These Foods Are Secretly Sabotaging Your Hormone Balance

What if you found out that your body was harboring parasites and you had a toxic implant and you were one of the world's experts on female fitness health and particularly midlife health, and all of this was leading to massive shutdown on your body and weight gain that you couldn't explain. So today's episode is with Natalie Jill of Natalie Jill Sit and and Midlife Conversations. She is an expert in reinvention and losing body fat and maintaining health during perimenopause and menopause and beyond. And all of those things I said were true. And we're going to cover every single aspect of that, plus a bunch more in this episode of Menopause Mastery. Natalie, I am so excited to talk to you. We could probably go on for hours, honestly. I mean, really honestly, for hours. So before everybody, before we got started talking, we were talking about the power of reinvention and also being highly knowledgeable and then finding out there's gigantic roadblocks in your knowledge. So Natalie started sharing a story and I was like, oh my God, I need to turn on the mic right now. So let's share your story because you hit an interesting wall in your world a couple years ago and I want you to share that.

Anytime I hear somebody in their 40s now, I'll say that's like the generalization. Anyone? I hear someone in their 40s that's in the health or wellness or functional medic space saying they have all the answers and it's figured out. I'm always thinking, oh, they just haven't hit it yet. They just haven't hit it yet. Now I understand what women used to say to me that were older, that it there is going to be a pivot, there is a shift. Whether it happens to you in your early 40s or your mid-40s or your 50s, at some point there's a shift that happens where what we think we know to be true starts getting very challenged. And for me, I was known as a fitness expert, a fat loss expert. I had it all together. I taught people how to get 8 pack abs and how to be super strong. And it was excuses or solutions. You decide it was all of that. And then I didn't know what was going on with my body. And it really kind of hit me out of left field. I thought, wait, what's going on? Why am I getting what I call that midlife midsection thickening, like, where's that coming from? What's going on with my moods? Where's my energy? Where's my focus? Why Do I feel like a big fluff ball? Why do I feel lack of interest in things? I started getting really confused and what I knew to be true at that time. And I would say everything, you know, up until right now, right here today. Got you to right now, right here today.

Right.

So I, what I thought I knew was I must be getting need to get stricter on my diet. I must have to work out harder. I must get better at personal development. I must believe it's more possible for me. And it wasn't until I ended up in the hospital with a massive blood sugar dysregulation. And I can get into that. That was my wake up call to go, wait a minute, what's actually going on? And having to go back to the drawing board and refix myself from the inside out to now be on the other side of it and healthier and stronger than I've been in a long, long time.

Oh my gosh. And, and you actually shared a little bit that you'd been known for so long as the fitness and fat loss expert. And it's like at that point you're like, oh my gosh, I don't even want to do that anymore.

Yeah, yeah. No, I didn't. In fact, I, I have my, all my programs. I paused them. In fact, I emailed my entire email list, told my social media, hey, I'm taking some time off. I'm going to recommend you to somebody else's program right now. And I sent them to somebody else that I liked and trusted. And, and I thought, let's move my audience there because I didn't want to not serve people, but I didn't feel true to myself leading that anymore at the time. And what happened was, and it took a blood sugar dysregulation to get my attention because I'm a nutrition expert. This is my. And I understood that. And what was happening is I was wearing a CGM and my blood sugar had gotten wildly out of control. And I was using the finger prick too, to make sure my A1C was super high. It said I was pre diabetic and I thought, I can control this. Let me just go strict keto. I'm gonna go strict keto. Did not work. What was happening was I would eat something super small and my blood sugar would spike to 250. And I'm talking after eating low glycemic foods. It was, didn't make any sense. And then it, what happened was I started really hyper fixating on it, which stress even made it worse. And And I started having massive dysregulation to the point where we thought I had something wrong with my pancreas. Thought I had, you know, something called lot of diabetes, which is like type one and a half. We're trying to figure it out. My doctors are trying to figure it out, but I end up in the hospital a whole weekend with them trying to figure out what's going on. My blood sugar and my good friend, who I know you know well, Laura Frontero, said to me, she kept saying, you know, parasites cause blood sugar issues. And I thought she was crazy. I looked at her like she had three heads on what we need parasites have. Yeah. But we couldn't figure it out. Like, we. And I was not going to go on metformin. I. And it was not type 1 or type 1.5 diabetes. And I'm very familiar with both those. My sister's juvenile diabetic. My mom's type two. So I thought, what do I have to lose by listening to Laura? And just kind of go with this. Well, that was the beginning of what I have now come to know to be true. It's the beginning of what I call being your own health detective. I think every woman needs to be their own health detective. So whether you're starting with what she taught me or starting someplace else, we have to be our own health detective. What happened for me with her was learning about my gut, which I always thought, I don't have stomach problems. What do you mean? My gut. But learning about that helped me understand that I could start feeling better instantly, which was the first shift. But what she said to me, which I still hold true in my head, is what drove that? But what drove that, like, why did you have a parasite? Why did you have leaky gut? What's creating that? That was her question. And that's what led me down to learn that, number one, I had a ruptured breast implant, which I had no idea I had realized, you know, I still have amalgam. I had amalgam fillings in my teeth. So going through that process, and I was realizing, you can't remove every toxin in our environment, but we can get our bodies a lot better at detoxing them. So I got super strict. I, you know, I removed my implants, I went through a whole explant process, removed my amalgam fillings, cleaned up everything, like, literally cleaned up everything went crazy. I said, I went. I went hippie mode for a good year. I can't say that I'm not now, but I did Go hippie mode for as best as I could for a year, and things started to shift. And that's when I realized, okay, now I'm in a place to really look at things from different angles. And I really believe now there's an order of operation for women. Yes, we have to believe the right things. Yes, we have to have our nutrition dialed in. Yes, we have to move our body. But there's these other pieces that work together, and we need to not skip them. Like, one. Your gut. Your gut. Health to your thyroid. Is your thyroid optimal? And if not, why? And what do we do about it? Then it's your hormones. And hormones aren't first. It's not like, let's just go add hormones. We got to do these other things, too. Let's look at. And then what are the right hormone levels for you? Not just cookie cutter. We're also unique. Right. And then there's all these other components that I encourage women to dive in and learn more about. Like, even, like, your DNA. So there's just a whole bunch. We have to be our own scientists and our own health detective in midlife.

