The Inspirational Coach Helping Women Solve the “Hormone Puzzle”

Rebecca Hochreiter

CMO of GoStork

Kela Robinson Smith, aka Coach Kela, is the CEO and Program Director of the Hormone Puzzle Society, a women’s health club for fertility, hormones, and the business of coaching. Kela’s energy is infectious and we’ve loved getting to know her over the past few months. A mother of two, professional fitness trainer, wellness educator, host of the The Hormone P.U.Z.Z.L.E Podcast, and author of multiple books and online courses, Kela works with women who are struggling with infertility and hormone imbalance. Through her now global society, she leans on her own personal experience with unexplained infertility and coaches women to get pregnant naturally. Check out our interview to find out how Kela is inspiring so many women to take control of their health and wellness, and, as a result, boost their fertility.

Coach Kela Smiling

The energetic and super inspirational Coach Kela

1. How did you become ‘Coach Kela’ and what inspired you to create your holistic health hub for women – particularly focusing on fertility and hormones?

This dream of mine all started from my own personal struggle with infertility. My husband and I got married and knew we wanted to have a family so we started trying right away and thought it would be so easy. You have sex and get pregnant, right? Wrong! It was not that easy for us and we quickly learned that it would be a long, hard, uphill battle with “Unexplained infertility”. In the beginning, we started down the western medical road of Clomid, HSG, sperm analysis, and on and on and on until finally we hit a wall. The doctors were recommending IUI and if that didn’t work IVF. That is when I said wait a minute.

There is nothing medically wrong with me but I need a medical procedure to make my body do something it should be doing naturally? That just didn’t make sense to me as I know many of you have thought.

That is when I decided to take my fertility into my own hands and went down this rabbit hole of research. I researched what to eat, what exercise to do, how my products might be affecting me, how much stress I was under and the list goes on. This went on for about a year until one day I started spotting. Thinking I was starting my period and another month was lost I went on my back patio and cried and cried. I was devastated. I was frustrated. I was broken.

Little did I know just over 5 weeks later when that spotting had stopped but my “real” period still hadn’t come would I be peeing on a stick and seeing two faint lines. OMG, I did it. I had reversed my infertility and was now pregnant at 37. What was to follow was me holding my breath for the next 3 weeks until I could see my doctor and she could confirm this little miracle. I spent that entire 3 weeks waiting for the preverbal other shoe to drop. When that day of confirmation finally came, my doctor confirmed my dreams had indeed come true. I was pregnant and now that little glimmer of hope is my 7-year-old son.

Fast forward 2 years and 39 years old and we decided it was time to try again. I just knew that I would need those medical procedures now. I was 2 years older and smack dab into “advanced maternal age”. Well, 2 glasses of wine and a birthday dinner later and guess what. I was pregnant again.

This time I could breathe a little easier. Even though I had trouble getting pregnant the first time, my pregnancy was pretty uneventful. Thankfully that was my experience the second time too. My second was born almost 5 years ago and when I was 40 years old. Through all that and not wanting to go back into corporate America after my second was born I thought how can I work in this space I have been living and breathing for the last 7 years and after some research, prayers, and a leap of faith The hormone puzzle society was born.

After making the decision to start this company I knew I needed some credentials behind me other than just my own story so I went back to school at 40 with 2 small kids (luckily my husband was behind me) and obtained 4 certifications in holistic health and wellness coaching, life coaching and transformational coaching methods with a specialty in fertility and hormones.

This company was born out of my own personal need and frustration. I was inspired to create this company out of my own frustration with the medical community, the loneliness of not having anyone to talk to or who understood what I was going through. I wanted to create a place where women could find community, education, hope, and a little bit of fun in a season in life that is all but fun. I created this community almost 4 years ago and have never looked back.

