Bryony Deery: On Diet, Training and Lifestyle Hacks For A Healthy Pregnancy | TUH #208

I had a car accident when I was 17. It really just completely changed my whole world. I later was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I got to the point where I couldn't bend my fingers.

You walked your way out of this autoimmune disease. And I think the vast majority of people, they think that's a life sentence.

It was a really hard time. The pain was terrible. So I really want to kind of stress that you can really transform your body through movement and through. For me, it's classical Pilates at the foundation.

You, like so many others that were in that situation, prescribed the same thing. Lack of movement and pain medication, which I think is just destroying all of the body's natural defense mechanisms.

Slowly but surely, I began to build my strength back. My pain went from just being terrible every day to just having no pain whatsoever. I healed my body.

Through this method, you were able to overcome an autoimmune disease.

My mission is to really show people that you can change your life in the same way that I've changed my life.

Now that you've conquered rheumatoid arthritis, what does a typical day or week look like for you? What types of movement are you doing, and what's your diet look like now?

One thing I really want to kind of express and get out there is that.

Hey, guys, welcome back to the ultimate human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecker, where we go down the road of everything. Anti aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. And today's guest is a super, super special guest because we have a two for one. We actually have two guests on the podcast today, but only one of them is going to talk during the podcast. Hopefully only one of them is going to talk during the podcast. It is the first time that we have had a beautifully pregnant female on the podcast, and there are going to be lots and lots of questions we're going to get answered. Ladies, this one is for you. Welcome to the podcast. Brioni. Brioni, dearie, it's such a pleasure to have you on.

Thank you so much. I feel like we've already done a mini podcast before this, so I'm so, so excited.

Yeah. All of my guests, we do the same thing. We start talking before the cameras roll, and my staff will always, to me, be like, save it for the podcast. You know, get on the podcast and start talking about this. You know, there's a theme that kind of runs through a lot of my podcast guests, in fact, the vast majority of them, and it's that I find that the most impactful people, the people that are the most p. Purpose driven and passionate and the most impactful have solved the problem in their life. Usually they have gone through some kind of journey, and it was coming out of that journey where they found their purpose, they found their passion, and now they're making a massive impact. It's not necessarily because they're a PhD or an MD or a researcher or a biohacker. It's because they were faced with an overwhelming problem and they had to solve it on their own. Yeah. And I think that is very germane to your journey. And I'd love if you would, for my audience sake, if you would just share your journey into what brought you here today. And what was that turning point that really.

Of course. Well, thank you so much for saying that. And I. I really agree. And I think that my mission is to really show people that you can change your life in the same way that I've changed my life. So I guess to give you a bit of context, I. I think the most relevant thing that has happened to me in my health and wellness journey is I had a car accident when I was 17. So I was on my own, had this car accident, and it really just completely changed my whole world. I was taken out of the car on a spinal board, had to wear a neck brace for a really long time, was taking tramadol, which was just crazy. And that's a whole other.

Yeah, you had head, neck and spine injuries.

My pelvis was twisted. Exactly. So it was. It was a really hard time. And being 18, you're just. You're just trying to figure out life anyway. And I. To cut a long story short, I was going in and out of the hospital. I was in terrible pain every single day, in tears every single day. And I would go to the hospital, see these different physiotherapists, and eventually I found one that was amazing.

And.

And he introduced me to this form of physio and healing my body that now I know was classical Pilates.

Wow. And you met it through the hospital. I'd say. I'm really shocked by that. That's. First of all, that's amazing because, you know, most people's journey, when they're going through that kind of critical care, doesn't end up talking to somebody who's a Pilates instructor.

Exactly. And I'm so grateful for that because, yes, of course, changed my. My life in terms of the pain, but also has kind of brought me where I am today because he really Understood that, okay, you have this pain now. You have. You've just had a car accident. He understood the power of the core and creating a strong core. So he said, you have back pain, you have all these different things going on in your body. You need to make sure you have the strongest powerhouse, which is your core. So. And again, this was such. I'm 33 now, so this was a long time ago. There was no trendy Pilates studios at the time. It wasn't the fashion. Like, the only way I could do Pilates was to either go and see him or join ladies that were kind of over 60, 70 years old.

Right.

And it was. It was definitely not what it is today.

How long ago was this?

When I was 18.

Wow.

