Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode, and I'm so excited. Today's guest is Maggie Berghof and she helps men and women all over the world find balance in their body and minds. She's the creator of Total Body Blueprint Emersion, which is a head to toe specialty laboratory testing program that helps people have helps Maggie determine a plan to help you reach your health and wellness goals. So tell us a little bit about your own health journey and what helped you, what kind of drove you to kind of start this business?

So I'm a nurse practitioner by trade, so I was trained from Vanderbilt University and like a traditional medical model at the end of my schooling, my senior year of college, actually. So even before nurse practitioner training, I was super into health and wellness and fitness. Right. Like I was the image of health, wellness. But inside my body, a bunch of imbalances were happening that I had no idea where we're going on until finally one day my body stopped compensating for these imbalances and I started to get crazy, sometimes previously healthy that were really mind blowing to me. And when I went to the doctor to try to figure out what was going on with me, I was so bloated after eating healthy meals, I was so tired. Even though I was sleeping all night long, my skin, my hair was looking unhealthy. I mean, just

the symptoms were unbelievable and my weight gain was skyrocketing when I had never had a weight type of complication in the past. So I went to my traditional doctors. They said everything looks normal and I'm sitting here like super unhealthy, gained a bunch of weight saying like, no, everything is not normal. This is not my normal baseline. This is not where I am. And so through that discovery of trying to figure out what the heck is going on inside my body is when I found what's called functional medicine and functional medicine, what I found was really addressing the internal imbalances of the body and knowing how to fix it rather than what my doctors were telling me is you just have to kind of deal with this thing now and you're just going to have this like this thing is just a part of your

story, part of your life for the rest of your life. It addresses the underlying issues functional medicine does. So I can fix that things I know what that thing is and I can work to fix it. And that's what really got me into this, this realm of how I now address the health of my clients as opposed to prior to this, when I was just giving them pills for all of their symptoms that they came in for.

Now, this is a question I like to ask all of my guests that come on the show, walk us through a day in the life of Maggie. Like, what did you eat yesterday? When did you eat it? And are there any certain foods that you have kind of off limits or that you avoid?

So when a day like a Maggie is very different now than when I was healing my body of all of this stuff that was going on, all the autoimmune disease and inflammation.

Let's talk about that first. So let's first talk about when you were really trying to heal your body. Hey, this is your plan. And then now this is your plan.

So when I was trying to heal my body, I there was a period of time, a small period of time where I was pretty, I guess, stripped. Right. So I did not drink alcohol. I did not have women. I actually I did not eat grains, even like very organic purrfect sprouted brown rice would make my symptoms flare up. So I actually took out all grains, dairy. I eliminated sugar for the most part. I was pretty tuned in with my nutrition habits. I really tried to eat pretty high quality foods and I did restrict those things for about a few months. And then once my body started to clear that inflammation and that the inflammation wasn't coming in any more from those foods because food was one of the big triggers for me, my body actually started to rev up and be able to heal itself.

So then over time, my food intolerances and my gut started to clear up so that my body could handle the things again. And so now now that everything's back to normal, my Hashimoto's is absolutely reversed. Like my lab values are pristine. I'm feeling really good right now. I'm able to eat pretty intuitively and moderately with I don't eat and I don't purchase a lot of grains, a lot of dairy, hardly any processed food. However, if I'm at a family barbecue or Thanksgiving dinner, I don't have to be, as I guess I hate the word strict, but that's kind of what a lot of people will identify with. I don't have to be as cognizant as what I'm putting into my body at all times. So I would say the majority of the time now I'm waking up, I'm flooding my body with nutrients. So instead

of focusing on prior to I was focusing on what do I need to remove now, my whole mindset is what can I add? Like, what can I add to make me feel absolutely amazing today? And that's what I focus on, whether that's certain hydration. Or a green juice powder or protein or veggies or lots of fruits and all the different nutrients that my body thrives on. And so it's more so now intuitively, knowing what makes me feel best.

All right, well, let's jump right into the listener questions, this first one is from May in Virginia. I'm a busy twenty six year old working lady. Oh, I'm a busy twenty six year old working lady with a pretty active lifestyle. I try to work out at least once a day. And when I'm not busy at work or at the gym, I'm usually out and about. My diet is pretty healthy and I'm not a very big alcohol drinker. I would like to think I get enough sleep at night about seven to eight hours. My question is, during the day I'm so exhausted I could literally fall asleep at any of my work meetings. Am I living too much of an active lifestyle? I literally feel like I always have to be moving or on the go or else I could fall asleep standing up, help me

in Virginia.

