Inspiring Conversations with Monica Hershaft

Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Hershaft.

Hi Monica, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When I was 34, I did a hip, trendy detox program that ALL of my friends were doing and it changed my life forever.

Let me explain why.

I grew up as a vegetarian/vegan because that’s how I was raised. My father is listed on Wikipedia as starting the animal rights movement. Let me clarify… It’s not that he started an animal rights organization, which he did, it’s that he started the animal-rights MOVEMENT. The entire movement started in our living room in the 1970s.

I grew up watching my father speak about animal rights on every popular talk show of that time. This is how I was raised. I felt exactly the same way because it was made clear to me that the animals were no different from my family. It never even occurred to me to stray from being vegan…until the year 2009.

So let me back up…In the year 2000, I was 34 years old and had everything to live for and be excited about. There was a very hip and trendy detox program that all my friends were doing and so of course I jumped on board and signed right up! It’s important to note…I had never been sick a day in my life as a vegan, but I DID enjoy the 80s and felt a detox could definitely be a good thing!

I started the detox program on Thanksgiving Day in the year 2000. It was at a facility and every day we took a lot of supplements and went in the sauna and went running. I knew something was very wrong by the end of the first week. I had never felt like that before. I stayed on that detox for three months like an idiot because the people in charge told me that I was just detoxing so I should stay on it. Little did I know that it takes three months for tissue change to happen in the human body. As a result, what was in store for me over the next 10 years was unimaginable.

Things went from bad to worse. In addition to not sleeping I was having constant heart palpitations and the skin under my eyes started to come off of my face. I was experiencing mood swings unlike anything I had ever imagined could be possible.

The least little thing would set me off on a tangent, crying, or severe anxiety. Any time I COULD sleep, which was rare, I was suffering from traumatic bloody graphic nightmares. I had fatigue and brain fog, which progressed so badly that I was no longer able to drive or even open a door by myself. I found myself not being able to stand up long enough to take a shower and would have to lay down and rest and then go back and finish my shower when I had regained some strength.

Eating was painful for me. Every time I ingested any food it was excruciating when it would pass through my digestive tract. I would avoid eating because it was so difficult to withstand the pain. I was losing so much weight that a size 0 was big on me. I was terrified by how quickly my body was degrading and how little control I had over it.

Little by little all of my friends dropped off. They were understanding and supportive in the beginning but after some time had gone by and I was unable to get a diagnosis, they pretty much gave up on me. Nobody really believed there was something truly wrong with me BECAUSE I COULDN’T GET A DIAGNOSIS.

I lost EVERYTHING that made me who I thought I was and was left completely defeated and hopeless.

It never even occurred to me that being a vegan had anything to do with what I was going through. I just assumed that they had given me something weird at that detox and created a mystery illness!

What’s the first thing you do when you get sick? Not just sick but so sick that it’s interfering with your daily life and you cannot go to work or function like a normal human, so sick that you cannot push through…what’s the first thing that you do?

Yes! You go to a DOCTOR! I literally went from doctor to doctor for the next five years trying everything under the sun to get my health back. My labs were all normal and nobody could find anything wrong with me. The general consensus was that this “mystery illness” was in my head and “Have I considered going on antidepressants?”

This insanity went on for years while my body continued to degrade and my symptoms got worse. As more of my life fell apart and I was less and less able to spend time outside of bed, I began to wonder why this was happening to me. I wondered what was to become of me. I wondered sometimes if I would even wake up the next morning because I felt so horrible trapped in this body like an invisible prison. Being able to feel like a normal person again seemed impossible and the fact that my labs were normal was inconceivable to me.

Here’s what I learned. You can have normal labs and STILL BE SICK. Just because you are feeling symptoms earlier on the disease chain than it will show up in labs doesn’t mean YOU’RE NOT SICK! Eventually, I found an osteopath who was able to run different kinds of tests on me and he found a problem with my phase 2 liver function… A PROBLEM WAS FOUND! But he didn’t know why or what to do about it. Everything he tried made me feel worse.

Now I was really getting scared. Since the holistic community was able to find something wrong with me, I spent the next several years pursuing answers there. I tried many different holistic methods and programs with different practitioners. Nobody ever said ANYTHING about diet or nutrition.

A couple of years went by and, at this point, I had gotten so sick that I could not take care of myself anymore. My father had to come and stay with me, driving me around to appointments and taking care of me. I continued my search.

I was told over and over again that nothing was wrong with me and it was in my head. One day, I was going to consult with yet another new practitioner to see if I could get some answers and something very different happened. This practitioner told me to flat out that there was nothing she could do to help me as a vegan and unless I was willing to eat animal protein there was nothing that she or anybody could do to heal me. This was both upsetting and exciting all at the same time!

I gave what she said A LOT of thought and I called her back about a week later and told her I would be willing to give it a try if she really felt it would get me my health back. I figured I could secretly try it out and if it didn’t work, then my dad would never have to know, and if it DID work, then how could he object after seeing me suffering for so many years?

I couldn’t stop thinking about all of the videos and demonstrations and experiences I had had my entire life. I knew that it would destroy my father if I were to eat animals. It also horrified me to think about it because I never knew anything different from the time I was born.

I guess I was at the end of my rope at that point. It had been almost eight years since I felt like a normal person and couldn’t remember what it felt like anymore. What I wanted more than anything else in the world was to be able to EAT and live my life like a “NORMAL” person!

I wondered where that line in the sand was for me. What would I be willing to do in order to get my life back? I seriously can’t think of anything that I would have said no to at that point. I remember thinking that if they had asked me to drink my own pee I would have done it. I would have done just about anything to get my life back.

