PODCAST- Maggie Berghoff- Feel, Look and Perform Your Best with Functional Medicine

About Our Guest- Maggie Berghoff- Feel, Look and Perform Your Best with Functional Medicine

Maggie Berghoff is the founder and CEO of Celproceo, a health agency rooted in functional medicine and trusted by celebrities, professional athletes, and CEOs. Maggie’s expertise in building multiple thriving businesses online has also led her to becoming a sought-after business mentor for those building an online business. She has been featured in hundreds of places, including Forbes, Business Insider, Entrepreneur Magazine, Oxygen Magazine, Under Armour, USA Today, local and national television, and many more.

Full Podcast Transcription

Maggie Berghoff 01:31 

There\’s so many people who still don\’t even know what functional medicine is or that nutrition even is involved. I know we\’re talking about nutrition, there\’s so much more that I do, but they don\’t even know that they have the option to feel that this is possible for them because their doctors have told them that it isn\’t. And to me that\’s the biggest problem in the entire world that I\’m really after solving.

Diva Nagula 01:57

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of From Doctor to patient. Today I am joined with Maggie Berghoff. She is the founder and CEO of Cell Pro CEO, a health agency rooted in functional medicine and trusted by celebrities, professional athletes, and CEOs. Maggie\’s expertise in building multiple thriving businesses online has also led her to become a sought after business mentor for those building an online business. She\’s been featured in hundreds of places including Forbes, Business Insider, Entrepreneur Magazine, Oxygen Magazine, Under Armour, USA Today, local national television, and many more. Maggie it\’s such a great pleasure to have you on the show today. How are you? 

Maggie Berghoff 02:58

I\’m so great, thank you for having me.

Diva Nagula 03:01

I\’m always curious as to how people who come on as guests on my show, how they got into the whole space of functional medicine, integrative medicine.

Maggie Berghoff 03:13 

I feel like it\’s very common in this space to hear this. But through my own health journey is how I stumbled upon functional medicine. I was actually trained as a nurse practitioner in a traditional medicine practice. So I went to Vanderbilt University and got my nurse practitioner degree, I got my dream job at the dream hospital. And then it wasn\’t until my own body had this massive health crash that I learned about functional medicine. I had gone to many specialists in the model I was raised to know and educated in and time and time and time again, I was left from doctor appointments like frustrated and feeling really hopeless without any answers as to why my body was totally failing itself. It was just crashing with a ton of symptoms. And my doctors couldn\’t tell me what was going on or why. And after, at first, it was that my labs looked normal, so they just brushed me off and then it was so bad that my labs did look abnormal, but then they would just give me pills to cover up the symptoms and no explanation of like, \”Oh, well why are they looking at abnormal\” and how to fix it. There was no conversation about how to actually fix it at all. It was just \”Oh, well you have this thing. You\’ll be on medications lifelong\”. And so it was through that frustrating journey that I found functional medicine and just got super determined. Actually, at first, it was just very selfish. I just wanted to heal my own body. And so I enrolled into the Institute for Functional Medicine to heal myself and then from there, of course, the rest is history. I just could not go back to a traditional medicine way of practice. And although I think it\’s very, very important and needed, not for the majority of what people are I\’m struggling with today. And my passion lies in helping people to reverse those nagging symptoms or mystery illnesses or you know, things that are going wrong in a more functional holistic way. 

Diva Nagula 05:12 

Right? Awesome. And how did IFM or the Functional Medicine approach heal you? What did you have that was plauging doctors in the traditional conventional medicine Western world?

Maggie Berghoff 05:23 

So with the functional medicine, it wasn\’t like one thing, and I know that it would be so sexy to be like, Oh, it was this one thing that healed me. But it really was a combination of everything – of my own mindset toward, I would say, the biggest two things was mindset around stress. I put a lot of my own plate on purpose, I am still a very type A go getter, high performance type of person, but now I know how to balance it out. So I wasn\’t balancing it out at that time and boosting my body to be able to support that lifestyle that I have. So that and then also my mindset towards food was one of the biggest things and I would say, if you asked me what the biggest, biggest thing that made an impact, it was food and nutrition, not just what I ate but how I ate and my mindset toward what I was eating

Diva Nagula 06:15

Yeah, and I hear that so many with all the guests – which are clients and patients that I see – it\’s really been a big change, and the impetus for the changes is essentially just changing your nutrition and diet. And that just, it goes a long way when you just make a simple change. And a lot of people don\’t really appreciate how important and how dramatic the change can be when they just alter a few things for their diet.