OK, so maybe it's not that you're living too much of an active lifestyle, right? We want to be active, but there's obviously some there are some imbalances going on in your body. And this was exactly my story. I was super active, high achiever, and then I crashed. And your body's telling you right now, oh, my gosh, we're about to crash that afternoon to tea. That's your body saying something's not right here. Your body's working in overdrive. Whether that be through all the tests that you're thinking about or maybe toxins that you're putting inside your body via food or hygiene products or things that you're smelling. Right. So your body, even though you're getting that good quality, 70 hours of sleep, is not able to have the energy capacity to heal, to run and to excel throughout the day. So the very first piece of advice,

I would say what helps me most is getting specialty functional medicine test testing done on your body. So there are comprehensive tests that you can get. It's not like traditional medicine. So when I was going through traditional medicine and when a lot of my clients go to traditional medicine, doctors or practitioners, they're getting things like a CBC maybe at that, like they get a thyroid panel. It's just normally maybe four. So it's not actually full thyroid panel, but seek out a functional medicine or an integrative medicine practitioner, you can go deeper into looking at your nutrient levels. Your gut health is your sleep, really, even though you're getting seven to eight hours, is it actually great quality? Sleep is not just about quantity. Looking into food intolerances and finding out why it is that your body is starting to crash before it gets worse. That's

my biggest piece of advice.

They're awesome. OK, this next one is from Becky in Florida. Recently, I put on about twenty five extra pounds. I've been so down on myself that it almost feels like I'm slipping into a depression. It started to affect my work and life. I've really kind of been eating healthy and make it to the gym three times a week, but sometimes I can't even talk myself into getting out of bed. I've always been a happy go lucky person, but I've seen like I've lost that. Do you have any tips to help me out of this slump? I really don't want it to get worse. Becky in Florida.

Well, the first thing is, knowing that you're in that pflum, the next thing I would say is look at the food that you're putting into your body, because we know that your health in the fields and nutrients that you're getting is highly connected to depression, anxiety and stress. And so if you are you know, if you have the ability to notice where that stress, where that anxiety, depression is coming from, in your case, depression, you can stop those funding factors. Right, from a mindset perspective. But if you're still putting in the foods that are causing inflammation, that are messing up your neurotransmitters, you're still going to be feeling that depression. That's one. So the best thing I can say, it's a look at your day as a whole. First of all, are you happy? Are there things in your life that are making you unhappy?

What do you need to add and what do you need to take away in that perspective to help address those? And then the second thing to think about is the food that you're putting in your body. Is it conducive to disease and depression or isn't conducive to energy and vibrant, vibrant life? So look at those two things and ask yourself, where are the offending factors come in? What do you need to add? What do you need to take away and make simple, simple changes that that are really going to move the wheel for you in combating this depression before it sinks any lower?

OK, this next one is from Katie S. And she doesn't give her location of where she lives. Hi there. Love your podcast. I listen to every episode. I know you've talked about this before, but I'm so sorry. I cannot remember. But does drinking celery juice for breakfast break your fast? I could see it going either way because it's low in calories.

So she's talking about intermittent fasting, and if she has a glass of celery juice, does it break her fast?

OK, I have two things to say on this. The first thing is that look at that celery juice. This is not bad in and of itself. It's not good in and of itself. Is it good for you? So this is a lesson that I've learned my clients have learned via food intolerance.

So I've actually taught that if you look on my Instagram, you'll see I put testing results up there and one of my clients actually had a severe reaction to celery and they were drinking celery juice every morning thinking this is healthy for them and actually the thing causing them all the inflammation. So now that the new celery juice was causing inflammation, they took it out and started to get better. So that's the first thing. No, it's not really a good habit for you. And then the second thing is with intermittent fasting, I actually wouldn't have this allergies. I would wait and I would purely have water. When you wake up in the morning, maybe something brought that you do Bamburgh. But I wouldn't have this allergies until afterward just to keep a very pure fast going and then break your fast with some really, really

good quality foods.

