Every time someone undertakes a Nutritional Balancing program they start off with good intentions. In fact, you could argue that every time anyone tries to make a change to their health by altering their habits, such as eating too much, that they have good intentions. The reality is that not everyone is successful, and this is usually somewhat distressing for the individual. Why is this?

There are MANY reasons why someone will fail when trying to make a change in their health and wellbeing. Most of the reasons at some point come down to underlying self sabotaging beliefs. One only has to look at the many New Year's resolutions to understand this phenomenon. While the stated intention might be to lose weight, if the underlying belief system is not addressed there will most likely be limited success. This however is the topic for another blog, not this one. This blog is looking at the two most common and easily preventable mistakes a person makes when undertaking a Nutritional Balancing program. Here they are.

1. Too Much Information

This common mistake is usually very clear to me almost from the very beginning. In this mistake a person has spent literally countless hours combing the web and any other source they can get their hands on to learn everything possible about their complaint or challenge. At first glance this may seem to be a good thing, or at least harmless, but this is usually far from the truth.

All too often in this scenario the old saying, a little bit of knowledge in the hands of the unexperienced is problematic, becomes the inevitable truth. The issue here is in being able to grasp and use a paradigm to begin working with. What I mean by this is that most of what you read is simply put out there with no holistic paradigm behind it. Most information out there is coming from a reductionist perspective. What most people are unfortunately reading is simply how to treat the symptom not the cause. Even a natural substance such as Vitamin C become symptom oriented if you are taking it to treat a condition or symptom alone. Think about all the ads you see on TV, how many are talking about treating effects or symptoms and how many are looking at causes? I think you'll agree there is an issue here.

What we need to start with is the paradigm of wellness. In this paradigm we look at the cause. From this starting point we rebuild the body. This is clearly very simplistic and I have written more about this elsewhere but I think the point is made. We can get lost looking for a "cure" instead of looking within and treating the causes. Almost ALL of what you read unfortunately comes from the perspective of cure and is not treating the causes.

This is why I maintain too much information just confuses people. Even in this modern age we still need people to help us along or coach us. Even the best athletes need coaches. Please consider this when you are knee deep in information trying to determine your next step. Try asking a grounded, centred and holistic expert for the guidance and expertise that only years spent by thinking in the holistic paradigm can bring. This brings us to problem number two.

2. Thinking there is a better "magic" supplement

This is a very common problem and is related to problem number one. I couldn't tell you how many times people come to me and ask if this would be a better supplement to take than what they are currently taking. They come to me with very good intentions and often have heaps of references to support this new found magic supplement or formula.

While it would be silly of me to think that I have the answer all of time for everyone, I can say that most of the time it would be madness for me to argue against the evidence, and I wouldn't dream of doing this. I'm sure if the research says that product x can lower whatever symptom is of concern to the person, there is some validity to this. This is not my point.

My point is again putting it into perspective. We must first assess the problem from the holistic paradigm. If the "magic" supplement is simply lowering symptoms then it is not really fixing the problem and is simply a natural remedy verses a synthetic one you could get from you GP. There is very little difference.

After this we need to consider the mineral wheel and this cannot be underestimated. Insert. This link explains in more detail what I am saying here. When we alter one mineral for example, we in turn raise or lower at least two others. Unless you know what you are doing, you are going to mess up the delicate balance within the body. Thinking that we are smarter than the body is a mistake and we must work with the body not against it. The science has been done to look at this balance and to haphazardly think that just taking more of something will fix your problem is haphazard at best and dangerous at worst.

I would be so bold as to suggest most practitioners do not consider this. In the haste to correct a symptom we can inadvertently create harm where there was not before. This is not good health care.

A Nutritional Balancing program is SPECIFICALLY designed to take this into account. Just because you have read that more Vitamin X is going to work on your symptom does not mean that it is good for you or in balance with your body's natural homeostatic mechanisms. Just because the latest research is touting a miracle substance does not mean that it is taking into account how it interacts with everything else in the body. A hair tissue analysis is undertaking to understand how your body is currently dealing with its environment and stresses. A properly read and then designed program will help you to rebuild your body and your health from the ground up in a balanced and orderly fashion.

This is not always a quick process and this is often what leads people to look for the magic supplement. In my opinion though, Nutritional Balancing is probably the best way to ultimately help you recover your health.

The funny part is that in the process of rebuilding your health, your symptoms, when given enough time, just melt away. Imagine that.