Your guide to health, balance and joy
Hi!
I’m Julia.
I’m a nutrition and female hormone specialist, dancer and dance teacher, and movement coach (personal trainer).
As you can see, all my work is centred around the human body – how it functions, adapts and moves.
I’ve always been interested in the connections between nutrition, hormones, the nervous system and movement, and now I bring this perspective into everything I do (yes, even to West Coast Swing 😉 .
Whether I’m helping a woman navigate perimenopause, teaching a couple their first dance or helping a dancer improve their balance and movement quality, my goal is the same: to help people understand their bodies better, to make them feel more at home in them and to use them with more confidence, strength and freedom.
WORK WITH ME
Optimisation · Check up
Female hormones · HRT
Nutrition · Supplements
Mobility · Balance
Strength · Flexibility
Fitness for dancers
West Coast Swing
Wedding dance choreography
Body movement quality
What do my clients say?
For some reason, I always thought that hormones were not my problem. But over the last three years, after moving to a new job and with a constant lack of sleep, my wellbeing started to deteriorate. Like a stone rolling downhill. At first you barely notice it, and then it just keeps accelerating and goooes.
Where did I find myself? Sleep — interrupted, difficult to fall asleep, constantly overeating, gaining weight, and even if I “kept myself in check”, the weight stayed the same. My mood — pretty crappy, I got tired a lot, was stressed often, anxious a lot. I honestly couldn’t remember a time when I wasn’t an anxious squirrel chasing a nut.
I spoke to Julia, she asked me about my symptoms, about what had happened before and what was happening now. She explained that this was how perimenopause can manifest itself. She recommended hormone therapy. And some kind of magic happened.
Sleep — sorted. Stress went away, anxiety disappeared, the weight started going down. At some point I found myself in a state where there was a lot happening around me, and I was calm. As if I had finally returned to my body from three years ago, and instead of seeing just one nut, I started seeing the beauty around me — and life in general.
If you put your trust in Julia, you can expect at least 2 key results:
(1) After completing the questionnaire and receiving your test results, you will learn about local and/or systemic problems in your body. And you may not even be aware of some of them, because their negative effect is spread across your general state or may only manifest itself in the future.
(2) And if you follow Julia’s recommendations regarding supplements, nutrition and routine, then in addition to gradual improvement in the problems that were identified (see the previous point), your quality of life will noticeably improve, your sleep will get better and you will have more energy.
I’d like to talk a little more about the second point in a BEFORE and AFTER format.
Sleep BEFORE — I would toss and turn for at least half an hour before falling asleep, but usually for more than an hour, sometimes much more. Sleep AFTER — I fall asleep within 15 minutes, and sometimes even faster.
Energy BEFORE — I would spend at least one day of every weekend in a completely introverted recovery mode, i.e. no activities, guests or any kind of household activity. AFTER — I get bored sitting around doing nothing even for half a day. If previously my wife would pester me to do something at the weekend, now it is much more often the other way around.
For me, this is almost a magical transformation, because even before coming to Yulia for a consultation, I led a fairly healthy lifestyle: I exercised, ate healthy food, and even took some supplements on the advice of a not-the-worst endocrinologist.
Julia!!! Julia!!! Juliiiiia!!!!! Thank you so much for helping me break out of my vicious circle. I can’t say that I have overcome my food addiction, but that’s not a question for you, that’s entirely down to me! But thanks to you, your knowledge, our work and my persistence, my hormones, my body and my quality of life have fallen into place and improved significantly!
I am extremely grateful and thankful to you, and may you have good hormone levels!
1.5 years on antidepressants — is that a lot or a little?
I guess I really needed it, since Julia took me on as a client at a time when she wasn’t even doing consultations (being on a break). And what did we find?
My testosterone level was below normal (hello, apathy and lack of strength), premenopause, and something completely unexpected — my thyroid. According to the blood tests, everything seemed to be within the normal range. But if you look deeper (and she is very good at that), it turns out that everything is not quite as it seems.
Now my energy level is usually 8–10. Sometimes it’s lower — well, it is almost +40°C outside.
My ADHD symptoms have decreased VERY significantly:
• procrastination has almost disappeared
• my memory has improved
• I have no PMS or mood swings at all
• there is no brain fog — just clarity
• my concentration and organisation have improved
• I am quite energetic
• my productivity has increased
And most importantly — I now have the strength to live.
And this is thanks to hormonal correction, supplements, a routine, and an inner “I can do this”.
Julia is the person who finally brought order to the issue of my nutrition. Before I came to her, I had been on a long journey.
Let’s start with the fact that I am not naturally slim or energetic, so keeping myself in shape has always been something that interested me. Of course, I had read literature and taken courses, and I am actually a biochemist by education. But lots of knowledge — zero results.