Yeah. And celery juice, like, you know, depending on how big the glass is, it's only about 40 to 50 calories. So there have been some people who say, like, if it's if whatever you're eating is less than 50 calories, it doesn't you're fast. But really, anything that you eat technically is going to break your fast unless it's 100 percent pure fat. Yeah, it's going to slow, you know, for a while. You know, I read kind of when celery juice was a big hype, you know, back when it was like celery juice allergies. And it was talking about how it really helps with your stomach. But I was literally juicing an entire celery every single morning, like it was like rigid routine. And I did it for probably six weeks. And and I was breaking my fast with it because I wouldn't eat lunch. And it

kind of delayed my my lunch time. But I think, you know, sometimes people can get like. You know, at the end of the day, like 40 calories of celery juice is not going to like, you know, big this huge, enormous difference, like what's going to make a difference is what are you eating when you're in your eating window and how much are you actually eating it out? But and focus really on that.

And if you can, the better way to go would be to just wait, like you said, and just have the celery juice, you know, an hour before you're about to eat. So, like, if you were going to take it, like a lot of times what I would do is let's say I was going to have my I was going to normally break my fast around one o'clock, maybe at 12 o'clock. I would juice that in the morning, bring the celery juice with me. Then at 12 o'clock, I would have the celery juice. But honestly, I just I don't know. I don't know how well the celery juice really works. Like, is it is it a hoax? Is it really work? I don't know. What's your opinion on celery juice in general?

So the first thing it has to be based on, you know, one size fits all recommendations are fads that are good in my mind. So has to be based on you. Do you need energy? Is it inflammatory to you? If not, if celery is totally fine for you? Sure. Juice it, but also eat it whole. Right. You need all the different nutrients, but make sure that you're getting a varied and diverse site because we know for certain, like one hundred percent, that to populate the gut properly and to get all the nutrients in the big spectrum of nutrients that we need to stay healthy, to take hormones, to have great brain health. We need a varied and diverse diet. And if you're eating the same thing, drinking the same thing every single day in and day out, I know people love the structure, but it's

not healthy for you and eventually it's going to catch up. So if you want to reduce, it feels really good to you. You love it, you love it, how you feel, do it. But make sure that you're swapping it out. Don't do it every single day. I'd like a dogmatic type of I have to get my salary. Decent thing, right?

Yeah, I love that. And you know, celery juice has vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin C, it's got some good, good vitamins that you need. But I agree. Like, you know, I love the idea of I just started ordering this box from online that's like these organic vegetables that come to you because I can get into this routine myself, because I kind of, you know, I like certain things.

I kind of eat the same things over and over. And now I got one of those boxes where, you know, they just deliver all this different stuff. And so, like a perfect example as they just delivered pears, which I love pears, but I don't it's not like I go to the grocery store and I'm like, oh, let's grab a pair. Right. And so, like, it's forcing me to eat pears.

It's forcing me to and I love, like, roasted beets, but it's forcing me to eat some of these foods that are a in-season.

Right, because I believe that, like God created certain foods in season for that reason, like these are nutrients that you need. And so getting things that are in season I think is a really big deal. What about you?

Yeah, absolutely. And so a lot of people don't even realize, like, why you want to eat in season, just like God created those things at that time. Right. But that the vegetables that are grown in season there is to the same thing and local, except they're exposed to the same things you're exposed to. So they have the exact same kind of the exact same, the temperature, the wind, the light cycles. And so when your body eats those things, your body's able to break down and absorb easier than if you were you were in that climate, in that environment. And then you're eating something that's know supposed to be eaten in the summer time. Your body doesn't quite have the mechanisms it needs to break that down easily. And then, yeah, get that box like that is the best thing because we do get stuck in

our team. Many people love their routine. Right. And so you go to the store to get the same vegetables, the same meat, the same protein. They all the same stuff every time. Buried in the box is awesome. Even things like olive oil, if you get olive oil or avocado oil, get a different brand next time because the olives that were made in maybe your favorite brand that you usually get, maybe they were made like grown in a farm in California. They were exposed to a whole different types of air, water, minerals, soil. Right. Nutrient makeup. So maybe all this from Europe that you get in a different brand next time they have a whole different spectrum of nutrients for your body. So just wrap it up, eat local and eat in-season, but also eat diverse from even different areas all around the world is very

healthy.

