More adventures to the USA………

I have a few beliefs in life; ok a lot! When it comes to education, however, I believe that if I am to help my clients to the best of my ability then I must do two things:

1. Education: to continually strive to be as educated as I can, in as many topics as I can practically consume;  from health, medicine and wellbeing; to fitness, mobility and all topics related to movement;  to psychology, life and spirituality; food, cooking, and our ancestral relationship to foods; to mother earth, her plants, animals and energies; and finally to energy medicine and the whole realm of the invisible, unknown, and astonishing powers of healing, intuition, conscious beliefs and inner self-healing.
2. Integration: to combine almost 20 years of medical, nutritional, and functional diagnostics experience with my 40 years of life (some hard knocks as well as eye-opening intuitive skills) into a skill mix that delivers practical and empowering advice to you the client such that you can become the master of your own health and wellbeing.

For the duration of my time here on earth I will be an eternal student driven to marry science with intuition and innate healing skills; and to somehow create an alchemical balance within my practice of medicine, functional medicine, food and lifestyle with your innate  ability to heal, thrive, be happy and achieve a life beyond your dreams.

A mediocre life is not an option when you start to see what you are capable of experiencing…..

I see travel on the horizon:

First stop Phoenix, AZ, for APMCP training with the Institute of Functional Medicine.

So 1 month to the day I am off on more educational adventures.

This will commence with a weeks functional medicine practical training course with the IFM in Phoenix. The course is titled Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice and although I use a strong functional medicine base in my daily practice already, I felt that it is time for an upgrade, to mix with the best in the field, and come home pumped with even more knowledge to help you better. To read more about my educational shenanigans please follow the link here.

I believe that functional diagnostic medicine is a core part of patient care. To fully heal a patient suffering with chronic health conditions (for example auto-immune conditions and gastrointestinal complaints) we must get to the root of the health problems and functional medicine does this in a much more comprehensive and whole-body way than conventional medicine alone.

With my background in pharmacy I am able to integrate conventional medicine with functional medicine and wI ork closely with patients’ doctors and specialists. This is very important for patient welfare and to prevent conflict and confusion for the patient. Every part of both fields of medicine has a purpose and a good practitioner will marry both.

Many patients coming to me are on medication and so my pharmacy training (qualified 1997 ex The Welsh School of Pharmacy, University of Cardiff) puts me in a strong position to ensure the best care for them and to run full checks on the appropriateness of herbs and nutritional supplements. With the complexity of liver detoxification function herbs should never be taken without the supervision of a herbalist or appropriately trained medical doctor or pharmacist.

Second stop Sedona, AZ

I am so excited about this stop-over between courses. I will be staying 18 days in Sedona on what I guess you could describe as a spiritual retreat with a little bit of studying!

I have a huge draw to the USA and especially the energy of the Native Indians, their traditions, their sacred medicine and the energy in the land. This energy has called me to the USA many times and she has called me again of late. I think that the two courses lining up in proximity and timing was simply the excuse to give myself permission to adventure once more to places calling me.

I will be spending a significant amount of my time with my mentor Clint and his wife Michelle. If you would like to read more about Clint please click this link to Sedona Sacred Earth. Clint and I have been working together for months and so when I visit in March, our work together will be completely tailored to my needs. I am beyond excited and open to the challenges.

I will keep you updated with blogs and video messages while on my stay in Sedona; of note I will be spending time looking within, setting goals and desires into motion, visiting the reserves and spending time with plants, animals, and sacred sites. I am very much looking forward to opening my heart to new experiences, friends and more.

There is a nice challenge also in that the only accommodation that I was successful in finding for the duration of the stay requires that I only cook vegetarian meals; so this will be a nice opportunity to cleanse and heal the body. I don’t very much trust the meat in the USA anyhow so I wont be missing out too much.

Third Stop Littleton, Colorado

After my 18 day stay in Sedona I will set off for the biggest road trip I have ever done alone in a car and travel on to Littleton, Colorado, via Santa Fe. 11 hours in total (in theory) so the stop over in a very pretty location is welcomed.

In Colorado I will be attending a training clinic run by Dina Griffin to gain my Level I Metabolic Efficiency Training Specialist Certification at eNRG labs with Dina Griffin. Littleton is at higher altitude than Ireland (not difficult to achieve!) so without adequate acclimation time I am unable to have my own good self tested, which is a shame but I will be making the most of some training runs at elevation and hope that my body knows what to do after my 3 months in Reno 2014; also at altitude.

I won’t try to reinvent a perfectly good explanation of metabolic efficiency (a concept based on metabolic flexibility) so here are Bob Seebohar’s own words to describe the concept.

Metabolic Efficiency can be defined as improving the body’s ability to use its internal stores of nutrients, specifically carbohydrate and fat, more efficiently.

The average person has approximately 1,400 – 2,000 calories worth of carbohydrate stored in their body and 50,000 – 80,000 calories stored as fat.

The body is a very complex system but surprisingly, it can be taught to oxidize (burn) more carbohydrate or fat in a surprisingly short amount of time. Burning more carbohydrate will allow the body to store more fat.  Burning more fat will allow the body to preserve the small amount of carbohydrates. The latter obviously has more profound positive impacts on health and well-being, fitness, and athletic performance and is the foundation of Metabolic Efficiency.

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Athletes embrace Metabolic Efficiency because the performance improvements can be fairly significant. It doesn’t matter the type of athlete (strength, power, aesthetic, endurance), there are benefits no matter who adopts this lifestyle.

Of course, the benefits will be different depending on the athlete but in general, athletes usually experience the following when they become Metabolically Efficient:

1) decreased body weight,
2) decreased body fat,
3) improved and sustained energy levels and mental alertness throughout the day,
4) improved recovery,
5) improved cognitive function,
6) improved power to weight ratio,
7) improved running velocity, and 8) better sleep.

This is a short list as each athlete will have different interactions and improvements based on their starting point and level of progression.

To read more please click the link to the Metabolic Efficiency webpage, the webpage from which the above explanation is taken. For more superb articles see the blog written by Bob and other certified nutrition, functional medicine, and metabolic efficiency certified experts.

I have already been working with elite, professional (rugby), Olympic (endurance, track and field, rowing) and dedicated athletes for a number of years (13 to be exact; spanning numerous sports); I see this training as an extension to what I have studied and gained in experiences over the years. I cannot wait to give myself the time and opportunity to further this knowledge and bring it back to you.

So that is my little adventure in March and April Folks; I will keep you posted. To say that I am beyond excited is an understatement.

Oh and if you are wondering why do I invest in these trips? It is because I strive to be the best version of me so that I can best support you.

Much love,

Andrea