79 | How Nutrition Healed My Gut & Balanced Hormones with | Hannah Bethman

What if the symptoms you’ve been told are “just part of being a woman” are actually your body asking for better fuel and less friction? We sit down with women’s health coach Hannah Bethman, MS, to unpack the quiet drivers of gut pain, migraines, heavy cycles, and relentless fatigue, and the simple routines that turn it all around.

Hannah’s story starts with daily gastritis, brain fog, and hormone chaos, and lands in a place of calm digestion and steady cycles. The turning point wasn’t a complicated protocol. It was a return to basics: eating enough, prioritizing protein, building balanced plates that stabilize blood sugar, and using small stress levers like morning sunlight and a 4‑6 breath to shift into a parasympathetic state. We dig into soothing foods for upper GI inflammation, why lower GI bloating needs a personalized touch, and how nutrient density beats endless elimination lists.

We also challenge two common myths: that “normal” female symptoms must be endured, and that eating “clean” means flavorless meals and constant willpower. Hannah explains why many women undereat, often 1,200 to 1,300 calories, and how that starves thyroid function, disrupts cycles, and fuels headaches and 3 a.m. wakeups. You’ll learn practical markers of progress: cycles trending toward 28–29 days, fewer clots, migraines fading to mild nuisances, and energy that doesn’t require multiple coffees. Plus, we talk self‑advocacy in medical settings, when birth control may blunt symptoms without fixing root causes, and how functional testing can reveal hidden microbiome imbalances.

If you’re ready to swap extremes for consistency, this conversation offers a clear starting line: a protein‑forward breakfast, sunlight before screens, and a simple breathing practice you can keep. Subscribe for more candid, science‑informed conversations on faith, family, business, and the resilience it takes to thrive, and share this episode with someone who needs a hopeful, doable plan.

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:01

You're listening to the Off Balance Podcast, where faith, family, and business collide. Hosted by Brooks Deming, Doctor of Business Administration, Business Coach, and Resilience Expert. Each episode features real-life conversations to help entrepreneurs like you build resilience and lead with confidence.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Welcome back to Off Balance. I'm your host, Sokta Brooks. Today on Off Balance, we're joined by Hannah Beffman, a women's health coach who holds a master's of science in nutrition. Hannah helps women finally get to the root of their digestive and hormonal struggles. After walking through her own journey with gastritis, migraines, and hormone chaos, Hannah turned her healing into a mission to help others do the same. Welcome to Off Balance. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Can you introduce yourself, tell them who you are and what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 1:04

I'm a women's health and nutrition coach, and I work primarily with women who are struggling with digestive and hormonal related issues. So things like fatigue, IBS, indigestion, PCOS, endo, painful periods, and many other symptoms and illnesses. I just really helped them get to the root cause of their symptoms and helped them improve their life and symptoms through functional nutrition and lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

You mentioned that you walked through this journey yourself. Did that play a factor in you getting a degree in nutrition?

