The Secret That Helped Me Regain My Energy (And It Wasn’t More Coffee)
by Natalie Golba
As a private chef and nutrition educator working with top athletes and performers to optimize their health through food, I thought I knew exactly how to keep my energy high. But despite all my expertise, I found myself waking up tired. Every. Single. Day.
And not just the “I didn’t sleep enough” kind of tired. This was deep, bone-level fatigue. The kind that lingers even after a full night’s rest, three cups of coffee, and what I thought was a healthy diet - lots of protein and zero carbs.
"This was me. Tired all the time, even with 8 hours of sleep.”
I tried keto, fasting. Working out. Meditating. Doing everything ‘right.’
Yet I still felt heavy, bloated, foggy - trapped in a bigger body that wasn’t responding the way it used to.
That’s when I started looking deeper into the invisible things we overlook every day: preservatives in packaged food, pesticides in fresh produce, hard to pronounce chemicals in skincare, air pollution, micro plastics, artificial additives, heavy metals...
All of it was slowly building up inside me, messing with my hormones, clogging my detox pathways, and stealing my energy and my mood from the inside out.
That realization changed everything.
Here’s how it all started.
The Wake-Up Call I Didn’t See Coming
Looking back, the signs were everywhere.
The foggy mornings. Post-meal bloating. Tremendous weight gain. The mental fatigue that crept in no matter how much I slept. My body felt heavier, slower, and a little less “mine” each month.
But I blamed the usual suspects: long hours, stress, or just getting older.. I just moved to a new country, I was building a business, creating recipes, mentoring clients, and showing up fully. Fatigue felt like a badge of honor. Something high-performers just live with.
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So I pushed through. I doubled down on self-care, stayed on a strict diet, and daily movement. From the outside, it looked like balance. But internally, something wasn’t syncing. |
I’d wake up tired, as if I hadn’t slept at all. My metabolism changed, and I went from looking like a model to looking years older almost overnight. I gained over 30 pounds that I couldn’t lose for three years.
And I knew myself well enough to know: this wasn’t normal. Something deeper was going on.
When “Healthy” Wasn’t Enough Anymore
I’ve always cared about my health. I wasn’t living on junk food or skipping sleep. I ate what I thought was healthy food, cooking my own high-protein carb-free meals, meditating, manifesting, working out twice a day, limiting alcohol, all of it. I was the typical “clean living ” LA girl.
But no matter how hard I tried, the fog didn’t lift. I kept thinking, 'Why isn’t my body responding?' Why would I not lose weight? Keep feeling puffy, tired, and mentally cloudy when my habits were supposedly perfect?
So I started digging.
I read every study I could find. I started tracking everything I was eating, but what I was touching, breathing, and applying to my skin.
And what I discovered floored me.
I started learning about things no one had ever warned me about - things I had unknowingly let into my body and home for years. Non-organic produce treated with chemicals. Meat and dairy filled with antibiotics and growth hormones. Seafood loaded with heavy metals and microplastics.
Endocrine disruptors hiding in my favorite skincare products. Cookware and kitchen utensils that had been releasing toxins into my food for ages. Ingredients in my deodorants and toothpaste that were slowly adding to my inflammation
.Traces of pesticides and herbicides that don't wash off easily and have been linked to gut issues, hormone disruption, and even metabolic slowdowns.
Heavy metals (yes, actual mercury, lead and aluminum) leaching from my cookware and seafood that I thought were healthy.
Even the water I drank wasn’t safe. I discovered that common tap water can contain trace pharmaceuticals, PFAS, and chlorine byproducts. And my water filters were useless. These are all things that build up over time and burden the liver and kidneys.
It was overwhelming. I realized I had been exposed to dozens, maybe hundreds, of synthetic chemicals every single day.
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And once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.
What I Tried (And Why It Didn’t Work)
Once I realized my body was holding onto more than just stress, I truly understood the weight of toxic exposure – and I knew I had to act. I tried every “trendy detox,” but they were all built on the same principle: calorie deficit and starvation. The moment I went back to eating regular meals, all the weight would come back and within the next 2-3 weeks, I’d gain even more. My body was now afraid it wouldn’t be fed again, so it held onto extra fat to prepare for the next period of starvation. At that point I felt like I was going in circles.
I approached this process like I approach everything in my life: with curiosity, research, and respect for science.
I read dozens of clinical papers, combed through case studies, and looked at detox strategies that showed real, measurable results in peer-reviewed research. I compared protocols, scrutinized mechanisms, and cross-referenced every supplement with its metabolic pathway.
And yet… the deeper I went, the more disillusioned I became.
I’ve spent years designing meal protocols for athletes needing peak recovery, energy, and performance. But when I faced my own fatigue, I realized: even the cleanest diets miss the hidden toxins that drain us daily. That’s when I began testing detox protocols on myself and consulting with my athlete clients to see what actually worked in the real world.
So many of the programs I came across were marketed as “science-backed,” but when I traced their claims, they were often based on outdated data, poor-quality trials, or no research at all. I saw influencers recommending juice-only fasts and colon cleanses without a single mention of nutrient repletion, microbiome health, or liver support.
Plus, all these programs relied on unhealthy calorie deficits. Sure, they might work short-term, but at what cost? Most importantly, the food tasted like hospital meals. You’d end up hating your own existence following those protocols.
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I realized that even the most evidence-based detox, if rooted in fear and depletion, wouldn’t help me feel whole again. That’s when something shifted. I stopped asking: How can I eliminate more? And started asking: How can I support myself better? |
The Missing Link: Design of Evidence Based Detox in Collaboration with a Functional Health Doctor.
That’s when I realized – there was no program out there that combined all these insights into something both scientifically sound and truly enjoyable.
