GLP-1s Are Making Women Gain the Weight Right Back. Here's What Actually Works | #190

So the first thing, do not go waste your money on all the marketing schemes of these greens powders and probiotics out there because your gut is so unique and so different from somebody else's. And I ended up almost bedridden. I went from chronic constipation to blood coming out of me 17 times a day.

Wait, you're still here on GLP-1s?

They gotten off and gained all the weight back. Oh yeah, they're gaining 20, 30 pounds back because they're not changing their training. They're not looking at their nutrition. Now they're dealing with constipation and gut issues. You're having less cravings, but it doesn't change your food quality. When you have such chronic gut issues, do not try to be your own practitioner. Of course I did that. It took me so much longer to heal because of it.

Hello, welcome back to the Dr. Joy Kong podcast. You know, I am here to help you live a longer healthier and happier life. So I invite amazing guests to help share their wisdom, their knowledge, and to really jumpstart your health and get you to the next level. So today I'm super excited because I got Elizabeth Ehler here with me, and she is a wealth of knowledge, and you're gonna love what she's gonna teach you. She will share with you her story, and she will teach you everything you want to know— not everything because we don't have the time— but a lot about gut microbiome, metabolism, performance enhancement, and parasites. So we're gonna dive into it. Elizabeth, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. I know we're gonna have— we got a great conversation coming today for all the women over 30, right?

Yeah, exactly. So I want to introduce you a little bit. So, um, so Elizabeth Ehler is a holistic nutritionist and, um, GAPS practitioner. That stands for Gut and Psychology Syndrome, so the gut-brain interaction. And she's a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner and certified strength and conditioning specialist with a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology. So as a functional diagnostic nutritional practitioner, she interprets advanced functional lab testing to uncover root causes beside— behind gut dysbiosis dysfunction and hormone imbalance and metabolism metabolic shutdown. And she has worked with A-list celebrities, pro athletes, and thousands of women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s and beyond who feel that their bodies just weren't cooperating. And her social platform— platforms reach over 2 million women, and she has been recognized by, um, uh, called Goss Magazine as one of the top 100 women fitness influencers on Instagram. And she has a very interesting story. And she dealt with severe depression, eating disorder, and multiple gut infections, including H. pylori, Candida, and 15 other pathogens since she was 22. And she created her own healing system, which improved her, of course, her life and her sports performance, and rebuilt her metabolism. And now she's eating 6,000 calories a day to build, lean muscles and had lost 50 pounds without doing anything extreme. So now Elizabeth leads thousands of women 30-plus through their— her signature 90-day whole body transformation program, teaching women to heal from the inside out naturally and sustainably. So Elizabeth, yeah, I'm so excited to have you share your, your, your journey and your wisdom. So for one thing, you know, a lot of people struggling out there. So it's always, you know, interesting to hear that someone had gone through something and came out the other side and happy and vibrant. So what happened to you? Why were you suffering from, you know, depression, eating disorder? What's going on?

Yeah, so my health issue started when I was a little girl, actually. I was born, I had eczema, rosacea, from my head down. Um, gut health was not a thing back then, so of course I was doing all the topicals, the steroid creams. I also had severe asthma. I was on the nebulizer, Singulair, you name it. When I was 13 years old though, I bumped into a girl at school and she always had lice. It triggered something in me. All of a sudden I had chronic anxiety, I had OCD. I immediately went home, I called my mom, I would not go back to school. I was obsessed with— I was counting everything. I wouldn't drive by this wall, I thought I was gonna get lice. And of course you go to a psychologist and they just put you on antidepressants, and you go and you start doing, you know, all cognitive behavior therapy, and that's what I did. So I got on antidepressants, I was eating my feelings away, I was homeschooled because I wouldn't go back to school. I was counting everything. I was miserable, head to toe rosacea, eczema, and I gained over 50 pounds in that one year. By the end of the year, I was over 200 pounds. I hated myself. I felt numb in my body because of all the high-dose antidepressants that I was on. And kind of fast track a few years later, I got myself back to school. I weaned myself off of medication, and my friend was vegetarian. She looks great, by the way. And I'm like, I want to lose this weight. I'm going to go vegetarian. So on top of Dance Dance Revolution on my Christmas break and a very unhealthy vegetarian diet, living off of Special K cereal, I dropped my first 25 pounds. But my skin started clearing up because the dairy was out. I started feeling a little bit more confident, but I always had those gut issues. I always had the gas, the bloating. The constipation, um, very, very heavy menstrual cycles as well that were just horrible, so painful too. And what ended up happening is I kind of took one extreme to the next. I ended up going from 200 pounds, and I continued to eat my Special K diet and got more and more limited with my food. They came out with zero calorie waters, you name it, and I was probably down to 500 calories a day. I dropped down from 200 pounds to 90 pounds and I developed an eating disorder. I didn't— you couldn't even tell me you have a problem, Elizabeth. I had to come to that realization, but I still struggled with—

