#31: Eating for Healthy Hormones & Energy with Holistic Health Coach Melissa Schollaert

Melissa Schollaert is a holistic health coach with an amazing story about how real food and functional medicine transformed her health. Today, we are talking about eating for healthy hormones and preparing your body for pregnancy.

In this episode of the Clean Eating for Women podcast, we talk about:

• How eating healthy healed Melissa
• Discovering the foods that are right for you
• Preparing for pregnancy and getting your body ready

Some highlights of this episode on Eating for Healthy Hormones & Energy:

1. Melissa started eating whole foods and started the Real Nutritious Living Blog when she started having health issues. She worked with practitioners but also took her health into her own hands. She now feels good as a result of eating good clean food. [01:19]
2. Whole Foods workshops were one of the first positive influences when Melissa starting eating real food. Once she started eating right and detoxing, her system was able to pick up and her labs are great now. It took steps and increments, but everything eventually balanced itself out. [07:40]
3. How eating right and balancing your hormones makes you feel so much better. Melissa feels like she has the energy of a teenager now. Birth control and other drugs can mask the problems. Once you discover what's really going, on you can fix the problem. [14:00]
4. Being patient and loving with your body. Forgiving yourself for the past and moving on and loving your body. [17:12]
5. Melissa has worked with women who don't have the energy and mojo they wish they did. If you get yourself really healthy then it leads to a healthy pregnancy. Having balanced hormones is incredibly important. [20:14]
6. Over exercising isn't the right way to workout. Find a sweet spot where you feel great at the end of the day. Balancing nutrients is also important. Healthy carbohydrates and B vitamins are related to energy. Cut out foods that aren't agreeing with you. [23:25]
7. Watch out for things that can cause skin issues like dairy, eggs, and peanuts. Mucus forming foods can really slow you down. Things don't happen overnight, so wins are really important. [30:32]
8. To get your gut healthier find out what foods don't agree with you. You can use an elimination diet to find the offenders. Eat prebiotic foods and take probiotics. You also have to get rid of candida to get a healthy gut. Use fermented foods and try digestive enzymes. [33:44]
9. Digestive enzymes or little shots of apple cider vinegar. Try as much as possible to get back to real foods. You can honor your preferences and still eat real foods. Vegans can soak nuts for a hit of protein. Protein powder is so processed. [38:27]

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Real Nutritious Living
• Real Nutritious Living on Facebook
• Real Nutritious Living on Pinterest
• Real Nutritious Living on Instagram
• @realnutritious on Twitter

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