The Christmas gift that keeps on giving: How to give the gift of health

Many of us struggle to find meaningful gifts for those we love, perhaps we keep trying to think ‘outside the box’, maybe less materialistically – it’s not always easy to find the answer!   Physical gifts can often lose their appeal quickly and begin to gather dust despite our best efforts.  The gift of health however keeps on giving and really is the ultimate gift you can give someone in our burnt-out out world.  

Here, Katherine Caris-Harris of KCH Nutrition looks at what constitutes good health and how she can help you achieve it.

It is estimated over 70% of people now suffer with chronic health conditions such as chronic IBS, hormonal imbalances, migraines, stubborn weight gain, high blood pressure. The Office of National Statistics found 40% of the UK population suffer from at least one long-standing health problem.  All of these impact our daily work and maybe even more importantly, the quality of our life. 

How we can benefit from a health overhaul   

Imagine giving someone you love a gift which could result in them waking up feeling refreshed, feeling good and ready to go, wanting to eat well and actually doing it, knowing how to fuel well for the whole day and avoid those energy slumps that impact a typical day’s work.  Imagine being the one to start them on a new journey of health and wellness – not just a January attempt to change old habits only to, yet again, revert to the old ‘norm’.  How would that feel?   

At KCH Nutrition we are great believers in understanding at a biochemical level what is going on through your body – so we test not guess.  Then we combine the results with a detailed understanding of  health and really listening and understanding a client’s life so we can put the results into context and come up with a do-able plan. It is a plan that fits into somebody’s busy time-pressed day and their unique goals and challenges.   Understanding too, how, when working from home, you can stick to a food plan and get a good routine in place.  

The possible gains of the gift of health

The New Year is a popular time to establish habits and get into new health routines, with increased motivation for self-leadership. If you have a structure and a plan to help you maintain these routines, this can help you achieve your health and wellbeing goals.

It is often what is going on internally that needs addressing to help us overcome certain health challenges and therefore, if we want to help others, or ourselves, we need to gain a better understanding and insight insight into what is going on inside our body.   

• Regaining Energy and Focus – low energy can be linked to chronically elevated cortisol, thyroid imbalances, nutrient deficiencies or problems processing carbohydrates, amongst other reasons.  All of these are assessed in detail.   

• Understand and Manage Weight Challenges – weight gain or inability to lose weight can be complex but often tied to issues metabolic issues, chronic stress or inappropriate fasting.  Blood work and nutrigenomic testing can pinpoint specific barriers and tell us exactly what dietary changes are right for you along with the motivation to make small but powerful lifestyle changes.  

• Get off the Path to Burnout – Burnout is not a straight trajectory and it can take many years to get there.  The good news about this is if you catch the signs and symptoms early and take action, you can change this path much more quickly than if left late, regaining your spark for life.  Immune function, metabolism, sub-clinical hypothyroidism are all key here along with your genetic pre-disposition, for example to not be able to switch-off.   Knowing your pre-disposition to processing cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine is powerful information to know how to modulate these pathways and support physical and mental health. 

• Hormonal Imbalances – as may be found in peri-menopause, menopause, drivers of low testosterone in men and understanding what may be driving conditions such as PCOS can all be uncovered in blood testing.   Education around these areas combined with seeing exactly what is happening in your body is really powerful. 

How to give the gift of health

If you want to explore how you can offer these potential benefits, you can find out more from KCH Nutrition. A package includes:

1. Comprehensive Functional blood panel consisting of over 110 biomarkers to understand what is going on inside your body.  
2. Nutrigenomic Testing  – to assess and learn your risk pre-disposition as you age and how to support key areas of concern in conjunction with bloods. 
3. One initial consultation with Katherine – 90 minutes to include written report, test interpretation and pulling together all the information we have gathered to produce a personalised food guidance and tailored supplement plan.  
4. One follow-up consultation with Katherine – 45 minutes to assess progress and adjust plan as required.
   

For a huge range of other Christmas gift ideas, make sure you check out The Homeworker 2024 Independent Christmas Gift Guide. You can download it for free here.