All right, Margaret in Charlottesville, my dad was diagnosed with IBD a few years back and was put on a few different medications. Every time he takes his medicine, it seems to help his symptoms for a little while. But then later on, it seems like he has new problems or new symptoms. Some days he won't even take any medication because it seems like it's easier for him to deal with IBD on his own than suffer the side effects from medicine. I really don't think it's smart for him to skip his daily dosage, but it's causing more pain. I don't want that either. Should we be looking to switch his medication or is it possibly to take to completely take him off all medication for this? Margaret in Charlottesville.

OK, Margaret, first of all, I'm sorry that he's struggling with IBD. A lot of my clients do. The thing is, is that that disease, it's just a term that we put as practitioners, we put on symptoms. So it's just a term that we say, oh, this person had these symptoms, let's target this disease. So the medications are just to cover up the symptoms, ask yourself, like, what is this medication doing? Is it actually healing the IBD we don't have anymore? No, it's to help him when he needs for a certain Band-Aid for that symptom. So if you have the the inner drive and the desire to actually reverse this IBD, it is absolutely possible I've seen it happen. You will just need to work with a functional medicine or an integrative medicine practitioner, naturopathic practitioner or somebody of that nature who's going to dig deep

to find out why the IBE is present, why are the symptoms present so that you can reverse it rather than covering it up with those pills, even natural. So even supplementation I view I love supplementation. It's they really helpful, but it's still oftentimes like a bandaid to cover up the symptoms.

So first, talk real quick for people who don't. I think people know IBS. I've heard of IBS that some people haven't heard of IBD inflammatory bowel disease. So I want you to kind of for people who don't know what IBD is, discuss that in a little bit more detail.

So IBD is basically I got a condition similar to IBS, very similar, but yeah. So the difference is that the gut lining is basically inflamed. So you're having the constipation, the diarrhea, the differing of the, of the things, but it's just more so inflamed, more so notable than IBS. But they are very similar.

OK.

So what would so what is your advice for her?

Well, number one, work with somebody to get the deeper testing to know why you have it and then start to reverse it, get the offending factors out. So if you have a parasite or heavy metal or toxins coming in at you or you're eating food that's causing inflammation, get those things out so that the body can kind of, what I say, clear the muddy water and start to function fully. So your body wants to heal. It wants to get well, we just need to give it a little hand in the right direction. And you can do that. Well, no, by knowing what those imbalances are and helping it out in some of those areas.

All right, this next one is from Anonymous here, she says, I know I have parasites. What is the best treatment for it?

I mean, the less legitimate. So the very first thing for treatment for parasites don't get don't do a detox. Not right now. So most like most people.

So talk about that a little bit. What do you mean by that?

So most people, if they think get parasites or they're like feeling yucky, the first thing that they want to do is go on like some big drug detox. Right. And they're taking all the pills and the powders and they're doing all the stuff that can actually make you more sick. So if you have parasites in your body, they're kind of like sleeping. Right. And when we activate them to try and detox them, we're releasing all of these toxins, all of these parasites. And if your body's not yet healthy and it doesn't have the energy and the detox pathways activated to then find the parasites and get rid of them, they're floating away. They're active and angry. They're reabsorbed and they can actually make you more sick. So the first step is to just start with very simple things, to start allowing your body to deflate

and get healthier things like environmental optimization. So like making sure the air your breathing is right, making sure the food you're eating is great quality, making sure that you're drinking the best quality water. So you're getting rid of inflammation so the body can start to heal itself. We're rebalancing the gut flora and then we can come in. Once you're feeling pretty good, then we can come in with a big detoxification. Now, daily detox is OK. So like things like dry brushing or drinking some lemon water or having that great green juice, but with limited fruit, those are daily things and frets on it that you can be doing. But in order to do like a full parasite detoxification cleanse, I definitely recommend that, but not until after you do those first things first.

All right, this next one is from Stephanie With no state or city. I love your podcast and your website. And I saw a Facebook post for a link called Chantel Ray dot com slash hack's. And I got an email of the different hacks you gave, but I want more. Don't get mad when I say this, but what you gave is good, but it just wasn't enough. I want to know what your personal hacks are that really feels like you take yourself to the next level that I could hack getting thin and feeling great.