Maggie Berghoff 06:39 

And I changed a lot of things. So I also switched from a very toxic way of living from a product standpoint, a hygiene and household products, I was just using typical, you know, on the store, bath body, whatever it was, at the time, that time I was in college, you just graduating actually. So my go to was you know Victoria\’s Secret lotions, and all this kind of stuff that had so many chemicals in them. And so I did switch to a non-toxic lifestyle. Everything that I use now is organic and non-toxic, and things I\’m so cognizant about what I\’m putting on my skin and in my body and when I\’m breathing in the air. But again, even with that, I think that is so important. Like it is absolutely critical to do that. But I don\’t really notice a difference, now at least, when I use lotion with chemicals, but I do notice a difference when I eat a bunch of junk food. So I like if I had to pin point, the one thing I was like the most important thing first, I would say nutrition for sure. 

Diva Nagula 07:36

And when you transformed your diet prior to the transformation, were you pretty much eating the standard American diet?

Maggie Berghoff 07:43 

No, you would think so. I was actually I thought very healthy. And I actually prided myself on that, and a lot of people would come to me for nutrition advice. In fact, I almost quit nurse practitioner school because I told my mom, all i really care about is like nutrition. I just wanna help people with food and nutrition and fitness. But I was not – | thought that I was being healthy and I was not. And here\’s what I mean by that. My mom when I was younger, had stage three colon cancer, she was told by all of her doctors like there was no hope she was not going to survive this. She had gone through chemotherapy, didn\’t work. And she went away to this more holistic based cancer institution. We lived with my grandparents, like it was a big deal. She came home, healed her body. She\’s been in remission ever since. And she came home with this big book of foods and all the benefits that they have. And that was my first dive into nutrition. So I actually knew some things about food. We grew up with organic. My mom didn\’t buy processed stuff – like here and there. But it was not a part of our lifestyle. We rarely ate fast food. You know, our meals were – we lived in the country and my mom homemade our meals every night we were sitting outside in the fresh air eating with family. And so I grew up with that. That said, I took it to an extreme in college when I started to work out a lot. And I was listening to nutrition advice from these fitness trainers. I was following the fitness programs and then the diets that corresponded with them, and those diets completely knocked out like all your fats, all your diversity, you\’re eating, you know, the grilled chicken, talapia, broccoli every day all day, right and like taking supplements and protein shakes. And at that time, I wasn\’t looking at ingredients in protein shakes and things like that – a lot of dairy. And so I thought that I was being very healthy. I was super athletic. I appeared glowing and vibrant and healthy. But actually inside my body, I was creating massive nutritional deficiencies, gut imbalance because of the lack of diversity and just like major complications inside from a nutrition standpoint.

Diva Nagula 09:36

Wow. So actually, it\’s interesting a lot of people including myself, who have transformed their diet, it was because they were consuming the standard American diet and that\’s I\’m guilty of that, because when I had my illness and when I was diagnosed with cancer, it was because, I mean, it was a lifestyle issue for me. And I had so many horrible things that were going on all at the same time. But I remember it, I mean, you know, we want a diversity of fruits and vegetables, that\’s absolutely important. And for me, I was like, so devoid with fruits and vegetables. And when I was working, you know, 10 years ago, I was thinking to myself, when was the last time I had, like real vegetables and fruits, and I couldn\’t remember except for consuming the scrap of lettuce on my burger that was like, probably the only vegetable that I was, you know, eating consistently. Yeah, so it was just an eye opener. 

Maggie Berghoff 10:39 

I was, I was eating veggies and green juices and smoothies and all that stuff. I did eat the standard American diet, I would say on weekends. I would be like, very, very healthy and then that\’s also not healthy. I would then like just like, go crazy on the weekend and cheat days and things like that. So more of a yo-yo type of style. But I was, I thought nourishing my body, like what I thought was healthy, you know, 

Diva Nagula 11:02 

That really goes to show you that, you know, everyone\’s different. But it is a product of what you put in your body, whether it is compatible with your you know, your genotype or not. I mean, so it\’s really important. Did you figure all this out through allergy testing or food sensitivity testing?

