Being a gynecologist and obstetrician for over two decades has given me the true honor and pleasure of taking care of generations of women at different stages of their lives, from their early teens through pregnancies, menopause, and well after. Wherever you are on that continuum, let’s imagine it’s you in my office. We’re discussing your health and hormones and how you are honestly feeling. I close the door, and we sit down to talk after your annual Pap smear and physical exam. It’s a vulnerable moment, I know. You’ve probably grappled with weight gain—maybe a little or a lot. Perhaps you’ve felt very forgetful, anxious, or moodier than before. Maybe you’ve started having hot flashes that go off like silent bombs inside you, or night sweats that make you want to sleep with the covers off, then on, then off again.
And what’s your sex drive like? Is it fizzling out? Do you tire easily? Can’t sleep a whole night, or wake up still tired? On top of everything else, do you no longer enjoy yourself or feel like your life isn’t at all what it should be?
You might tell me about other symptoms. Perhaps you’ve been gaining weight, and you don’t know why. Your relationships are fragmenting, along with your confidence. Thoughts may be swirling through your mind like: “Will I ever feel better? Am I just going downhill from here? Am I just going crazy? Or maybe there is something very wrong with me! Is it early Alzheimer’s? Do I have cancer—thyroid, breast, ovarian? Is there something in my labs or my exam? Do I need a surgeon? Psychiatrist? Divorce attorney?”
Whoa, now!
I’ve sat with thousands of women in your situation, and I have communicated with many more thousands through my online interactive programs, including the two most popular, Magic Menopause and Sexual CPR, so I know that moment when you’re ready to do anything. You want things fixed—now! But you may also have lost hope that it is still even possible. Take a deep breath. It is possible, it’s not going to take a lot of time, and you’re not alone. I assure you, you are a powerful woman, and you can turn things around fast.
I understand what’s happening to you. You’re struggling with the physical, mental, and emotional indignities of hormonal fluctuations and an ensuing “metabolic stall.” The result: weight gain, hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, insomnia, memory loss, hair loss, brain fog, irritability, diminished libido, discomfort during sex, pain, and more. Your body is winding down its reproductive machinery, and you feel like you’re losing control—and losing your mind.
Too many women are resigned to accepting these changes, living unhappily with them, and muddling through for years to come. Many others will agree to be unnecessarily medicated for their symptoms. They’re told this is normal or it’s the best it’s going to get. I know this because I often meet women after they have tried everything else and have gotten fed up with their medical care—yet still haven’t given up hope.
And I also know what you’re going through because I’ve been in this terrible place—twice!
My first experience with these hormonal changes occurred long before I approached menopause, and was triggered by a personal tragedy—my eighteen-month-old son died in a terrible and senseless accident. My insurmountable stress, deep grief, and subsequent depression thrust me into premature menopause and ovarian failure. My hormones were a mess. I was eighty pounds overweight. I couldn’t lose a pound no matter how hard I tried. I started to lose my hair in clumps. My joints ached. At the time, I was the mother of three (two daughters and one stepdaughter), and I very much wanted another child. But because of my tragedy-induced premature hormonal changes, I was told by experts I could never get pregnant again and that I would have to live this way forever. I was devastated.
Mine was a health crisis that traditional medicine could not solve. I couldn’t even solve it, despite being an Emory University–trained, board-certified ob-gyn and expert in functional medicine, plus a consultant in age management medicine. Dismissed by fellow doctors, I was informed that I would just have to live with infertility, weight gain, depression, fatigue, and hair loss. The only solution I was offered was antidepressants and sleeping pills. I felt shattered.
But I would not let myself stay broken.
I refused their options because I had seen my mother struggle under the weight of many medications, and I had to live for my daughters and search out solutions for myself. Survival alone was not enough. Eventually, by using an early version of the diet and lifestyle program I will share in this book, I lost those eighty pounds and went on to compete in a sprint triathlon (which is quite a personal accomplishment, because I hate to run!). My hormones leveled. My depression lifted, and I became someone who felt great all the time. Joyously, at age forty-one, I conceived a healthy baby girl. What traditional medicine said could not be done was done.