Yeah. So slowly but surely, I began to build my strength back. My. My strength. My pain went from, as I said, just being terrible every day, relying on the tremolo, to just having no pain whatsoever. Like, I healed my body through this method. And, yeah, it was just so incredible to see that shift from the movement. But at the time, being 18, I didn't think consistency matters.

Yeah. You know, I think. I think, too, that, you know what's fascinating, because I'm familiar with your.

Yeah.

And you, like so many others that were in that situation, prescribed the same thing. Don't lack of movement.

Yeah.

And pain medication.

Yeah.

So, you know, just a neck brace, bed rest, and pain medication, which I think and would argue is just destroying all of the body's natural defense mechanisms and all of its ability to heal, to just lay still. We know that sitting is the new smoking.

Yeah.

And sedentary lifestyle is actually the leading cause of all cause mortality. And years ago, we discovered in orthopedic surgery, the. The old adage used to be, you know, after surgery, immobilize it as long as you can to let it heal. And then they started realizing that wasn't the right thing. Maybe early mobilization and orthopedics injuries is. Is the right thing to do. So you healed by doing the opposite. You healed through motion rather than just being sedentary.

And the other thing it did was completely take me out of my social circles and socializing in general, which is another thing that is just so counterintuitive to your healing. So it was just kind of making me stay at home, not see my friends, not be out there. My confidence was down. I couldn't sleep when I came off Tramadol. So then they put me on antidepressants.

Oh, my God.

To help me.

So typical.

Yes.

Antidepressants to help you sleep.

I know.

Wow.

And it was just such a crazy journey. And at the time you just again, there was. I feel the world now is so different when it comes to wellness and so advanced and we're more empowered to ask the questions and to kind of push back a little bit more, which is amazing. And we're our own advocates, whereas then that didn't exist.

Oh, no.

Especially not for an 18 year old. And my parents are just doing the best that they could thinking, you know, trust the doctor. Doctors. We're not doctors.

So sure.

So anyway, then I didn't. Didn't see the power of consistency and I thought, perfect, I'm healed. I'll just go and do these crazy different workouts. Hiit training, Barry's, all of those things which I'm definitely not saying are a problem or bad, but I was doing it to a level which was really kind of.

It became your new addiction.

Yeah. And it was breaking down my body. And also I later was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

Wow. So you have the accident. Yeah, you heal through movement and Pilates and luckily had a physio that knew what they were doing. So I'm sure he started you low and slow and then slowly rehabilitated your core. And was it as your core got stronger, the pain got less completely connected? Starting while you're in pain has got to be so hard. I mean, there's a lot of people watching this podcast right now and going, oh, that's all well and good for her, but I mean, you don't know what real pain is, but you were experiencing excruciating pain.

I mean, I was, I was working later down the line, I was working in London, so I had a huge commute. And I remember holding myself for like an hour and a half like this, just tears streaming down my face. The pain was terrible. So I really want to kind of stress that in the sense that you can change, that you can really transform your body through movement.

Wow.

And for me it's classical Pilates at the foundation. Whether you add on strength training, which I think is amazing, which I do, classical Pilates is so relevant in that type of movement.

Can you explain what classical Pilates is?

Yeah, sure. So Classical Pilates was created by Joseph Pilates. He realized during the First World War that when he was working in the hospitals, if he attached certain springs to the beds and helped his patients move whilst being on the beds, kind of like on a Cadillac or a reformer, what you would see today, that they healed much, much Quicker.

Wow.

So that was kind of when classical Pilates was born through that. So he was a gymnast, a boxer, and he really saw the body as a system, so he created this repertoire of movement that really kind of served the body. And he was very focused on breath work, which I know you love as well.

Yeah, I love it, too.

It's. It's so powerful, so healing. Yeah, it's amazing.

Transformative.

And when you connect breath work to movement as he. He does and as I do, it's just amazing. And he really believed in the powerhouse, which is your. Essentially your core, so. And the spine. He always said, you're only as young as your spine is healthy. Wow. Yeah. So it was very. I mean, think of how long ago that was. So advanced.

Incredible. First World War.

Yeah. Wow. And we're now going back to that. That is longevity that we're all discussing now. So. Yeah, it was. It was amazing to. To go through that journey and be kind of like a product of now what I believe in.