Oh, it's so true. And actually, probably before that, but it. It all comes to roost in midlife. Like, if you aren't working on it, then it's like. It's like a truck, you know? My metabolic shift happened in my late 30s after a tubal. Right. Same thing. Same thing. I'd been a bodybuilder. I had, like, gone down that road. Knew how to eat and all that. And I gained 35 pounds in six months, and my hair started falling out. And I already owned my clinic because I came into this from, like, autoimmune stuff, Right. And so I was working with autoimmunity, but then when my hormones went south, even with access to all these experts, and they're all like, no, it's your thyroid. It's your adrenals. It's this, it's that. You know, I. I wouldn't talk weight loss with anybody for almost a decade. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Because if we're not feeling it ourselves.

Now, I was like, I obviously don't know what's going on. You know, that was very much my mindset, you know, and at 55, I'm in better shape than I was at, you know, 30, 39, 40, when all of that really hit the fan.

Yeah.

And you unpacked so much in that conversation. And I think I'd like to go back and. And talk about specifically around Your experience with the parasites? Because I'm sure everybody heard that. And they're like, oh my God, you know, what are you talking about parasites? Like, yes, we can have parasites. And the environment that makes a parasite actually land and survive is the more important part, which is what you started with. So, so let's talk, let's dive a little deeper for you.

Like, you know, so most, most other places in the world, they do active deworming. It's like a standard thing. Like let's, you have to deworm once a year. It's like, it's, this is standard treatment in the US that is not common practice. And we go this other route of let's sterilize and sanitize and pasteurize and create. You know, we do all these things to, to keep us safe, right? To, to say let's avoid. And then, but then we take it another extreme. And we're not, we're living indoors, we living under the wrong light. We're living, we're in this fast cortisol spike environment. Like we're living in this not so healthy environment. And now we're not optimizing, we're not getting our body prepared for if we do have something from your organic salad or your raw fish or whatever. We are not set up in our bodies for your body just to eliminate that and kill it. Because we are not teaching ourselves to live in dirt. Like, we're not teaching ourselves to process that environment. And it goes. There's like the rainforest analogy. If you have a plush, amazing, amazing rainforest in your gut, everything's thriving and surviving. And you put a cactus in there, that cactus is not gonna not survive. It's the wrong environment. Same with the other way around. If you have a cactus environment, a dry environment, we put a rainforest in there. That's not gonna work either. So what happens is we don't have this healthy environment in our gut. Many people, especially Americans, don't have this amazing gut biome. And now we have that organic salad that we think we're being healthy and it happens to have something in it and your body is not, doesn't know how to get rid of it. And so it starts thriving in there. So we easily start growing things in our gut biome that maybe shouldn't be there. So what happens is where the parasite thing comes from is we can eat the same identical organic salad that had a parasite of some sort. And if our guts are different, one of us, your body, will kill it, eliminate it, get rid of it, and the other one of us. It's going to survive and thrive. And what happens is parasites work in toxic bodies because they help work with your body to clean up those toxins. So if you have old amalgam fillings, leaky root canals, a breast implant, you have these other things going on, those parasites kind of work in your body. They're cleaning up, mopping up those things, but at a very, very, very high cost. They're also yakking your good ingredients, your good nutrients. They're taking from other body functions. This is why you feel fatigued and tired and low energy and why your hormones aren't getting optimized. So, yeah, they're not weird and they're not fake. They are a very real thing. And I will tune out any expert that starts with they're fake. And it's like, I'm like, you just, they just do not understand or know. And I've lost, they've lost credibility with me because that is, it's a real thing. And I visually saw, with my own eyes, parasites leave my body. Like saw them so you, they can tell me it's pseudoscience all they want. I, when you see that happen, you know it's not.

No, I mean, all you gotta do is look at like a straw, just get a bundle of strawberries and put them under a microscope. There's stuff hanging out on those, right? Like there are parasitic things hanging out on those. You're so right. Like a fertile environment that's really healthy. A fertile garden keeps the garden fertile. Right. But if it is carpet bombed with napalm and glyphosate and bad diet and you're not feeding your microbiome, you're going to have things that show up that make it even worse. And yeah, and, and they do help you. Like again, parasites are symbiotic. That idea that it's like, yeah, completely foreign. No, we have the right environment, we're benefiting each other even though we don't want them there. I think that's, I think that's great. Yeah, well, and I think it's so great that you're out there sharing that message because again, in the conventional world, you know, functional medicine that's been around, you know, over 30 years, and, and the idea of systems biology has been around for forever, but we're constantly, constantly fighting this. I'm going to air quote it for anybody that's not watching the video. Evidence based science. I'm like, oh, just there is evidence. Just because you're not looking at it.

