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The 63-year-old Leesburg resident credits her health to Total Nutrition and Therapeutics in Lady Lake.
Just three years ago, Kathleen was, in her own words, “on death’s doorstep.” She had endured 40 abdomen surgeries since 1983 after being diagnosed with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), a rare genetic disease characterized by the development of gastrointestinal polyps that often progresses to colorectal cancer if left untreated. Many of those surgeries were to remove adhesions, or scar tissue.
Kathleen also suffered from high blood pressure and gastroparesis, a condition where food does not move through the digestive system properly. A simple task like cooking dinner zapped her of all energy, and painful headaches became a constant companion. She was taking 26 prescribed pills daily.
At the urging of her daughter, Kathleen visited Total
Nutrition and Therapeutics. That turned out to be a life-changing decision.
After analyzing results from blood work, Lori Esarey, owner of Total Nutrition and Therapeutics, created a healthy eating plan for Kathleen. Lori is a lifestyle medicine expert who earned master’s degrees in nutritional medicine and metabolic medicine from the University of South Florida.
“Within six weeks of my eating program my stomach began digesting food properly,” Kathleen says. “I sat on the floor and cried. I was blown away.”
After two months, her blood pressure dropped to healthy levels, and she no longer takes medicine for the condition. It was determined through blood work that her high blood pressure was related to food allergies.
“Because Lori took the time to educate herself on my conditions, she was able to come up with an effective treatment plan,” Kathleen says. “I’ve learned so much from Lori and her entire team. They’re wonderful.”
In addition to exercising, Kathleen also opened a photography company.
“I have so much fun in life now,” Kathleen says. “Without Lori and God, I wouldn’t have made it.”
Who TNT is
Everyone has innate healing powers. Healing takes a team approach involving the patient and doctor, addressing all aspects of a person’s life. By treating root causes of illness with diet and lifestyle change, everyone can live a vibrant life and enjoy optimal health.
That’s why Lori Esarey and her passionate team of health care providers specialize in functional medicine, a proactive and individualized approach to reducing the risk of future disease.
“Functional medicine is a medical mindset that focuses on looking at the root cause of the condition rather than operating from a mindset of reactionary care,” Lori says. “Functional medicine is proactive alongside root cause analysis. If a person is experiencing a symptom, we can react, and we do react. But the way we react is different.”
Indeed, the TNT model of care deviates substantially from a one-size-fits-all approach. Clients receive unrushed consultation meetings, individualized care plans, effective and leading-edge medical solutions, educational and interactive classroom settings, transformational nutrition counseling, IV therapy, and laboratory testing. All this and much more is offered to support natural healing of the human body and help clients achieve optimal living.
This is great news for clients who have experienced nightmares trying to navigate an often-frustrating health care system. They are suffering, stuck, and confused on how to proceed. TNT’s unique model and innovative client care gives them hope. Hope is a powerful force that has propelled many of their clients to achieve great accomplishments they once thought were impossible.
“Eighty percent of what we do in functional medicine is listening,” Lori says. “That means getting the background story. How do you feel? What’s ailing you? What kind of medical conditions have you experienced before? Twenty percent of what we do is diagnostics, or filling in the blanks to see what’s going on. It’s listening to understand and react accordingly.”
Of course, improving medical conditions, activating healing, and ushering in hope is also achieved through what Lori calls lifestyle medicine, a sub-
category of functional medicine. Through education and one-on-one consultations, the TNT team helps clients create behavioral changes they can incorporate into their everyday lives and into the future.
“The four things we do every day in life are eat, sleep, move, and think,” Lori says. “We come up with ways to help clients modify the way they do these things so they can receive superior outcomes.
Throughout the years, TNT has treated a wide range of clients. Some come in with symptoms such as relentless fatigue, hair loss, endurance problems, memory loss, hormonal changes, and functional decline. Others are suffering from conditions like hypothyroidism, hypertension, high cholesterol, erectile dysfunction, and menopause.
Why they do it
Lori knows from firsthand experience the trials and tribulations of battling disease. After giving birth to her oldest daughter in 1995, she weighed 186 pounds and struggled with high blood pressure and gestational diabetes.
“I was depressed and fatigued,” she says. “Although I was a new mom and had a beautiful baby, I wasn’t happy.”
