, lifestyles, relationships and environment are affecting our health. There are some practices that are good for everyone but there are also certain changes that need to be individualized for your unique situation. For more information about functional medicine use this link.
Members responsibilities
When you join the Food is Medicine RVA group you will complete a detailed, on-line Health History so that Terri can become familiar with your specific health journey and individual needs.
The goal setting exercises at the beginning of the program are crucial to your success. You will be encouraged to set aside a few hours for yourself to complete these as you invest in yourself for this process.
Remember, the best project you will ever work on is YOU. We are serious about making phenomenal changes that move you from surviving to thriving and boost your immune system!
All members will be encouraged to participate in group discussions and share their experiences. There will be a mixture of introverts and extroverts but Terri will moderate participation to allow a safe space for each member to share their experiences, concerns, struggles and successes.
Each group will also be a “judgment-free zone”. You are encouraged to share not just your successes but also your set-backs; and we all struggle with set-backs from time to time! Me too! We will use the power of the group for support and accountability to get you back on track because we are all a work in progress!
For more information and how to join
Please email Terri at: FoodisMedicineRVA@gmail.com
Food is Medicine RVA groups
A six month series designed to optimize your immune system, reverse inflammation and chronic illness
These groups are designed to be an affordable way to receive health coaching using group support for diet and lifestyle changes to create optimal wellness. Now more than ever we need to develop a strong and resilient immune system and the Food is Medicine RVA groups are designed to do this.
The first session focuses on a strategies to help you with habit changes and goal setting. We also introduce a tool to be used weekly to help keep you stay on track as you move forward. These strategies for habit change and goal setting are the foundation for the rest of the program.
Following this, each additional session starts with an information-packed lecture focusing on a specific health area followed with group discussion and interaction. As we bring up issues and concerns relevant to different members, there will be ongoing support through the group's private Facebook page as well as follow-up emails. Each group's Facebook page is a great platform to dive into greater detail to the topics and areas of concern that were raised during each meeting. It is also a great place to ask additional questions, share recipes, request extra support or share a success!
The program is designed to help you make one to three changes at a time, either weekly or monthly, to ensure your success as you develop new habits. You will be amazed how quickly just a few changes at a time add up and you start to see a real impact on your health.
Functional medicine principles are used to identify the root causes for your health concerns
We will be examining how our foods, lifestyles, relationships and environment are affecting our health. There are some practices that are good for everyone but there are also certain changes that need to be individualized for your unique situation. For more information about functional medicine use this link.
Members responsibilities
When you join the Food is Medicine RVA group you will complete a detailed, on-line Health History so that Terri can become familiar with your specific health journey and individual needs.
The goal setting exercises at the beginning of the program are crucial to your success. You will be encouraged to set aside a few hours for yourself to complete these as you invest in yourself for this process.
Remember, the best project you will ever work on is YOU. We are serious about making phenomenal changes that move you from surviving to thriving and boost your immune system!
All members will be encouraged to participate in group discussions and share their experiences. There will be a mixture of introverts and extroverts but Terri will moderate participation to allow a safe space for each member to share their experiences, concerns, struggles and successes.
Each group will also be a “judgment-free zone”. You are encouraged to share not just your successes but also your set-backs; and we all struggle with set-backs from time to time! Me too! We will use the power of the group for support and accountability to get you back on track because we are all a work in progress!
For more information and how to join
Please email Terri at: FoodisMedicineRVA@gmail.com
Functional Medicine, Modern & Integrative Medicine
Functional Medicine is a relatively new field of medicine that was founded 30 years ago by Dr. Jeffrey Bland and refers to something very different than what we currently refer to as conventional medicine, modern medicine or the current standard model of care.
Conventional Medicine: (also referred to as modern or allopathic medicine) uses drugs or hormones treat dysfunction or disease. The training in conventional medicine uses the standard model of care which is to diagnose a disease and match that disease with a corresponding drug. This can be viewed as “downstream thinking.” Your conventional practitioner could decide to treat you, or refer you to a specialist who has access to the same basic tool: medication.
This model can and does work well for acute diseases, trauma, infection, and emergencies. Where it fails in the care of the chronic western diseases that affect over 125 million Americans.
Integrative Medicine: This definition may change from practitioner to practitioner but essentially refers to incorporating supportive therapies such as massage, acupuncture, herbal medicine and nutrition in with a conventional medicine treatment. Definitely a move in the right direction.
Functional Medicine: Focuses on treating root causes of disease, mostly through dietary and lifestyle changes but still does use medications as needed. Chronic conditions such as allergies, digestive, hormonal, metabolic and neurological problems, which most Americans suffer from on a daily basis, are finding solutions in the field of functional medicine. It is considered “upstream thinking”.
Here are five basic principles that define it:
1. Functional medicine views us all as being different; we are genetically and biochemically unique. This personalized health care sees the individual, not the disease. It supports the normal healing mechanisms of the body naturally rather than attacking disease directly.
2. Functional medicine is deeply science based. The latest research shows us that what happens within us is connected in a complicated network or rather a web of relationships. Understanding those relationships allows us to see deep into the functioning of the body.
3. Your body is intelligent and has the capacity for self-regulation, which expresses itself through a dynamic balance of all your body systems.
4. Your body has the ability to heal and prevent nearly all the diseases of aging.
5. Health is not just the absence of disease, but a state of immense vitality. Here lies the clear distinction and definition of functional medicine:
Instead of asking, “What drug matches up with this disease?”
Functional medicine asks the vital questions that very few conventional doctors ask: “Why do you have this problem in the first place?” and “Why has function been lost?” and “What can we do to restore function?” In other words, functional medicine looks to find the root cause or mechanism involved with any loss of function. It sees the body as a network that is looking for balance versus separate organ systems.