you look very unhealthy at the time, right?

I was very, very lean and I wouldn't even buy new clothes because I thought I was going to gain all the weight back. So I was in my size, like 14 pants with belt buckles poking holes into them. And that was just who I am, wearing very big t-shirts, extra large. Like, I had very bad self-confidence issues, and it got to the point where I had to realize I had an issue and I had to make a change. And when I did, I did get myself back up to a healthy weight, but I was stuck in what I like to say diet dogma. I'm an extremist, so I went from vegetarian to vegan to raw vegan. So that's dehydrating everything, nuts and seeds. And my digestion got worse on it because it could not process all those nuts, the seeds. The constipation was worse, the gas was worse. So I came across something called the 80/10/10 diet. Basically what that is, it's a fruitarian style diet, um, 80% carbs, 10% fat, 10% protein, completely raw vegan. So breakfast would look like 8 to 10 bananas, you know, 5 to 6 large mangos, and a salad the size that could feed a party for dinner. And initially I felt really good. And what ended up happening was one year into this, we'll say, extreme diet— again, I'm at a healthy weight, I'm like, you know, fueling my body 3,000 calories a day.

Were you still having the constipation, gut problems?

Yes, that's why I was chasing these diets, trying to find something that would work for my gut, um, trying to get the inflammation down, make it simpler on my stomach. Um, but I was— got to college and all of a sudden I woke up, I looked 6 months pregnant. I was holding on to 30 pounds of fluid in my stomach, toxemia. Um, I couldn't go to the bathroom no matter what. I started taking laxatives, abusing laxatives. I was going to all the top GI doctors out there, regular doctors. I lost my cycle and I was eating enough. I was fueling my body. I wasn't chronically stressed. And, you know, like, I was trying everything. I was soaking and sprouting and I was spending all this money and they were just saying, it's normal to look 6 months pregnant, drink a 14-day supply of Miralax and Ducolex and you're fine. And I was just in crippling pain all the time. So I started working with all the top people in the industry while I was going to school for kinesiology, University of Tennessee. And what ended up happening is over those 4 years, I had multiple colonics. I had over 150 colonics within one year. I was doing— working with all the top people in the raw food industry. I did Mono Fruit Island juice fasting cleansing. I was soaking, I was sprouting, I was tons of laxatives and you don't lack initiative. I mean, that's, I was like, I was, I would not give up at this point. I'm like, I'm gonna make it work. Mm-hmm. And it got to the point where I found a doctor, chiropractic in California, and he tested my stool. It showed I had 15 types of parasites, H. pylori, SIBO. I had mast cell activation and a whole host of opportunistic bacteria, Klebsiella, Klebsiella, Candida, you name it. Um, I went the medical route. I did tons of antibiotics. I was going through die-off in college, and then all the eggs would re-hatch a month later. I would be back to square one, chronic pain, bloating, limited food. After going through that for those 4 years, I went to one final place. They were supposed to clean out your small intestine for mucoid plaque, and they thought I had a blockage because nothing would come out of me. I couldn't even go to the bathroom, so they sent me to the hospital. My mom flew down and they said, nothing's wrong with you. So I said, I'm done. I was in the car crying. I said, I am gonna make my own 90-day protocol because that's how long it takes to, you know, get to the biofilms, kill off the eggs, and I'm gonna do everything to restore my gut. And at the end of those 90 days, no matter what, I am done killing. I'm done with the protocols. I am gonna heal and restore my body. It needs it. It's time. In 90 days, I went from a 5:05 marathon to a 3:35 marathon. Whoa. I had abs. Popping. I was energizing through the roof. I was able to start expanding my diet after, you know, living off of just bananas for months at hand and trying to get— like, not even being able to digest that. And that was the start of my journey. I graduated college, um, things started getting better. I did my bodybuilding journey too, um, that's when I bulked up and I bulked up and I was eating up to 6,000 calories. I Got my weight all the way up to 180. I cut, I had so much muscle. I launched my business. But then what happened? COVID kind of came. I got in a relationship. My stress, it was not the best situation. My stress got through the roof. They thought I had PCOS. I started getting all my chronic gut issues again, and I ended up moving back home to Miami. In those 2 years of living in Miami, I started getting severe histamine issues. So nose running with food, eyes watering, crippling anxiety again. And I haven't had this in years to where they're putting me on Xanax. I felt like I had rheumatoid arthritis through my entire body. My dog started hemorrhaging blood and getting pancreatitis. I didn't know what was happening, and I was again dismissed by doctors. So that's when I went back to school. Um, I am now a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner. I found out I had chronic mold toxicity. My thyroid made reverse T3. Literally, the doctors put me on the wrong medicine, all converted wrong. I lost 20 pounds in a matter of a week on 4,000 calories because it converted to the wrong. So I had to heal my body. I've done carnivore, I've done keto, I've done raw vegan, fruitarian. I've done every cleanse, I've done every probiotic. I've worked with everyone. I've tried everything. And it took me to heal my body. And now I have clients all around the world that are down to 1 to 2 foods. They have MS, lupus, Lyme disease, mold toxicity, mast cell activation, and I'm able to get to the root cause and heal them and get them better and expand their diet in a matter of weeks because what I went through. So I am so grateful, but it was around 30 years of health issues that took me to get back to where I am now.