Yeah. So you. So now you come out of this journey using movement to heal your pain. And as your pain is actually reducing, maybe you got completely out of pain, and then you get this rheumatoid diagnosis. So how did you. What started to happen? Did your joints just start to ache? And then pretty soon you.

Yeah, so I actually started getting very bad swelling in my hands. So I was calling it, like, sausage fingers.

Yeah. My wife calls it, you can't get your rings off.

Oh. And it was. And then all my joints would go red, so I would have these kind of, like, red kind of spots around my. Around my joints. And then I got to the point where I couldn't bend my fingers, I couldn't tie my hair up, I couldn't pull a light switch. Holding my toothbrush. Holding a hairbrush was really hard. And at the time I worked in makeup, I was working on a makeup counter, so I could not pick up things like in a. It was crazy how quickly it happened as well.

Oh, my gosh.

I also had terrible acne at the time. I don't know. The two were connected.

Working up a makeup counter with terrible acne. I mean, I wasn't, like, the ultimate oxymoron. Like, I'm not buying from this chick.

Exactly. So. So. Yeah, but that's. That those were the first signs. And I noticed as well, when I was cold, it would. It would take my hands so long to almost, like, kind of just open up.

Yeah.

So I noticed it first in my hands and then my elbows and feet. And wrists.

Wow.

And yeah, and then I went to a doctor. They, they told me, you're way too young for anything like that. It's not arthritis. So then they gave me a cortisone injection then. And then they said, this will, this will clear it. And it did. As we, as we discussed it did. And then of course, it came back. And it came back and it came back. And. And then later on in Switzerland, actually, I was eventually diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

Wow.

Yeah. And that's when I was suggested to go on these regular, twice a month injections.

Yeah, those are corticosteroids. That we know now that we knew this in the mortality space years ago. That because we had all of this data on mortality and we had, you know, years and years of medical records on, on hundreds of millions of, of people that had taken out life insurance, that when you started taking corticosteroids, initially they would be anti inflammatory. Like you experience it goes away and you're like, oh, this is the panacea, thank God. And. But long term, they eat your joint.

Yeah.

Like a termite. And what's fascinating about your story, and I want you to get into it, is that, you know, you walked your way out of this autoimmune disease. And I think the vast majority of people, when they're told they have an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid, you know, they think that's a life sentence.

Yeah.

And now I have to subscribe to a lifetime of medication.

Exactly.

And you know what's fascinating too is they rarely tell you, well, what caused this? How did I get rheumatoid? I mean, especially you, you, you're. You. First of all, you were young, you had, you had this car accident, but you'd gotten yourself back.

Yeah.

To a place where you were painfree. You probably were very physically fit at that time. You're quite from Pilates, and now all of a sudden you have rheumatoid. And I'd love to take a dive into that. You know, what was going on, diet wise, stress wise, you know, sleep wise, emotionally, what was going on, you think around that time that could have triggered rheumatoid.

So I actually, after the car accident, after I realized I was healed, I then kind of didn't keep up the Pilates.

Mm.

So then when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, Pilates was not a regular thing in my world. So then once, once I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, I then went back to doing plastis. That's when I kind of refer. Any time I was going through something mentally, physically, I always found myself going back to that practice. Wow. Yeah. But lifestyle wise, I think I was just in. I was very disconnected to myself at the time. I had very low self worth. Like, I would never have done anything like this. And five years ago, I was a completely different person.

Wow.

Super shy, you know, really not confident public speaking. And even to 5, 10 people in a room.

Wow.

And I think I had such a disconnect from my mind to my body. You know, it showed up in my skin, it showed up in arthritis. So I think I was in this, like, constant fight or flight zone.

Makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. So I felt that. And you could also see it in my. In my face.

Yeah.

I was eating. I was living in Switzerland, so I was eating a lot of dairy. I don't know if that had any impact. I do eat dairy now, but I went through a period of time of cutting it out, and it was obviously quite cold in the winters.

Yeah.

So I think just. Just high stress and just trying to kind of get by and figure myself out. That was kind of my.

You know what's astounding is about 82% of all autoimmune is in females. It's in women.

Yes, I read that.