Coach Kela with her family

Kela with her beautiful family

2. What exactly is the Hormone Puzzle Society and how has it grown to help women TTC or along their journey?

The Hormone puzzle society is the main company that houses a few different things. We are a fertility and hormones coaching company and we coach women who are struggling with infertility to get pregnant and to eliminate their symptoms through the Hormone P.U.Z.Z.L.E method and through cycle syncing. The Hormone P.U.Z.Z.L.E method is the acronym I developed through my struggles. I wanted something easy to remember so each day I would know what to focus on. Infertility is full of ups and downs and so many things are out of your control but I know I could control a few things and this method was born.

I have found I am not alone and many women love the fact that it is so easy to do. P.U.Z.Z.L.E stands for P- Proper, whole food nutrition, U- Understanding supplements, Z- Zapping stress, Zzzzz’s (sleep), L- Love/encouragement, E- Exercise/environment. I named it puzzle because I feel like our hormones are a big puzzle and if one piece is out of balance then we can’t see a full picture of our health and things go awry but when the puzzle is put together your body is working the way that it should and homeostasis is achieved.

I couple this with cycle syncing which is a functional medicine concept where a woman partners her food, fitness, work-life and social life so she can create homeostasis in the body. These two methods make up the protocol I use to get women all over the world pregnant and to help them eliminate their hormonal symptoms. I have created hundreds of babies using these steps.

The society also has a fertility/hormone coach certification program. This part of the company was born out of women coming to me with their own personal stories with infertility, some were clients, some were strangers but they all had their own desire to help others and wanted to know how I was able to build such a successful business in such a short amount of time so I decided to write a course on it.

The Hormone Puzzle fertility coach certification course is a 40-week course that goes through everything you need to learn to build, grow and scale a profitable practice. Since its conception, we have certified students all over the world and they have started their own practices. It is truly a miracle and our mission keeps growing.

We launched a podcast in September called, you guessed it, The Hormone P.U.Z.Z.L.E Podcast, I have written multiple books in this space and also just launched The Hormone P.U.Z.Z.L.E Membership club, a monthly membership for those struggling with infertility or hormone imbalance that might not have the means to hire a 1-1 coach but need support, community and a friendly environment to weather this storm.

Daily encouragement and support!

3. What is your favorite recipe from The Complete Hormone Puzzle Cookbook and why?

I love all the recipes but I would say my favorites are the soups. There is a chicken Thai soup that is SO good and also the fudgy fudge recipe because let’s face it, who doesn’t like chocolate, especially healthy chocolate.

4. What is the question the most frequently asked by new clients?

Can nutrition and what I eat actually help me get pregnant and my answer is 1000% YES! What you put in your body controls every process in your body from your hormones to how your reproductive organs function, to how you look and how you feel. Yes, your food choices are SO important when TTC and it’s not about perfection but progress. What you do 80% of the time results in 100% of the results. Eat clean and fertility focused but save room for a little fun.

5. Who would be your dream podcast guest?

Gabby Bernstein. She is one of my favorite authors and her and my story is so very similar. She also had her struggles with infertility and had a tumultuous past and believes the universe is in charge of her life and guides her and I know this sounds so woo woo but I have seen it work time and time again. I am a huge believer in telling the universe what you want and it will deliver and that is her message too. I have reached out to her on IG but she is a HUGE celebrity so we will see.

6. And finally, what advice would you give to intended parents on GoStork – who are just beginning their family building journey?

Don’t give up and be your own advocate. If it is in your heart to be a parent, then do whatever it takes to make that happen. Put it into the universe that is what you want, set your intentions, never waver, ignore the naysayers and do something every day that puts you closer to that goal. There is always a way to make what you want to happen. I don’t care what your circumstances are, if being a parent is what you want then don’t stop until you make it happen. The universe does have your back.

Thank you Kela, you’re a true inspiration. Your work is changing the lives of so many women! 

Intended parents, check out Coach Kela’s helpful resources at coachkela.com, and follow her on Instagram @kela_healthcoach for daily inspiration. You can also tune in to the super informative The Hormone P.U.Z.Z.L.E Podcast – where our Founder Eran Amir shares his egg donation and surrogacy journey in Episode #49!