That's pretty incredible. And it's— you should be so incredibly proud of yourself for saving yourself. And I'm very curious, what did you do when you were, you know, back when you were, you know, kind of giving up on— you said you wanted to stop killing these organisms, right? That wasn't getting where you want to be. And then you decided to do your own 90 days. What did you do? Like, how did you get out? To the other side?

It was a mix. It was a mix of everything because I was going to school, but then I was training for marathons. And then at the same time, every weekend I was developing a new protocol. I was researching every chemical compound in food, different ways to help with gut motility. If parasites were present, if H. pylori was present, how to actually naturally get rid of it, what would get it to come back. So I took my OCD and I put it to my health. And I think that's a huge—

and you didn't even have AI to help you at the time.

No, no, I'm a Virgo. I'm a very big Virgo. But I think that's like something that's huge because a lot of women right now, we self-diagnose. We think we have parasites, we think we have this. We see we're marketed with all these probiotics, powders, fermented foods, and a lot of these things, a lot of it's marketing and a lot of it is meant for not the individual that has the chronic gut issues going on and can make us feel a lot worse and not get to the root cause. So then we end up wasting so much money on these supplements, these tests that, you know, aren't the right ones for us, these protocols that we don't even know things we have. And then we feel stuck and we feel worse. And I think that's a huge thing out there.

Mm-hmm. So it sounds like it was a dynamic system that you went through in those 90 days. You were testing, investigating, um, working on the, the obstacles, whether or not it's— yes, adding nutrients or, or getting—

yeah, so a lot of it was, um, I worked with the biofilms, um, because those were present with the parasites. I worked with specific herbs for my body. I was doing different things with my nutrition as well. I was restoring my motility because when we have gut issues going on, a lot of us are dealing with chronic constipation, and that's when the food is sitting and fermenting and feeding that bacteria. So if you're not pooping, then that is not a good thing. And I had no gut motility. I never even felt the need to go to the bathroom anymore because of how addicted to laxatives. So it was a combination of the protocol, the nutrition, the nervous system, because stress and anxiety make your gut 100 times worse. And then also, like I said, the gut motility and diet expansion and all of it. It's a system. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And how did you get rid of all those pathogens? What, what, what do you think did it?

