Nourishing Wisdom: Articles: Counselor Takes Nutrition From Concept to Table

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As featured in The Woodstock Times, October 17, 2002

Counselor Takes Nutrition From Concept to Table
by Mala Hoffman

"It’s one thing to be talking about food and it’s another to be in the kitchen cooking," says Holly Anne Shelowitz, nutrition counselor. To get her clients thinking about the practical application of nutritional knowledge, Shelowitz meets with them in an ongoing process over a six-month period, takes them on tours of health food stores and oversees them in a series of cooking classes. By offering a comprehensive approach to nutrition, Shelowitz hopes to give her clients the information they need to begin a healthy lifestyle. "The cooking classes feel like a cementing of the private sessions," she says.

Shelowitz, who has a practice in New Paltz and Woodstock, has been interested in health and nutrition for 25 years, but only started counseling in the field four years ago, at least officially. "I worked for 16 years as a commercial photographer," she recalls. "I specialized in children, and I found myself always doing health counseling with people. I’d send them information to prepare them for the shoot, and I’d say ‘bring a snack, but not a sugary snack,’ and people would ask me, but why not sugar? Or I’d be doing corporate work, and my stressed out corporate clients would be eating junk, and I’d sit there with my rice and vegetables and they’d wonder why I was so calm."

After taking a yearlong nutrition course, Shelowitz realized that it was time to formalize her interest. Now, she adds, 99 percent of her clients are referred either through health practitioners or from other clients, and they come for a variety of reasons. "Some come because they have very low energy, and they don’t know why. Some are completely confused about what to eat, because of what they’ve heard or read about particular foods," she explains. "I have many women who come because of PMS or mood swings and cramping, or easing into menopause. I also have people who will come with very specific health concerns."

While she approaches each case individually, Shelowitz also tries to bring a certain amount of information to each one. "I really want people to have an enormous education about food," she says. "It’s shocking how little people know about food. I try to help people understand the difference between organic and non-organic and to know the gamut of fresh-grown foods. What we eat has a direct affect on our calmness."

In addition to sharing recipes with clients and encouraging them to read the labels of the foods they purchase, Shelowitz also believes that helping them develop an awareness of how they approach eating can result in a certain amount of enlightenment. It’s all related to nourishment, she notes. "Cooking for yourself is just part of caring for yourself," she emphasizes. "When we pay attention to what we’re eating, it brings us to a different place in our life. It can’t not."

Shelowitz will offer several cooking classes this fall that are open to the public, including one in New Paltz on Thursday, October 24 from 6:15 to 9 p.m. and two in Woodstock, one on Wednesday, October 16 from 6:15 to 9 p.m. and the other on Sunday, November 10 from 3 to 6 p.m. The fee is $35 per class. There are also natural skin care and make your own face and body scrub classes offered at the Woodstock location. For more information, please call Shelowitz at 679-5829 or go to her website at http://www.nourishingwisdom.com.

Holly Anne Shelowitz Email: holly@nourishingwisdom.com Phone: 845.687.9666