Nutrition Wisdom can Create True Transformation

About Me

Since my early childhood days, I have always spread myself thin. Setting, and achieving goal after goal. I had a fulfilling career as a manager in R&D center, managing a few dozen engineers in my team. A job I truly loved. A job I was truly passionate about.

I thought I knew enough about healthy living. After all, I have two Masters degrees, I should know enough, right? I followed the dietary guide pyramid, ate a low fat and low salt diet, cut animal foods as much as possible. I exercised regularly, I would drag myself to the gym despite working overtime, which was usually until 9:00pm most nights. I felt like I was doing everything “right”

A Dreadful Cancer Diagnosis, Seemingly out of Nowhere

After my diagnosis, I was advised to have surgery as soon as possible. Everything happened so quickly. Within one week I had a thyroidectomy. My doctor is a highly skilled surgeon and the operation was a great success. He assured me there was no sign of tumor spreading and by taking the synthetic thyroid hormone I should be back to normal life in no time.

The entire process was overwhelming, but I was still holding on to the hope that I would be able to make a nice comeback. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. It was just the beginning of a long journey of struggling with a multitude of chronic conditions in the years to follow. Shortly after the surgery, I caught a cold that seemed never to end. After a routine checkup for my cold, I learned it wasn’t just a cold, but I was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Which put me on a full course of triple therapy antibiotics treatment. In the meantime, my digestive system was also totally thrown out of whack. Cramping, abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea after almost every meal. Once mouth-watering foods now became the trigger to a set of digestion discomfort. After revisiting the doctor, my gastroscopy result showed no significant pathological evidence, but the persistent stomach churning often kept me up night after night.

I started to experience lasting fatigue and weakness. I grew frustrated, I once used to be able to manage multiple tasks with ease. I noticed my energy levels and strength was slowly declining. They were barely sufficient for me to survive through the workdays. During the year following the surgery, I spent most of the weekends and holidays either on the bed or visiting doctors. Recurring UTI and acute pelvic infection sent me to urgent care several times within two months. All these alarming signs of a severely compromised immune system alerted me to the possibility of cancer recurrence.

Turning my Attention to my Son

My then two and half year old son got a surprisingly low score in a child development test and was highly suspected to have autism (the diagnosis was then confirmed half year later). In just 18 months, I spiraled down from a busy professional life to being bedridden. Why me? How did this happen? The organ with the tumor has been removed. The hormone that can’t be produced has been replaced. I was supposed to be “cured” right? These inevitable questions had been always preying on my mind. I knew something deeper was wrong.

Raising a child on the spectrum, we didn’t just confront delayed language development, attention deficiency and sensory overload, but also digestive and sleeping issues. After seeing the scary side effects that medical intervention had on my son, I made up my mind to search for a safer and natural alternative. With the help of a friend, I introduced my son to nutritional therapy. Nutritional therapy involved some dietary changes, including the removal of dairy and refined sugar, plus a therapeutic supplement protocol. Within months, we were thrilled to notice that our boy could sleep the through the night, and his bowel movements were getting more regular and easier.

Intuitively, I knew we were moving to the right direction. I put myself on a supplement protocol as well and started to be more conscious about what to eat and how to eat. The pills and capsules packed with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants made me feel better. The digestive discomfort was alleviated, and I suffered less from chronic fatigue. However, is taking supplements the only path to right nutrition? Is there a way to wean myself away from too many of them? I was taking more than 15 different supplements at one time! In addition, I realized that nutrition is not like any subject I have studied in the past. The science of nutrition is incredibly messy! Everyday people are being blasted with an unprecedented number of contradictory health recommendations and dietary advice, let alone the nutrition experts who keep changing their views. Coffee. Eggs. Red meat, dairy is good for you one day, but bad for you the next.

Taking Health and Wellness into my Own Hands

I decided to approach the nutrition study from a systematic approach instead of being fed with the fragmentary information in a piecemeal approach. I took an in-depth exploration to nutrition, physiology, biology, culinary wellness and the rapidly evolving science of how genetics (the nature) and exposome (the nurture) affect our health.

Over the next few years, I spent thousands of hours taking courses, reading books, and studying with experts. The ARNA (Amalgamated Registered Nutritionists Association) Program gave me the chance to fully understand the modern knowledge of food, including food choices, dietary structure, eating style and how they affect the terrain of the human body. It revealed how much I was misinformed in the past as to what healthy eating encompassed, and how badly poor food choices and eating habits could contribute to the development of countless chronic conditions.

The Nutritional Therapy Practitioner Course offered by NTA (Nutritional Therapy Associations) taught me the concept of functional holistic nutrition through a foundational and bio-individual approach. By building solid nutritional foundations through a properly prepared, nutrient-dense, individualized whole food diet and optimized digestion functions we can deeply nourish the body and enhance the body’s ability to heal.

The Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Course provided me with the needed resources of various assessment methods to dig deeper to get to the bottom of any health issue. I learned how to work as a health detective to identify healing opportunities and remove hidden stressors in hormone, immune, digestion and detoxification. With the right functional lab testing, I was able to find the answer to my own health issues and customize a health building protocol accordingly in diet, rest, exercise, supplement, and stress management. The FDN training taught me about a new approach to transformational nutrition.

Implementing a Holistic Approach into my Day to Day Life

Transformational Nutrition, an entirely new model for nutrition created by ITN (Institute of Transformational Nutrition), broadened my vision of nutrition, which is often narrowed down to diet only. The truth is, we are fed by more than what’s on our plate. A truly holistic solution to whole person health is not possible without addressing the mind and spirit.

With my newly acquired knowledge and skills, I can connect the dots and follow a healing roadmap, rather than seeing and treating my symptoms as separate problems. As I explore everything from the HPA axis, endocrine system, digestive tract, and immune functions, I take actions to minimize the toxins in my environment and reduce as many stressors in my life as possible. Now I know exactly what to do with my diet, exercise, and supplement to speed up the detox and healing process. I also adapted a few psychological practices and spiritual exercises that help overcome negative habits and behaviors, and lead to lasting results.

I eventually make enough progress to feel like myself again, in a new way. My digestive symptoms are gone, and I can once again enjoy an abundance of food. My energy lasts much longer, no more afternoon drowsiness and evening collapse. My immune function has enhanced, and I am no longer always the first person to catch flu in the house. I’ve made just about every mistake one could possibly make when pursuing health. Nevertheless, l am empowered as never before to take healing into my own hands and strive to feel young and vibrant every day!

Advice to my Younger Self

1. Your body is talking, are you listening?

I would like to remind my past self to listen and attune to her body. You may not have been given a diagnosis yet and look perfect on paper with normal blood chemistry levels. But years of operating at full capacity without properly nourishing the body and managing the stress created so much cellular damage. Following misinformed outdated nutrition dogma and clinging to intensive cardio workout are like burning the candle at both ends, only leaving you more exhausted.

2. Do not wait for a diagnosis before you decide to take action, if you continue down the path you are now.

Here was another me, just resigned from work, struggling with rapidly declining health, and feeling like a victim. I would like to tell my past self that that your body has not failed you. Instead, you have failed to properly manage your health.

The chronic stress over years caused HPA Axis overload and endocrine dysfunction which was manifested in the thyroid. Even with the broken organ being removed, the synthetic hormone could not support every physiological activity in the exact same way as the naturally produced one. Once this metabolism essential hormone goes off track, every cell and every organ are affected. The prolonged use of antibiotics further disrupted gut microbiomes which in turn had a significant negative impact on the overall health.

3. You CAN reclaim your health back!

There is no magic pill to transform the body overnight, but if you shift your mindset, change your behavior, cultivate the health through growing nutrition wisdom and mastering the art of attuning to the body, you will gain the power of transformation!

My Purpose

My passion, my purpose, and my joy are educating and empowering people, who are misinformed, struggling, and frustrated just like my younger self, to take control of their health and vitality, while saving them some time, tears, and pain.

Hitting the road of Holistic Nutrition Professional is anything but coincidence. My health and wellness adventures set me on this path. It is an extension of my quest for optima health. It is like finally finding and living my soul’s purpose – I am made for this work!

The health of our body affects every aspect of our life. When it is compromised, also gone with it are the confidence, zest, and dream. Once we heal ourselves, we help heal the people around us and the community. I understand this because I have been there.

Teaching You To Become Unstoppable

Just imagine for a minute, how amazing your life would be if you could reverse chronic conditions, increase energy level, enhance mental clarity, and regain the vitality to be unstoppable in professional and personal life. Just imagine how deeply satisfied you would feel. This really is possible for you, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise! When you get there, not only will your life feel like a work of art, you’ll be an inspiration to everyone you love.

Please allow me to be your companion and guiding hand, and set sail on your wellness journey!

Xiaoyun Pan | Holistic Nutritionist | FDN-P, FNTP, CTNC, BCHN®

Xiaoyun Pan is Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition, a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, and Certified Transformational Nutrition Coach.

Xiaoyun is committed to helping busy professionals who are struggling with declining health and feel lost in the jungle of nutrition information to cut through all the noise and hypes, discover their unique healing path, and pave the way to build solid nutritional foundations, so they can overcome health challenges, enhance performance, and stay on top of their game!”

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