Doesn'T mean Evidence based science to me is how you actually feel and what you see and what you like. I. There's not a question in my world. So I don't care what study someone throws at me or what they. I know for a fact because I saw them leave my body, I know how I felt before and after. So, like what? That doesn't even. It wouldn't matter. So, so there's a lot I can poke holes into with study. Oh, studies are very important, obviously for a lot of reasons, but there's so many variables on studies and that we like, there's so many variables. So there is nothing that's going to be better than your own personal experience with things. And to me, what is the harm in getting rid of parasites? Like, seriously, what's the wrong, wrong. So whether you decide to do some fancy cleanse or you've decided to do a round of ivermectin or whatever, like, what's the harm?

Yeah, there's no harm, right? If they're not there, they're not there. You're not going to have anything. If they are there, hopefully you did the right one that helps get rid of them and then you're good to go. I know, it's, it's, it's crazy because I think, you know, all of conventional medicine is based on basically warfare and infectious disease and, and today we have the capacity to do kind of n of 1. So it's individualized medicine. And like you said, things like DNA and your own body experience and your own epigenetics and where the studies come in to give population recommendations is great, but what works for one doesn't work for another, you know. Now you mentioned DNA, so I'm assuming you probably obviously had your DNA test done. Did you find some?

Several times, yeah.

Yeah. If you're like me, I've done every commercial DNA. What do you find?

I've done every.

Did you find something really cool?

So, yeah, so I did a bunch of different DNA tests over the years and to me it's not so much just taking the DNA, it's who's interpreting it. If you don't have the right practitioner or person interpreting the DNA, it's not going to really matter. So it's about. So yeah, to me it really connected a lot of dots for me. For example, I'll give you a real example. Supplements come and go and they become trendy. Like right now mitochondria is trendy. Like everyone's like, take this for mitochondria, me included. Like, I talk about Urolithin A, which I love. I talk about there's certain things and I do talk about that, but I was wondering why things like nad, which everyone talks about, for me would make me super anxious. And I, I tried it many times. I had panic attacks on nad. I tried it in iv, I tried it in injection. Same with glutathione. I love glutathione, but at high doses, where some people rave about it, I would have panic attacks and get anxious. And there's nothing I could find in literature anywhere that connected that well. My DNA literally shows that I have a very poor functioning mitochondria. So me, it's like throwing gasoline on fire. I can't do that. For me, I need to start with things like polyphenols, I need to start with sunlight. There's like certain things, there's an order there. So when you have your insight around your DNA, it's like your manual, it's like your guidebook, your, your instruction manual for your body. So to me everything is important, but only if you are taking it on to understand it. So what my fear is with women is like, they'll hear me on an interview like this and they'll go, what's the test? Or what's the pill to take? And then, and that's. There's not an answer for that. It's. You have to get really committed and curious and start learning these different areas yourself. So you can work with your doctor, not against, not for, like with your doctor to share information, to be a detective around this.

Yeah. And often that really is, It's a, it's a, it's not just one. There's usually like a group you're going to be working with, a collaborative care party. Because the idea that even a functional medicine doctor, you know, even if we've been in the industry 20 years, you're expecting to be kind of a Swiss army knife, like, like going to be things. So you need a community to help you navigate, but you have to take the reins and sort of run with it and really, and really say, well.

I have, I have a doctor. That's my peptide doctor. Like, that's who I go to for BPC157. That's who like I can talk with her about. I have a different doctor from our hormones that helped me with my hormones specifically. She's focuses on women's health. I have a different one that is a cardiologist, like specifically for cardiology. Like he is a cardiologist. So. And then people go, well, that must be nice. You can afford, afford it to me, I'm like, how can you afford not to? Like for. I opt out of the whole, the insurance care situation. I do a health share. I, they don't even get me started on insurance.

No, that'd be, look at how much.

You'Re spending on your insurance. Yeah, yeah. Like, look how much you're expending on insurance and reconsider. Could I have a health share or something like that for emergencies and then use my dollars more wisely to get the actual right strategic help. So that's my, like when people say I can't afford to. And I'm not talking to the person that's trying to get their basic needs met. That's not who I'm talking to right now. So I understand if you can't get food on your table. That's not what I'm talking about right now. But the most of us that are still getting, that are listening to this right now. If you're still getting your nails and your hair done and you're saying you can't afford to get the right medical help, I want you to check what your priorities are there.

Yeah. As somebody that gets their hair, nails, and I like me done. Like, but I, but yeah, that's who I'm talking to. Yeah, yeah. The reality is, yeah, we need to, we either pay now, pay later. So it's better to pay now and be proactive about it than to step back and wait for something to occur where we may not be able to backpedal to where we were before. You know, so I want to, I want to use this opportunity to pivot because I think, you know, you have, you have a lot of midlife conversations and a lot of conversations with women about this next season. And that's my passion. Like, I love helping women avoid, you know, long term health risk and use functional medicine. And my companies, you know, provide bioidentical hormones and all those other things. But my ultimate goal is for women to step in their power and their purpose and make this like the most kick ass three to four decades they have. And I know that's your passion, so I want, I want to dive into that because I think it's so important.

