I’m Deb Gully and I am a Nutrition Coach and Natural Therapist, in Wellington, New Zealand.

I’ve always been interested in natural health as a consumer, and began to take an interest in nutrition in 1996 when I joined the gym, and we owned a bike shop. After following the low fat diet that I’d been recommended, plus training too hard, I developed chronic fatigue and began to study a more holistic approach to nutrition. I learnt that most of what is commonly believed about nutrition is wrong, and wanted to make better information available.

So my website DietNet was born. I’ve now been studying and using the principles of whole food nutrition, metabolic typing, and avoiding food sensitivities for nearly 20 years, and DietNet is 100 pages and still growing.

I got so many emails from people wanting nutritional help, that I studied for a Diploma in Nutrition and Natural Therapies and started my Health Therapies practice at the end of 2003. I tend to work a lot with people with gut issues, food sensitivities, and chronic illnesses. When I learnt about GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) in 2009, I tracked down the book (which was hard to find at that time!) and started using the principles with my clients. In 2012, I trained with Dr Natasha to be a certified GAPS practitioner.

Enjoying the view on holiday at Lake Taupo NZ

I started my training in kinesiology in 2004 at the Wellington School of Massage, with Reactive Muscle Kinesiology. In 2005, I studied Touch For Health, and in 2006 added in Kinergetics. Since then I have studies many other forms of kinesiology and have been a Certified Natural Health Practitioner in Energy Kinesiology since 2011.

I had been using EFT personally for nearly two years by 2003, and could see how much it could help my nutrition clients. I studied all of Gary Craig’s video sets and passed the EFT-CC and EFT-Adv exams. When I first started learning EFT, there was no training available here. There are now several qualified trainers teaching in NZ, and I’ve studied with 3 of them, to Level 3.

I have also been using Reiki since 2001, and have trained to Degree Two.

I work a lot with people with digestion issues, or allergies and sensitivities. The methods I use are also helpful for a full range of physical, mental or emotional issues.

My other interests include music, dance, theatre & movies, singing in the Wellington Community Choir and reading.

I live in Wellington, New Zealand, but I can help you anywhere in NZ, or worldwide; working face to face, or by phone, email or Skype.

Read more about how I can help you, read about how I work, or contact me

Lyall Bay beach, near our home

Our modern society is full of stresses:

• • Processed and devitalised food
  • Pesticides and food additives
  • Chemicals in our water
  • Air pollution
  • Electro magnetic radiation
  • Alcohol
  • Prescription and recreational drugs
  • Overwork
  • Family commitments
  • Financial worries
  • Pressure to conform
  • Trauma
  • Accidents
  • Crime
  • Concern about politics or the environment

As a result, a wide range of chronic conditions have become common.

Physical problems such as:

• • Lack of energy
  • Inability to relax
  • Addictions
  • Food allergies and intolerances
  • ADHD
  • Digestive Problems
  • Candidiasis
  • Weight issues
  • Insulin resistance
  • Type II diabetes
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Thyroid dysfunction
  • Adrenal exhaustion
  • Hormonal imbalances
  • Lowered Immunity
  • Chronic Pain
  • Autoimmune diseases
  • Arthritis
  • Heart disease
  • Cancer

And emotional or mental problems such as:

• • Stress
  • Anxiety
  • Insomnia
  • Low self esteem
  • Shyness
  • Depression
  • Bi Polar disorder
  • Fears
  • Phobias
  • Trauma
  • PTSD

Do you relate to some of the conditions on the list above?

Chances are that, one way or another, your health isn’t as vibrant as you’d like it be. Read about having good health instead

Vibrant health is more than not just being sick. It’s about having optimum physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

It’s getting out of bed with a spring in your step, not needing to reach for that cup of coffee to get you going, feeling enthusiastic and energetic throughout the day, enjoying exercising, having good skin and clear eyes, feeling positive about your life, having fulfilling relationships, sleeping deeply and waking refreshed, feeling satisfied with your life, lack of pain or discomfort, an awareness of your body and its needs and maintaining that level of wellbeing throughout your life.

What we consider to be normal signs of aging are often signs that we’re not in optimum health.

This scenario may seem totally unrealistic to you, but don’t give up. There are many ways we can increase our levels of health, energy and wellbeing.

Food

One of the foundations of good health is the right diet – food that’s right for your metabolism, chosen from real foods that haven’t been stripped of their goodness. With a supply of the right nutrients, our bodies have an amazing ability to repair and self-balance.

Read more about Personalised Diet

Exercise

Exercise is so important to good health. Think about getting a balance between aerobic, strength and stretching exercises. But also make sure you’re not doing too much exercise. Fitness is a necessary component of health, but being fit doesn’t always mean you’re healthy. Allow adequate rest time, and listen to your body’s messages.

Other Supportive Habits

There are many other lifestyle factors that can determine how well we function, and many of these can be improved. Are you:

• Getting adequate water
• Breathing good air
• Having enough sleep
• Taking time for yourself
• Enjoying your leisure activities
• Spending time with friends and family
• Letting go of stress

Emotional factors

These can make a huge difference to both our mental and physical well being. We all know how stress or emotional worries can affect our mood. But not everybody realises how much impact this can have on physical issues.