Food Overhaul And All‑Or‑Nothing Pitfalls

Cracking Hormones: Protein, Blood Sugar, Stress

SPEAKER_02 1:38

My story really began when I was a young child from the age of about five. I started dealing with some pretty severe GI issues every day. So, like the odd stomach burning, feeling nauseous, chronic regurgitation. My symptoms would come and go based on how I ate. My parents tried to feed me a healthy diet. And looking back, my diet was pretty average, which means that there are some gaps in it and some missing nutrients. So overall, I didn't have an excessively unhealthy diet. Once I started to hit puberty, a lot of the hormonal issues started. So I would get really debilitating migraines. I would often get nauseous from that as well. I would also just have a lot of off days where I felt fatigued and like a feeling of brain fog and just poor concentration. Any woman who deals with this knows what I'm talking about. And so, yeah, just a lot of health issues. Fast forward to when I was 15 years old. To make a long story short, I ended up just really having a huge curiosity about why chronic disease is such an issue. At first, I started thinking more about gluten intolerance because my mom had dealt with that. Eventually, I started thinking about my own symptoms. And I did some research. My mom had some health books lying around, and I really just dove into it. I really saw the connection between diet, the food that we eat, our lifestyle choices, and our symptoms and our body. And it just all made sense to me. I've always been fascinated by science and biology. And it just was making sense that, yeah, the food that we eat would have a huge impact on our organs, on our bodies. And so basically, I essentially completely overhauled my entire diet. I just jumped right in. And literally within, I can't put an exact timeline on it, but I'd say no more than two weeks, I had a complete reversal of my GI issues. Literally, my stomach was, it was like I had a brand new stomach. It just felt so calm and not inflamed. Of course, certainly no pain. I could actually eat food without it coming back up. And yeah, needless to say, I was just blown away. And this just really jumpstarted my whole journey into nutrition and health and healing. But of course, my journey did not end there. That was only the beginning. For many years, I still struggled with consistency in my diet. I had a very all or nothing mentality. And I'd be like, okay, this is amazing. I'm just gonna eat like this for the rest of my life. No junk food. And then, of course, I'd have a cookie one day or ice cream, and then I would just feel like a failure. I was influenced, unfortunately, by some people online in the wellness space. And so I just had this all or nothing mindset and for many years would yo-yo back and forth. I'd eat super healthy for a week, have great gut health, and then the next week I'd be like, okay, I failed, I'm not even gonna worry about my diet for the next month. Till the end of the, till I'm done with my classes or something like that. Once it took me a while, but I eventually just got really honest with myself and I recognized the all or nothing mindset. And eventually I worked on that and I moved forward. And I saw, of course, when I did that, I saw just more consistency in my symptoms and I could just live my life pain-free of all these gut issues. But then, even then, I still struggled with the hormonal problems, still had the migraines, the fatigue. And so I got really frustrated with that. This was just a few years ago. I just was like, why was I able to improve my gut? But I can't help my hormones. It doesn't make sense. As it turns out, I almost gave up at one point. But I eventually just kept realized that I just had some missing pieces in my diet and lifestyle that were actually really basic, but just almost so basic that it was foundational, but I just completely overlooked it. I wasn't eating enough, just in general. I wasn't eating enough protein. My blood sugar was very unstable throughout the day. I realized that now based on my symptoms. I was chronically stressed. Honestly, within a month, I had the best period of my life. Before that, I was also starting to get some heavy periods with some weird like pelvic bloating and pain. I was starting to get shorter periods. So definitely right before this, my hormones were just becoming even more unbalanced than they already were. And so all of that just went away. That month, I remember I had only one small headache around my period that was like a small nuisance and was not debilitating. And yeah, so just ever since then, I feel like I cracked the code on that for myself. And I've continued to learn more in my master's program. And now I work with clients one-on-one and help them with a lot of the same issues that I dealt with, especially fatigue and digestive problems, headaches. And yeah, I just really believe in the power of just nourishing our bodies and getting back to the basics. I believe that we, as we're part of God's design and we are truly meant to live our lives as women pain-free, clear-headed, feel fully at home in our bodies. I don't believe that we're meant to live with chronic pain and suffering. Just that we need to really listen to our bodies and understand what they need.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Your journey is very interesting because I know personally as a woman, I have been told is more mental sometimes, or you could be stressed. What challenges did you face trying to advocate for yourself with medical professionals being so young?

SPEAKER_02 7:19

I remember it was, I think I was about 21. And I'm growing up, and my mom didn't take me to the doctor very much. And so I was like, I really don't want to go, but I felt I was like, I don't know what else to do. So I made myself go. And it was, I just went in for a basic checkup. And she basically just told me, we can put you on birth control. The cormonal migraines in period pain are triggered by a natural dip in estrogen and in progesterone, especially around our periods, sometimes around ovulations. Yeah, it can be a trigger for a lot of pain. It's not the root cause, but it can be a trigger. So that's the basic premise behind putting women on birth control. And they do that for so many things. I have clients that were put on that as a teenager for extremely painful periods. So that's basically all she offered me. Actually, she did also offer me to try like a new medication. It was Nerdek. At the time, I had also been just taking ibuprofen, excederine, Tylenol, and they would work for a few cycles. And then all of a sudden, it's like my body would become immune to them and it just wouldn't work anymore. So she's like, Oh, try Nerdek. And so I tried that, didn't do a thing. And then I was like, I'm not going in birth control. And so just after that, I was like, I guess I'm on my own again.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

And then it was about a couple of years later that made the shifts. You mentioned that you had to change your diet. So, what was that like trying to adjust and live a normal life?