So I reached out to Dr. Stephanie Peacock, a leading functional health doctor specializing in environmental toxicity. Together, we spent over a year designing a program focused on supporting the body’s natural detox pathways – with a special emphasis on boosting glutathione, your liver’s master antioxidant and the key to daily cellular protection.
But here’s the thing: I didn’t want it to be another bland detox protocol.
Our team spent seven months refining every recipe to feel like a $10,000 wellness retreat – but one you can return to anytime in your life.
Each meal was crafted to perfection. Because detox should never feel like punishment; it should feel like an act of care.
Cold-Pressed Juicing (And the Juicer That Made It Real)
During this process, I also learned about slow juicing. I’ll be honest – I used to be skeptical about juicing. I thought it was just sugar spikes in a glass. But when I dove deeper, I realized cold-pressed slow juicing isn’t about replacing food or starving yourself. It’s about enhancing nutrient density, flooding your body with powerful phytonutrients, antioxidants, and enzymes that support your natural detoxification systems.
Think about vegetables like celery, beets, and carrots – you wouldn’t be able to eat them in the same abundance raw, but juicing makes it easy to consume their vitamins, minerals, and beneficial compounds in one go.
That’s where the Hurom H70 juicer came in. Its Slow Squeeze Technology preserves those delicate compounds other juicers destroy – and the taste? Pure, fresh, and alive. It became a tool I trusted to support my new lifestyle.
Because real detox isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about it's about sustainable lifestyle changes that start at home
I came across clinical reviews showing how cold-press methods preserve more vitamin C, carotenoids, and enzymatic activity than traditional juicers. For someone like me, dealing with long-term fatigue and inflammation, that difference really mattered. I wasn’t just trying to feel “better.” I wanted to support my body at a cellular level.
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But I knew that for this to become a true part of my life, not just another experiment, it had to be sustainable. That’s when I started researching juicers. And that’s when I found Hurom. |
Slow Squeeze Technology mimics the motion of hand-squeezing and preserves the healing compounds and flavor..
“That shift opened the door to something I hadn’t explored before: cold-pressed juicing.”
Yes, the Hurom design is minimalistic, simple, and efficient.
But more importantly, the juice yield was higher, the pulp was drier, and cleaning it took less than a minute. Hurom turned juicing from a chore into an act of self-respect.
I started by adding just one juice per day to my detox. Then it became two, later three juices. I would prepare them all at once every three days, making it easy to stay consistent. This single habit shifted everything for me.
Within the first week of following my new detox protocol, the bloating disappeared. My skin began to glow. My energy returned. By the end of the detox, my body started to melt back into the shape I had missed so much. I was sleeping better, thinking clearer, and honestly, laughing more. For the first time in years, I finally felt like “me” again.
But maybe the biggest shift was emotional.
For the first time in years, I felt like my body and I were finally on the same side.
And it all started with these decisions:
- To nourish instead of deprive.
- To support instead of control.
- To slow down, juice with intention, and to choose tools I could trust.
My home helper Hurom H70 made that shift possible. And I’ve never looked back.
How I Started (And How You Can Too)
When I started juicing, I wanted real, sustainable habits that fit into my day-to-day routine.
So I kept it simple: One green juice a day. That’s it.
I didn’t replace meals with juice. Instead, I added it to flood my body with nutrients and support gentle detox in addition to my new lifestyle. Beyond juicing, I began making small but powerful swaps:
- I stored my juices in glass mason jars to avoid microplastics that can leach from plastic bottles into acidic foods.
- I swapped out my cutting board, plastic utensils, and food containers to safer alternatives.
- I replaced my old non-stick cookware with stainless steel and glass.
- I started meal prepping every meal so I had full control over what was going into my body
- I switched to cleaner skin care products.
- Finally, I upgraded my laundry detergent, deodorant, and cleaning supplies.
Little by little, these changes stacked up. And the results?:
- Lost stubborn fat
- Bloating - gone
- Skin glowing
- No brain fog
- Real, sustained energy without caffeine crashes
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And here’s what I tell everyone now: You don’t need perfection. You just need to start! |
As a chef and nutrition educator working with elite athletes, I’ve seen firsthand how these small daily choices create outsized results – in energy, resilience, and longevity.
If you’re ready to feel that shift, just start with one juice. You don’t need to be an athlete to thrive like one. You just need to begin.
Take the Next Step With Me
I’ve poured everything I’ve learned, from working with athletes to designing anti-inflammatory meals for longevity, into a simple online course “THE ULTIMATE BODY RESET” that teaches you:
→ How to support your body’s natural detox pathways
→ How to build powerful, anti-inflammatory daily routines
→ How to make cleaner swaps in your life without overwhelm
→ How to create detox dishes that work like $10,000 wellness retreat
Normally, this course is $250.
But to make it easy for you to start, the first 100 people can get it today for just $47 with code HUROM.
CLICK ULTIMATE BODY RESET
For a limited time, you’ll also receive a FREE Masterclass on toxic exposure CLICK HERE
Why Hurom?
Because when it comes to juicing, technology matters. If you want your juices to truly detoxify and nourish, you need a juicer that preserves the delicate enzymes and nutrients your body craves. Hurom’s Slow Squeeze Technology does exactly that.
It’s the juicer I use every week in my meal prep and the one I recommend to all my private clients.
If you’ve been waiting for a sign – this is it.
One small step. Even one juice a day. That’s all it takes to start feeling younger, lighter, and more energized from the inside out.
[Insert link to purchase Hurom ]
I can’t wait to hear about your transformation.
With care,
Natalie Golba
Private Chef & Nutrition Educator | Helping High Performers Eat Younger
