Balancing Hormones Naturally

The healing journey doesn’t have a finish line. And sometimes the hardest part isn’t the protocol, it’s what happens in your head when things don’t go the way you planned. Leah shares the full story of how she got here, from fibroadenomas and painful irregular cycles to minerals, mold, and becoming an NLP practitioner.

In this episode:

• Why Leah’s healing journey started with a golf ball sized lump and a breast cancer family history on both sides.

• The years of going in circles with functional doctors, naturopaths, and specialists who each had one answer that never quite fit.

• What actually worked after six months of implementing the right foundations, regulated cycles, raised progesterone, painless periods, and a positive pregnancy test.

• Why discovering minerals postpartum was the missing puzzle piece that made her fibroadenomas completely disappear.

• The mold in the basement, the joint pain at 30, and how it knocked her labs sideways even as a practitioner who knew exactly what was happening.

• Why she sent her own labs to another practitioner instead of reading them herself, and what that taught her about staying objective in your own health.

• The note her husband left her that made her cry in the shower and gave her the next step she needed.

• How the mold experience led her directly to becoming an NLP practitioner and why she brought it into the Hormone Reset Program.

• Why telling yourself “I am healed, I am amazing” doesn’t work and what actually rewires the subconscious.

• The small daily shifts that make the big changes, noticing the good, not letting a bad day mean anything, and treating feedback as just feedback.

• Why nothing is an emergency and how that one reframe changes everything about how you show up for your kids, your business, and your health.

• Why you need someone else to hold the bird’s eye view for you, because even practitioners get lost in their own weeds.

You don’t have to figure everything out. You just have to take the next best step.

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: [email protected]

If you've ever wondered whether your anxiety is causing your hormone imbalance or your hormones are causing your anxiety, the answer is both. And once you understand the loop, you can finally start to break it.

In this episode:

• Why anxiety and hormonal imbalance aren't separate issues, they're a feedback loop, and you have to stop the cycle to fix either one.
• How chronic stress eventually tanks your cortisol even when you're still under the same amount of stress, and why your test comes back low when you expected high.
• Why your body will shut down ovulation when it doesn't feel safe, and how stress is directly connected to fertility.
• The digestion connection nobody talks about, why chronic stress is the reason you're bloated, constipated, or not fully eliminating, and how that loops back into hormones.
• The progesterone piece, why stress and anxiety steal from your keep calm carry on hormone and make everything worse.
• Why identifying as an anxious person is creating an expectation loop your body keeps proving correct.
• The difference between "I am anxious" and "I'm experiencing anxiety right now," and why the wording actually matters for your hormones.
• How your brain wires itself based on repetition and emotional experience, and what that means for PMS, PMDD, and mood.
• The regulatory sandwich, a simple before-and-after tool for moments that trigger your nervous system.
• Why five minutes of breathwork twice a week isn't going to cut it, and how to actually habit stack nervous system regulation into your day.
• Why you literally cannot feel calm without enough magnesium and potassium, it's a physical fact.
• What brain rewiring inside the Hormone Reset Program actually looks like, and why supplements alone will never be enough.

Your body isn't broken. It's protecting you based on old patterns. But you can change that, starting today.

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: [email protected]

This one is just you and me. No guest, no protocol, no checklist, just an honest conversation about what it actually looks like to keep going when life gets heavy. Because 2026 has been a year, and I think a lot of you are in a similar season.

In this episode:

• Why Leah is sharing this, not for sympathy, but to model what adapting actually looks like in real life.
• The grief button analogy that reframes how we think about loss and why time doesn't heal the way we think it does.
• Why ignoring your emotions and plowing forward isn't healing, and what she did instead.
• The specific things she pulled back on during this season and why that was the right call.
• How she supported her adrenals when stress was high, and the catnip bitters she reached for when things felt really unsettled.
• Why she put away all self-development books and just read fiction, and why that was the right move.
• The gardening hobby that became her low-stakes, low-pressure nervous system reset.
• How joy became a non-negotiable, singing with the kids, playing piano, making cottage cheese chocolate protein balls.
• Why communication with your spouse about what you actually need matters more in hard seasons than in easy ones.
• The levels system, and why having a lot of level one days is not failure, it's just where you are.
• What it looks like to still be moving forward even when forward feels slow and small.

You don't have to be okay all the time. You just have to keep moving. Even if it's smaller and slower than you'd like.

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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.

Every sip you take is either helping your hormones or quietly wrecking them. If you're exhausted and moody, bloated, and reaching for coffee or an energy drink just to feel something, what's in your cup is probably part of the picture. Here's the good news: you don't have to give up your coffee. There are a few swaps and additions that change what your drinks are doing to your blood sugar, your inflammation, and your adrenals, and by the end of this you'll know exactly what to pour into your glass.