It’s important to have some kind of activity that allows you to release those stresses. Many people find meditation of some kind to be very beneficial. And increasingly people are turning to EFT, as it allows you to target stress in very specific ways.

EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is a gentle, easy-to-learn way to deal with emotional pain, reduce anxiety and stress, relieve cravings or pain, and address long standing problems.

Read more about EFT

Coaching sessions can help you rebalance some of these aspects

Learn more about how I work.

My role is to share with you some tools for maintaining your own health. Using the appropriate combination of tools, most health concerns can be improved. I have a special interest in combining EFT, kinesiology and nutritional coaching to work on depression, chronic illnesses, food and environmental sensitivities, cravings and addictions and body image issues.

Initial Consultation

How I work is very dependent on your needs, and whereabouts you are. So first, we have a chat about what health issues you want to work on, and what outcome you want. If you’re in Wellington this is usually by phone (which takes about 10-20 minutes), otherwise it’s by email. Then I’ll suggest what approach I think will work best. If you like the sound of it, we go ahead. This inital consultation is complimentary.

Sometimes, I will recommend a single approach to an issue. Other times I will recommend we start with one therapy, then include others, for more complete success.

If we’re going to start with personalised diet, I send you a detailed questionnaire and food diary to fill out that enables me to make some dietary recommendations. Once you’ve sent that back and I evaluate it, we have a session together to go over it. Or if you’re not in Wellington, I email you a report and we email back and forth a bit till you’re clear about everything. Then we keep in contact by email for a month or so, to get you well started. I also give you access to my online cooking lessons and recipes.

If we’re going to start with Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or kinesiology, you fill in a one sheet questionnaire at our first consultation.

EFT sessions take place face to face if you’re in Wellington. Otherwise, we can work by phone or webcam.

Kinesiology sessions can only be done in Wellington.

Personalised Diet and Nutrition

This is about finding the right balance of foods for your unique needs. We combine these aspects:

Whole foods:

Learn how to select, prepare and eat real food, full of nutrients instead of toxins, using my “How to Enjoy Real food” 15 step cooking course  and recipes.

Metabolic Typing:

Find the right type of diet for your individual needs, allowing for your metabolic type and other special needs.

Identifying food allergies:

Identifying allergies, techniques for cooking without those foods, and looking at ways to repair the gut and neutralise some allergies

Herbs and Supplements:

If needed, to complement your eating plan

More info about Personalised Diet and Nutrition

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)

An effective tool, that is simple to learn and apply yourself, for dealing with:

• daily stress
• past trauma
• fears and phobias
• chronic illness
• physical pain
• limiting beliefs
• goals and performance

When we tap, mostly I sit opposite you and tap with you. That way, you can just follow me and focus on your words and feelings, rather than trying to remember the points.

At Gary Craig’s first Masters training, the attendees all felt that there were three levels to how fast and deep you can work with EFT

• Many things can be cleared working on your own
• Working with a therapist, things will move faster due to the combined intent of healing of two people. It also enables you to clear things you couldn’t by yourself, as often we’re too close to our own problems to see them clearly.
• Having the therapist tap ON the client is even more powerful

I usually have my clients tap on themselves, as I think it’s important for you to get very comfortable with the tapping points so you can continue on your own between sessions.

But for some clients, in the right circumstances, I will suggest I tap on them while they lie on a massage table and relax. This enables them to focus entirely on what’s happening in their thoughts and body, and allows us to work at a deeper level.

More info about EFT

Kinesiology

Looking at what’s going on in your energy system, by monitoring the activity of the muscles, and improving their energy flow. Kinesiology methods used include:

• Touch For Health
• Reactive Muscle Balancing
• Kinergetics
• Muscle testing for food and other sensitivities

More info about Kinesiology

Lifestyle Analysis

Looking at whether some lifestyle changes would enhance your health. This might include changes in how you exercise, getting more sleep or fresh air, or adding in some quick and easy “energy exercises” to your daily routine.

More about Lifestyle Coaching

Reiki or Reset

Introduction to these methods of natural healing.

Read more about Reiki, Reset and other energy techniques

Referrals to other practitioners

Sometimes it is appropriate for you to see other practitioners, and I may suggest you see your doctor or another natural health practitioner such as a naturopath, homeopath, chiropractor or osteopath.

What conditions can I help with?

Just a small sample of the many areas that I can help with, and how we’d approach each one:

Allergies and Sensitivities

Weight Loss

Cravings and Addictions

Asthma

Sports Performance

Mental Health

If you’re still unsure if this can help you, read my testimonials.

Or you may want to find out more about the specific services I offer.

Contact Me to arrange your complimentary initial consultation, to discuss your needs and how I can help.

Many of the ailments we have, and just accept as inevitable, can be directly or indirectly caused by what we eat. Even small changes to our diet can have profound effects. But many people are put off changing diet because:

• They’ve been on diets before and know how hard that is
• They believe they’ll have to go hungry, or they won’t be able to eat their favourite foods
• They believe that it will involve a lot of hard work

It’s true that it takes more work to eat well than to eat badly. But it doesn’t have to be a lot more work, and most people find that the pay off in increased energy and well being more than makes up for it.