You know, so the vast majority of autoimmune disease affects women. And there's no sexual predisposition. Like, from a. From a biological standpoint. There's nothing about being a female that predisposes you genetically to rheumatoid arthritis or to any autoimmune disease. But the prevailing wisdom now is that, you know, women are very often they. They get caregiver syndrome, which is putting the needs of everybody else before the needs themselves, Especially women that have children, they have a spouse, and they have a career, and they're trying to juggle all of those things and they just put themselves in the backseat. They have a tendency to rumina on. On things more than men do. And so stress, that stress bucket just keeps filling until it just overflows. And all of a sudden your immune system just lights up.

Yeah.

And you wake up one day on, you're an otherwise healthy female and you've got Hashimoto's because it's. Your immune system is now attacking your thyroid if you have rheumatoid and it's attacking the synovium of the joints. What's more fascinating to me is that you were able to put that in the rear View mirror. And I want to talk about that journey of walking yourself out of rheumatoid. And then I want to go down the pregnancy route, because while I've got the only pregnant woman on my podcast, we definitely. You're hiding it well. You know, your legs crossing your farms.

Folded but wearing black.

We have got one in the oven because, you know, I have a large female audience and there's such a paucity of information on nutrition and. And especially exercise during pregnancy, which I want to touch on as well.

I can't wait.

Yeah, so we're going to get into that. But continue with me on the journey of walking yourself out of the rheumatoid. You cleaned up your diet, you got rid of dairy, so you started getting militant about your diet. At that time, it must have been hard to go back to Pilates, too. I mean, your first round was in excruciating pain. Your second round, you have an autoimmune rheumatoid.

So there were small things that I did at the time. I went back to Pilates. That was a big. A big thing for me at home. I was just reconnecting to myself. And what was amazing is that I felt not only I was getting stronger in my body, but the thing with classical is it's so precise. The form and the breath work and the precision. There is so much going on that you are completely free in your mind.

Right.

You're all in your body. You're that deeply connected. So I think that helped calm my nervous system down. I did things like meditation. I didn't do breath work just yet, but now that's a big part of my.

Huge part of my day, too.

Yeah. But at the time, it wasn't so popular. I didn't really know about it, but I meditated and I always had a journal. I always loved to write ever since I was at school. So I did these kind of, like, small wellness practices. I reduced. I cut out dairy. I actually became vegan almost with the exception of fish every now and then.

Okay.

So again, that was kind of the time when plant based was at its highest.

Yes.

And that was the most healthy thing to do. Everyone was saying, and I can't believe you would eat meat and do these things. So I was just trying.

Nonsense, by the way.

But yeah, exactly. And I was trying so many different things, Just. Just wanting to go the natural way. So I did start to feel the difference, feel the shift.

Wow.

And I think what really made the difference was the full body alignment and also relieving My body of that tension. I think we hold so much stress and, you know, we can look into so much data and we're so lucky now that we have so much science and data available to us.

Right.

But at the end of the day, your body tells you right into it. Yeah. And my body was telling me, calm down, like, do what you can to be strong, but also mind and body. So I could feel that, you know, like, even my spine was healthier, my body was more aligned, my posture was better, I was standing better. Everything was kind of, you know, we.

Just want to be the core of Pilates. Right. Posture, alignment, core strength.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And that mind to muscle connection as well, which we can, we can go into with the likes of strength training. But it wasn't until much later down the line that I went all in on, on wellness and everything and started hot and cold therapy. And I would say that doing saunas and cold plunge have made a huge difference.

I would totally agree with that.

So I have never done an injection since that first injection I had then and there. I didn't really have much of a choice. I never did any injections and I have no symptoms whatsoever of my rheumatoid arthritis that I was really struggling with.

Yeah.

So. Yeah.

So I think, you know, when you, when you talk about sauna, cold, plunging, you know, a lot of this has to do with how the body eliminates waste. You know, we eliminate waste through stool and urine, but also through sweat. And there's a lot of data to support that. Things like mold, mycotoxins, viruses, parasites, heavy metals. Those in particular, those four in particular can light the immune system up and actually be the genesis for a lot of these autoimmune diseases. You know, heavy metals, bedding in the thyroid, causing the immune system to light up the thyroid. Mold and mycotoxins, viruses, parasites and heavy metals locating themselves in places like the joints and calling the immune system that location, having it light up. So by cleaning up your diet, by focusing on movement and exercise, which is great for moving your lymphatic system and eliminating we yeast and then adding sweat, you know, you were able to overcome a, an autoimmune disease. And I just can't emphasize that enough. I think it's so exciting because I talk about this all the time. When you have an autoimmune disease, it's not a life sentence.