I began her program and started out with eggs. It was very difficult for me to digest any kind of protein because my body was not producing the HCl and the amino acids necessary to break down the protein. I had to take supplements to help my body process what I was eating.

Next, I tried eating fish. I remember it well because it was salmon and I was crying the whole time I was eating that fish, and then I went upstairs and vomited for about an hour.

I kept trying because I desperately wanted my life back, so then I moved on to birds like chicken and turkey. Again crying while I would eat them, thinking about the lives that were lost for me to get my health back and praying that it would work. Part of me was praying that it wouldn’t work so that I would be able to stay vegan and not have to tell my father that I was eating animals.

A few weeks went by and a funny thing happened… I started feeling better and better and better. In fact, I started to be able to use my brain again and I started being able to drive again. The amount of improvement just from changing my diet was really astonishing to me. I knew I was onto something,

so I continued my quest and started training as a holistic practitioner.

Now here’s where it really gets interesting…..

In 2009 I opened my own holistic practice and rose to the number one rated holistic practitioner in the Los Angeles area. I was using a combination of supplementation and a paleo diet with my clients based on the training I had received with my certification.

I observed people’s progress as they went through my program. I was not being as strict with their food requirements in the beginning as I should have been. What I learned over time is that people who did not follow the nutrition protocol did not recover their health! The supplementation definitely was important and helped facilitate the repair process, but if they did not follow the Paleo diet properly, they were not able to achieve a full recovery.

I became stricter and more militant with the Paleo dietary component of my program and was surprised and gratified to see amazing results with people making full recoveries, getting off their medications, and receiving normal labs! It was remarkable.

At that point in time, I realized I could never go back to being vegan again. I never wanted to lose this feeling of freedom and vigor and energy and real health now that I had tasted it.

What I realized looking back in retrospect was that you don’t know what you’re missing because you don’t know what you don’t know. I didn’t realize how much health I was missing out on until I experienced it!

Now I had to adopt a mindset to help me come to terms with my choice, so I looked at the facts.

Fact #1- I repaired my health by adopting a paleo lifestyle, getting on the right supplements, and eliminating the toxins in my life that were interfering with my immune function.

Fact #2-I was not able to repair my health as a vegan after almost 10 years of trying and in fact, I continued to get worse even though I was taking the “right” supplements!

Fact #3-As a practitioner, I observed countless patients fully heal with a combination of supplements, toxin removal, and a modified Paleo diet (NO sugars), and they were not able to achieve those results otherwise.

What I realized is that we’re at a point in time where you need to care about what you put into your body.

Conventional food is too altered and toxic. You have to be on the “right” supplements which require a practitioner’s help and guidance. You also have to handle the toxins that are suppressing your immune system. Our environment and food HAVE CHANGED over the last 10-20 years so dramatically that it is causing mass chronic illness and the only way to counteract the burden on our bodies is by learning how to make external adjustments to the modern-day world we live in.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Starting a business that is so personal to people at a time that is considered to be “late in life” in my 40s was scary and challenging. What if it didn’t work? What if I failed? Then what?

I couldn’t even get an account with the main supplement company that was needed to use the technique I was trained in for the first year I was in practice and had to use a different company! I had to go to their events and stand up and speak and was finally given an account with them.

I didn’t have the same background and experience as others that were doing what I do but I rose above and excelled and became the best in my field despite the obstacles! You have to just keep plugging forward because you don’t want to look back and wonder “What if?”

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Monica Hershaft Holistic Health & Nutrition: Treat the Source?
We help people who struggle with chronic mystery symptoms find out WHAT is causing your symptoms and HOW we can get rid of them with a customized naturopathic treatment plan tailored for your unique body that includes nutrition and supplementation.

I know how overwhelmed and hopeless you feel when you can’t get answers and nothing works to get rid of your symptoms.

Do you feel like “I’m doing EVERYTHING right but nothing is working!” Are you on meds to “squash” symptoms & it’s causing side effects or not helping? Do you feel like you are on a roller coaster of better worse better worse or does nothing you try seem to work?

How much time and money have you spent on different treatments that don’t work?

Your nervous system might be blocked or switched preventing your body from responding properly and we can fix that.

You deserve to feel heard, valued, “gotten” and understood. We want you to understand how and why your body got symptoms, why nothing has worked until now, and how we can fix it.

We identify and remove the hidden interference with your body’s normal function so that you can respond properly to treatment and then you can get your health back and keep it! Most of these won’t show up in normal labs.

Most health programs go on endlessly and you have to keep going back to treat more symptoms. This 3-phase treatment plan has a Beginning, Middle, and End. Then you are done! Because it works.

We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking.
I don’t believe you can live a high-value life without taking risks! Who was I to think I could heal people and start that career in my 40s after having never done anything like that before? Now I’ve helped hundreds and hundreds of people over the past 15 years get their health back when nobody else could figure it out for them. No doctor or practitioner was able to help them because we are looking at health from the wrong end!

If I didn’t take that risk, I would not have helped so many people and I would not be where I am today.

Without risk, there is no life.

I have felt fear with everything that mattered in my life. When you feel that fear and you close your eyes and jump, that’s when you experience the rewards.

Pricing:

• $375 Body Scan & Consult in person
• $1500 12-Week Health Reboot Online Program with Group Walkthrough and 1:1 Zoom
• $400 for Online Program – Self Propelled 12 Weeks Health Reboot

Contact Info:

• Website: https://monicahershaft.com
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/monica-hershaft-holistic-health-food-and-lifestyle-los-angeles
• Other: https://monicahershaft.com/food (Free Immune Repair Food List)