
"Your goal is your desired outcome; your system is the daily collection of habits that will get you there. The habits you repeat everyday largely determine your health, wealth, and happiness."
- James Clear
About Leah Novak, Functional Medicine Nurse & Holistic Nutritionist
Leah Novak is a Master Nutrition Therapist (MNT), Registered Nurse (RN, BSN) and Certified Personal Trainer (CPT). With over 20 years working in the healthcare and fitness industries, Leah specializes in supporting her patients through tailored nutrition with the goal of experiencing more vitality, wellness and energy.
Leah’s career started in the Intensive Care Unit, Chemical Addiction/Rehab, and Perioperative Services at various local hospitals throughout Colorado and in Minnesota. In 2015, her own health issues led her to functional medicine where, as a patient herself, she learned that conventional medicine wasn’t providing the healing she desired. Within a year of using a functional medicine approach, Leah’s physical and mental health improved immensely. So much so, she made a career change to be part of the medicine specialty that better aligned with her values.
She attended the Nutritional Therapy Institute of Denver for just under 3 years to become a Master Nutrition Therapist (MNT), and enjoys ongoing training through The Functional Forum and others. She is also our avid podcast listener (her favorites include The Drive with Peter Attia and The Doctors Farmacy with Mark Hyman) and considers herself a life-long learner.
Leah joined Dr. Maren’s team in January 2019 and hasn’t looked back since! Using her combined knowledge of nutrition, personal training, and nursing, Leah loves helping her patients create personalized, sustainable, lifestyle-based approaches to overall healthy living in support of the overall treatment plan established by Dr. Maren.
Leah’s experience using lifestyle-based approaches is wide-ranging and targets gut health, mental health, cardiometabolic conditions, autoimmunity, and more. Her newest area of excitement is helping her patients better understand the relationship between genes and optimizing health, an area of study called Nutrigenomics.
Outside of work, Leah is a wife, a mother of two, an Orangetheory Fitness Coach, and a group fitness instructor. If she’s not reading about nutrition or listening to medicine- and nutrition-based podcasts, you will find her playing outside in beautiful Colorado, watching sports with her husband, running her kids to their various activities, cooking, walking her dog, or catching up with friends.
A science-based, nutritional approach to health and wellness is essential in achieving and maintaining optimal health. So we are super excited to have Leah’s expertise in our practice! Leah sees new and established patients through telemedicine.
Ready to find hope again?
My Philosophy
I believe we are all capable of wellness—physically, emotionally and spiritually—when we believe it’s achievable.
I believe empowerment and education coupled with compassionate support from your medical team is the best strategy to improve health.
I believe we have more success reaching our wellness goals when we feel genuinely seen and heard.
I believe creating tiny habits toward wellness add up to a huge impact (and the most important step is getting started).
I believe food is the most powerful medicine and that daily movement (especially when practiced outdoors) is the most powerful therapy.
I believe if you don’t invest in and make time for your health now, sooner or later you will have to invest in and make time for disease.
I believe you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, so choose your people wisely.
I believe that perfection is the enemy of good.
I believe that life is amazing, fragile, ridiculous, lovely, brutal and imperfectly perfect…with that in mind, I will do my best to make your experience with me (as a member of your health care team) as easy as possible.
I love my job, I love functional medicine, and I believe lifestyle-based medicine is the gift that keeps on giving over the course of your lifetime (therefore, I’m so glad you’re here).
I believe that connection with others is what makes getting healthy (and staying healthy) all worth it.

Education + Certifications
- Master Nutrition Therapist, Nutrition Therapy Institute
- Bachelors of Science in Nursing, University of Colorado
- Bachelor of Science in Psychology, University of Iowa
- Certified Personal Trainer, AFAA