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Meet Polly

My Story

 

I’m a Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Coach with more than 25 years of experience in a variety of medical settings, including primary care, cancer survivorship medicine, internal medicine and women’s health. I received my Master of Nursing (MN) from the University of Washington School of Nursing and certification as an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. I’m also trained and certified as an Integrative Nurse Coach. My coaching skills combined with my many years of medical experience and working with patients certainly helped me create a successful program.   

“Instead of constantly feeling like you are fighting your body, I want you to understand how to work with your body’s own wiring to lose weight and keep it off. No more fads or gimmicks. The key is learning how to manipulate the main hormones involved in your metabolism which will give you a lifelong tool to manage your weight and keep it off. I work hard to understand your unique story and create an indivualized  plan that works for your life. ”

I battled my weight for practically my whole life…and tried every diet that came along. But a few years ago, I reached a point when I really started to question what was happening with my body. The more I dieted, exercised and deprived myself, instead of losing weight, I was packing it on. It was devastating—especially since I was a healthcare professional!  Conventional or traditional dieting

(eat less, move more) wasn’t working and I was determined to find a solution. 

So I began to research and dive into the science.  The more I learned, the more I began to understand that the focus needed to be on managing insulin, the hormone that regulates our metabolism, not counting calories and it made sense that lowering insulin production would be critical to losing weight and improving overall health.   If we could manipulate insulin, we may be able to improve the health of patients with Metabolic Syndrome, a cluster of dangerous conditions including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Insulin Resistance.

Around this time, I was introduced to the work of Dr. Jason Fung, who was having great success tackling Insulin Resistance and weight issues combining Intermittent Fasting with a low carb and ketogenic-diet approach. I became immersed in his teachings, which was much easier to follow than I expected, and the pounds began to disappear! It was SO exciting: For the first time in my life, I felt like I had control of my weight, and in less than six months, I lost more than 50 pounds—this transformed my life!

That’s when the light bulb went on: Working in healthcare, I knew firsthand that sound nutritional information, support and real strategies that produce lasting results are sorely lacking. I wanted to help change that—and I was living proof of what works. I went to Toronto and spent time in Dr. Fung's clinic. Then, based on my personal and professional experience and continued research, I started my clinic focused on reversing  metabolic disease.

Polly Lysen-Halpern
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