So I think the first question that I would have for women that hear that is, do you want that first of all? Because if you don't want it, it's not going to just find you. So if you hear that and you're like, ugh, that may be for you, that's not for me, that's not. If that does not light you up to think that that's a possibility, then I wouldn't even listen to the rest of this conversation. Like, just, you've. You've checked out, and that's fine. You can go work on your garden and not do anything else and be. That's fine. I'm. I'm. Nothing. Nothing wrong with working on your garden and not doing anything else. I think that's amazing. But if you're like, I want that passion, I want that excitement, I want this, this whatever, then number one, do you actually want it? And then two, why do you want it? And I'm gonna say why versus how. Because how only works if you're really clear on why you're after something. So I call your why your driving core motivator. So it's the reason behind the reason. You want something different for yourself. So whether that's starting a new business or running a marathon or having a happy relationship or whatever it is, you have to get very clear on your. Your why. Like the. I say like the why that makes you cry. Like the. The reason behind the reason. Like what. What is making me want this? Once you're clear on that, nothing will stop you from making it happen. But what happens is most women are not looking at, do I want this? They haven't decided. So it's, number one, like, make a decision. This is what I want. And number two, why do I want it? Three, what's my vision? Like, what if it's a year from now and I had that? What am I feeling? What am I thinking? What am I doing? What is all that? Spend your time there first. Like, spend a week there. Spend a month there. Spend a day. Spend time getting really clear on those things. Once you're super clear, the how becomes very easy, because there's a how everywhere. There's opportunities everywhere with lots of people to get you to the how, but only if it's layered on top of those three things first. So it's interesting because people always ask me how and they're asking the wrong question.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. What is it? You know, the. The. The master arrives when it needs to. Like, once the answers are there. Right. Like, so. Yeah.

The teacher appears.

Yeah.

The students ready?

Yes.

Thank you.

I was having a menopausal moment there. Menopausal moment. So. No, but that's so true, because the how is really just logistics at that point. And. And you could be doing the wrong logistics. So what. What is your. So a lot of times we have ageism in the world. We have the kind of invisibility that's sort of portrayed on women of this age group. You know, how do you help a woman who's maybe sitting here saying, oh, my gosh, you know, I. Maybe I have this dream that. And it almost feels like it's so far out there that I can't possibly. You know, most of us, whatever that really big dream is, we feel like it's almost impossible, so we don't even want to say it out loud.

Yeah.

How would you walk somebody through that, like, getting over that hump? Because I think sometimes even left to our own devices, it's niggling in the back of our head. And we'll go, oh, I don't.

I don't really know how to access it.

What would you tell her to do?

Well, I would first interrupt that thought and say that that's if. Do you believe? I would ask, do you believe it's not possible? And if you believe it's not possible, then it's absolutely not possible. You're right. So that's the first thing. So if you are committed to believing it's not possible, it will never be possible. I can't make it possible for you if you believe that. Now, if you do want to change that belief, the first question I would have you ask is, is there anyone else in the world. Do you believe that there's anyone else in the world with your similar situation that has made that a possibility? And if you can say yes to that, then your belief is what I call a false assumed truth. It's not accurate. So you want to find evidence that it is possible if that's how you want to psych yourself into a different belief. But as soon as you say something's not possible, you are shutting down any possibility. So I. I don't know that I've ever said to anything in my life that that's not possible. In fact, people tell me things are not possible all the time, and I must be missing that in my DNA or my genes, because I don't believe anything is not possible. I'll never forget when I was. My daughter was like, seven. She's almost 18 now. But we were driving and we passed this. We were in San Diego, we were living in San Diego, and we passed this, like, land reserve, this beautiful land reserve near Torrey Pines that is. I don't know, it's probably owned by government or whatever it is. But she said, I have a really good idea. And I was like, what's? Your good idea. And she's like, I'm going to be an architect when I grow up and I'm going to build all these beautiful properties right here. And I said, that's an amazing idea. And whoever we are with was like, that's not possible. The government owns it. It's not. They were like shutting down the thing. And I was like, that is not true. And I saw that happening. I saw her dreaming and being excited and somebody else shutting it down. Right. So my daughter remembers this example till this day. And I said to her, everything's possible at all times. And it was kind of an argument that, no, the government owns it. It's not possible. I said, if she's a billionaire and she donates a billion dollars to the government, I'm sure it might be possible. There's always a possibility. There's a possibility for everything at all times. So if you look at people successful at anything, they are missing that gene of thinking things aren't possible. So you have to have a real talk with yourself and go, do I really want something or am I making excuses to stay comfortable? Because if you really want it, it's definitely possible.

Yeah, no, that's so true. I also lack the no gene. I'm like, oh, no. Doesn't exist for me.

I was like, oh, I can't. There's no yeah.

I don't play that.

Nope, Everything's possible.