Yeah.

But I want to shift gears to what we were talking about before the podcast because you came in and, and said that you had seen a podcast of mine where I talked about methylfolate.

Lauren and Michaels.

Yeah. Lauren and Michael. Say shout out to Lauren and Michael Bossick. I love those guys. They're, they're amazing. I've been on there twice. They're just amazing, amazing humans. And I think they're doing great things in this world. But you look a lot like her, by the way. You guys are sort of twinsies.

I'll take it.

You're both beautiful. You both were pregnant, not at the same time, but, but you know, and you switched up your supplementation to methylfolate and maybe it was coincidence, but you got pregnant very shortly thereafter. Yeah, I'll take 15 credit for that.

I think you should take a lot.

And you got pregnant shortly thereafter. And so far, how far along are you?

So I'm just over seven months pregnant.

Oh, okay. We're way down the choo choo track.

I know.

You do not look seven months.

So any minute now. This is the time.

Yeah. Okay. Don't start having contractions on the podcast.

I would feel in. Good.

And so I really want to get into what you've been doing to stay healthy and move during pregnancy because, I mean, everybody's like afraid to touch the pregnant women.

I don't want to give them any advice, definitely. And that's something that I, I definitely noticed before getting pregnant. But when you are pregnant and in the thick of it, you feel everything so, so heavily. So I think there's a lot of fear mongering. And one thing I really want to kind of express and get out there is that you need to train for pregnancy. So if you are, obviously if you're pregnant, congratulations is amazing. But if you're thinking about getting pregnant, you need to get into the best shape of your life. That's good advice that will carry you through more than you realize right now. And during the pregnancy, you will see and feel the effects of that beyond words. And I can't tell you how much it's saved me because the hormones during pregnancies, the ups and the downs are wild and there's so much you can't control, but that is something that you can control. And I really encourage movement during pregnancy. Of course, if you have never moved and you have lived more of a sedentary life, then starting an exercise during pregnancy is not recommended, they say. But you know, if you can get very, very strong before pregnancy, going into it strong mentally, physically, you will also not only have, as research has shown, an easier birth and easier postpartum, but you will also feel yourself like for moments in the day just because you. You need that.

Yeah, yeah. And I think there's so many women are afraid to do anything during pregnancy and there's such a paucity of information. So a typical day or week look like for you, you know, in terms of movement, like, what types of movement are you doing? And because obviously exercise has to change somewhat when you're pregnant.

Yeah, it does, but actually it doesn't in the first trimester.

Okay.

So for the first three months, you don't actually need to make any changes. I was doing our hardest challenge on the app. We had a six week transfer transform, six week challenge. And it was. I was waking up at 6am doing 45 minute live classes, and I was in the thick of the sickness and I was.

You were in the thick of like the nausea, the everything. Oh, wow.

It was really tough. But I will say, like, I would hype myself up in the bathroom beforehand with a song and then go down, do my life. But for that 45 minutes or half an hour, whatever it was, I felt like me and I felt, okay, this is only gonna help me do this one thing for yourself, because the rest of the day is just going to be how it is. You know, anything goes when you're in that sickness. So for the first trimester, do exactly what you can and exactly what you were always doing. That would be my advice. Of course you have to say, check with your doctor.

Right.

But then in the second trimester, that's when you'll slightly modify your workouts, especially with core work. But there's so much that you can do that doesn't involve crunches. And you. It's also a myth that you can't change. Train your core during pregnancy.

Wow.

You absolutely can train your core. And you can also do it using your breath.

Wow.

Yeah.

So what is a breath work routine or breath work technique look like for you, you know, during pregnancy? Is this something you do in the morning? Is something you do consistently?

Yeah. So I can actually talk you through it if you.

Yeah, let's do it.

It's really quick. Okay. So you can do this any time of the day, but I also really encourage you to do it before you work out, even if you're lifting in the gym. So if you come into either a standing or seated position and you bring your hands onto your rib cage. My ribcage is there somewhere?

Yeah, mine's higher.

Okay. So you're going to take an inhale, breathe into your hands, breathe into your rib cage, fill yourself up. Exhale, draw that ribcage in and pull the belly button into the spine. Can you almost feel you're doing a crunch?

Good.