Maggie Berghoff 11:19 

I did do food sensitivity testing. Yes. And that really helped me a lot to know just immediately, like what foods are causing inflammation. So I just know to take them out. I would say the most frustrating thing ever….well, first of all, the whole healing process is frustrating, right? There\’s so many low, low times. And it was very frustrating to me, because I follow instruction. If you tell me what to do, I will do it. So I was following these diets to a tee, the Anti Candida diet, the low FODMAP diet, the Elimination diet, and I was still so sick and blowing up, I was swelling, I was bloated, I was so fatigued. But it was because I was eating things I was intolerant to even on those healthy diets. I was one of my first intolerances, like on that first test that I ever took was lettuce. Like I would think eating lettuce was healthy. But actually that was making me inflamed from an IgG antibody standpoint. So that really helped me for sure to identify those triggers. And again, when I said earlier about like the mindset toward food, that was a game changer for me as well. 

Diva Nagula 12:24 

And when you say mindset, can you clarify a little bit on that?

Maggie Berghoff 12:28 

Yes, I truly believe that when I stopped caring so much about these diets and what I shouldn\’t be eating, and I started caring about like throwing in all the things that I should add to boost my nutrients and immune system and heal and like all the properties of these different things – that really helped my body to heal itself. And it helped me mentally not to be afraid of food or to feel like I was on a diet or that I was like, you know, poor me I have to follow this thing. It actually became more of a like, \”Oh my gosh, I love nourishing my body. This is so much fun. I\’m going to put as many nutrients as I can\”, and it was like a whole mindset shift for me that really helps to get away from any kind of diet atmosphere even though like my diets were I thought healthy, right, like the elimination or Candida, but to me that was restricted. And to me that actually made me kind of not happy. And so when I once switched from that and added things in, I became happier. Eating became very intuitive and like, just like a nourishing good experience. And it eventually allowed me to heal my body.

Diva Nagula 13:35 

It\’s interesting, if you\’ve done the elimination diet, it\’s very challenging. I\’ve done it. Two years ago, I did it for a whole month. And it was very challenging and very restrictive because you literally cannot eat almost anything. You can\’t eat any bread. You can\’t eat dairy, you can\’t eat meats, you can\’t eat any sugars, no gluten, what else am I missing? No alcohol. And I think no caffeine either. So and I think you could eat nightshades. No, no night shades either. 

Maggie Berghoff 14:02 

No fruit, at least I wasn\’t doing fruit. True story, one time was so frustrating. I can still always remember you know those one moments you\’ll always remember. When you\’re on a diet like that or on a healing journey, you miss out sometimes – you feel frustrated. So I was saying no to going out with friends. I was saying no to family events because I knew that I was going to be frustrated and it wasn\’t it wasn\’t a good situation. So I remember vividly one time I went my grandparents were taking us out to dinner. It was like a big family event. I don\’t know – a sibling graduated or something. So I felt like I had to go. I went everybody else was ordering their normal food. I ordered a side of steamed vegetables. I swear to you, I ate my healthy meal before I went but I wanted to still like have something to take up time. So I ordered a side of steamed vegetables and I got a water and I went home. I was bloated like crazy, I gained so much weight, actually what happened when my body would flare, I would swell up in water, like gain water weight a lot, even to where I would have pitting edema on my skin. So for listeners that\’s like, you press down on your leg or your arm and it would stay there, the indent, it would stay there, my face would blow up like a balloon, like it looked like a filter, like it was just huge. And that happened. And I ordered a bowl of steamed vegetables. So it\’s like that those types of things were so frustrating and just heartbreaking when you\’re trying so hard and it\’s not working and you\’re still flaring, and you\’re still getting sick. 

Diva Nagula 18:04 

That\’s interesting – for me, I had the opposite effect. It was definitely taking a toll on my social life – I didn\’t feel like I could go out anywhere to socialize. As you know, eating is a big part of socialization and if you can\’t consume and eat any of the proper foods, just the standard American diet, you just don\’t feel like going out and socializing. And on the contrary for me, when I did it for the three to four weeks, it was one of the best months I\’ve ever had in terms of inflammation – I was sleeping better, my heart rate variability was much higher and wasn\’t requiring bodywork as frequently. And it was great but again, it\’s a balance. It\’s really hard to go 100% with anything. That\’s why I always advocate the 80%, 20% rule – you can go 80% living really healthy, and the other 20% living your life. As you were saying, you have to have some restrictions implemented more for mindset than anything else.