I mean, I believe that as a kid I had underlying mold toxicity, just growing up in Florida, having all the histamine issues. I believe that when I got out of that, um, environment and moved to college and everything, things kind of got backed off a little bit. But my issues, I think, were from a kid. I think I was born with, you know, I have a history of family that has gut issues and thyroid issues, and I was just like the egg, you know, um, the bad egg over here. But also, I'm, I'm not looking for an underlying cause. The key is that I got better. But I think maybe even like my diet could have had a huge thing to do with it. I went raw vegan. I was you know, eating as clean as possible. But, you know, the amount of fruit I was having a day and all that sugar, and, you know, there's just so much that could have been creating it. And then all the anxiety. And then over my lifetime, I was on multiple courses of antibiotics. Every time we take those, the gut doesn't just restore, it loses the resilience. So when we lose the resilience, that's when the bad bacteria can take over. And I hear this so many times from clients that come to me. They're like, well, I took antibiotics, but it was years ago, and I always had sinus infections as a kid, but that's years ago. It still impacts your gut. It is like it comes with you. And then we look at it, you know, 40 years from now, we're hitting perimenopause and now we have can't lose weight, we have brain fog, we have low libido, all of these issues going on, bloating, constipation., and we're like, well, what changed? Am I just getting old? Well, we gotta backtrack and we gotta see what led us to this point. I call it metabolic chaos as, um, all those hidden stressors that we hit on our lifetime to get us to this tipping point.

So how do you rebalance that microbiome? You know, if you've lost some good bacteria and you've got some not very good ones and they're all sitting there and, and your gut is, is dysfunctional, how do you get out of that?

Yeah, so the first thing, do not go waste your money on all the marketing schemes of these greens powders and probiotics out there because your gut is so unique and so different from somebody else's. If you have underlying gut infections, things like SIBO, histamine issues, a lot of those strains could actually feed the wrong bacteria, um, or create more histamine and make you feel 10 times worse— more gas, more bloating. Um, a lot of the fibers, if we have gastritis and things going on can irritate that gut lining more. So with all the clients that come to me, I do full health histories first, um, but also as an FDN, I do stool testing. I do GI Map stool testing, always looking for H. pylori, um, yeast, opportunistic bacteria, our immune system in the gut, um, if we have any potential things like slowed gut motility. I make sure we're running full thyroid panels because the doctors 90% of them don't run the right one. And I'm finding a lot of cases of underlying Hashimoto's going on or significantly low, um, T3 that can impact your gut motility. Um, and then if there are hormone issues, then that's a whole nother story. I will do hormone testing, but I always see what's going on with that individual first. And a huge thing that I do is I build the plan to the person not build it to what their test says. A lot of practitioners, um, functional practitioners will run a test, say you have Candida, yeast, H. pylori, go take all of these herbs, or you have SIBO, take this massive protocol. But they don't address the fact you're not going to the bathroom, the nutrition aspect of it, because you're down to minimal foods, you don't know what to eat and everything. Is making you more bloated. They don't address your nervous system. So if you're chronically stressed and those food practices aren't addressed, our gut is going to be slowing down ultimately.

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So the way that I do it is I spend the first month on all my foundations while we're getting the testing back. I get us pooping again. I'm able to work with them with their diet to get them starting to get the bloating down. I have clients within 3 days off laxatives having 2 to 3 good bowel movements a day just through food eating patterns and the way I set up their food and nutrition. Um, so we're able to also add in a few supplements to start correcting insufficiencies in the gut, not throwing tons of probiotics at them, but correcting the insufficiencies that could lead to the overgrowth. And I'm really able to figure this out because of everything I went through I worked with over 3,000 women with chronic issues, and I just have a way. It's like, it's my passion and it's, it's my talent figuring out what to do. And then when I get the testing back, we're very strategic. If we do have things going on and how I address it, because the worst thing that we can do, and I'm going to take it from my own experience, in the beginning of my journey, I mentioned I had very bad club siela. I went to somebody who was looking for the money would just put you— say, hey, here's $6,000 to $10,000 worth of testing I want you to do, wouldn't really talk to you, and then would have their own supplement line and wouldn't even explain why you're taking it. It's just like, take this very strong protocol, very hard. And I ended up almost bedridden. I went from chronic constipation to blood coming out of me 17 times a day. They wouldn't hop on a protocol, and then they said, hey, let's retest you and see where you're at, everything multiplied. So when you kill off that little bit that we have left, that's when you lose even more resilience because herbs are so strong, just like antibiotics. And then you weaken your gut even more. And that's where I see women get in this hole of doing a kill protocol, not addressing the root and rebuilding the body back up. And then tests come back worse and then they're just killing and repeating over and over with weakened gut and more bloating and more issues.