I can't feel the baby, but I can. Don't worry. Okay, two more here. So inhale, open up. Really expand into your rib cage. Exhale, draw that ribcage in. Good. Let's do one more. Inhale, open up. Exhale, pulling in. Belly button pulls back the spine. Good. So I start every class with that because what we can do using that breath is apply that to movement. So if we inhale on an extension, for example, if you're in a crunch. So if you inhale as you reach back and your elbows stay wide, that's also key. Exhale as you curl into yourself and you're pulling the rib cage and you're getting that extra connection to your lower abdominals. The results I've seen where people apply breath work to movement physically is insane.

Wow.

Yeah. You will unlock a different side of your results if you connect your breath with your movement.

So you use this to go into your Pilates movements. You're telling the body we're getting ready for movement.

Yes.

It's like warming up before run.

Exactly. So we'll start every class with that, but we'll also add that in throughout. But you can do it. You know, if you're on the squat rack, you inhale as you go down.

Yeah.

As you exhale, as you lift up, your rib cage is pulling in.

Right.

So not only are you preventing injury, you're lifting from a strong center. So why would you not have it stack? Why would you not make your workout more effective?

I love that.

Yeah.

And what is a typical Pilates? I mean, we don't have the equipment in front of us, but let's say, you know, there's. There's going to be a number of pregnant women watching this or females that are about to get pregnant. What can they do from home? I know you have an app, right?

Yes.

Okay, so that's great. So we're going to talk about that at the end of the show because, you know, a lot of pregnant women are a little self conscious. Maybe going to the gym.

Oh, completely get that. And so, yeah, I feel you guys.

And so we actually have another pregnant woman in the audience with us today. Banna's, my. My chief of staff is pregnant.

Thank you so much.

This is the second ultimate human baby we've had, by the way.

First girl.

Yeah, first. Oh, it is the first ultimate human girl. Yeah. We got a boy and a girl.

Amazing.

And they're all named after me, the first one was Gary. This one's Gary.

And we're all taking methylate.

They're definitely all taking methyl folate. So walk me through a typical, like, at home Pilates routine for.

So you really don't need anything.

Okay.

So actually yesterday when I was teaching here in the class, people were joining on the wood on the floor because there wasn't enough mats.

Oh, wow.

You do not need anything. You can be in your hotel room. I know you met Barbara Stem.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. We shot a podcast yesterday.

She often does my classes on the bed.

She does, Yeah. I love Barbara.

She's amazing. But you do not need a single thing. You can do it on a towel, on a mat.

Okay.

So, I mean, you can start with 10 minutes. Build yourself up with equipment, without equipment. But I teach Matt. I really believe in accessibility and simplifying movement and making it so that it's very effective and efficient, but it's something that you can stay consistent with. We all lead incredibly busy lives. A lot of us, you know, maybe have a busy job or have kids at home. We can't get to the gym. And as you say, if you're building your confidence up, sometimes you want to do that in the comfort of your own home.

Sure.

In your pajamas.

Yeah.

With your kids running around. So, yeah, you don't need anything.

Okay. And what is it at cruising altitude? What is a typical length of a good Pilates workout at home? Like one of your classes.

So we, in our weekly schedule, we kind of mix it up. We'll do anything from 15 minutes to 45 minutes. Nothing longer than 45 minutes. Because I promise you, Gary, if I trained you for 45 minutes, you would feel it.

No, I'm scared of you. Even though you're pregnant. Trust me, I. I'm. I'm. You know, every time I go to a yoga class, and I've done yoga from time to time. I do a lot of stretching now, but I'll go to a yoga class or Pilates. Yeah, it is. You find muscles you just never knew you had.

It's crazy. And you know what's so fun is candlestick pose.

And it's like. And they have all these fancy names, you know, Happy baby. I'm like, there's nothing happy about this baby. You know, it's like, yeah, miserable. Ye.

No. Well, my husband, he's. He's very into health and wellness and physically fit, and he trains incredibly hard. And because I've been pregnant, I've still wanted to record advanced classes on the app. So I've used him as my body, and he's just like. He's not. Again, like. And he's shaking, dripping in sweat in like a 30 minute, you know, so you really can get the effect. What I think is important is to know that the accumulative. Yes, that is a real thing, having that compound effect. You know, you think, oh, I only have 10 minutes. But if you thought that every single day, you know, it's having that movement in your daily life and being naturally active as well. But if you can, of course, the more you can do. The good thing about Pilates is, is that it's the most sustainable form of movement for your body. So technically, don't need a rest day.

