Our latest Beauty Boss is Maggie Berghoff, a best-selling author, functional medicine nurse practitioner, and wellness expert who helps people rebalance their bodies, detoxify their lives, and create an environment in which they can thrive. After dealing with ongoing health issues in her early twenties, Berghoff turned to functional medicine to successfully heal her body, and eventually changed careers to become a functional medicine practitioner and start her own online health consulting business.

In her USA Today Bestseller book, Eat to Treat: A Three-Step Plan to Reduce Inflammation, Detoxify Your Life, and Heal Your Body, Berghoff shares a personalized, accessible approach to fighting inflammation and prescribes a targeted plan that will help people live free of the major types of inflammation including those triggered by hormones, stress, allergies, digestive issues, and more. Her book offers easy tops for healing, eating, and detoxing along with targeted lifestyle advice, quick and easy recipes, household remedies, and more.

We chatted with Berghoff who shared how she helps people reach their health goals, her favorite beauty and wellness tips, secrets for success, best advice, and much more.

When did your interest in wellness develop and how did you decide to make a career out of it?

I always had an interest in wellness. I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a doctor or nurse practitioner. I also was very interested in fitness and nutrition at a young age, when my mother survived Stage 3 Colon cancer when she was just 36 years old. She was getting treatments out of town and when she came home once she brought this huge book filled with all different foods and breaking down exactly how they heal the body, boost antioxidants, reduce inflammation, and provide benefits to the body.

A career in health and wellness was always a part of my plan—but becoming an online business owner, wellness author, and functional medicine consultant was not. That was something that happened after I was working as a nurse practitioner and I’ll share that transition next!

Berghoff is a best-selling author, functional medicine nurse practitioner, and wellness expert.

How long have you been a functional medicine nurse practitioner and what inspired you to become one?

In my young 20s, I was really struggling with my health—mental and physical. I was really stressed out, I was bloated no matter what I ate, my periods were non-existent, I was so tired no matter how long I slept, and I just didn’t feel myself anymore at all. I also started full body swelling and had severe pitting edema on my legs. I gained a ton of weight in a matter of months and eventually would have random hive breakouts, too.

No doctors could help me and I was bounced around from specialist to specialist. Endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, immunologist, cardiologist, the list goes on. I even spent some nights at Cleveland Clinic for excessive testing and appointments and still left with no answers outside of, “We don’t know why this happened, you’ll be on medications and IV therapy lifelong.”

My aunt knew about functional medicine and told me to google the word. I never had heard of it prior to this, maybe a time or two from my aunt, but truthfully thought it was kind of woowoo and not for me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I learned that in functional medicine you’re actually understanding the deep pathways and processes of the body, and how various things like food, mindset, environment, toxins, and inflammation impact those processes. I learned that for all your symptoms and diseases, there is likely a root cause that is the culprit of the imbalances, and if you can identify that root cause, you may very well be able to heal.

My mother was really focused on helping me heal too, and she enrolled both of us into the Institute For Functional Medicine to go back to school to learn more about this solely with the intention to figure out how to heal me. My mom is a pharmacist so she also had a traditional medical background but became very interested in this way of healing to help me along with any other members of the family.

So I started to go to more functional and integrative-focused practitioners for my health, in addition to using what I was learning at the Institute For Functional Medicine to heal myself. I was a full-time nurse practitioner at the time, back in school for functional medicine, zoned in on healing me.

I was able to fully heal my body, eliminate every single nagging symptom, get off every medication, was never bloated again, got my cycles back, effortlessly lost all the excess weight and inflammation, had three babies even though my doctor said I wouldn’t be able to, and felt better physically and mentally than I ever had in my entire life. I was free!

After this, I knew I couldn’t keep working in traditional medicine; I wanted to scream to the world that there is hope to heal, and that really it’s not as hard or complicated as you’d even imagine. This changed my career focus and I quit my nurse practitioner job and opened my own online health consulting business back in 2017, one of the first of its kind.

Through her work, Berghoff helps people rebalance their bodies, detoxify their lives, and create an environment in which they can thrive.

What services do you offer clients and how do you help them achieve better health?