Oh, I love my personal favorite hats that I do is red light therapy, so I have a red light device that I don't know what was on the email already, but this is what I do every day. A red light therapy.

If if the cells in my body, I have an infrared sauna that I'm getting in a detoxes the cells and organs of my body sweat. It's so amazing, so intense on a red light therapy. I also do UVB light therapy. So where I'm from vitamin D is I mean, you have a pretty good chance of being deficient in Bagnardi. Now, I tried to get outside every single day, but it just doesn't happen. Right. Where are you from? Indiana. OK, so most people are going to be a little deficient now. You can do vitamin D drops. I always recommend drops rather than the pills, but I actually have like a UVB light structure in my house. But even this year, like if I was on a podcast or working on my computer, I just flip on next to me and it helps my body synthesize vitamin

D. That's like a major beneficial pack as I love doing that. Another thing that I love to do is switch my shower on really, really cold. It helps with your mitochondria cells, the energy cells of your body, and that's something that can help with your weight loss that you're talking about as well. You can do above and beyond into a cold plunge. One of my friends have a full bench at his house that you just dips into every day. I don't have one of those, but that is helpful. But these are some of my favorite biohacking types of tools that I expose my body to, to make it function more fully.

And what about like supplements? What would you say are like these are like the supplements that are just really take me to the next level.

So here's the next level thing for you. Like a truth thumb. I supplement my body based on what it needs and I know what it needs based on testing. So I'm never looking and being like, oh, this supplements. Does this woman take it? I'm actually looking at the exact lab data and knowing what things I need to fine tune a little bit when I need a little more of what I need, a little less so that I can take the optimal perfect blend for myself.

That's awesome. Can you share with us what you take?

So right this moment, I actually just had a child and I'm breastfeeding. So right now I'm just taking a free prenatal. And then when so after I'm finished breastfeeding, this is kind of like my jumbo. I, I've had two children, a two year old and I have a four month old. So when I'm finished breastfeeding, the body is going to be going through a bunch of different stuff. And that's when I will get my retesting labs. I'll be able to take supplements again because I don't I don't mess around with a lot of supplements. When I am breastfeeding, when I am pregnant, I just take a great quality prenatal probiotic vitamin B, but that's what I'm on right now. It's just like post pregnancy type of regimen.

Awesome. I agree. For me, the infrared sauna is like a game changer. I really try to go in several times a week into that infrared sauna. But if you go to my website and you go to Chantel Ray and click on things I love, there's a few things on there. But for me, there's some supplements that I love, like I'm low in iron. The one thing that I have to I take like a grass fed organ complex. And it it has it's literally made from the sounds disgusting, but it's made from like liver and, you know, it's dried it like high temperatures. But because I'm low and in an iron, that really is a game changer for me. And then I also have a vitamin C on there that is really, really good. Like I you know, it has things like, you know, liberi camu,

camu berry, you know, unripe cherry, like literally like all it is, is just super foods and it's a real food. You know, I hear all these people all the time that are taking vitamin C, that's like it's just I can't even believe the like the ingredients in it. And you're going to feel terrible when you take it. But the one that I have on my website is one hundred percent all natural straight made from food. And so those are a couple more things that I love as well.

I love that in that it's made from real food because like chemicals like that stuff. Very dangerous, right? Like we were talking about earlier. That's something you probably aren't going to be picking up at the grocery store. So you can get that diversity through the supplementation, which is fantastic.

Well, I want to have you talk just a minute more about the test, because I love what you said. It was funny. We've had a couple questions. I'm going to I'm going to ask it, you know, on our next podcast.

I can tell you what the gist of it. I don't have a question in front of me right now, but I really like the girl several times.

We've had different people say, you know, you get all these different guests on this show and this one says, take this supplement. This one says, take this and this one takes this, and by the time you know it, you're taking forty five supplements and you're like, this is insanity, right? Because this looks like the best supplement on the market is this. And say you're just loading up with this, this, this and this. And so I love the fact that you're saying, look, instead of just randomly taking this, let's take some tests and figure out what do you actually need, talk about those tests that you do? And are they blood tests? And do you meet with people all over just on Skype or how does that work?

