Q&A with Kela Smith, Certified Holistic Health & Wellness Coach

As a fertility and hormone coach, Kela has an extensive background as a professional fitness trainer, wellness educator, and author.

Kela holds four distinct qualifications as a Certified Holistic Health & Wellness Coach. She realized her dream of creating a virtual holistic health and wellness practice and helps women all over the world solve these issues. As the creator of the Hormone Puzzle Method, Kela helps her clients learn how to cycle sync so they have pleasant periods, boosted fertility, happy hormones, more fulfilling sex lives, and greater creativity, productivity, and wellbeing at work.  

To date, she has published two books: The Complete Hormone Puzzle Cookbook and The Hormone Puzzle Method for solving infertility, as well as an online course with the same name.  

What does your practice focus on?

I am a fertility and hormones coach. I help women who are struggling with infertility and hormone imbalance learn how to use the hormone puzzle method and cycle syncing to balance their hormones and get pregnant naturally no matter what their age.

What drew you to women’s health?

I struggled with unexplained infertility for over two years before we had our first child. Being completely healthy, this was such a shock at the time. At first we tried the conventional medical route and did 3 rounds of fertility drugs, tons of testing, and a few invasive procedures only to be left with mounting bills and no results. That’s when I said “enough is enough!”

I started doing tons of research and started eating foods that would put my body into the optimal state for conception so that I was as fertile as I can be. I also took a really close look at my lifestyle and made some changes with my exercise routine, what I was putting in and around my body and how much stress I was under. After about 6 months of intentional fertility prep, I became pregnant and had a healthy baby boy.  

Once I figured out how to do this I was about to get pregnant again 2 years later with my second child fairly easily.  Now we have 2 boys who are 6 and 4 and I couldn’t be happier.  

After going through such a traumatic experience I knew I didn’t want other women to suffer the way I did, so I decided to go back to school at 40 years old and became a certified fertility and hormones coach to teach women the strategies I used to get pregnant.  

I created a method called the hormone P.U.Z.Z.L.E method (Proper whole food nutrition, Understanding supplements, Zapping stress, Zzzzz’s, Love and encouragement, Exercise and environment). These are the steps I take my clients through to help them balance their hormones and boost their fertility naturally.

I also include cycle syncing in my protocol.  This is a functional medicine concept where a woman partners her food, fitness, work and social calendar with her monthly cycle phases so she is able to balance her hormones so everything is functioning the way it should and she has homeostasis (balance) in her body and mind.

What are your credentials, and what scope of work falls within each of these?

I am a quadruple certified fertility and hormones coach through the Health Coach Institute an accredited school through the international coaching federation.  I am also a certified personal trainer and life coach.

When did you decide you wanted to become a fertility and hormones coach?

When I went through my own struggles with infertility and didn’t feel I received the help I needed through the medical community.  I have always been a holistic minded person and I want to help other women learn to listen to their bodies and when they are experiencing symptoms such as painful periods, terrible PMS, infertility, etc. that is their bodies way of sounding an alarm and saying something is wrong.  I want to help these women not have to suffer the way I did and from that need and desire my business was born.  This is truly my passion and what I was put on this earth to do.

When is it a good idea for a woman to consider seeing a coach?

I think everyone who is experiencing any hormonal imbalance or fertility issues should see a coach.  Even if you are working with a doctor, a coach can not only help you with the diet and lifestyle side, but they are also there to hold your hand and encourage and support you when times get hard.  

I have couples and women that email and text me constantly and just knowing that you have that support and guidance can be a real game changer when you are going through these struggles.  

Your coaching style fits within the realm of functional medicine. What do you say to women who are on the fence about testing out more holistic care strategies if all they have ever experienced is conventional medicine?  

For those wanting to dip their toe in holistic healthcare, I say just do it!  Holistic healthcare is about getting to the root cause instead to treating with prescriptions.  Let’s figure out why you are experiencing these symptoms and fix that.  Once that happens, the symptoms will go away.  It’s a new way of looking at things but once you learn how to do it and start to implement it into your life you will never look back.

Do you focus on any subspecialties within women’s health?

Yes, I see clients with all sorts of fertility and hormone related issues from PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, unexplained infertility as well as hormone imbalance-induced painful periods, PMS, acne, and more.  No matter what symptom you are experiencing, 9 times out of 10 it will be hormone-related.  Once we balance your hormones through my protocol those symptoms will usually go away.

What can a new client expect when they begin working with you?

During our first call I have you fill out an intake form so I can learn more about you and exactly what you are struggling with and then we discuss our plan of action on how to best start to heal you from within and symptoms start to go away.

Then we meet weekly by phone or Zoom to go through each step of the protocol.  

I leave you each week with simple to do action steps: things that are easy to weave into your everyday life and that provide big results.

How long do you generally see a client for?

My program is generally 3 months long. Most clients start seeing results the first month and after 3 they have hit their goal whether that is hormone imbalance symptom reversal or losing weight.  

For my fertility clients, it depends on what form of infertility they are struggling with.  Sometimes it could take 3-4 cycles to get regular again and then another 3 months or so to get pregnant. It depends on the client and what her specific issues are. The sooner someone starts the program, the sooner they will experience results.

What tests and treatment methods do you gravitate toward?

My hormone puzzle method protocol is amazing at addressing the root cause of an imbalance and supporting hormone re-balancing and cycle syncing, which I address above. These two together are so amazing.  They get the hormones working the way they should and most clients symptoms of hormone imbalance go away once they learn to do these things.

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