Maggie Berghoff 18:07 

Yes, definitely. And I agree with that. And I will say even like, once you get past this, like, a lot of your listeners are probably in the thick of it. Once you get past this, you want to make those healthy choices, you feel so good. And it actually becomes very simplistic and intuitive. And then like the time even for me, I guess 10%… I don\’t even do 20% – I would say if I\’m at a party or a barbecue or whatever, I don\’t care. I\’m not asking the chef like oh, is there dairy in there – it doesn\’t matter because it doesn\’t impact my body like it once did. Even for, just living this lifestyle and finding, you know, the brownie mix that is the better option for your body. You\’re still eating the brownies. They\’re so delicious, but it has less inflammation, less toxins, etc. and just really embracing that kind of new lifestyle, really. 

Diva Nagula 18:55 

Exactly. And since you\’ve left the old Western medicine field, you\’ve started to take on businesses of your own and consulting services. Can you describe a little bit about what you do now?

Maggie Berghoff 19:09

Well, um, gosh, I\’m definitely a serial entrepreneur, I do a lot of different things. But in the health world, what I started years and years ago was one on one consulting. I definitely felt like that\’s what I was lacking when I was sick. Somebody I could just text when I had a question. And that\’s the kind of business that I set up based on what I wanted, a very high level all access retainer type of model where I work with clients, like in a six month capacity, and we just, you know, a full rebalance. And so that\’s what I really started at now we have gotten into books we have a book coming out soon courses and educational materials and just like really, the big goal for me now is just an impact and expansion – just impacting more people. There\’s so many people who still don\’t even know what Functional Medicine is or that nutrition even is involved. I know we\’re talking about nutrition, there\’s so much more that I do. But they don\’t even know that they have the option to feel that this is possible for them, because their doctors have told them that it isn\’t. And to me, that\’s the biggest problem in the entire world that I\’m really after solving. 

Diva Nagula 20:17

Right? And then I mean, obviously, you counsel and consult with a lot of celebrities -what are their common goals and issues that that you see when they come to you?

Maggie Berghoff 20:29 I would say stress is one of the big things and stress around everything. So it\’s funny, I\’m a health practitioner. But sometimes a lot of what we initially do is restructure their day. And this is what honestly, most people should look at in their life as well – restructure their day, and simplify things because a lot of times we stress ourselves out. And we\’re doing all these different things, when in fact, we could get everything else accomplished in a much more simplistic way and in a more joyful way, and then prioritize your own health. Because at the end of the day, if you\’re in the hospital from a heart attack, you know, there is no your business, there\’s no growth, and you\’re gonna lose time, from spending time with your family to advancing in your career. A lot of my clients are career focused and so that\’s one of the big commonalities that my my clients face, as well as really wanting that personalized care, they don\’t want the pill to cover up the symptoms. They really want to figure this out and to be able to push their bodies further without having these massive health problems.

Diva Nagula 21:35

I\’m assuming like arranging their schedule is more really to alleviate their stress and to allow them more time for joy and pleasure and family time things that they enjoy more. So I mean, obviously, the nutritional component is a huge part of what you do and consult with, but as you know, as many of the listeners also know is that integrative and functional medicine is very comprehensive. It\’s not just nutritional focus, it\’s very much a lifestyle. So we\’re looking at things like mindfulness and stress issues. What other types of changes do you implement for people who are having issues with stress and anxiety?

Maggie Berghoff 22:12 

Yeah, well, it\’s definitely personalized. I use it based on laboratory work, as well as their goals and their their family. Are they traveling all the time? Are they not? So I would say some main components that we look at is definitely nutrition, like we mentioned, but also sleep, and getting them on a really good sleep routine. Going to bed at the same time every night, waking up in the morning, at the same time, setting their circadian rhythm, so their biological clock of their body, which really regulates their metabolism and all of the things right, so helping them with that is very important. The mindset component, like we talked about stress reduction, things that could help with that would be things like even just taking 10 minutes a day to yourself to just be quiet. Sometimes we\’re go go go, and we never have a time to just sit and just be quiet. Just think that could be meditation to you, it could be yoga, it could be stretching, to sitting in nature, just quiet time by yourself can actually go a long way. It could be things like activating your parasympathetic nervous system through more tools like infrared sauna, or I love floatation pods. So sensory deprivation tanks are something that we really love to do. And just some other strategies to activate that parasympathetic nervous system, wherever we can, because we know we\’re going to push it, we know we\’re going to challenge it on purpose. Most of my clients at least, they\’re stressing themselves like that kind of on purpose, they want to do more in their career, or they want to go travel all the time, or do all these different things. Sometimes they are saying up later than normal because they have an event. So we\’re really working on optimizing that parasympathetic nervous system to balance out the sympathetic. 