Oh, that's so good. Yeah. And I. And I think that, you know, Pilates is probably, of all the classes of exercise, probably the one that focuses most on the core. And I think there's some misnomers about Pilates because people think, I just don't want to spend that much time focused on my core, because that's not what people see. Yeah, they see my shoulders and my biceps and my quads and of course, you know, and I want the shape. But some of the most beautiful body shapes I've ever seen are people that are intentionally doing Pilates.

Totally. And I mean, for me, I do two strength training sessions a week, and I do four Pilates classes a week. No walk. When I obviously strength train.

Oh, strength train. Yeah.

Yeah. And with. And when. With the Pilates, I'll use the ring, the band, ankle weights, and sometimes I'll use nothing. Like this morning was a standing workout in the kitchen in my hotel room. So it completely varies. But I love that. I love that you can. You. You don't have barriers to it. You're not kind of convincing yourself I can skip this.

Yeah.

So what is.

Now that you've conquered rheumatoid arthritis, what is your diet look like? I mean, I. I think movement is probably an enormous part of what got you out of both of those challenges that you faced. What's. What's your diet look like now that you're pregnant? And what does your supplementation look like?

Yeah. So my diet. I've been on such a journey, and I really feel the best I've ever felt in terms of what I'm eating and fueling my body. And I really believe we need to fuel ourselves.

I do, too.

And I eat a lot. You know, I really love food, and I think that's great.

Yeah, I think so, too. It's just funny to hear a pregnant woman sitting here. Go. I eat a lot.

Pregnant or not pregnant? A lot. But so I eat meat, I eat fish. I try and have a lot of healthy fats, Greek yogurt. I love berries. Trying to get a lot more spinach in being pregnant. I eat red meat. That's been. I know. God forbid, guys. So I, I'm really, I'm very varied with my diet. There's not many things that I wouldn't eat. I don't eat cheese or actually I don't. Do you know what? I don't eat eggs. Okay. I haven't had eggs for years and this morning I had my first egg. Guys, did you really?

All right, awesome.

You know what? But yesterday I was looking at your profile and I don't know whether it's the pregnancy, but you share a lot of eggs. Yes, I do.

I eat a lot of eggs. Yeah. I think it's nature's perfect protein.

Yes. Okay. So I was like, okay, now I've got a taste for eggs. Maybe I can eat eggs now.

Got you pregnant.

Now I got you on the eggs. Seriously, we're making moves. So, yeah, maybe that's my new thing as well. But I love to eat as much, kind of. I'm also conscious of what I'm feeding my baby now.

Yes.

So I'm trying to have like nutrient dense food and really being mindful of that and having, you know, having fruits, but not too many fruits and making sure I'm having a lot of veg and, and a variety nuts, seeds, things like that.

So that's amazing.

One thing I do have, which I don't think. I'm not sure if you, you are a fan of, but I have protein powder. Yeah. Okay.

That makes me feel especially for, you know, very often it's, it's hard for women to hit their macros on protein. You know, I mean, it's such a, such a volume of food and women are not usually sitting down, eating a ribeye and, you know, a couple chicken breasts and, and so protein powders can be amazing. I don't think that you should solely do protein powders, but. Yeah. And this whole time at this event, you know, we've been doing smoothies and things because so much is going on and I feel amazing and.

Okay.

And if you do well with whey protein. Whey protein. You know, some people do very well with hydrolyzed whey and they digest it fine.

Would you recommend way over plant based and.

But I, I think the vast majority of people can tolerate plant based proteins. You know, a smaller segment can tolerate the whey based proteins. The sad thing is that a lot of whey protein powders are junk just because of they, they're, they're not grass fed, grass finished, they're not hydrolyzed. But good whey protein powders are, are amazing. And I am also a big believer in, in, in plant proteins.

Yeah.

You know, at the end of the day it's going to become the same thing. It's all going to become amino acids.

Yeah.

And the amino acids are really the building blocks for your beautiful baby and for so many things in our body. Collagen, elastin, fibrin, you know, muscles, natural killer cells. So if, if you have a hard time hitting your macros with whole foods, then. Absolutely. Protein powders can be amazing.