And then when you do run a stool test and you look at all those microbes, you know, the, you know, I, I don't know how many, you know, you see in your test, but it could be, you know, hundreds of them, right? So what, what do you make of them? And, you know, they will say, oh, this has certain amount and this is way over the normal amount. Um, how do you decipher something that, that looks that complex?

I look at patterns, but also I have— you have to remember this: stool testing, SIBO testing, they're tools. There's always going to be inaccuracies with things. Sometimes you can get a negative or a positive SIBO test. Um, you may show no parasites on a stool test but have some hidden ones in there that it didn't look out for. So that's why I also create the protocol. That's why I deep dive into my clients, taking them back to when they were little kids and going through their life cycle. Do we have our gallbladder? Um, do we have— I see a lot of Hashimoto's. Like, I go through everything, hysterectomy, you name it, because I want to rebuild them back up from everything we went through to correct the insufficiencies. And then when we're checking in We're going through energy, we're going through— I have clients, we're redoing their blood work, um, their cholesterol is finally balancing out, they're getting off of statins. Um, I look at all those health markers. If we're able to expand our diet with no gut issues anymore, um, acid reflux, um, EOE, intense swallowing pain going away. So I use the testing as a guide to show me this is what's going on, but I don't take it as that end all be-all. We need to attack and kill this till H. pylori is a zero. No, we need to rebuild the body back up and make sure everything is optimized to where it's able to thrive again and you have your life back.

Amazing. Yeah, I wonder what, what the percentage of people with gut issues, because I think that's extremely—

yeah, a lot.

Yeah, so, um, The, um, um, as far as getting— I mean, you've tried all kinds of diet and some definitely backfired on you. Like, what would you— if someone has gut issues, how would you suggest them approach diet? I mean, that's an everyday thing, right? What are they going to put in their body?

So I want to kind of talk of it this way. When we have chronic gut issues, we typically go towards more of an elimination diet. Um, what we typically do, there's a low FODMAP diet, or you can look at something like carnivore, which is the ultimate elimination diet. It. Because in both of those diets— carnivore, you're cutting out all fiber. Fiber is going to feed bacteria in the gut. So if we have an imbalance in the bacteria and you're eating more of those cruciferous vegetables, the fiber— that could— the fiber could irritate the gut if it's really inflamed. Um, but also that bacteria will feed off of it, create that gas, that bloating, that uncomfortable. So you go carnivore, you feel less symptoms. Same thing with low FODMAP, the fermentable carbohydrates. You cut out those fermentable carbohydrates that the bacteria feed on. So if we have a big imbalance in that gut, you are going to have far less symptoms going on. So you feel better. But what happens is if you stay on that diet long term, you— if you try to come off of it and you don't get to the root cause of what's going on in the gut and then correct the insufficiencies to rebuild it, You're going to come off that diet and you're still going to be aggravated by those foods and then have to cut back down. And then the more and more limited we get with our food, that's going to actually make our gut diversity weaker and weaker and weaker. So I healed myself not by— I was living off of white rice and chicken arugula for over a decade. I was carnivore for over a year. I lived off of bananas for months at hand and was fruitarian for 7 years. Yes, so I had to literally— my body couldn't even do a little bit of fiber. I had to baby myself back on food because of how extreme I went, but that's how bad my stomach would hurt and swell up when I would eat it. Water would hurt my stomach when I was at my worst.

I think one of the mistakes that people make with diet is that they think if they do badly with a diet, then that diet is not good for us. Not realizing is their system, that's the problem, and they're just reacting incorrectly to, to perfectly good food for other people.

Yeah, yeah. And I even look at, um, I know a lot of people are like, well, I've done food sensitivity testing. Yeah, I spent thousands of dollars on that too. And if you have a lot of gut issues going on, you probably got leaky gut. And if you have dysbiosis in the gut, that is not going to show through food sensitivity testing. So it may say that food looks good, but if it's fermenting with that bacteria, that food still may not be a good food for you. So that's why I really— or it may not be testing a delayed response or IgE. So I really don't even utilize food sensitivity testing. I have a way of actually knowing how to help my clients specifically figure out what's going on with their food, teach them how to do it, and expand their diet without doing that.

Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, so, so when people go on elimination diet, they get to find out what is affecting their system, and then they will eat what doesn't cause problem. For how long would you suggest them—

like, what, what I, I think elimination diets, we really don't want to stay on for more than like 6-8 weeks. Like, you do not want to cut all of your food out and stay on that for very long term. You need to be working to, to either test and get to the root cause or correcting the, the insufficiencies going on. If you have that much gut issues to where foods and fibers and things are bothering you, it's not as simple as do an elimination diet, because if you don't address the underlying, you're going to add the foods back in and you're going to react again.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What about the issue of parasites? Because that's a— I think it seems like it's a popular thing that people talk about right now. I got parasites. I need to get rid of the parasites. It seems like everything bad can be attributed to, you know, from these parasites. Everyone suspect that they have some parasites in them. How do they find out if they actually do?

Well, like I mentioned earlier, is that testing is gonna show some parasites, but there's thousands of parasites, so it's not gonna show everything. Things could always go hidden, but we never wanna just go, hey, I had parasites and start doing a protocol. So I think doing a underlying something like a stool test to see How also your opportunistic bacteria is, the parasites it does check for, the yeast, the bacteria. We all have bad bacteria and parasites and things in our body. But like, I think the whole key thing is when we lose the resilience in our gut, that's when the bad guys take over more. Again, that could be through antibiotics, stress, that could be through our quality of our food. Like, people don't understand that, you know, in our waters there's antibiotics and there's so much nowadays that can impact it. And even you get the gut from your family. So like, if you were a C-section baby, if your mom had chronic gut issues, you have to look at your family history because that's where you're coming from. Mm-hmm. Yeah, like kind of comes down the line.

Yeah. And what about all these, um, cleanses that people have cleansing out bacteria— I mean, uh, parasites? Um, there's a lot going on that people are, are telling each other different protocols and, and enemas. And, and what are your, your, your thoughts on, on how people should approach this?

I really believe that I would never just guess and I would always test. That's just where I'm at. Because if you have chronic gut issues going on or you're just saying, oh, I can't lose weight, but everyone's talking about parasites, yeah, you could have parasites, doing a cleanse is, you know, great, but at the same time, is there's probably other things going on other than just parasites if you have a lot of issues going on. And it's better to actually see before you start throwing strong things at you and changing the gut microbiome in a way that's going to significantly change.

Yeah. Um, so, and what about the issue of biofilm? Can you, can Talk a little bit about biofilm and how that impacts us.

Yeah. So when we think about like parasites and yeast and bacteria and all of that, we have our intestinal lining. Um, and we have, I like to think of them as like a spider web. So say for example, we have parasites going on. Those could be encased. Think of a spider web attaching and encasing the parasites to that intestinal lining. So certain herbs and things, they could be going to attack the parasites, But if there's not something to break through that biofilm, then you're not actually getting to that parasite. So those could encase the bacteria, yeast, everything throughout the body, and even with like mold and everything. So we wanna make sure that when we do see what's going on in that individual, we're strategic with what we do so we're not just throwing herbs and guessing and not actually getting to the root.

So these are the protective layers that these organisms secrete to protect themselves.

Yeah. And casing them on, it's like, yeah, into that lining.

So how do you break that?

Um, I actually use biofilm disruptors, but I use different ones for different clients depending on the case that I'm dealing with. Um, just because some people are very sensitive. I had, um, I have the MTHFR genetic mutation, so like I had detox issues big time. So I had to be very selective with what I did cuz a lot of these are very potent and strong. But there's everything from enzymes to biofilm disruptors to specific herbs that we can use as well and pairing them with the protocol.

Yeah, yeah. So, um, the— this, this journey of yours, um, like, what are some of the, the things that you did that made the biggest difference, you think? Like, what, what was it, the variety of tests that you did, and then how you were able to put the pieces together, or were there any major, like, remedies that you used that made a big—