Diva Nagula 23:53 

Yeah, that makes total sense. And that\’s a huge part of the counseling that I offer, too. It\’s obviously the biggest thing and challenge that I have. And the biggest factor for transformation is addressing nutrition, but you can\’t, it\’s only one part of it. So for me, it\’s always been a balance between mind, body and spirit. So once I get the nutrition down, then I go concentrate on some mindfulness strategies, like exactly what you\’re talking about is really honing in on the parasympathetic system. And then and it\’s always about spirituality. So that\’s kind of the trio that I like to concentrate on when I address people\’s issues. Do you have any metrics that you use to measure autonomic nervous system? And if they\’re in the parasympathetic versus sympathetic? 

Maggie Berghoff 24:36 

You know, I actually don\’t get too deep into that. I think it\’s so interesting and cool. Do you do a lot of that? 

Diva Nagula 24:41 

Yeah, I mean, I like to keep track and then it seems to me that if the clients have a metric that they can use, then it can actually enhance compliance. 

Maggie Berghoff 24:50 

Yeah, I love it. No, we don\’t – the base metrics we use are laboratory testing but not testing if they in parasympathetic state like The Muse I know is very helpful for that kind of stuff – it\’s not something that we dive into too much. 

Diva Nagula 25:03

Yeah, it\’s more me. I like to keep track because it gives me an idea of where they\’re slipping and then I can I actually have my clients keep a journal. So if I have them keep a weekly journal, and then there\’s a slip in their heart rate variability, so what happened this specific day? What did you do? Was there increased stress in your in your life? Or was there, did you go binge on something? If it is one of those two things then they can actually, you know, correlate those activities with their reduced heart rate variability, then they can see, that it affects their body, and that they\’re not optimizing in the fashion that they want. And so you have a lot of other things going on. You have a book that you released, can you tell us a little bit about your book? 

Maggie Berghoff 25:49 

Yes, it\’s so funny, we\’re really focusing on nutrition. Usually podcast convos aren\’t so focused on that. But the book is called \”Eat Right For Your Inflammation Type\”. And so what it does is it segments different types of inflammation, whether that be hormonal inflammation, or more so gut. And we know that in all of them as practitioners, that it\’s all correlated, but it\’s so helpful to know what is your core issue, because that\’s going to differ with what you do next. The premise of the book is identifying your inflammation type, and then there\’s a guide for what to do in your lifestyle. So creating that environment to thrive. I\’m very passionate about non toxic living. What can you do in your environment to make sure that you are reducing your inflammation and healing your body? And then also the nutrition there\’s a whole part about nutrition and recipes and detoxification methods for your type. It\’s essentially the closest that I could possibly get to working one on one with the client without working one on one with them. I\’ve used all my experience and working with these clients and segmented it so that you, as a reader, could read it, and really put the pieces in line for your own life. To implement them in your own life so that you can heal. 

Diva Nagula 27:07 

Are you a big fan of supplements? And do you have your clients on supplements?

Maggie Berghoff 27:12 

Yes, and no. So here\’s my philosophy on supplements. I think that they are amazing, I also think that they can be overused. And when they\’re overused, even if that\’s a good purpose, if you\’re taking too many, just like polypharmacy, taking too many medications, I think that it can actually cause a negative effect on you. And so what I usually do is | strategically give them supplement recommendations based on their labs. Now, of course, I could do that in the book. So in the book, since I don\’t have your labs and case reviews of all these 10s of 1000s of people, millions of people, I have broken down the most common recommendations of what I think would help that person best based on their type. And so we\’re really targeting different things. Also the philosophy that I have on supplementation, because I don\’t think that you should be on the same thing all the time, lifelong, I use them as medication. So as your medicine cabinet essentially, you should have certain supplementation for when you\’re traveling, when you\’re feeling a little rundown, when you\’re feeling a little anxious, and you need to activate some parasympathetic nervous system stuff. So that\’s kind of what we\’re doing and targeting in the book as well. 

