The Balance Plan: Six Steps to Optimize Your Hormonal Health

by Angelique Panagos

'The wellness world's new holy grail is hormone harmony' - ES Magazine




'Angelique has created a beautifully presented and easy to use guide that inspires everyone to look at their food in a new light. I love the recipes, the beautiful illustrations and how lifestyle is a key part of her message. I particularly like her emphasis on women's health and I believe this could be useful for a lot of people.' - Dr Rupy Aujla, author of The Doctor's Kitchen


'I can't function without coffee'

'I need my daily fix of chocolate'

'I look puffy and retain fluid easily

'I'm hungrier than I used to be but never feel satisfied'

'I struggle to lose weight no matter what I try'


Sound familiar?


These are complaints that nutritionist Angelique Panagos hears every day. Time and time again, they're caused by the same thing - hormonal imbalance.




The Balance Plan
explains how to tune in to your hormones and make the changes necessary to bring them into balance. Take the six steps, follow the 28-day plan and transform your life!


- Sleep better


- Enhance digestion


- Lose weight


- Reduce stress


- Elevate energy levels


- Feel happier


'The Balance Plan is an inspired book by my friend Angelique Panagos. It effortlessly combines recipes that help support female hormonal health, prefaced by bite-sized chunks of the science and concepts that underpin them. With easy to create personal plans, I would heartily recommend this to any woman who wants to improve her wellbeing through a simple yet creative approach to food as medicine.' - Dr Ayan Panja


'The Balance Plan is a pertinent piece of health literature. In modern medicine, we've treated hormone problems as a black or white issue. Disease or healthy. In reality, hormones are our body's way of sending intricate messages of our environment and helping us to react and be as responsive to what is happening around us. Hormones cycles are happening everyday and your diet, lifestyle, and other habits all influence this. Thank you Angelique for this enlightening journey through our body!' - Dr. Steven Lin


'The Balance Plan is a beautiful approach to improving hormonal health, grounded in the perfect synergy of personal journey, clinical experience and excellent health advice. The understanding that your diet, environment and lifestyle powerfully affects your hormonal balance and reproductive health will empower you with the knowledge and wisdom you need on your own journey to better health and wellness.' - Benjamin I. Brown, ND

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Reference, Self Help

384 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 27, 2017

Reviews

[Jimena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in ONE SITTING and given that Im very familiar with the topic, I can wholeheartedly say that the information provided completly checks out. It is also beautifully designed. I dont give it a 5/5 only because this book would have been perfect if it had included checklists/quizes to help the reader know where they might be lacking and where they're champs. Iam actually rather surprised they didnt include these since everything else was so carefully thought out. Having said that, just get it. Its one of them staple reference books that wont go out of style.

[Jessica Raddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, some interesting information and worth checking out.

[Lacer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can get a bit eye roll-y with these sorts of books, I’m not actually sure why I bought this, except I’m 40+, female and knackered, okay that’s why I bought this book. Anyway (actually, I bought it mainly for the recipes), a lot of the book is fairly sensible common sense stuff; eat healthily, get plenty of rest (both me-time and sleep) and exercise. The stuff at the beginning about what each hormone does is interesting and the recipes do actually look quite nice. I just really worry about whole food groups being demonised, if you have an actual allergy or intolerance or don’t eat something for religious or ethical reasons, fine but I worry that books like this can make people who don’t have any medical reason to worry about gluten etc., worry. In fairness to the author though, she does say you could go gluten and dairy light after her four week diet thing is up. Anyway, needless to say, I won’t be following the four week plan, however I know that hormonal conditions can be absolutely horrible and I guess (check with your doctor first, folks) that the plan could be worth a try if you’re suffering.

[Karissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me. I tried multiple recipes and did not enjoy them, I’m pretty fussy with today’s trendy foods, I’m a meat and three veg type of person. The wake up smoothie made me dry reach and after that I couldn’t face any of the other green smoothies I did try the macadamia and blueberry smoothie but didn’t like that either. I now know I don’t like almond milk or coconut milk as a replacement for ordinary cows milk. The stuff at the start was interesting but seems like common sense to me. I want to try the coconut chicken, lamb curry and roasted chickpeas. Hopefully I can take one of those three recipes with me to make the book worth while reading...

[Stacy Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It explains really well about how eating particular foods impact hormonal levels, sets out practical good daily practices and concepts. I feel informed and able to put her advice into reality. Time will tell how a lifestyle change will last but this book explains it doesn't have to be daunting. The recipes look very good too and complement my complex intolerances.

[Ashwini Vijayakumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is an eye opener in so many aspects of health. i learnt a lot of facts and myths through this book and also ways and reasons for many of our health issues. the best part of the book are the recipes from the nutritionist herself which caters to all categories of Vegetarian, vegan, non-vegetarian etc. The recipes are also simple and easy.

[Dominique Antiglio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am delighted to see Angelique's knowledge and experience shared with many in this book! This book is full of key information to understand the impact of our lifestyle on our bodies and how we can truly improve our balance! Fantastic!

[Lindzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to use delicious recipes and rather evident diet guidelines. Love the 6 pillar idea. Easy to follow.

[Siobhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So insightful! This book has helped me understand my health a lot better and has given me lots of ideas to improve my diet and lifestyle.

[Stacey Medhurst-Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book to change your regular food by even if it's one change you make. Definitely worth reading and understanding where and if you need to change to help yourself feel better

[Louise Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author could be my medical.history twin so I thought this could be interesting. The book is short for all the areas she wants to.cover but I'll try some of the recipes.

[Abbey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can’t get on board with anything that still refers to certain foods as ‘the enemy’. Lots of diet culture talk and overly simplistic

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got half way. Can’t continue with a book that cuts out so many food and demonises anything considered ‘bad’. I thought we were past this sort of eating and living in a all food in moderation time.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really excellent, in-depth. Haven’t followed the plan fully yet but have implemented the guidelines and already I feel SO much better!

[Sarah Griffey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations. Great introduction. Useful approach. Much of the information is available in similar books.

[Lexy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really well set out and interesting overview of how hormones work together to regulate basically your entire body, the most common causes of hormonal imbalance, and what you can do to remedy this. The program seems really full on (avoid gluten, dairy, chemicals, non-BPA plastics) but, as the author explains, some people may need to remove absolutely everything for a month in order to slowly reintroduce things and pinpoint what is causing their particular imbalance. I definitely learned a lot and it helped me identify problem areas in my own life.