Ultimately, a drastic change in nutrition helped Lori overcome disease. She would spend 13 years as a nurse practitioner at both an internal medicine and family practice.
Unfortunately, when desperate patients sought her for advice, she had very little to give.
“People would ask me questions all the time about their health,” Lori says. “All I had in my toolbox was to tell them to take a pill or tell them to change their diet. That was very frustrating for me because my personal mission statement is helping people achieve things in life that they never thought possible. At that point in my life, I was either going to stick where I was or I was going to create an opportunity to take a new route in life and help people.”
Lori chose the latter, and TNT opened in 2006. Initially, TNT was known as a weight-loss and nutrition practice, but Lori has expanded its services to remove roadblocks that prevent clients from recovering their health.
“I want people to understand that health is so much larger than weight loss, and our business model is so much more than simply helping people shed unwanted pounds. Weight loss doesn’t necessarily mean healthy.”
Since opening TNT, Lori has lived a thriving lifestyle rather than merely surviving day-to-day. That thriving lifestyle comes from the satisfaction she derives from helping clients achieve optimal, vibrant health. Of course, she’ll be the first to admit that she only deserves some of the credit behind TNT’s many success stories. She praises her army of 18 female employees who share her passion in helping clients look, feel, and function to the best of their ability.
“Our team members go through our program at different levels of commitment,” Lori says. “They’ve also sought medical care for multiple conditions such as sexual dysfunction high blood pressure, and thyroid conditions. Now, they’re connected and can share their stories with our clients. They, too, are striving to achieve optimal health. You can’t teach or coach what you’re not currently doing. My team members are all on this journey of living their best life, and they want our clients to get on that same ship so they can experience their best life.”
One of those team members is Kristi Bell-Boliek, who began working at TNT eight years ago and today serves as marketing director.
“My biggest love is our team,” Kristi says. “It’s because we are a family. When we come together there’s synergy. I hear client stories of how so many have not been happy in their adult life. But when they change their spiritual being, their emotional being, and their physical being, they become happy. We have an outstanding team that leads with their heart, and you don’t find that in many places. They lead by their heart because they were taught that way by Lori.”
How TNT does it
As mentioned previously, functional medicine identifies and corrects the underlying causes of diseases and medical conditions rather than focusing only the symptoms.
TNT utilizes multiple diagnostic tools to determine the root cause. Those include serum lab testing to identify inflammation markers, hormone levels, and early risk factors for diabetes; hair analysis for heavy metals; intestinal permeability studies; vitamin and mineral analysis, cognitive testing, and much more.
In lifestyle medicine, patients are educated on achieving optimal health. That’s why TNT incorporates wellness and educational classes into its treatment approach. These classes are held onsite and are taught by advanced practice registered nurses, licensed mental health counselors, mindset coaches, health coaches, and life coaches.
“We teach them how to shop for food, where to buy food, what to buy, how to plan, how to eat out, how to eat in, how to eat at a friend’s house, how to attend a social event,” Lori says. “That’s lifestyle medicine—incorporating new ways of healthy living into your day for it to be sustainable.”
TNT also incorporates pre-consultation meetings for new clients.
“Prior to a client’s first visit to our clinic, we send them videos so there is no question about who we are, what we do, and how we do things,” Lori says. “Then we have a liaison who meets with them and gives clients a tour.”
Existing clients undergo monthly treatment plan updates to determine what’s working and what’s not working. This allows the TNT team to modify treatment accordingly.
“We show them and we teach them how to create their lifestyle change,” Lori says. Not ours. Theirs. It’s extremely individualized and very strategic. I use homes as a good analogy. You have to have a strong foundation, and we teach them what those core fundamental principles are. It might take six to eight weeks to do that. Then we build the walls and roof over time for long-term sustainability. It’s an investment. Your health is the most valued asset you have. You possess it. You own it.”
TNT offers it all. Individualized care. Innovative diagnostic and treatment approaches. And a team fully committed to helping clients live happy, healthy lives. By shifting to a more patient-centered approach, the TNT team is utilizing functional medicine to address the whole person rather than an isolated set of symptoms.
Total Nutrition and Therapeutics
809 Hwy 466,
Unit 202-C
Lady Lake, FL 32159
p: (352) 259-5190
f: (352) 259-4873
e: info@tntfit4life.com
tntfit4life.com