I think my health was like such a big puzzle piece. I think my health— I have all those degrees, but my health was almost like another degree of mine to figure out. I was my puzzle piece that I'm able to fix things so fast for my clients now. Um, so I had a lot of ups and downs on mine. I think the key components that I believe is really nervous system. I never addressed the stress in the nervous system. That was huge for me. Um, the second thing is less was more. So I was spending thousands of dollars on all of these supplements and things that were marketed to me that would just leave me feeling worse because I was drawn into the marketing scheme of it. And I think that's huge. Um, another thing is I was always focused on what I can't have and eliminating things to go to the most extreme diet. What's the top trending diet out there that everyone's talking about with gut health to get them there. And I would go that hardcore and be all in. I didn't heal myself until I started expanding my diet, healing my nervous system, and doing less supplements but more strategic with it. And I think those are 3 very big elements. Um, and also I would throw this one out for other people: when you have such chronic gut issues, do not try to be your own practitioner. Um, of course I did that, and I learned so much on it, but it, it took me so much longer to heal because of it. But I went to wrong people that didn't know what they were doing. So find someone that could be your guide, because if you have chronic stress and anxiety and you can't go to the bathroom, you don't know what to eat, it is— you're going to be cutting your food out, you're going to be second-guessing yourself, and ultimately you're not going to heal because you're going to be changing things every single day. You need someone you can trust.

Yeah, the right guidance.

Yes.

Yeah. And when you optimize your gut function and you, and at the same, so at the same time you started expanding your, your diet intake, like your variety of the foods you're eating, were you, um, did that set you back sometimes and then you had to back off? Yeah. So you were testing what you can add back in kind of.

Absolutely. So I was so sensitive, I had to look in every chemical compound of a food. I had to look at my fiber, my fructose, histamine, because I had mast cell activation, fermentation rates of food, FODMAPs of food. So it left me very narrow. And then I was down to no fiber too. So I had to find sources and ways of doing it to where the food wasn't going to ferment, where I was able to slowly increase my fiber. But also you look at things like, hey, how am I going to add in this vegetable and this fruit when I can only have a few little pieces and it's ripe and it's ready. So I would call myself like I had to baby myself back onto food and find unique ways of incorporating it to slowly expand. And I also had to learn that it takes up to 3 to 4 days to have a reaction to a food. So I would throw something in, be like, oh, I feel great, everything's awesome, increase it a lot the next day. Same the next day, and then all of a sudden, day 3, day 4 in, huge reaction. So I think that was a big part of my journey is when you're so limited, you're desperate to expand, that you have one thing and you're like, oh my God, give me all the blueberries. I had to go slow and steady and know that it's not a race.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I'm curious about, you know, concern of metabolism because we've all have met women who just cannot lose the weight. They, they, they tell you that they are eating very little and they're exercising and they're stuck. So how do you approach women like that?

Oh man, that's like every client that comes to me. We got the chronic fatigue, stubborn belly fat, low libido. They're told the labs look normal, thyroid looks normal, yet they're on like 800, 1,200 calories, hitting their protein, can't lose nothing. So the biggest things that I do is we need to look at blood sugar regulation because as we get older, we're more insulin, um, resistant. So if we're not sleeping, we're waking up throughout the night, we're having energy crashes, that's something we need to address. Um, with my older clients, women 40, 50 beyond, because we're going through perimenopause for 7 to 14 years and our body and hormones are changing, I love running a Dutch test to look at not just where your hormones are in one point of the day but to see where your cortisol is trending throughout the whole entire day and your night, to see if we have estrogen dominance going on, if we're moving the extra excess estrogens from the body to— those things matter. So when I'm able to look at, you know, our blood sugar to see what's actually going on with our hormones, I get my clients so many answers and then I set up their food and their nutrition and even their workouts they start getting their hunger cues back. I had a client, she did up to carnivore, couldn't lose weight. One week into my program, we just hopped on our call yesterday, she's down 3 inches in her waist. She's like, Elizabeth, my inflammation is dropping. I cut no calories from her. She's eating more, actually. No added cardio. She's like 6K steps, a 5K sedentary, not a lot. This was all through food nutrition practices. And then if we have the bloating and more underlying gut issues, that's when I throw in more gut testing. But it's not always necessary. But I do believe that we're so focused on calories in versus calories out, but not looking at how our hormones are changing. Also, if our thyroid's functioning— I mentioned that earlier, this is a huge one that I test all my clients for. And then it's not about what you eat, it's about what you absorb. So you could be eating all the protein in the world, but if you have very low HCl or not making stomach acid, are we actually denaturing the protein and absorbing our nutrients?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you mentioned, um, as we get older, there's more insulin resistance. So how would you explain to somebody why, why they're getting more insulin resistant?