Faith, Design, And Listening To The Body

SPEAKER_02 8:50

I see college students who are living in a dorm and there's really not often a kitchen, not a whole lot of options. That that does make it very difficult. I almost felt a little funny because I was like the only one who would even try to eat healthier. And so some of the foods I was eating, I was like almost like self-conscious, which is so funny to me now. Now I just I don't care at all. And people really are not like it's not a big deal. At the time, it was really just the mental side of things. Oh, I don't fit in. And I will say it was challenging with me being a teenager, especially and trying to eat my own way. And my parents, thankfully, like they were had very health conscious. Still, I'd say the biggest thing too, actually, was when I was growing up, I always thought that eating healthy or clean just meant that like your diet is devoid of flavor and fun. Like my parents, their healthy meal would be like, okay, they'd make salmon with brown rice and steamed broccoli, and there'd be like no seasoning, no oil. Like it was just the most boring thing. And I just had that ingrained in my head as a kid. And then later as a teenager, oh, this is what I have to do to be healthy. And thankfully, like as part of my journey, I read a couple of the cookbooks actually, of just really one was Julie Bower's Paleo and G cookbook. And she just had some clean recipes in there whole foods, meat and veggies and fruits and vegetables, but prepared in ways that just were like simple yet satisfying. Part of my journey was actually just teaching myself to cook and just learning to cook whole foods in a delicious way. What I found too, and I really try to instill this in my clients as well, it's you don't just have to eat like drink green smoothies and eat salads all day. Salads are great, but there's so much more eating healthy than just that. Yes, I can actually have satisfaction in my diet and still make gains in my health over time.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

You were dealing with gut health as well as hormonal issues. What foods did you recognize to help you with your gut issues?

Navigating Medical Advice And Birth Control

SPEAKER_02 10:55

So, with my gut, one of the first things that I did was honestly, I just started making a smoothie in the morning, but simple. At the time, that was actually part of my hormonal problem. That was not including any protein and it was under-eating. But for my gut, though, it was just like whole foods in general. So, what I found is that for especially upper GI issues or anytime there's any inflammation, we need foods that are going to be soothing to the stomach. And so these are honestly fruits and vegetables. So with gastritis specifically, which is what I dealt with, the stomach becomes inflamed. And it's not necessarily because we have too much stomach acid, but the stomach lining or the mucus layer for different reasons is worn down. And different fruits and vegetables that kind of can replicate that mucus are just really soothing and can really quench that inflammation. Things like pears, sweet potatoes, or root veggies, blueberries, broccoli, those were amazing, have always been amazing for my gut. Now, for people with more lower GI issues, like bloating, gas, that has more to do with our intestines. Some of these things can actually ironically be iffy and cause gas, so gut issues can be very complicated and depends on the person. Leafy greens, there's different options. And then also in general, working on balancing my blood sugar, making sure I'm getting enough protein and healthy fats in throughout the day. That's just very important in general for reducing inflammation, regardless of what specific issue we're dealing with. I eat a lot more meat than I used to than when I was a teenager, which I know some people think, oh, meat's just unprocessed meat, beef, grass-fed, pasture-raised, can really be wonderful for our bodies.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Earlier you mentioned that you work with clients. What things do you help them with?

SPEAKER_02 13:39

I help people really for any chronic digestive or hormonal issue that they may be experiencing, things like PCOS, endometriosis, IBS, those are common diagnoses nowadays. One in five women struggle with either PCO, PCOS or endo. One in five women deal with migraines. But sometimes, you know, what a common scenario is women, they have all these vague symptoms and they don't even really get a proper diagnosis. I feel brain fog and fatigue throughout the day. I can't get through the day without two cups of coffee. Or they wake up at 3 a.m. and can't get back to sleep. And sometimes they're just told, oh, it's perimenopause, or oh, you're just stressed. And so sometimes, even if it's just vague symptoms, I'll work with women for that. And we can work through that.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

So if someone is listening and they feel you are a fit, how can they contact you?

Eating Well In College And Learning To Cook

SPEAKER_02 14:32

They can visit my website at www.hanabwellness.com.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

I'll definitely make sure that I have your information in the show notes so that people can reach out to you. When it comes to helping women, what misconceptions have you come across?