My core offer is a 6-month program I take private clients through to fully rebalance their body. We start with specialty functional medicine testing which is very important. This was a game-changer for my own health. Traditional labs do not show you really what’s going on in the body or what the causes of your symptoms and diseases are. They pretty much just show you when your systems are broken down but never why and never what to do to help it all heal.

Instead, functional medicine laboratory testing shows you insights into exactly what is going on in your body— your gut health status, your detailed hormone levels, your micronutrients, how you break down your food, if you’re absorbing your food correctly, your mineral ratios, your omega status, if you have heavy metal build-up in your body, and so much more.

So we start with your own lab testing then cater a full-body, environment, and mindset transformation based on those findings and your unique history and current symptoms in order to rewire and rebalance your body. We focus not just on supplements to take (red flag if your practitioner is only putting you on a huge list of supplements!) but truly on what to do to actually change your body long-term.

We aim to detoxify the environment you’re living in so every day you’re waking up in a home conducive to healing. We look at your daily lifestyle and stresses and revamp it all so you can feel your best. We lean in on optimizing sleep, circadian rhythm, detoxification pathways, mindset around nutrition, nutrition in general, and certain habits specific to your needs.

It’s truly a one-stop-shop for coming around you to help you become your very best self, inside and out. Depending on the person, one may continue yearly beyond that initial time to ensure they’re always feeling and looking their best!

Berghoff’s best-selling book shares a personalized, accessible approach to fighting inflammation.

When did you publish your book and what’s it about?

My first book was published in late 2020, with the revised version, Eat To Treat, being published in Fall 2023. The full book title is Eat to Treat: A Three-Step Plan to Reduce Inflammation, Detoxify Your Life, and Heal Your Body. It’s a three-part plan that begins in Part 1 with identifying your unique inflammation type. Each body is unique, and so I guide you through the different categories of health decline you may be dealing with along with providing an assessment to help you pinpoint your primary concerns.

Part 2 is about creating an environment to thrive and certain strategies that will rewire, boost, and detoxify your body on a daily basis. I go into clean living, mindset strategies, core biohacking tactics, easy things you can do each day to improve your health, decluttering your spaces and mind, and more. This is the full lifestyle component that will make a massive difference in your successes in healing!

Part 3 is the nutrition-focused part, and dives into exactly how to eat, what to eat, and mindset around eating so you never diet again, yet effortlessly know how to fuel your body with what it desires to thrive. There’s also a great Body Reset in this Part that combines strategies from Part 2 and Part 3 into a body reset you can implement right away into your life. It ends with some key easy recipes that I love that are developed to be everyday items and food preps you can use in your life to make nourishing your body simple!

What will readers enjoy about your book?

It’s not like other books that may be filled with fluff. This book is a protocol. It’s the exact process I’d take a private client through to help them rebalance and feel their best. I write it how I talk, chill and casual yet backed by science, so it’s something you can understand and implement right away!

The book offers easy tops for healing, eating, and detoxing, along with targeted lifestyle advice, quick and easy recipes, household remedies, and more.

Why is diet such an important part of one’s health?

Nutrition is everything. Your body is fueled by the amazing nutrients, antioxidants, and macros it needs or it’s being inflamed and harmed by the toxic items it doesn’t. If you’re eating really poorly, no supplement or medication is going to heal your body. Sometimes supplements and/or medications are needed, but prioritizing what you eat is always essential and a core factor in everything.

That said, I don’t get too detailed about it for most clients. When initially healing, we may be very specific in the things I’m advising, but long term and for most it’s really about having a great mindset around your food. You’re choosing nourishment because you want to choose it. You crave healthier versions of things because you genuinely want it and love the way it makes you feel your best and keeps your precious body well. You effortlessly and intentionally eat and drink “healthier” options of things.

I personally don’t do any calorie or macro counting and believe for most it’s highly toxic and makes things way worse. Instead, it’s all about what we can add to your meals and life that boosts your body with what it needs to thrive!

How do you come up with healthy recipes and what are your favorites?