Yeah, everything's possible. Everything absolutely is possible. Ladies, if you're noticing more fine lines and wrinkles, it's not just about aging. It's about the loss of estrogen. And that affects our skin structure, making it drier, thinner, less firm. But here's the great news. I've created Biased Mastery Cream to help. This luxurious bioidentical estrogen cream supports your natural hydration and elasticity. It's packed with nourishing oils like olive jojoba, aloe and coconut. So it feels amazing and helps soften those lines and bring back that healthy glow. I've been using it and let me tell you, my skin has never looked or felt better. It's smoother, more radiant, and those little cracks increases are way less noticeable. If you're ready to give your skin some extra love, check out buy EST mastery on the Metabolic Blueprint website. And that's metabolicblueprint.com forward/bia EST mastery. That's B, I E S T Mastery, M A S T E R Y and your face will thank you so much. So if you were to. So if you were to Sit. And so now a woman is in this place, right? She's like, okay, I've got, I've got my next dream. What would you say to her if you were like, okay, now what's your next best step? Because I think then, you know, the things as women we're challenged with, if we have children, we're probably managing children still, or we're probably, they're on our payroll, minimum, right? We probably may or may not have a spouse or significant other we might be managing in a parent and often all those other things. So we get stuck doing rather than being. And going into this next step. What, what, what would you say to her and say, okay, let's, let's break this down in, in a manageable way so you can start moving forward because you're so good.

Well, I still wouldn't, I still wouldn't give them the steps until we. The first step would be make a decision. Like, I want to hear. I want to hear a decision without the excuses. Like, I don't want to hear, I've decided yes, but no, I've decided this is the year, this is the time that I'm going to release the weight. This is the year, this is the time my business is going to start. This is the year, this is the time that I'm going to Whatever. So make a decision number one, without the excuses. Decision number two, why is that decision important to you? What is that? What's your driving car meter? What's my actual reason why? Three, what's the vision? If this was me a year from now and I had that, what does my life look like? Who am I around? What am I wearing? What am I doing? And for people that roll their eyes at those three things, they are never going to like me as a coach, I'll tell you that right now. And you're also never going to get results unless it's by accident. So this is something I teach and I stay very true to is these first three steps. Because if you skip this part, you will not be successful at anything, period. And you can challenge me all you want, but I want you to think back to anything in your life, you're successful at anything, you did those things. Whether you were subconsciously doing them or not, you did those things. So the reason I teach those things first is it's what works. It's what works a thousand percent of the time for everybody if you do those right. And it's something that I taught for years in my Fat Loss webinar, because people would be on there, and it would land and then they would want to do the next step. And then there were some people on there that would get really triggered, like, what is this? I didn't learn. But they're not the person that it would help anyway because if you don't get clear on these things, nothing will change. So I would tell them that first, once we're there, and only once we're there, will I walk somebody through the how. The how is easy. The how is a fricking piece of cake. That is like done so done easy. But I can't give you those steps. I'm doing you a disservice if you don't do this other part first.

Yeah, I'm so glad. I was. I was hoping you would say that because I've. I've been. I've been following Natalie for forever as part of her community. And I remember the first time I heard you have that conversation about decide, and I was like, oh, my God, I love her as a coach. Because. Because the reality is if you aren't there and you aren't ready to make that decision, you're. Yeah, you're. You're. You're going to constantly find excuses and other things and reasons why you can't and things that get in your way and basically victimhood. Right. We're going to sit in that victim.

Absolutely.

Approach. That victimhood approach. So now I'm curious. So. So obviously you have moved through and you're in this menopausal state. Welcome to the team. For those of you. What do you see your world becoming over the next several years? I know that you relocated from San Diego to the Phoenix area. Right. And it's probably too hot.

Yeah, I'm in Scottsdale now. I still go back and forth a lot, so I'm still spend a lot of time in California. I'm still. I refuse to, like, give up the California that I'm a Californian. But, yeah, that's a whole nother story. But, yes, I'm mostly in Scottsdale now. That's an interesting question. I know how I want to feel. I know what I want to be doing as far as how I spend my time and stuff. But how I'll be doing it, that is always subjective to change because I thrive on creativity and where I feel called to like to spend time. But I will always be helping midlife women. That's what I enjoy doing. My podcast, midlife conversations like that is what we do is I help people. My signature fat loss program, which is total Body Thrive, I'm expanding that I have a whole community around, that there's next levels that I have to that. But I really know without a doubt that total body thrive for midlife women gets women radical results. Like I think women that are jumping right to hormones or to GLPs or to just thyroid fix or just gut, like all of that is absolutely important. But they're skipping this step. And if you do it, doing this step first with total body thrive, like everything changes, like it makes life so much easier. You. It's like it's. You take the blinders off and it's become super clear because I created that from a place of. I went through all this. Like I scrapped all my old programs, all my else, I scrapped it. I started over from this direction. So I know I'll still be doing a lot with that because that's my passion. And I also will be still focused on growing my podcast because I just enjoy doing that so much because I do believe I'm not the only one with answers. We need a lot of answers, a lot of people. So I really love interviewing just epic people in these topics just to always have new perspectives and add information.

Yeah, no, it's so true. And you and I are on the same page when it comes to addressing midlife health concerns that you can't just throw something at it. And like you said, taking a GLP because it suppresses your hunger and changes gastric motility, yes, it will result in weight loss, but it doesn't get to the underlying reasons why the weight is there in the first place. And it's a, it's a, you know, a band aid at best, you know, and applicable in certain populations. But I think that has become kind of way overused.