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Yeah, lots of misconceptions with kind of every sphere. The first thing, of course, even before they come to see me, is just thinking that these issues are normal, that, oh, it's just part of being a woman or you're just getting old. And it's just not true. We see indigenous groups of people around the world in Africa, in different parts of Asia, where women did not report these issues. They just didn't have painful periods and they had lower rates of complications even in pregnancy. And yeah, so I think that that's just the first misconception, is just thinking that these things are normal. But then even once they realize that and they come to see me, there's a lot of other misconceptions as well. With the diet side of things, I think a lot of women nowadays they think that they're eating clean. At the end of the day, I'll look at their food journal and I just see all these missing pieces. Oftentimes, believe it or not, they're only eating around like 120 to 1300 calories a day, which that is just how many calories we need at rest. But then by the time we get up, move around. Most women need at least 1800 calories a day. If they are older, if they're postmenopausal, sometimes 1600, 1700, but certainly no less than that. And so I it's shocking, but I have found that this is very common. It's just literally undereating. So I actually I use a tool called Chronometer, and it is free to use for anyone, and you can actually plug in everything that you ate for the day, and it actually gives you a profile of an estimation of how many new how many nutrients that you consume. So it will show you, oh, you consume this much vitamin B1, this much omega-3s. And it's just so common to not be taking in enough of the right nutrients. I'd also like to add that another misconception is women who, if they don't necessarily have overt gut symptoms, maybe they're like, I'm fine. And then they think that means that their gut health is perfect. The truth is that even without overt gut symptoms, we can still have an imbalance of bacteria in our guts that can still have an impact on the rest of our bodies. So it's called the microbiome. We need a good balance between our good bacteria and maybe some other types that are not so good. Those can play a big role in our hormonal symptoms as well. I'm not getting that much. Protein. Yeah, protein is, I know, it's a big one. And yeah, especially with breakfast. A lot of women, it's like their go-to breakfast is a cereal with milk or a bagel. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

That's a lot of calories.

Soothing Foods For Upper GI Inflammation

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Yeah, and honestly, when I said 18, some women who, if they're approaching menopause, sometimes like 16, 1700 might be more realistic. It does depend. And I look at this in depth with my clients. I'll take into account their age, their weight, their height, their metabolism, their thyroid function. But yeah, generally no less than 1700s. Oh my God. And do you think it's mostly with which meal is issue?

SPEAKER_01 18:01

It's probably all of them because for breakfast, I'll do like a Greek yogurt with granola on top, with some blueberries, some raspberries, a little honey. That's breakfast. And then I'll have a coffee, but it's a protein coffee. So I try to get my protein with the coffee and the collagen creamer, which is also protein. So that's about 30 grams there. And then I'll do a salad for lunch, but with the salad, it'll probably have eggs, you know, cut up in it, and then a little bit of meat. And then for dinner, it's light. So yeah, I'm not getting it.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Girl get it. Yeah, it's something that our bodies can adapt to over time. It's so common. And they'll start to eat less. And after years and years, their metabolism can slow over time. Sometimes they'll try to eat more and then they struggle to because now your body's not used to it. But it is important to build up slowly. The meat aspect is something that gets such a bad rap, but honestly, it has so many important nutrients that we need for our hormones in our gut, like zinc, copper, B12, many other B vitamins, and of course, just bioavailable protein, even fat, all the things, because our hormones are made of protein and cholesterol and fat. All these things serve as the building blocks. We can get away for a while with undernourishment, but eventually it catches up to us. With me, it certainly caught up to me when I was like a teenager. Some women, it can take decades, even. And they might not realize it until they hit like perimenopause.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

You also mentioned women thinking that heavy menstruals, migraines, and fatigue is normal. So if someone is dealing with that, would it be consistently, like months at a time, or how would they know that this is not normal and I need to seek a help?