Yes, I had tried taking various supplements, counting calories and other methods that simply didn’t work for me. Lots of experience — zero results.
What made me turn to Julia was compulsive overeating. I started gaining weight, and my head was in an impenetrable state of sluggishness and I didn’t feel like doing anything.
I had been reading Julia for a long time. She is a nutritionist-researcher and knows how to describe complex biochemical processes as easily as if she were telling a fairy tale.
So, what did we do with Julia:
- I filled in a detailed questionnaire about my lifestyle.
- Julia studied it and wrote down which tests I needed to take.
- Julia looked at my test results.
- We met online and Julia explained which foods to remove and which to add. What to eat in the morning and what at lunch. Which supplements I could take.
Following the recommendations was very easy. No willpower, no calorie counting, no need to restrict myself. It all just happened somehow on its own. The sweets disappeared by themselves. I didn’t even notice when people started complimenting me. It has now been a year during which I can say that I understand the cause-and-effect relationships behind my body’s state and can now manage it. Both the amount of energy I have and my shape.
At the beginning of the year I contacted Julia about an allergy. And imagine this: for the first time in 22 years, I didn’t buy any allergy tablets! In spring, my severe tree allergy barely manifested itself, and instead of my usual month-and-a-half-long summer allergy, I sneezed about three times.
It all depends on nutrition. We are what we eat!
I consulted Julia twice. The first time was to understand my body and have a system for looking after myself. I applied some of the advice, some of the dietary recommendations were very difficult, and some things I started and then gradually reduced — for example, I took the vitamins I need as food quite chaotically.
The second time I came to her at 45, after antidepressants hadn’t made things any better. Brain fog, doing only what was necessary, while for everything else I felt like I wanted to do it but somehow just couldn’t get myself up and do it. I felt like a jellyfish — wherever the current carried me, that’s where I went. And if it didn’t carry me anywhere, then I just stayed there. Some important things were constantly being postponed — it felt as though I had lost the ability to direct my own life.
There weren’t any major health problems yet — the doctors said, ‘Everything is fine, it’s just a phase’ — and offered me the option of suppressing my ovaries so that the endometrium wouldn’t thicken and nothing would grow. For work, I need to study a lot, so I could only envy younger people — my attention lasted for 30-40 minutes, then came distractibility and sleepiness. I thought menopause was just around the corner — every month I waited for my period not to come.
There were also these little things that were bothering me, but it wasn’t clear what to do about them — dryness of the throat, nose and mucous membranes, keratosis spots on my abdomen that had grown, and unexplained itching. Sleep was like a delicate vase — change something just a little, and deep sleep would be lacking, HRV would drop, and Oura would show poor recovery. Training in the first half of the day made my sleep significantly worse. I felt caught between a rock and a hard place.
After the consultation and applying Julia’s recommendations, I felt as if I had come alive again. Everything fell into place. The fog cleared, and finally I was able to do the things that mattered to me. My ability to learn came back — to understand and remember things (not like when I was 20 or 30, but the feeling that I was myself again returned). I came off antidepressants, enrolled in a demanding course of study that I had been postponing because I understood that I wouldn’t get through the competition and wouldn’t be able to cope with it.
I didn’t suddenly have an enormous amount of energy, but the feeling of having a body without a soul disappeared. I rest and recover much better. Julia’s advice to have legumes for dinner before bed + the HRT selected for me — my sleep is now complete and my recovery is excellent (as long as I maintain my sleep routine). Legumes for dinner work better than CBD.
Thanks to Julia’s tips, the keratosis spots have reduced — they are now like they were when I was 30 (they haven’t disappeared completely, but they aren’t growing either). Even the inflammatory process in my gums, which my dentist couldn’t fix, healed.
So this consultation became a turning point for me towards a full life, not simply a restoration of health. Thank you, Julia 💝
And a separate thank you for the opportunity to communicate in Ukrainian — that is probably even more valuable to me ❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹
I have now entered my second year of changing my lifestyle (I started at the end of April 2020): new nutrition, supplements, sleep routine, physical activity. Now I can confidently say that “proper nutrition” according to Julia’s protocol has become “built into” my life, has become automatic — everything is familiar and clear, and takes less time than before.
My health has improved: my sleep has become more regulated, I fall asleep better and recover faster, go to bed earlier and get up earlier in the morning; I feel better during the day — more energetic and cheerful; I have more energy, my productivity and concentration have increased, and I have the feeling that my brain has finally returned to its previous settings (before that, for about 2-3 years, I had felt “spread out” and as if my head was full of cotton, and it was difficult to concentrate on tasks); I have lost around 1.5-2 clothing sizes, and my weight is still gradually decreasing, even though I am already in the perimenopausal stage (I am 51), and I was very worried that I would start gaining weight (the women in our family gained weight after 50).
Julia Leonard, your system works “from A to Z”. I am very grateful to you for it, for your recommendations and for your work!