Diva Nagula 28:13 

Yeah, I totally agree with all that. It\’s interesting to me, it\’s like you want to be able to reach out to as many people as you can. So I also have a book that\’s out as well. And to me, it\’s it\’s a great way of reaching out and getting your philosophy and getting your methodology out to so many different people. I love one on one work, but we want to heal the masses as well just focusing on one on one individuals.

Maggie Berghoff 28:39 

Yeah, we just want to help people. It\’s probably been my biggest challenge as an entrepreneur and going through my own health journey is I just want to help everybody, but there is only one of us. And also, as we know, most functional medicine is not covered by insurance. So there\’s also a cost barrier for many people. You and I are writing books about this the best we can is the next best thing then working with a one on one. And a lot of times it\’s just about awareness as well. I wish I had known about functional medicine before I had ended up in the hospital with a TIA. I could have prevented that for sure if I was living this lifestyle before that stuff happened.

Diva Nagula 29:18 

Yep, I feel the same way. And how strict are you when you\’re offering your clients advice on organic versus conventional foods?

Maggie Berghoff 29:29 

I always opt for organic. I really do. I just think if you have the ability, there\’s more benefits than cons and you might as well choose it. So I don\’t even actually do the Dirty Dozen or anything like that. I just always choose organic myself and I really teach my clients just to do anything that I\’m doing really. I would never tell them to do something don\’t do. I opt for almost everything that I buy really is organic, even down to my shampoo. So I also mirror that with my clients and encourage them to do the same where they can. 

Diva Nagula 30:02 

Yeah, and it\’s interesting, it\’s like, I personally eat everything organic. You know, when I\’m cooking at home, of course, it\’s 20% of the time, when I do go out and eat, I\’ll indulge, but not go crazy. I think it\’s interesting that you also have to take into products, skincare products and personal care products, because if you look at the chemicals that are in those and you add everything up, you\’re talking about the average exposure for a female, you\’re talking about over 100 toxic chemicals. That\’s stuff that\’s being put on the body before they leave the door for work in the morning. That doesn\’t account for whatever they accumulated when when they\’re in the environment or when they\’re around other people. So it\’s really interesting because this conversation about eating healthy, it\’s also a lifestyle change as well. I personally didn\’t even realize how much toxic compounds were in our personal care products. And so again, like you were mentioning, everything that you eat, and what you put on your body, it\’s all organic. That\’s so important.

Maggie Berghoff 31:08 

Yeah, and it\’s also not as difficult. I just feel like if you have the ability, right, and it\’s just not that big of a deal. I know this is a podcast, so you can\’t see me but I wear makeup, I do my hair, I\’m doing all this stuff, but I\’m using non-toxic versions. No one knows a difference. I love it. I feel like it simplifies, it looks very clean and aesthetically pleasing to have all this nice non-toxic stuff in my home. I love it, it feels very refreshing to me. And it\’s so worth it. That\’s where we can control our home environment. I can control the type of eyeshadow that I use. I can reduce toxins there. I can\’t control when I go out to a restaurant that\’s not using organic kale. I can\’t control that. That\’s okay, because my body is built up so strong that it can handle that hit. It can detoxify. It\’s not going to break me to have that food at the restaurant, or to breathe the air, or to go on a train, or to go on public spaces. If you optimize and I believe if you optimize in your home, in your office, where you spend the most time, then you should be fine. Your body is so amazing, and it has amazing capabilities to heal and detoxify. It just needs us to help it in the right direction where we can. 

Diva Nagula 32:22 

Right, exactly. And kind of what I like touch base on a little bit of nutrition before we kind of end our podcast but you know, generally speaking, what\’s your focus when you advise clients in terms of nutrition and being diverse or lack of diversity? Are you focused more on gut health? Is that the primary focus when you start treating clients for the very first time? Or do you just look at their overall diet throughout the course of the day and do a shotgun approach and just change everything?