Yeah, I'm actually, I'm actually a huge fan of GLPs for certain people and certain reasons. And my thoughts may be different than yours, but I do believe that obesity is a very big problem for a lot of people. And, and I know many people that have done all the right things with all the steps and they still need that extra support. So I think it's actually like super cutting edge and can be helpful. I also think it's over prescribed at too high of doses for many people. I think very small doses can really get the job done for some people because the goal is not to shut your appetite off completely. It, the goal is to fix your metabolic health. I mean, this was originally a type 2 diabetes medicine to help fix metabolic health. So even like I learned a lot from Dr. Tina Moore around the whole microdosing method with this. And I think it's been, it's a phenomenal breakthrough with people that have metabolic dysfunction at very, very small doses, very small doses. But you have to couple it with all the other things. It is not just for that alone.

So, so true. I, I'm, I'm definitely a fan of the microdosing and I do think it's kind of over prescribed. You know, I think the hardest thing because I'm a scientist, as a PhD, what I am always looking for is can we test for it? Right. Can we test for. Because what we do know is Your microbiome produces GLP1. It induces it. Like there's. If there's a significant part of the population that probably lack these incretin hormones appropriately used and they're the right candidates for these medications and yeah, and I'm really excited about. You know, I was kind of harsh, I'll be really honest. I was really harsh with them when they first really hit the scenes because it was just like candy, you know, it was being handed out like candy. But when you start really looking at the research, I think we're going to see extraordinary cognitive change and you know, just other areas where micro dosing would be really, really, really valuable.

Yeah, well, I think so I, I literally try everything. Cause I'm like, I'm not going to talk about. I get. I learned so much and try. And I absolutely tried the. Just to see like what that would do for the blood sugar thing and all of that. And I was definitely impressed with what that works. Now I, for me, because my blood sugar is fixed, it brought me too low. So I was like, that's not gonna work even at a tiny, tiny dose. So I have to be careful there. But I think everyone's super unique and if you are dealing with a blood sugar problem or other metabolic markers, it's something more. It could be something worth exploring with your doctor. Don't message me for how much should you take? Like this is working with your doctor on that. And you know, like Tina always says, go low and slow, low and slow. Like very, very tiny trace amounts. Not to shut off your appetite, not to. It's not about just losing weight with that. In fact, at the small doses you should not lose weight. That's not what it's the goal is for there. It should be a very small, just a fixed metabolic stuff because if you do go too much, you will lose your appetite and you will not eat enough. And a lot of those side Effects like the hair falling out and all the stuff we hear, it's just from rapid weight loss and being malnourished is what the problem is.

Yo. It's total mouse nourishment. Yeah. Like. Like yourself. I tried it. I tried it at micro doses and I was like, okay, this is, you know, this. This has this great metabolic.

Someone to understand.

Yeah. And then I did go to a higher dose because I was like, okay, I'm going to titrate to what would be considered the weight loss dose. The nausea was unbelievable, you know?

Yeah.

And, you know, because everybody says if you've ever talked to people that take it, a lot of times the, like, the thought of eating animal protein, like, you get it in your mouth and.

You'Re like, like, oh, wow.

The texture even is bad. Like. And I had a.

Interesting.

I had a whole week where I was basically mildly to moderately nauseated and could barely choke down protein. And I'm like, okay, this, you know, this is the malnourishment.

That's not good.

Yeah. And that's.

Yeah.

You know, and that's. I think people will take weight loss and. And go for that rather than going, okay, I want to be healthy and don't care about those symptoms in a lot of ways when they could do it in a better way.

And I think a lot of doctors don't truly understand microdosing. Like, they don't really understand what that means. Like, microdosing is like one twelfth of the starting weight loss dose. It's like a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny trace amount. It is not even close to the weight loss amount. So I feel like, what happens sometimes, like, somebody will hear me mention it on a podcast or something, and they just go, ask your doctor for a microdose and they give them the starting weight loss dose, and then they get all those side effects that you're talking about, and that is not what that is. So I always encourage people to really learn for themselves and understand that conversation before they're even asking. And then make sure you're working with a doctor on it that really understands that and can monitor you and make sure that's actually a right thing for you. Because other things besides that, like, if you've got a blood sugar thing, there's research behind microdosing metformin or. Or, like, it doesn't have to be a jlp. Also, some people respond really well to berberine, which is a supplement. Yeah. So you just add berberine. And so there's lots of options there. That's just one yeah, it's just one.

Of many, for sure. And I think the hard part is, I think many people that want to microdose go back to their doctor, and then it's, you know, that's not the. That's not the dose indicated based on the studies. And so the doctor propose it.

Right.

But the reality is, is you just got to find another doctor.

That's right.

Done.

Because they can't be the expert on everything.

Right?

Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Right. They can't. They can' at all. They can't. At all. And do you have. So do you have a particular approach that you like to think about for hormone replacement? I know it's obviously individualized, and every woman is a little different.

Yeah.

Tell me about your experience.

I have a very strong opinion.

Yeah, I figured you probably did.