Of course, I took a very long time to get around to having a consultation. A very long time. Years! And now I deeply regret the time I lost.
Why lost time? Because that period left no room even for the smallest amount of creation or productivity. Mostly, I was surviving. Sometimes I couldn’t even be bothered to lift my arm. Irritation, apathy, darkness in my head. Poor children of mine, damn it — poor me! There is a poem that is just absolutely about me:
“Sometimes you wake up like a bird
with a winged spring cocked and ready!
And you want to live and work…
But by breakfast it has passed…”
Sound familiar? It can be different, honestly!
My consultation with Julia was relatively recent (compared with how long I had been meaning to do it): two months ago. Then it took me a month to get around to ordering the supplements, figuring out the schedule for taking them, etc. I didn’t have the energy for it, I suppose, I don’t know. By that point I had already become accustomed to constantly putting off tasks that required some effort.
So, guys, I have been taking supplements for about a month. And I’m not even taking everything yet, because I don’t have almost half of them. At the same time, my individual supplement list is quite short and very targeted. This is clearly thanks to the professionalism of my nutritionist.
So, yes. I haven’t felt this good for a VERY long time! Very good, and for a very long time. I can’t even believe it; it seems like some kind of coincidence… But my current life circumstances are absolutely horrendous and they would have drowned me, but no! I’m standing, and often — flying. I’m writing this review now and I am filled with gratitude towards Julia, which has grown into gratitude on a universal scale. Because it seems that right now, in this enlightened state of my body (exactly! because the darkness and laziness are gone), life is presenting me with its most precious gifts. Julia, thank you!
I chose the path of gradually giving up the things that are not recommended for me (with the goal of slowly but surely reaching the autoimmune protocol), because I knew that otherwise I would simply get bogged down in “relapses” back to my old habits.
Already in the first month, all of this had a very strong effect: my digestion became much better, I started sleeping better and I think I even became less anxious (although I wasn’t taking any “brain” supplements).
Now, because of self-isolation, the stress is high, so there has been some “relapse” backwards again.
But overall, this is simply some kind of new life!! Only during these months did I realise that previously “feeling bad in my stomach” had been my background state!! And only after I started following the recommendations (even just some of them) did I start regularly feeling good, and very quickly my bad state stopped being perceived as normal. And only then did I realise that I hadn’t even noticed that “bad” feeling before, because it had been with me CONSTANTLY! Endless visits to doctors turned out to be useless, so I am very glad that I was lucky enough to come across the information and get this much-needed consultation.
Julia, thank you so much again!!
I came to Julia to sort out my uncontrolled use of supplements.
After having my tests done and having a consultation, Julia explained what I actually needed and why, in what form and dosage. The list became shorter — the expenses went down! In addition, I received dietary recommendations, again with explanations of exactly what benefits I could get from different foods.
Since then I have been trying to follow the recommendations and I feel good! I will definitely come back if necessary!
Julia, thank you so much! Everything is so interesting, informative and educational! All the information is laid out clearly, which makes it possible not to get confused. Through your lectures, you open people’s eyes to what women should be hearing from gynaecologists, endocrinologists and GPs. But unfortunately, nobody tells them this. I personally spent a year running from endocrinologist to GP. Anxiety, nervousness, heart palpitations — this is the beginning of the state women enter when they move into premenopause. And they don’t know what is happening to them.
After your webinar, even the fear somehow disappeared), because you start to understand the whole process, understand where to go and what to pay attention to. The webinar about mitochondria and the thyroid was also very educational! Once again, thank you so much!
Julia! I had been unable to get off my sugar-and-flour addiction for so many years… I can’t believe that I can now say I have basically managed to do it!
I have been on the new diet for about 1.5 months now, and I follow it almost completely. I have lost 5 kg! And my stomach has noticeably gone down… at least 5 cm in circumference. And in general, I like my profile more and more. Definitely one clothing size down (just before I started, I bought some soft, loose trousers that are already simply hanging off me)) How great is that!) I’ve noticed that the volume is also going down from the back. In yoga, it has become easier for me to do the shoulder stand, and I can already get deeper into Halasana (although not all the way to the floor).
At the same time, I am completely fine with not having sweet pastries (I didn’t even eat a single Easter cake at Easter)… biscuits or ordinary sweets. I genuinely don’t crave them.
There is absolutely no feeling of hunger if you eat enough meat and fat. As soon as I come home from work hungry and feel that I might reach for something I shouldn’t (there is lots of different children’s food at home that I don’t need), while I am making dinner for them, I IMMEDIATELY make myself a simple omelette first. And that’s it — the hungry shakes are gone.
The most important thing is that I now know that I am capable of controlling what I put in my mouth and feeling how much better my stomach is becoming. I want to keep going! And I am so grateful to you!)