The other bonus that people enjoy is finding out they can eat foods that they’ve been depriving themselves of – real, tasty, satisfying foods. My clients love learning that so many foods that they’d been told to avoid are actually packed with essential nutrients!

Let’s look at what’s involved.

Eating real food!

Much of the food we accept as normal has been processed and stripped of its goodness. So the first step is to replace low nutrient food with high nutrient food. The great thing here is that real food tastes good and is more satisfying. You may find that you don’t need to eat as much because you’re getting more goodness from what you do eat. To make this stage easier, I wrote a cooking course that introduces you to the principles of whole food eating in a 15 step plan, and includes easy, tasty recipes. I also have a range of recipes on my recipe blog. More info about Whole Foods

Metabolic typing

This is about understanding that we all have unique metabolic needs. While we all need a good balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates in our diet, that balance is different for each person. We find out what the right balance is for you – some people suit an Atkins type diet, some go better on a semi vegetarian diet, and most of us are somewhere in the middle. Where do you fit in? More info about Metabolic Typing

Food Allergies

Not many people realise how much a food allergy can impact on your life. Finding one or more key allergies or sensitivities and eliminating them from your diet can transform how you feel. If you have symptoms that indicate the possibility of allergies, we’ll investigate those.

We can then decide whether to just manage the symptoms by eliminating the food involved. Or whether you want to go one step further to a deeper level of healing. This may involve using a gut healing regime such as the GAPS (Gut & Psychology / Physiology Syndrome) protocol. More about Allergies & Sensitivities

Supplements

When you start eating real food, you’ll find that many of the little problems you had will just go away as you become better nourished. So I don’t usually recommend supplements till you’ve been on your new diet for at least a month, so we can see what symptoms you still have. Then we can add in anything extra that’s needed.

One exception to that is if you have digestive difficulties or have had your gall bladder removed. If you’re not digesting your food, you won’t get the benefit from it, so we might start with digestive enzymes straight away.

A food diary is useful for:

• Seeing how far you’ve come (because you WILL forget some of your initial symptoms once they’re gone, and will only remember the ones that are left)
• Helping track down foods that are still not working for you

It might seem tedious, but it will be a valuable resource.

1. Get a school exercise or notebook. I like the 1B5 size.

2. On the first page, write down all of your current symptoms. Even if they seem unrelated to your diet, write it all down. Note the frequency, when or where it happens, and the severity. Date the page.

3. For each day of the diary:

• On the left hand sheet, write down all your inputs:
  • Food
  • Drink
  • Supplements
  • Exercise
  • Any stressors
• On the right hand side, write down the results:
  • How you feel, physically and mentally, first thing in the morning, before and after meals, at bedtime
  • What your bowel movements are like
  • What your energy levels are like
  • How your symptoms are progressing
  • Anything else that seems relevant

You can also use your journal to record any other health related information, such as:

• Blood test results
• Any “prescriptions” from your doctor, naturopath or homeopath
• Results of any muscle testing we do together
• Questions you want to ask your health practitioner

There are some preconceptions about “whole food” diets that are not quite accurate. Often people think it means a vegetarian diet, or a diet high in whole grains and legumes. Although those diets can be “whole foods”, so are many others.

So I prefer to call it a “real food” diet, which can encompass the full range of foods. Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness coined the phrase JERF – “Just Eat Real Food” and at this stage of your nutrition journey, that may be all you need to focus on.

Real foods are:

• Animal proteins:
  • Meat, poultry, fish
  • Broths
  • Eggs
  • Dairy, preferably unpasteurised or fermented
• Fats that can be found in nature:
  • Fat gathered from your roast
  • Butter or ghee
  • Coconut oil, olive oil
  • Most other plant oils should be avoided – ask yourself “could my great grandma have made this oil in her kitchen?”
• Plant foods that haven’t been messed with:
  • Fruit
  • Vegetables
  • Fermented veges
  • Nuts & seeds (prepared properly)
  • Whole grains and legumes (prepared properly)
  • Herbs & Spices
• Drinks that are not full of either sugar or artificial sweeteners

They will ideally be fresh, local and organic, and will be free of GMOs and any artificial additives.

You may feel that you can start with this step on your own, and there are many resources to help you. First is my 15 step cooking course, which will help you identify real foods, and teach you how to prepare them for maximum nutrition

For more guidance, read my page on Whole Foods on my DietNet site (note that this site is currently being updated, so apologies for any layout issues). Also check out recipe sites that focus on WAPF (Weston A Price foundation), Paleo or Primal diets.

But before you start, some extra tips:

• Start a food diary – this will help you see how you’re progressing. Also, if you later decide to come and see me, it will contain ve=aluable information, so I can help you with the next step.
• Start slowly. Make changes gradually, so you can adapt more easily physically and logistically.
• Make sure you eat a balance of foods. At this stage, aim to have some protein, fat and carbs with each meal. The next step is to look into your metabolic type.