Tackling the Whole Picture When It Comes to Health
Consultant says her clients hunger for more than just food
by Patricia Kitchen, SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Holly Anne Shelowitz is a foodcoach. No, she's a career coach. No, she's a relationship coach.

No kidding - she's more than a little of all three. Although eating habits are what her clients come to talk to her about, they are sometimes surprised to learn her focus is less on scales and food plans and more on the total picture.

When people come to her complaining of yo-yo dieting, sugar cravings, coffee and tobacco addictions, she gently probes into other parts of their lives - relationships, families, workplaces and careers. And she might very well ask them if they're getting enough rest or having enough fun.

"We could talk about food for six months, but if we're not dealing with the underlying issues, it (a solution) isn't happening," says Shelowitz. "It's like being a detective."

Her title? Holistic health consultant. As such, she's coached clients to ask for a four-day workweek, establish boundaries with their bosses, take more vacations and find more opportunities for self-actualization. At the heart of her work is discovering a client's "primary food," she says. And that's not the food on your plate but "that which feeds the soul." It's personal for everyone. It could be stronger family ties, writing or woodworking. "It's some other place in their lives where they are really hungry," she says.

Shelowitz, a commercial photographer, started training three years ago for work that would allow her to capitalize on her 20-year passion for healthy cooking and eating. She signed up for a two-year weekend program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in Manhattan (http://www.integrativenutrition. com). Today, she's the proprietor of Manhattan-based HA! (for Holly Anne), seeing clients from all walks of life, including computer programmers, corporate managers and lawyers.

Apart from the frustration of being in the wrong profession, she says, people are burdened with plenty of other food stresses that are workplace-related - toxic relationships, deadline pressures, plus all those eating temptations - and they have few healthy alternatives. How about those trays of cookies, vending machines full of fat and sugar-heavy products, the bottomless pot of coffee? Poor eating habits at work make you fuzzy-headed and less productive, she says.

And one often-overlooked but major trigger for daytime fatigue? A lack of water!

So what are you to do when you're feeling so pressured you can't break for lunch? Start looking for some perspective, she says. Ask yourself whether those deadlines really are life-or-death issues.

Can you re-prioritize, delegate or ask for help? If you're panicking about some future event, ask yourself if you can't just focus on one hour at a time.

And keep on hand dried fruit, herbal tea, nuts, cookies and snacks that contain healthier ingredients.

Steer clear of what she calls "sleepy foods" - those full of refined flour and sugar.

That means bagels, muffins, cookies, pasta, thick slices of bread.

These things can become "glue in our guts," she says.

So, how about Holly Anne herself? Does she ever succumb to a doughnut? No, but she does respond occasionally to the siren call of a cannoli or a good chocolate-chip cookie.

"I thoroughly enjoy it," she says. "When 98 per cent of your diet is healthy, you can eat those things now and then."

HA! can be accessed on-line at http://www.nourishingwisdom.com.

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