Oh good -- another course!

Yesterday afternoon I found myself in Harley Street attending yet another course. I guess I am quite addicted to courses, but it was a fascinating romp through 'Bio-Typing' and how to use it as a practitioner.

Bio-Typing is the method of categorising people into groups with similar traits. Each group has similar physical attributes and personality characteristics that mark them out as a certain type of person. This type is then used to work out the best way to eat, lose fat, gain muscle, play sport etc.

Given that we all know that we're not the same (how can it be that one person can live on crap food and loads of it and yet never gain a pound and the rest of us... well you know how the story goes!). It makes sense to me that there may be a different way to achieve good health.

Alessandro Ferretti took us through a brief history of Bio Typing before taking us through to the bit we all wanted to hear, the different types. There are 5 types and the first thing you need to do to identify someone is consider their height. You then consider their torso, limb length, hand size maybe even gait. By this time he reckons you should have 80% of people down to a certain type. The remaining 20% may need further assessing or tweaking.

By the time all 8 of us had entered the room and sat down, Alessandro had already worked out what we all were. By the end of the description of different types some of us still didn't know what category we fell into, but he knew! With a few simple questions like 'do you like kids?', or 'would you be seen driving a Skoda?' he had us all convinced as to which category we should be in.

The dietary guidelines for each group vary so that all groups can have optimum good health. I am a 'P' type, I am going to try my new way for 4 weeks and see how I get on. I'll keep you posted!

The afternoon was a fascinating introduction into a method of health management that Alessandro has been using in his practice for many years with outstanding results.

For more information on how you can optimise your health with a combination of Bio-Typing and nutritional and health advice drop me a line at heidi@strickers.org.uk.

Five years and counting...

Well, I thought I would restart my blog on something other than what I've eaten. Not very interesting for most of you I'm sure.

I have for many years been interested in diet, nutrition, healthy eating. Call it what you will. Even before I got into fitness as a profession I had been considering doing a Diploma in Nutrition, but needed Science A levels and as I didn't have those it stopped there. Any possibility was thwarted even more as two babies appeared in pretty quick succession too!

As time has gone by, I have become more aware of food as a medicine for good health and disease prevention and also frustrated by the medical and pharmaceutical companies pushing medication for business sake. Whilst on holiday this year, having read two very interesting nutrition books, (no chick-lit for me!) my husband said the ominous words, "so what are you going to do with all this knowledge?". Hmm, I'd not thought of that, so on the spur of the moment decided to research Naturopathy courses.

The one that got my attention was a degree course being run by the University of Westminster. Yep, I still needed A' levels and yes I needed Science ones at that, but experience from working in the industry was considered. So I applied on August 29th, thinking it was quite late to apply for a September start.

Last week I got confirmation that I'd been accepted. Yippee! Now I had to decide if I could manage 5 years of part-time study alongside working long days and unsociable hours. Eek! I decided I could. I enrolled on-line last week and apart from paying the fees I'm on!

So enrolment is tomorrow at the University of Westminster (UoW from now on) so I'm off to see what I've let myself in for.

For someone who never had any interest in going to University when I was 18, I am now pretty damn excited about the whole prospect of learning something that I can really get my teeth into, on a subject that I am passionate about. My one concern is not knowing how the timetable will pan out as I would love it to fit into my topsy-turvey week. However all will be revealed tomorrow.

I am going to keep a post on my progress, tell you what I've learned and how it's going.

Now, the big question is...how many other 40 year olds are going to be signing up to University with me tomorrow?!