In this episode:

• Why coffee isn't inherently the problem, and the one sign that tells you it's making things worse instead of better
• Mold and mycotoxins in coffee beans, where they actually come from in processing, and the brands that test for it
• Why drinking your coffee out of a plastic cup with a plastic lid means you're drinking hot microplastics
• The single easiest change that costs you nothing and requires no new product: move your coffee to after breakfast, and why your adrenals feel it immediately
• What to add to your coffee so it isn't just sugar hitting an empty stomach, including collagen for protein and the fat sources that steady your blood sugar
• Why most mushroom coffee on the shelf isn't therapeutically dosed, and what Leah adds to her own cup instead
• The specific blend she uses for energy, immune support, ATP production, and focus, plus what to add if caffeine makes you jittery but you refuse to give it up
• Why you should look up your zip code on the EWG database, and the line that reframes this whole thing: if you're not filtering your water, you are the filter
• The electrolyte conversation, including the argument that women don't need them and why sodium, potassium, and magnesium are batteries for your adrenals
• Which electrolytes to reach for if you want no stevia, no monk fruit, and no flavoring at all
• The full happy hormone hot chocolate recipe, ingredient by ingredient, and why raw cacao and baking cocoa are not the same thing
• The two secret ingredients in it: one for hair growth, stomach acid, and nine grams of protein, and one with saffron, which Leah calls her secret weapon for postpartum anxiety and depression
• Why glycine belongs in a nighttime drink, and how the whole thing supports sleep and mood at the same time
• Why maca goes in the mug for most women and why you should skip it entirely if you have PCOS
• How little maple syrup you actually need, and why your taste buds will adapt if you wean down slowly

If you only do two things from this episode, move your coffee to after breakfast and pay attention to your water. Those two alone will change how you feel. Everything else is the fun part. And if you want to be a little bougie about it, come make the happy hormone hot chocolate with me.

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. We dig deep to understand and heal the root causes of your symptoms so you can achieve lasting results through manageable and realistic lifestyle changes, allowing you to live a healthy and balanced life without a long-term pharmaceutical prescription.

Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: [email protected]

You've run the labs. Maybe more than once. And you keep getting told everything looks normal while you're still bloated, still exhausted, still anxious, still dealing with periods that wreck your month. You are not imagining it and you are not crazy. You're either not running the right labs or nobody is looking at them through the right lens. Here's what that actually means and which tests give you real answers.

In this episode:

• The client who came from a family of doctors, had every lab run, and was still told she was normal at six months postpartum with no energy to play with her kid.
• What functional testing actually means, and why your regular blood work can be functional testing if someone reads it correctly
• The wide "normal" range that runs from very sick to fully healthy, why you're sitting in the middle of it, and why your doctor genuinely has nothing to offer you there.
• Why TSH alone is not a thyroid panel, and the full list of markers Leah wants to see instead.
• Why hair tissue mineral analysis is the foundational lab for every one of her clients, and why minerals are the spark plugs for everything else
• The scenario where your thyroid labs are perfect but your basal temps are under 97.5, your hands and feet are cold, and your hair is falling out, and the mineral that explains it.
• Why potassium sensitizes your cells to thyroid hormone, and how stress depletes it in a loop that makes everything worse.
• Why testing before supplementing minerals matters, and what to do with food instead.
• The copper and estrogen relationship, explained with food coloring in a glass of water.
• What happens when you start supporting your liver before you've addressed the foundation, and why mobilizing copper can bring on worse acne, heavier periods, more anxiety, and more cramps.
• Why a Dutch test tells you about pathways, not just levels, and what that reveals about how you're detoxing estrogen.
• Why looking at cortisol alone will mislead you, and how DHEA shows whether you've already come through an acute stress phase and are now running on empty.
• What's actually in the viral cortisol fixing drink all over your feed.
• Beta-glucuronidase on a GI Map, why high levels mean estrogen keeps recirculating, and why this is the marker to look at when you're doing all the detox things and nothing is working.
• H. pylori, low stomach acid, and why that combination sets you up for poor nutrient absorption, overgrowth, parasites, and thyroid medication that won't absorb.
• Why Leah does not start with a GI Map, and the foundations she wants in place first.
• When an organic acids test earns its place, especially with mold, methylation, or PMDD and neurotransmitter symptoms.
• Why she won't hand you a $2,000 lab list on day one, and how she lets the first test guide what comes next.
• The mistake practitioners and clients both make with HTMA: trying to manipulate individual markers instead of reading the whole story.
• The client with Hashimoto's and a cancer history whose high tissue calcium finally connected symptoms nobody had ever tied together for her.

If your labs came back normal and your body says otherwise, believe your body. The answer isn't that the tests are useless. It's that you need the right ones, read by someone looking at your hormones specifically, and put together with your history and your actual life. That's when it stops being a pile of numbers and starts being a story that makes sense.

If you want that kind of support, book a free consult call at bit.ly/hrpfreecall and talk to Alexis, one of Leah's past clients who's about to finish becoming an FDN herself. You can also access these labs with analysis through the membership at leahbrueggemann.com under services.

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. We dig deep to understand and heal the root causes of your symptoms so you can achieve lasting results through manageable and realistic lifestyle changes, allowing you to live a healthy and balanced life without a long-term pharmaceutical prescription.

Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: [email protected]

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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.