Yeah. And also for traveling, it's sometimes good to just take some protein powder with you, add it into whether it's oats or, you know, having a shake or something. It's just getting it in where you can. And also being realistic, you know, it is just, you have to just do what you can that day at the end of the day. So.

So I assume this is your first baby. Right. Okay. So congratulations. Thank you. This is so awesome. Another huge, huge issue I'll just touch on before we wind things down is infant formula.

Yeah.

You haven't started, you know, breastfeeding or infant formula. Obviously breastfeeding. Hands down, there's nothing that compares to, to mother's natural milk. But have you been down the road of investigating infant formulas yet?

Yes.

Because you will be if you're not.

I know. And actually I'm so interested to hear your opinion on it. And I think also to just to touch on. There's so much judgment in pregnancy and so much it's really crazy. And I also want to say just, you know, at the end of the day, if someone has a very strong opinion on you and your baby, you know, that's on them.

Right.

And you know, best and you can do, you can only do your best. You know, I agree with you. So I'm gonna really try and commit to breastfeeding for as long as I possibly can. But at the same time I don' this narrative that, you know, we're failures if we can't.

Absolutely.

So just to kind of put that out there. But I, I have looked into formulas and I, I'm so interested. What is the best formula and also what's the best in the UK that we can get and versus America and what are things to look out for. I know that you're interviewing me.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you're. First of all, you're on the right side of the world for me to be searching for infant formulas because the UK and Germany have some of the cleanest formulas available. They actually use whole milk solids, not a lot of seed oils. You know, seed oils are pro inflammatory for these little babies. They're required to be put in infant formula in the United States. So most women that have gone down that rabbit hole are sourcing them from either the UK or from Germany. I'm actually in the process with my team because I've got two very talented, intelligent and purpose driven females on my team that are. One just recently had a baby, one's pregnant now. And you know, we've decided to formulate our own infant formula. But wow, that is a 18 month journey through the FDA. And so getting seed oil free, getting, you know, using things like milk solids and coconut oils and real olive oils and expeller pressed oils. That's a good term to look for is cold expeller pressed. That will mean that it's not highly processed. Yeah. You know, sad thing is a lot of these plants are not dangerous. It's what we do to the plant.

Totally. And how we process.

Yeah, it's how we process it. It's not the plant itself. It's the distance from the plant to the table. You know, hexane to de gum things, you know, sodium hydroxide to deodorize them, heating them to the point where they're rancid and then drying them and putting them in a baby formula. No different than eating a as an adult. And their little systems are so sensitive. But you're doing all the right things. You're taking a methylated multivitamin. You're. You're moving, you're exercising intensely during pregnancy. I mean, I think my audience is going to get so much out of this. Oh, I'm so pleased how you know, for my audience that is interested. How. How do they find you?

Yeah. So the app is on the App Store. Pilates by Bryony, Parties by Bryony.

And that's B R Y O N Y.

Yes. And It's Pilates by Bryony.com.

Okay.

On Instagram, I'm Briny Deary. I'm officially Briny Bass now. But I'm so.

You are. Oh, it's such a pain in the ass. You gotta upgrade all your stuff.

Oh, gosh.

Yeah.

And it's just one of those paperwork things.

Yeah, my wife and I been together 10 years. She still hasn't changed her passport. We argue about it every time we check into a hotel because they're like, oh, do you need a second key for your guest? I'm like, you see? Like, they wouldn't actually ask that if we had the same last name. We have this, you know, my guess. How you doing?

That's hilarious.

Hey, I'm on your hubby side on this. I'm on your team, man.

I will get round.

All right?

But no, we have a seven day free trial, so you can sign up and just check it out. And we have meditations, breath work, sound baths, prenatal, postnatal, advanced recipes. So much stuff on there. So, yeah, thank you for this conversation.

You are so amazing. I do wind all my podcasts down by asking my guests the same question. So there's no right or wrong answer to this question, but what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

Oh, okay. Wasn't ready for this one. But for me, to be an ultimate human would be to pass on the life change that I've had to as many people as possible. And also, in this world of kind of analyzing everything and really kind of scrutinizing ourselves, I just want to feel and do feel very calm inside. So for me, the calmness signals that.

That's amazing, Briony. You're amazing. Thank you for coming on the Ultimate Human podcast. And guys, until next time, that's just science.