The second time happened in my late forties, more or less when most women expect to start transitioning away from monthly periods and into menopause. But just because it was expected didn’t mean it was easy! My hormones mounted another attack on me. Weight gain that creeped to five pounds, ten pounds, then twenty pounds. More fatigue. Emotional volatility. Stress that made me feel like jumper cables were attached to my heart.
I didn’t take this lying down. I went looking for answers and help. Unfortunately, I was again met with a “Well, this is normal” attitude and an ill-equipped medical system that could not, and would not, help. Can you relate? We’re expected to tolerate and power through these disturbing changes, medicate them, or grin and bear them, right? No!
I knew what I had done previously to lose weight, fix my hormones, and overcome complete metabolic stall. I began to tinker with those same solutions again. It took me a lot of trial and error before I figured out the best way to reclaim my body, mind, and soul. I changed the way I ate. I changed lifestyle habits that were standing in my way. I tapped into my inner power and felt more contented and spiritually at peace.
Ultimately, I got myself back in tune. I was able to keep the creeping weight off, felt much more even-keeled—and really, like a younger version of myself. And that happy experience has inspired me to help other women, especially those struggling through hormonal chaos with nowhere to turn.
The book you are holding in your hands—The Hormone Fix—contains gems I learned through tragic personal experience, the day-to-day work of caring for more than ten thousand women in my medical clinic, and the coaching of a hundred thousand more online. Expressly for women (though the men in your life can follow it too), at its heart this is a breakthrough nutritional and lifestyle plan based on hard science, real people, and methods I use myself. It is so effective that you can lose up to a pound a day—without cravings, hunger, fatigue, or any of the side effects of other diets you may have tried. This unique program, along with supporting information on every single page, has the power to help you stay slim and sexy, feel more energetic, revive your libido, look and feel younger—and transform your life in ways you can’t even yet imagine. It is the hope you’ve been looking for. I feel blessed to bring it to you now.
As I hinted above, I did not create The Hormone Fix overnight and simply start putting patients on it. No, it took more than ten years of clinical work with real patients, exhaustive research and refinement, and most of all, personal experience and my own hormone hell.
But in many ways this program started with the needs of members of my own family. My mother had diabetes and heart disease. At one point, she was taking eleven prescription drugs and was in and out of the hospital. None of this saved her. She died at age sixty-seven after a heart valve replacement surgery. I was only thirty-one, in my residency at Emory University, and a new mom myself when she died. I was heartbroken, of course, and never accepted that her death had to be. I knew that there must be holistic answers to the malicious riddles of life-threatening diseases like hers. Finding them is what mattered to me then and now.
Also, my dad had diabetes. When doctors counted him out at age seventy-nine, saying he had led a “good life,” I was incensed—and so was he. I helped him change his diet, added supplements and hormones, and took him off three prescription medicines. He went on to live another twelve good years.
Then there was my daughter Amanda—a smart, active, and articulate child, but a child who could not sit still. I wanted to help her, but I didn’t want to do it with medication. I figured there must be a connection between what she was eating and how she behaved. I did an enormous amount of research into natural remedies; after all, this was my daughter. Based on what I learned, I decided she needed to have no more sugar, gluten, or caffeine-containing beverages. I reasoned that a change in diet, along with bioavailable B vitamins, fish oil, and other supplements would help Amanda become a healthy, active (not hyperactive) six-year-old. And they did.
Next came my own miracle of reversing premature menopause and becoming pregnant against the odds, as I’ve already described. Empowered by these personal experiences, I became fiercely determined to practice medicine more integratively with all my patients. I wanted to give them tools and information so that they could make informed decisions about their health and reclaim their natural ability to heal their own bodies. Often we are too quick to give our power over to pills or doctors, when our bodies have the ability to self-heal, given the right conditions and resources.