Very strong opinion. So. Okay. When I'm absolutely. For hormone replacement, like, I. I think that I was talking to my friend and she called it. She said, why would you want a raw dog? Menopause? I'm like, yeah, that's exactly how I got. Like, why? Like, you don't get reward for that. Like what? Like, when people are like, oh, I didn't do anything. I did all natural. Okay, good for you. Talk to me in 10 years, and let's see how you're feeling. So I believe we do not need to suffer. This is. It is a cruel joke that when I'll tell you my story, I was having hot flashes, like five to ten an hour. Like, that was not going to be manageable. I'd be constant. Hot flash, hot flash, hot flash. It was a constant thing. Night sweats, waking up all night long, night. So. And when I learned my estrogen had plummeted, like, it was like night and day, like, yanked out of me. So I am an absolute fan of bioidentical hormones. I think this is absolutely critical to be custom with your doctor. It is not. My amount does not matter to somebody else. It's your blood, your markers, and however your doctor likes to test. Some doctors love Dutch tests. Some, like saliva. I'm a fan of, like, blood, and then sometimes the others with it. But it's. It's very unique and individual. I personally am on all three. I'm on estradiol. I do a patch. I'm on testosterone. I do an injection once a week, and I'm on progesterone. I do 200 milligrams a night. That's what I do. That's me. Now, I have had many guests on that have told me all different things. I've heard that they're dangerous. I've heard it's not enough. I've heard I've got to do the Wiley protocol. I've heard all the things. My personal philosophy is I personally am not doing the Wiley protocol. I am not going to do excessive amounts. I'm not trying to have the hormones of a 35 year old. What I want is a slight amount to optimize myself so I can get to the lower range of where I should be. I mean, so, and what do I mean by that? Well, like if you look at estradiol on a lab, mine was at 20 on my, on my blood labs, 20. It's very, very low. Now I'm post menopause, but that's very low. That's a lower end of post menopause. And I was having hot flashes around the clock. So if I can get my estradiol to like 75, I'm feeling good now. I've had guests on that say you've got to be 200, 300. I don't want that because that to me feels very unnatural. I'm getting to the range of, okay, where is somebody that optimally, like, where should I be in my age range? Which would be good. That's my thought on it personally.

Now you and I, I'm so glad you said that. Oh. You know, because you and I are on the same page, you know, because from the research, so, so my clinic has been doing bioidentical hormones for 20 years. We have tens of thousand patients data. And the reality is, if you look at the research, because I've been digging in the research, my, my actual PhD was looking at hormone metabolism and its interaction with the microbiome.

Like that's great. Amazing.

And, and the reality is, is we if for most women to get the protection to the brain, the heart, the bones, they probably need to get in the 50 to 80 range, like 10% of what you made at ovulation. And there is no real research that shows higher ranges are better in a postmenopausal woman. And, and there are some studies even at these lower ranges potentially being beneficial, but we know that that sweet spot is there. I'm not a fan of the Wiley protocol. There's too much management that needs to happen and doctors are not doing the right kind of testing to make sure that these women are safe. That's my scientific opinion.

You know, so I have two friends personally, two of them, they were on the Wiley protocol and got cancer. Two of them both got uterine cancer. Now, they are not blaming this yet. They don't know. But to me, it just doesn't even add up to me. Right. Like, why, when we're doing that. So one of my friends was doing 20 times the dose that I have on my patch, and I thought that doesn't even. That doesn't as too much. And no, maybe it had nothing to do with it, but to me, it's the same reason I don't take growth hormones, by the way. Like, I've, you know, had tried Samorin or whatever, but in my head, if it's growing things, what else is growing? Like, what else is it growing? I don't. I don't want that. So I'm very aware of. And I'm a very big fan of small, small, small doses of whatever to get you to the place. Now, I also am a big fan of DNA. So, like, with my DNA, I do not metabolize estradiol well, and it's important I need to pay attention to that. So what do I do? Because I don't want to have hot flashes, and I want to feel good and have the brain. So for me, I'm committed to broccoli sprouts every day. Like, I do a lot of broccoli sprouts, which helps naturally remove excess estrogens. I also have dim, and I have. What's it called? D. Glucosamine, or calcium. Yes. I don't take it every day because it will yap your levels down and I will get hot flashes, but I am once a week or twice a week. I do take all that to kind of help clear it out. That's how I do it. So I'm just very aware of it. So it doesn't mean you can't do hormone replacement if you don't metabolize. Well, you just have to support your body with things like. Like those. And broccoli sprouts are just a food. Like, you can just naturally eat those and that helps you support that.

Yeah, that's. It's absolutely true. And yes. And. And there's so many. There's so many things that even if you are a poor detoxifier of estrogen, I'm. I have horrible genetics. And Kashif Khan laughed when we went over them. I mean, I played it for a podcast. Oh, my God, you're terrible. I was like, yes, it's actually horrible.

Mine too. But he went over mine too. The same thing.

Yeah. But the reality is you can actually manipulate those pathways because they're nutritional pathways that we can do it. So you and I are very much on the same page. We could probably rap about that for hours. So I'm so glad that you, you kind of pointed out the importance of kind of the individualization of hormones and your own experience because you are such an important influencer out there for midlife women. And I think we just can't say that enough because I'm sure you get a thousand things. What do you do, Natalie? It's like, no, no, no, no. What do you need?