Client Work And Common Diagnoses

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Any level of dysfunction is a sign that something is amiss, even if it's on a small level. But certainly if a woman is dealing with, I'd say like more than one migraine a month, honestly, especially if they're severe, if it's the type that just leaves you wiped out, definitely a sign that that's excess inflammation. Different things could be going on in the body against the gut, nutrient deficiencies and high stress, of course. And with the periods, our cycles, even though they say, oh yeah, your cycle can be 21 to like 30-something days apart, that's a very wide range. And for a long time, mine were 24 to 25 days. And so, of course, technically it's normal, but I've found that when I just eat healthier, they just regulate naturally to about 28 to 29 days. And so I think that, yeah, the cycle length is a big indicator. If there's heavy bleeding, blood clots that are a bit larger than the size of a dime, if you know, a woman is soaking through like a pad or tampon once every hour or two, definitely all signs that something is amiss. Of course, just feeling fatigued. Fatigued despite getting sleep every night is a very common scenario when we made those shifts. She had a huge improvement in her energy.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

What are some strategies that they can use to help them to alleviate the stress?

Myths: “Normal” Symptoms And Undereating

SPEAKER_02 21:04

We have so much stress from jobs, from relationships, and just everything. The world is just so wild. We almost need to dig deeper and think, okay, is this job or this relationship truly serving me and my best highest self? So there are so many techniques that I like to think of as supplements to help managing our stress better. So one thing is super basic, but getting outside more often in the sun, especially in the morning, because there's so much research on the effects of sun and our circadian rhythm, which is like our body schedule on our hormones, our gut, reducing inflammation. So when we get sunlight, that helps us make serotonin and dopamine, which serotonin gets converted to melatonin at night. So it helps us sleep better, helps us have more energy during the day, helps us just have a better mood, helps us manage stress better, essentially. One I like to start people off with is like the four or six breath. So it's a four-second inhale. You just breathe in through your nose gently, and then six-second exhale, where you breathe out through your nose or through your mouth slowly. Essentially, what we see in research is when the exhale is greater than the inhale, then that puts our body into what we call a parasympathetic state. So essentially rest and digest mode. So that's where our body is able to just calm down, heal, reduce inflammation, detoxify, digest our food better. Honestly, even doing that three to five minutes a day and just building off of that. It can be so hard to just stop. And so even making that break helps to show your subconscious that I'm here for myself. I'm working towards improving my body, my health.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

What's next for you? And how do you see your work impacting women in the future?

SPEAKER_02 22:59

I just want to continue to spread the word and work with women. And I think that when we as women are truly, when we feel our best, it impacts how we show up in life as a whole, in our relationships, in our job for our kids. When we don't feel good, when we're just running on nothing, we just can't show up the way we want to. When we feel great, when we feel energetic, when we're pain-free or mostly pain-free, it just opens up so many opportunities and gives us so much more freedom in our lives, really removes the obstacles and just makes us so much more limitless. I just hope to help women understand, just help them listen to their bodies and know what they need and understand what it takes to truly nourish themselves so that they can find more freedom.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

This topic can be very uncomfortable for some women. So if a woman is listening and she is just on, she feels like, you know, she's reached her limit. What is one step that you would encourage her to take after listening to this episode?

SPEAKER_02 24:05

I'd say start with your morning routine. Start with pick one meal and just really focus on that, starting with breakfast because what we eat in the morning really sets the tone for the day, sets our energy levels. This can look like working on even just getting more protein and healthy fat in the morning to help stabilize the blood sugar. A really simple meal is a healthy breakfast hash with some kind of ideally organic, but some kind of ground meat, beef, chicken, turkey, pork, even, with whatever veggies you like, some kind of healthy, slow digesting carb that has fiber, like sweet potatoes.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

So as we wrap up, what's one message or a piece of advice that you want to lead with our listeners who may be navigating their own hormonal journey or gut health?

SPEAKER_02 24:52

I'd say just start with building more awareness around your body, stress, everything, and just really tuning in to what your body is trying to tell you, maybe assessing even things like how many bell movements are you having, are you digesting your food well? Do you truly have energy throughout the day without coffee, without needing extra things to keep you awake? Are you getting good sleep? And if you know you're having issues in one of these areas, maybe you're getting headaches, just a sign to dig deeper. Food and stress and sleep and sun and maybe even toxins might be affecting you. And yeah, just get started with the breakfast I mentioned, getting more sunlight in the morning. And sometimes we do need to dig deeper into gut health and functional lab testing.

Protein, Calories, And Metabolic Repair

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Thank you so much, Hannah, for joining us here on Off Balance. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Thanks for listening. Please rate this episode and share it with your family and friends. To learn more about your host or to book a coaching session, visit www.brooksdemming.com. Until next time, rise.