Balancing Hormones Naturally

If you're trying to get pregnant, thinking about getting pregnant, or stuck in that dreaded two-week wait wondering if there's anything else you should be doing, this episode is for you. Most women wait until something's wrong to start looking for answers. This is your permission to start looking now.
In this episode:
- Why your cycle is one of the most powerful diagnostic tools you have, and how to start reading it.
- What a short luteal phase is actually telling you about your progesterone and why it matters for fertility.
- The spotting-before-your-period sign thatmost women ignore and what it means.
- Why cervical mucus is not a dirty word, it's a fertility sign, and here's what to look for.
- The PMS, bloating, mood swings, and breast tenderness symptoms that are red flags, not just part of being a woman.
- What to do nutritionally if you're coming off birth control before trying to conceive.
- Why Leah always starts with minerals, and the hair tissue mineral analysis that changed one client's 50-60 day cycles into a regular ovulating cycle.
- The full thyroid panel you actually need (not just TSH) and the optimal ranges your doctor probably isn't looking for.
- Fasting insulin, glucose, and A1C, the numbers that matter for fertility and what optimal actually looks like.
- Whether a GI map makes sense right now and the timing consideration nobody talks about.
- Why supporting your liver and detox pathways before pregnancy is one of the most important things you can do.
- The nervous system piece, and why your adrenal health is something you literally pass on to your baby.
- The candle analogy that reframes what filling your cup actually means.
Your body is giving you clues every single cycle. This episode teaches you how to read them.
Use code LEAH to save 15% at Eversio Wellness here.
Use code LEAH to save 15% at Paleo Valley here.
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life. Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com

Use code LEAH to save 15% at Eversio Wellness here 

Nobody tells you that becoming a mom doesn't just change your schedule, it changes everything you thought you knew about yourself. Cassie is a Master NLP Practitioner and Registered Dietitian, and she came on to have the conversation a lot of moms are quietly struggling through but not saying out loud. This one hit close to home for both of us.
In this episode:
Why losing your independence after baby isn't a personal failure, and what it actually means to find it again.
The specific challenge of going from hyper-independent to completely dependent on someone else's schedule, sleep, and help.
Why stepping back and letting your husband figure it out is one of the hardest and most important things you can do.
The dial metaphor: why your definition of a successful day has to change based on how much sleep you got, whether the baby is sick, and what season you're actually in.
Why the hardest part of motherhood isn't the sleepless nights, it's the stories you tell yourself about what they mean.
How to communicate what you're making something mean before you spend three days stewing over it.
The difference between choosing your current season and feeling stuck in it.
What it actually looks like to catch a negative pattern before it spirals, and the three ways Cassie redirects when she notices she's in her own way.
Why asking for help doesn't make you a bad mom, a bad wife, or a weak woman, and how to start believing that.
The inner dialogue check: are these your words, or are they your mom's words?.
Why you can have reasons or you can have results, and how to stop hiding behind your reasons.
How Cassie helps women who have been the backbone of their families finally start prioritizing themselves.
If you're in a season where you feel like you've lost yourself a little, this episode is your permission slip to find your way back.
Find Cassy:
Instagram: @antisettlecoach
Use code LEAH to save 15% at Eversio Wellness here
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life. Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com

Use code LEAH to save 15% at Eversio Wellness here

You're not weak. You're not lacking willpower. Your cravings are actually telling you something, and once you understand what they're saying, everything changes. If you've ever stood in your kitchen at 9pm unable to stop thinking about chocolate, this episode is for you.
In this episode:
Why sugar cravings have nothing to do with willpower and everything to do with what's happening inside your body.
The blood sugar roller coaster, what it actually looks like, why it keeps looping, and the sneaky foods that are spiking you without you realizing it.
Why your smoothie, your fruit snack, and your adrenal cocktail might be working against your blood sugar without you knowing.
The simple plate formula that will change how you feel if you actually do it accurately.
Why your cravings are completely different in your luteal phase than the rest of your month, and what progesterone has to do with it.
How cortisol spikes your blood sugar even when you haven't eaten anything, and why the 3pm crash and nighttime cravings are a stress response.
What your specific craving is actually telling you, if it's salt, think adrenals; if it's specifically chocolate, think magnesium.
Why parasites feed off serotonin at night and what to watch for if your cravings only show up after dark.
Why just cutting sugar doesn't work, and what actually does.
The craving reset: hormone plating, fixing your mineral base, and supporting your luteal phase.
Why HMA testing can show blood sugar imbalances before they ever show up on a standard blood test.
What emotional eating actually is at a biological level, and why it's not a character flaw.
Cravings aren't a weakness. They're clues. And once you know how to read them, you won't need willpower anymore.
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life. Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com