Well, it's kind of like when someone says, what do you weigh? I'm like, what? How does that, what is what I weigh have to do with your. Like, that's. There's so many variables. So what I. So. And the reason I just said that about the progesterone is if you're taking estrogen, you should be taking progesterone. Now, we can differ. Some people feel you should cycle it. Some people. For me, I don't sleep if I don't take it. So at this point, I don't care if I'm dragging myself, I take it every night. That's what I'm doing. My doctor's like, if you can at least just take like two days off a month. I'm like, okay, maybe when I forget it, I will. But that's kind of my approach. Testosterone is a whole nother story. The creams really weren't doing anything for me. I think the pellet's just too strong. So I do a at home small injection and I can tell if it goes too high because everyone hates me. And I get really not nice. So I go off of how I feel. So I take a very small amount injection. Sometimes I'll do a second midway through the week if I, if I can feel it. And it's. I'm pretty responsive to it. So it's just again, working with your physician to figure out. And it's, it's a, it's a back and forth. And if you're in perimenopause, it's very hard. You got to be really on top of it because your hormones are changing continually. It gets a lot easier in menopause.

Yeah. Yeah. It's actually. Yeah. When everything's flatlined and the egg, I like to call it the egg carton is empty. Like, it's much easier to manage. It's a little more of a dance when you're in perimenopause. But it is really important for it to be individualized. And the method and the mechanism of which ones you choose are different. But I'm like, no oral estrogen, no oral testosterone, and generally the pellet is too high. People can do. Like, we. In my clinic, we have a small cadre of women. They're like, no, no, no, I want the pellets. But we control that dose down to their individual biochemistry, because it will.

You also can't reverse it.

Yeah. Because you can't pick it out like that.

You can. It's like stuck.

It's stuck in.

No. So that's. That's what scares me. People are so scared of the injection, but it's so easy.

No, it's like an insulin needle. It's like tiny, you know?

Yeah, it's tiny. So, yeah, they give you, like, when you. I've heard different things that, like, you want to have the kind that goes into intermuscular. And I tried it, but that mean it was just too big for me. I don't feel difference if I put it in fat or muscle. So I just.

No, it still makes it to the bloodstream. Like, we can test it and see it in the bloodstream. It's still there, you know, it's definitely still there. So I. Yeah, no, you're.

A needle in the butt with the muscle hurts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we don't want it. That. Yeah, that's a. That's a hindrance to dosing because people will be like, no, I'm not doing it.

Yes. Have you seen that needle? It's like nuts. Yeah, it's like. It's so long.

Yeah, no, no. Yeah, I will be like, no, I'm not doing it.

Yes. Have you seen that needle? It's like nuts. Yeah, it's like. It's so long.

Yeah, no, no. Yeah, I'm not doing that. And. And I've got a pretty big pain threshold, but I'm just not doing that. All right, So I want to go back because I. I want to go back and make sure that my listeners know about the Thrive Whole Body Thrive program and our Total Body Thrive program. Let's screw that up. And how to find that and. And how to find you, because I think that's so important.

Yeah, it's amazing. If you go to totalbodythrive.com that is the best way to find it. I don't know when this is airing or whether you're listening to it, but I will talk with you after this podcast and I'll give you a little. A coupon for you. That way it can be tracked and we can give your listeners a discount. So we'll, we'll put that. I'm assuming you could put that in the show notes or.

Yes, we can.

So if that's something that resonates with you all, I will like have you check it out. But it's honestly like I have. What's. What I love about Total Body Thrive is it's not something you've done before. Like, this is a well rounded approach. So if what we've been sharing on the podcast resonates with you, then you'll love Thrive. If you're all like not agreeing with anything I said or I didn't like them, then don't even bother. It's definitely not for you. But if this resonates, it would be for you. Because what I do is I teach women how to get clear on that first piece on that decision vision. Also really help them simplify nutrition and work, make it really easy. And then I help them with order of operations when it comes to hormones and gut and thyroid. And it's really gives them the better questions to ask their own physician and their own clinician. So, like, if they're working with you, Betty, it would align with you because I can tell we're already aligned and it's encouraging them what they need to understand and be asking you. And I think clinicians appreciate it. Actually, they don't appreciate when you come from Google, but when you actually have a very good knowledge around something and you're asking smart questions, clinicians do like that.

Yeah. Well, and I think, you know, this is a perfect program that if somebody's doing all the baseline. This is like your, this is your foundational stuff. You got to get this stuff done. Then hormones are additional to that, you know, because our telemedicine company that.

Yeah.

Across the United States, like we have to hit the metabolism. Like you're going to have to change your diet. Like we have to do all these other things. So this program is perfect before a woman really goes down that just rabbit hole or I'm going to throw hormones on top of a metabolically deranged body. Right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah. Well, go check it out.

Everybody.

I want you to go check out Natalie Jill and of course follow her on Instagram. Her. Your Instagram is amazing. Follow her there and then definitely look up the Total Body Thrive program as well as well. And Natalie, it's been so.

Thank you so much. You can find me on social media at Natalie Jill Fit. And my podcast is Midlife Conversations. Yes.

And Midlife Conversations. And thank you, Natalie, for being on the show today. It has been amazing. I love it.

Thanks for having me.

Fantastic. And everybody, thank you for listening to Menopause Mastery and watching it on YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe like and comment below. And let us know your thoughts if you happen to be on YouTube. And we'll be back with you next week.