I really just play around and end up making things up with my recipes! I always keep things simple and basic for the most part. A protein, veggies, and healthy fat. My go-to favorite right now is roasting veggies (could be bell peppers, asparagus, zucchini, squash, carrots, broccolini, and so forth) with a little bit of oil and sea salt and making my amino chia shredded chicken. The chicken breast you put into the instant pot and pour coconut aminos, bone broth, and a little bit of dijon mustard on top. Then I add chia seeds to the liquid. Poultry setting for 20 minutes then the meat is juicy, soft, and shreds right apart. I store it in the liquid and it’s easy to reheat and use in so many different ways throughout the coming days. So tasty and easy!

Future plans and projects?

We just want to keep inspiring the world to heal and giving them the tools to do so! We recently launched a supplement line and a self-care product line so you have high-quality products in your home each day to support your goals. We will expand upon those lines so everyone has a brand they can trust for all their supplement and self-care needs!

Berghoff has been featured in publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Well + Good, as well as in several popular health documentaries and on national television.

Who inspires you?

I really love Sara Blakely! I love that she’s a mom and also runs a super successful company. I love that she and her husband Jesse live a normal life in a lot of senses, yet are of course up to amazing things outside of the home/family life as well. I have three young kids and my husband and I both work fully together in our businesses so it’s inspiring to see other couples who own companies and raise kiddos with similar values!

Secret to success?

I didn’t realize this before becoming an entrepreneur, but I do have some key traits that allow “success” to come for me. It’s all related to my mindset really. I believe in myself. I’m resilient if things get tough or I need to make a quick pivot. I’m able to flip any negative situation and see the positive lesson in it. I really think this is key because I know so many people who are trying to succeed in their health journey or their career goals and they give up when things get tough or allow situations to really impact their mental health. When I set out to heal my body, I was determined to do it and knew with everything in me I was going to come out on top. When I built my business I had no idea what I was doing or what would happen next, but I just knew it would all work out. That’s not to say there weren’t challenges—there definitely were major setbacks when healing my body or building my businesses! But with the right mindset, those challenges are simply a part of the story and a part of your unique journey. Embrace it all!

Beauty secrets?

Number one beauty secret is not the product you put on your face or in your hair, it’s the foods you eat and lifestyle you live! Focus on eating nourishing foods, boosting your nutrients, and healing your gut and hormones. If you do this, your outward beauty will radiate! Other lifestyle things I love for beauty are getting enough sleep, staying hydrated, getting outdoors daily, infrared sauna, and epsom salt baths. These are a few of my favorite beauty hacks that really work!

Wellness tips?

How can I pick just one? I wrote a whole book on this of course in Eat To Treat, but one that comes to mind right away that changed my life is not dieting. Truly. No more rules, cleanses, diets. I used to follow all these set “plans” and it threw my body into nutrient deficiency, hormone imbalance, gut issues, and a lot of mental stress and anxiety around food. It also led me into a pattern of restricting then binging, which took a lot of work to fully heal. I haven’t dieted or counted a calorie in over a decade and will never go back to that. Instead, I focus on eating foods that fuel my body positively. I focus on a variety and diverse diet to properly colonize my gut and provide me with an array of benefits. I eat desserts when I want to, but make them with real food ingredients. If I do eat something that’s not necessarily a “healing” food, I have zero guilt or shame in that, and enjoy the food and the moment! This shift in mindset around nutrition changed everything for me and I’ve never felt or looked healthier in my life.

Best advice?

I wish I could just reach every soul in the world and tell them, “You got this.” Don’t give up, but you do need to put in the work needed or hire the support needed to get to where you want to be! If you’re able to, whatever you’re looking to achieve, hire someone to help you get there.

Favorite way to relax?

I love to relax by doing a little home self-care! Steamy hot everything shower, face mask, hair mask, face serums, and moisturizer with a gua sha, lotion on my full body, cozy loungewear. It just puts me in such a refreshed zen state and I feel so good and glowy!

For more information about Maggie Berghoff, visit her website and follow her on Instagram: @maggie_berghoff

[Images courtesy of Maggie Berghoff]

Beauty Boss: Maggie Berghoff, Best-Selling Author and Functional Medicine Practitioner