Join the Reset Retreat: https://landing.leahbrueggemann.com/reset-retreat-oct26

Your doctor probably told you it's autoimmune, genetic, or idiopathic, which is just a fancy word for "we have no idea." But what if everything the medical industry has told you about Crohn's and colitis is wrong? Josh Dech is back, and this time he's bringing a published paper that flips the entire $40 billion bowel disease industry on its head.
In this episode:
Why IBS is a garbage diagnosis and what doctors actually mean when they call something idiopathic
The published paper that proves Crohn's and colitis have never met the criteria for autoimmune disease, and what's actually going on instead
Why your genes didn't cause your bowel disease, and the difference between genetic susceptibility and genetic cause
The six percent stat that will make your jaw drop: how the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand make up six percent of the global population but carry sixty percent of the world's bowel disease
The three things that separate us from countries with five to twenty-five times less bowel disease: ultra-processed food, antibiotic usage, and glyphosate
Why thirty-five to fifty percent of your gut bacteria die in the presence of glyphosate, and why testing for it is a waste of money if you live in the US
Generational dysbiosis: how we've gone from Amazonian tribes with 1,600 unique gut bacteria species to people with bowel disease carrying as few as 100
The dietary mistakes people with IBD make, including why bone broth might actually be making you worse
The two diets with the most clinical data behind them for Crohn's and colitis, and why forty to sixty percent of pediatric patients reached remission in six to eight weeks
What fecal transplants actually are, the three ways they're delivered, and why spending $30,000 on one might be completely useless if you don't fix your terrain first
Why you could get paid $300 to $500 per donation if you have a healthy gut (yes, really)
The nail in the foot analogy that perfectly explains what every GI doctor is doing wrong
The simple order of operations Josh takes every client through,environments, food, drainage, testing, rebuild, and why skipping steps is why people don't get better
Why taking gut lining support before addressing root cause is like trying to build a house while it's on fire
The projection that by 2030, bowel disease will affect one in 100 people, a 25,000 to 50,000 percent increase from the 1950s
If you or someone you love has been told their Crohn's or colitis is just something they have to manage for life, this episode will change how you think about that. It is reversible. And it starts with understanding what actually caused it.

Find Josh Dech:
Podcast: Reversing Crohn's and Colitis Naturally / The Reversible Podcast
Website: gutsolution.ca
Social: @joshdech.health
Use code LEAH to save 15% at Eversio Wellness here
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life. Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com

Every tablet you swallow is either building your cells or doing nothing. If you're exhausted, foggy, constipated, and watching your health decline as you get older, the answer might be simpler than you think. Two algae. Two jobs. Nutrition in, toxins out.
In this episode:
- Why 75% of the American food supply is ultra-processed and even your fresh produce has 50% less nutrition than it did 50 years ago.
- The two-sentence explanation of why spirulina and chlorella work: nutrition in, toxins out.
- Why your mitochondria are the real reason you have brain fog, fatigue, and weight gain after 40—and why women get hit twice as hard as men.
- The SOD connection: what your body stops making after 30, why it matters for Alzheimer's prevention, and why spirulina has 6,000 times more of it than cabbage.
- Why the blue pigment in spirulina can detect cancer cells and eject them—and why chemotherapy companies are now using it.
- The serotonin fact nobody talks about: 80% of it is made in your gut, not your brain, and why women store 52% less of it than men.
- Why chlorella before bed is the move, and what it's doing while you sleep.
- Why 95% of algae on the market has been heat-processed into uselessness, and the one thing to look for in a brand.
- How to dose it for yourself, your kids, and even your newborn.
- The 87-year-old who joined CrossFit after starting spirulina and chlorella.
If you only do one thing from this episode, start taking spirulina. Your brain and your mitochondria will feel it.
Use code LEAH B to save at energybits.com
Use code LEAH to save 15% at Eversio Wellness
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life. Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com
The recommendations presented in this podcast are not a substitute for medical advice from a qualified doctor. Before making any changes to your diet and lifestyle, please consult with your healthcare provider.