Yeah, I mean, with my clients all over the world and what happened and I do a bit like zoom Skype type of thing. So what happens is we send you a box just like an Amazon package. It comes to your front door. You just take that box to your local laboratory or we can have a phlebotomist come to your home and their blood draws.

Wow, you guys can get people to come to your home to do that. Yeah, no way. So that's what I need to do. Why am I still. Oh, my gosh. Listen, I am totally one of those people like so like I get my nails done at my house. I have a facial done at my house.

I get a massage at the house like I don't like to. I'm so busy because, you know, I mean, I've got like a million things going on.

So for me, when I'm at home, I want to stay there. So that is the best news ever so that I can literally get people to come to your house and draw the blood. Absolutely. How much extra is that?

It's honestly what's included with working with us. We just offer that type of elite type of experience. But if you were just doing it on your own, I mean, maybe eighty nine dollars or something, not terrible. And they come to your house, they draw the blood, they package it all up for you, they ship it off for you. It's it's pretty seamless.

Wow. And so talk about some of the tests. So if I came to you and I said, look, because we're getting a lot of questions here about people who are tired, that's I would say the number one thing we're saying over and over is I'm so tired, I don't have the energy. I'm constantly constipated, you know, those kind of things. So if someone came to you and said, this is what it is, what would you what are some of the tests that you'd run for them?

You need a comprehensive evaluation. I do not believe in, like giving recommendations until I know the hard truth of what's going on in your body, because I don't I can't see through your body and all your pathways. And so we get, first of all, a food intolerance test. So that's a blood test for four hundred and five foods. So out of all my foods, you know. Exactly. Black and white, what your body doesn't do and what it does, it inflames to say, you know what to kill your body with. Because if that if the food stuff is on point, if that helps a lot. Right. But we don't know like some people have, like I said earlier, reacting to celery. Some people have reacted to lemon, avocado, lettuce. I mean, you can be healthy foods. So once we know what those foods are, that your

body, we can take him out.

Let's talk about that for a second, because we've had several people who've said and I could testify this for myself as well, that they've said, you know, when I've taken a food intolerance test, let's say I take it in January and January, it says I'm allergic to lettuce, almonds, eggs and peanuts. Let's just pretend. Right. And then six months later, I take it again, I'm not allergic to any of those now. I'm allergic to these different ones. And so the question is really how accurate are these tests that, you know, three months later someone's taking another one? Or what if that would be a great test? That's what I'd love to do. I would love to do an experiment where I literally did a food intolerance test on Monday and then did another one on Friday and see, are they coming back with the same

things that would be a good like inside reporter thing, wouldn't it?

Yeah, and that's a really, really good fact, is that they are not all accurate. So there's only one that I trust on the market that I use. It's definitely the most expensive. But for me, I just want I just want the accurate results and also the way that they test the test for all for sensitive hypersensitivity pathways rather than most of them on the market test for just the first phase.

So it's really more detailed and getting those accurate results. But here's the the biggest thing that I want you to take away is that people, when they get through to Tarrant's testing done, usually they're like, OK, cool, I got these foods out. I go on this diet, I'm going to go wrong. Like when you take the food out. That's just the very, very first part of the story. During that time that you have the foods out with my clients in six months, we keep it up for six months. And during those six months, we have to rebalance and heal the body. Right. Have you never healed up that got mining or got rid of those toxins or parasites and you're still putting in the things that are making you sick then when you retest the. When you introduce us, which again, of course, is still

going to inflame your body, of course you're still going to be tired of headaches or bloating or whatever it is for you getting the testing done or even following in an elimination diet or autoimmune paleo or whatever it is. That's only the very first part of the story. You have to then heal the damage that has been done. So those intolerances do not come back.

Got it. Well, it's been a pleasure having you please tell us, where can listeners find more about you and your practice?

Well, my name is Maggie Berghof, as you said, and everything across everything is Maggie Berghoff. So if you want to join in the conversation on Instagram, I'm very active there at Maggie Berghof and you can say, hey, I'm super social. And then if you want to see my website, it's just Maggie Forbath dot com and you can send me a contact request or anything over there.

Awesome. Well, it's been a pleasure having you. Thank you so much for coming on our show.

Thanks for having me. Awesome.

And if you have a question that you want answered, go to questions at Chantel Ray Dotcom. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.