Just, I think the biggest thing is that, like, as we get older, like, our hormones are different. As women, our hormones change on a day-to-day basis. So we can have water retention one day, um, we could the next day have a flat stomach and be pooping. We go through chronic stress with life, business, family, you name it. So over the time, it leads to more of that, um, what do you call it, the metabolic chaos. And those stressors add up. And then we're fasting all morning, we're living off of shakes and bars because they're convenience foods, and it's not, um, it's not supporting blood sugar regulation. The blood sugar—

what do you think the role of the GLP-1s are in, in these, in, in women? And maybe all of the women, you know, since there's broad, you know, benefits from from these, uh, these peptides.

So I see a good 90% of women, I'm seeing more and more often them coming to me on them and already like in a worse place a few months in. They're gaining 20, 30 pounds back because they're not changing their training. They're not looking at their nutrition.

Wait, you're seeing them here on GLP-1s?

They've gotten off and gained all the weight back. Oh yeah. And they have, so GLP-1s slow down the gut motility. So now they're dealing with constipation and gut issues. And GLP-1s work on your leptin, your ghrelin, so your hunger and satiety cues. So you're eating less food, you're having less cravings, um, but it doesn't change your food quality. It doesn't change the fact you're in perimenopause and losing muscle at a faster rate. So if we're not doing things to actually make sure we're getting all of our nutrition in, we're going to get nutrient deficiencies. If we're not doing the strength training and the proper food to actually keep our metabolism high keep the gut motility working, then a lot of it's backfiring. So it's like, to me, those are more of like last resort versus that immediate— we need to set all the foundations. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, so what— how do you rev up the metabolism and making sure a person is getting the proper amount of nutrients and, uh, and enough to, to fuel muscle, right? Maintenance and growth.

Absolutely. So I do have my clients track for like 3 days for me so I can get a baseline of what they're consuming on a day-to-day basis. And then I strategically set up their meals. I make the meal plans, everything as a start guide. And then as we're checking in each week, I'm looking at energy, sleep, hormones, gut, poop, um, recovery, how inflammation's feeling. Um, if we're sleeping through the night, and adjusting the amount of meals, the amount that's at the meals. Um, I even do all their training so that we're able to start getting that stimulus for building lean muscle, which improves your metabolism. We're building lean muscle, we have more hunger cues back. Now we're sleeping better, recovering better, and then we're slowly able to bring that food up. Okay.

And, um, and you actually, while you were healing your gut, you drastically improved your athletic performance. I mean, that's pretty astounding, right? From— how do you think that, you know, from healing the gut, how did that translate into athletic performance?

So you aren't what you eat, you're what you absorb. So you could be eating the cleanest diet out there, but I had very low stomach acid. I wasn't breaking down my protein. My body wasn't recovering. It was in chronic stress due to all the dysbiosis in that gut. So when I was able to remove that, the stress that was in my gut, and then actually restore all of the insufficiency, so I was breaking down and absorbing my food, my body was just starting to become nourished. I was recovering better. I was, you know, getting faster and feeling stronger, all of it.

Hmm. Yeah. Amazing. Well, you're bringing so much hope to everybody that's suffering out there. I mean, even yourself going into multiple providers and, you know, looking for solutions. And it took a while for you to get on the right track. And I've seen your pictures on Instagram, your before and after. It's absolutely astounding. You know, anyone wants to check it out, it's— yeah, it's very, very impressive of how you were able to save your body, right, to get it to a place of vibrancy. So really wonderful. And, um, how do people find you?

Yeah, so I am Elizabeth Ayler Fitness, not Taylor, all over the internet. I am on Instagram and YouTube are my top two platforms. Um, I have so much long-form content. I know we got some freebies below for everyone, but I do work with clients all around the world. I do functional lab testing, get to the root cause, so you could just send me over that DM ready on Instagram, and then I'll be reaching out to you.

Yeah, wonderful, wonderful. I hope, uh, a lot more people find, uh, you know, expert help like, you know, like what you can offer. Um, so I'm just so happy that you are here, able to share your journey and your, um, you know, expertise. Um, I, um, I, I, I applaud you on your accomplishment. It's is remarkable. I think that's the, the, the life force in you that make you seek answer, right? To see—

Thank you so much. That's so kind of you.

So, again, thank you for sharing.

Oh, thank you for having me today.

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