Maggie Berghoff 32:52 I firstly focus on what to add instead of taking away most of the time. So I\’m saying, let\’s add nutrients. I help them to actually visualize this. I know that maybe sounds silly, but I\’m having them literally visualize. I want you to drink that smoothie or eat whatever you\’re eating, vegetable, and think about how it\’s going through your body. Literally charging your cells and flooding your body, I want you to think like when you\’re eating and drinking things, you\’re flooding your body with nutrients and nourishment. When you think about that, and you visualize that, first of all it\’s amazing. You\’re like, \”Oh my gosh, this is amazing. I\’m just flooding my body with just goodness.\” Also, you\’re more cognizant about when you\’re eating the things that are that the standard American diet just doesn\’t feel as good, you know? You\’re not getting that amazing, vibrant visualization. So that\’s something that I helped them to work on is adding those things that are going to burst your body with nutrients. Then I do take away some things. So I do focus a lot on reducing inflammation. I think it\’s the fastest, easiest way to start getting results is just to take your inflammation down from wherever it is, and lower it. I think it clears the muddy waters. We can see what\’s actually going on, and it\’s still helpful. So most all of my clients from a nutrition standpoint, they feel better when they remove grains, dairy and sugar. Those are like my three go to\’s. It\’s not gluten it is grains. A lot of my clients I found, even when they were eating gluten free sprouted brown rice and all of these, even gluten free quinoa, whatever it is, they were still very much sick. When we removed that, it was easier for the body to break down their food. It was easier for their gut. It replaced those things hopefully with plants and diverse vegetables. And they felt better. So grains, dairy and sugar are my three things that we typically do remove and my clients feel a lot better with that. 

Diva Nagula 34:20 

And then when you advocate for removing these three categories, would you say you would feel benefits after a week? After a day? What\’s the typical average time before clients are like \”Whoa, I feel great.\”? 

Maggie Berghoff 34:58 

I\’ve had a client within one week text me and say that 75% of anxiety was down within the last seven days and thats the only change so far after our first meeting. 

Diva Nagula 35:10 

That\’s amazing. How do you advise clients who say they\’re in the beginning of their detoxification transformation program? And then they slip? Do they need to do another 14-21 days before they can rid their bodies of the toxicities that\’s accumulated with that one splurge?

Maggie Berghoff 35:31 

So no, I am very against restriction and that kind of stuff like starting over. It\’s not my philosophy whatsoever. So what I do is I tell them it\’s no big deal. No worry, no guilt, no shame at all attached. I\’m not mad, you shouldn\’t be mad at yourself, just nourish your body. Look at your whole life. That one night that you ate a bunch of pizza, breadsticks and sugar? Not a big deal. So I help them to realize that and do give themselves grace and forgiveness, really. A lot of times what I found, is that when people do restrict, they feel guilty, they get mad at themselves, and then they start over. Then it\’s the same cycle over and over. When we just break that, I give them the permission to realize it\’s no big deal. Yeah, there were toxins in that thing. Yes, you were inflammatory. You were tested and you were inflammatory to xyz and you ate it. But it would be more harmful for you to feel that shame around that then to just do it, I would rather you eat a chocolate piece of cake or your pecan pie on Thanksgiving and just love it, enjoy the company, and feel joyful, than to eat that thing and feel guilty and shameful. And then start over and go on a diet the next day or juice cleanse. 

Diva Nagula 36:48 

Yeah, I actually am in 100% agreement not only about nourishing your body with the proper foods and ingredients, but it\’s also nourishing your yourself with self love. And it\’s so important. So if you beat yourself for doing something incorrect or just not part of the program that\’s been given to them, it shouldn\’t be thought of as something that they can just beat themselves over their head with it. They should just approach it going okay. Not having any judgment towards it not killing themselves over the issue and just really nourishing themselves with with a lot of self love. I think that\’s a really great one two punch. So you you\’re a basically a jack of all trades. You do so many different things. You\’re a mother, you have three young children, you obviously have a husband, and you have these amazing companies that are flourishing. What\’s next in the pipeline for you? 

Maggie Berghoff 37:43

Oh, gosh, I don\’t know if I even like allowed to say this. Of course the book launches, that\’s a big, big focus. We\’re gonna dive into product development not just with the knowledge of what to do, but actually the products that they can trust 100% without a doubt. This is what I would do my personal life and if you eat this you know that you\’re nourishing your body and you\’re avoiding all those bad things. It\’s more effortless. You don\’t have to think so much about it. You don\’t read the labels you just know you can trust.

Diva Nagula 38:15 

Yeah. Awesome. And for our listeners, how can they find you online?

Maggie Berghoff 38:20 

Well, my name is Maggie Berghoff. And so MaggieBerghoff.com is my website. My name. I\’m also on Instagram and TikTok. So follow me on any of those platforms.

Diva Nagula 38:30

Great. Well, Maggie, thanks so much for joining us on the show was a pleasure having you.

Maggie Berghoff 38:34 

You\’re welcome. Thanks for having me.