Hungrier for more knowledge on how to help people heal, I became a “professional student,” attending conferences on integrative topics ranging from functional medicine to anti-aging and then applying this knowledge and clinical skills in my practice and fine-tuning it. I figured that if I could learn something that improved even one patient, it was worth my time. My greatest reward has been empowering women limited by their health to begin to enjoy life again. Ever since, I’ve been on a mission to assist as many women as I can to restore their health and begin leading long, healthy, loving, and fulfilling lives. It was too late to help my mom, but I could help others.
Whatever specific reason or symptom brought you to this book, I want you to thrive and become your most healthy, energetic, sexy, feminine, and vital self. We have so much to live for in these next wonderful stages of life—which is why we must take our health and power back and turn to lifestyle changes that will not only ease our discomfort and unhappiness but empower us to live out our best life with fun, love, and connection.
Now at age fifty-two, with a ten-year-old as well as three grown daughters, I want to live to be part of their children’s lives, and to torment my kids well into my old age! I do not want to follow the path of my mom, suffering for years and then dying without ever having really known her grandkids and, worse, them not knowing her. Too many good women and men have gone down a path of unnecessary suffering, and I intend to put a stop to it. Enough is enough! You are powerful; you can do this.
The Hormone Fix features my short-term Keto-Green Quick Start Detox and my longer-term program, the Keto-Green Diet. Both help you improve your symptoms, diminish and even completely eliminate hot flashes, lose extra weight, get a clear mind, have glowing skin and hair, become connected, and, as a bonus, fully rejuvenate your life. Its associated lifestyle strategies will help lower your blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and weight in ways that standard medical care is just not able to accomplish. This is a program that saves lives.
With this in mind, here are some specifics you’ll discover:
How to lose up to a pound a day with my 10-Day Keto-Green Quick Start Detox. It is both hormone-fixing and fat-burning. Fair warning: the plan is a little stringent, but you will be eating delicious foods and experiencing energy that won’t quit. You’ll feel great while on it. The Quick Start is also an invaluable tool, not just something you’ll do once. You can and should use it as a detox and cleanse periodically throughout the year for improved hormonal health. Go on it once a month, or at the start of each new season. Go back to the Quick Start if your weight starts creeping up or if you need to slim down quickly for a special occasion. The Quick Start is a plan you can enjoy anytime, for any reason.
How to continue your success with my 21-Day Keto-Green Diet—an eating guide that can be used forever (and for which I’ve given you three weeks’ worth of options and ideas). It provides tasty, filling options for meals that help balance your hormones naturally—and thus reduce or eliminate hot flashes, cravings, depression and anxiety, low sex drive, premature aging, thinning hair, aches and pain, and other symptoms that may be wrecking your life and self-esteem.
Why this plan works for a wide range of life stages—perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause—and even for the men in your life who may be facing their own weight, blood sugar, and hormonal issues.
How to identify the underlying causes of your symptoms, track your progress over time, completely reverse what has been sabotaging your efforts, and take back your life.
Why you will dramatically improve your memory, focus, and motivation by restoring brain-nurturing chemicals to more youthful levels. When you go Keto-Green, you’ll experience energized enlightenment and feel mentally and spiritually alive.
Which revitalizing lifestyle strategies help fix your hormones. It isn’t all about diet. Hydration becomes crucial. So does sleeping well, exercising, enjoying healthy relationships, managing stress, and living with peace and purpose.
With The Hormone Fix, you will be well on your way to slimming down, feeling more energized, and enjoying clearer thinking. I can see you smiling now. You’re getting it. No more powering through nagging symptoms of fluctuating hormones. No more feeling tyrannized by stress.
Believe me, I know how overwhelming life can feel sometimes. But don’t give up on yourself. You are about to tap into unexpected energy levels and enhanced intimacy. In short, you’ll be creating the very best you! I truly believe every woman deserves and can achieve a vibrantly healthy life filled with love and happiness. And that means you!
Menopause is not a disease that needs some kind of cure; it is a natural transition to be approached as a new type of freedom and personal power. This is a beautiful, important time in your life—a time to look forward, chart a new course, and enjoy what can be the most exciting decades of your life. You are about to journey in a new direction, toward health, happiness, and wholeness, and I’ll be with you every step of the way.
Sound good? Then let’s begin.