My Path to Becoming a Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner – Months 5 & 6 

This post continues to share my journey of becoming a Nutritional Therapist with the Nutritional Therapy Association, covering Months 5 and 6, February and March. To read more about how I came to selecting this program and to read about Month 1 of the program, see my first post. To read about months 2 and 3, read my second post and to read about month 4 read my third post.

Month 5

The fifth month of this program was by far the most challenging for me, the content continued to roll in and simultaneously we were preparing for our mid-term examinations, the first weekend of March. Being a self proclaimed perfectionist I wanted to ace the exams, while of course, I also really wanted all of the content to be very clear to me. That meant lots of studying, lots of flash cards, memorizing and generally freaking myself out! It worked! I missed one tiny little thing on my written mid-term examination and had 1/2 point taken off on my functional evaluation practical exam. ACED!

Month 6

The first weekend of month 6 was our second workshop weekend, 4 long days. First we had our exams and then we spent the remainder of the weekend going over the content we had covered since our last meeting as well as continuing to practice the functional evaluations (you can read more about function evaluations here). After the workshop weekend we were on term break for just under 1 month.

Modules Covered:

Modules 10 Immune and Allergy

Module 11 Cardiovascular Health

Module 12 Nutritional Detoxification

 

Module I am Currently Studying:

Module 13 Applied Nutritional Therapy

Favorite Book: 7-Day Detox Miracle – Revitalize Your Mind and Body with This Safe and Effective Life-Enhancing Program

While some of the dietary and specific food suggestions in this book don’t match the paradigm of the Nutritional Therapy Association (or my own personal approach), this book offers a very in-depth understanding of how toxins can gravely affect our body and our health and how our various systems of detox should be performing for optimal detoxification on a daily basis, a natural process necessary to the body being able to heal itself. It explains the detox pathways and how they need to function in order for a program like this (or any detox program) to be effective.  Also included are the six steps of detoxification as well as details protocols and additional support for a detoxification plan. This book also dicusses in great detail the necessary process and steps for nutritional detoxification to properly work and how failing to first support the foundations before taking it on, can cause more harm than good. In a sea of juice cleanses, detox retreats, raw detox cleanses, etc, this book provides the necessary education to approach detoxification in a safe, supported and effective manner. A great read for anyone that has considered detoxing, believes they are in need of it, has patients, clients or family members dealing with a toxic burden, etc.

Biggest Lesson: From Module 10: Immune and Allergy Understanding how immune function is supposed to perform and how a failing immune system doesn’t always present as someone who gets sick often. Often the “sickest” people are the ones that never ever get sick. A lack of illness represents an underactive and failing immune system and can often present as a very serious disease further down the line, autoimmune conditions, disease or worst yet, cancer . General illnesses, like colds, flus, an infection, the symptoms you experience with these that cause you to feel ill are the immune system doing it’s job and fighting off the foreign invaders. This is why taking OTC drugs to mask, cover up or cease the symptoms are actually detrimental to a speedy healing and recovery (though they can at times provide much needed relief when life just cannot stop for us). Obviously being sick all of the time is also worrisome, but one or two illnesses a year are normal and good even, this proves your immune system is working just fine, doing what it is meant to.

Biggest Struggle:  I guess I should preface this by saying that in the Nutritional Therapy program none of the content is ever where the struggle list for me, more often it is the fact that I have so many responsibilities and cannot just focus on school. I am balancing school, work, life and travel and that can be challenging and the program moves . Month 5 was particular tough as we prepared for mid-terms. Grasping the content was one thing, but be able to perform the functional evaluation But, I buckled down, stayed focused, made the time and didn’t let myself feel overwhelmed. Studying for the mid-terms meant a lot of going over and over and over the same points, to be certain I truly understood them, but it worked, I aced the exams and now I can prepare to do it all again in just about two months for our finals!

 

As part of my scholarship with the Nutritional Therapy Association, I will be sharing my personal experiences of the NTP program with you here on Tasty Yummies each month. All of the content, words, ideas and opinions are my own.