I am so delighted that Dr. Stephanie Zgraggen is one of our valued expert contributors here at Peaceful Living Wellness! Her dedication to helping her clients – AND HER PLW READERS – find optimal health is amazing. Plus, she not only provides our community with excellent, full-spectrum, health advice, she also shares some of her favorite healthy recipes!
Double Bonus!
You can find Dr. Z’s articles listed under our Peaceful Body, Peaceful Mind, and sometimes even Peaceful Earth categories – yes, she covers gardening sometimes too! She is a healthy living renaissance woman!
Dr. Z’s CAULIFLOWER RICE RECIPE
You can find out more about Dr. Z on her Lime and Lotus Wellness Center website.
Enjoy!
Jennifer, Editor-In-Chief
Tell us about yourself! Who are you and what is your wellness specialty?
I am Dr Stephanie Zgraggen, a licensed chiropractic doctor, certified clinical nutritionist and female hormone expert. My mission is to help women reclaim their hormonal health and feminine vitality naturally. I want you to feel sexy, vital, and balanced, which means getting your weight right where you want it, getting your energy and sex drive maximized, and doing it all naturally and safely. I teach as many women as I can get my hands on that their hormones don’t have to ruin their lives and I show them how to take back control of their health and their bodies.
Why did you decide to pursue this field?
Haha – do you want the short version or the long one? Ok – here’s the long one…
I know from personal experience that food and lifestyle decisions have a massive effect on one’s health. As a youngster and teenager, I ate anything and everything EXCEPT the foods that I now know to be good for me. Virtually every day I had 2 hours of soccer practice after school, so my weight was never an issue. Because of that fact, I thought I could eat whatever I wanted to eat. I even remember coming home from soccer practice to sit down and drink a huge glass of milk and eat an entire sleeve of packaged chocolate chip cookies before my dinner!
I didn’t understand the importance of eating well, consistently until I started to suffer the consequences of my actions. It all started to catch up to me in college. Suddenly my period was no longer the regular companion that I had learned to accept. It instead began to act its vengeance on my body. I suffered from terrible pre-menstrual symptoms – extreme bloating, horrible cramps that kept me in bed for one-two days, migraines with nausea and vomiting, and an exceptionally heavy flow. My cycle became so bad that I actually planned my life around my period by skipping fun events, or not even leaving the house during those days.
After a visit to my medical doctor, he stated that my laboratory tests were “normal” but I did have a few small ovarian cysts. He recommended that I be prescribed birth control pills to help regulate my cycle, although he said this option may not even fix my problems. He also said that if that didn’t work I could always have surgery. I did not like either of those options, and thus began my quest to balance my hormones naturally and put my education to work.
I had my own hormones functionally tested and found my cortisol levels to be higher than normal and my estrogen and progesterone ratios were out of balance. I decided to make some changes to my diet, add a few whole food supplements and one herbal remedy to my regimen and within 6 months was a completely different person during my period. I now had more energy, I was less irritable, and my period no longer ruled my life! Now I feel much better in my 40’s than I did in my 20s.
What gets you going in the morning?
A shot of espresso, a smoothie and singing at the top of my lungs in the shower! I also love what I do and giving women hope that they can achieve balance in their hormones and lives naturally is what keeps me going all day long.
What does Peaceful Living mean to you?
Peaceful living means gracefully surrendering to the ups and downs of what life will always bring while doing your best to live your best life each day to its fullest. Each person may be different but we each bring such a unique perspective and twist on this thing called life.
What is the number one thing you wish for people to know about wellness?
Wellness is not a one size fits all approach – I appreciate providers who create custom tailored game plans opposed to the cookie cutter model that many have been used to seeing over the years. It’s also important for each of us to create a healthcare tribe of professionals that we know and trust.
Do you have a guilty pleasure that is maybe not so “wellness-oriented?”
A good glass of red wine paired with dark chocolate and some Taylor Swift 🙂
JEN ROBINSON
Jen Robinson is the creative force behind the wellness brand Peaceful Living Wellness which is dedicated to providing a wide-variety of high-quality wellness information. Jen is also the creator of the Peaceful Living Wellness life coaching division, and offers workshops, individual and group coaching as well as retreats where she guides women in using Mindfulness and Mindset to build their inner strength on a foundation of inner peace. Jen also is the co-creator of the business coaching brand CEO Mindset that guides entrepreneurs in building their businesses without burning out.
The latest addition to her repertoire is that she recently signed-on as the Wellness Director for the business development company Wealthy Women Entrepreneurs . She is very excited to be leading this group of dynamic women entrepreneurs into success in their businesses and lives!
The most important part of Jen’s life are her two very active teenagers, AJ & Layna!
Jen’s Mindfulness and Mindset techniques inform her business, her parenting and her life!
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