379. Midlife Weight Loss Made Easy with Natalie Jill

Welcome to the Thyroid Fixer Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Amy, and we're diving deep into the world of hormones, especially for all you fierce women in perimenopause and menopause and anyone dealing with hypothyroidism. If you're struggling with weight gain, you feel like shedding those pounds is an impossible feat. If you're dealing with plummeting energy levels, gut wrenching fatigue, or a libido that seems to have left town, then you're in the right place. And don't even get me started on the hair loss. If these symptoms are sounding all too familiar, you're welcome.

Because my goal is to educate, empower.

And shake up your world. I want you to embrace every inch of that badass woman that you truly are. So if you're ready to dive in and fix things, let's get started. I completely and totally hear you and I see you and I understand you, and I know exactly where you're at. You're gaining weight. You can't lose. You have all the symptoms that no one's listening to. The fatigue, the hair loss, the brain fog. You can't remember why you walked into a room. You don't want to get dressed and go out because you know if you have that glass of wine with your friend, if you have that dessert with your husband, or even order an appetizer, you're going to be five pounds heavier the next day. And your clothes are already tight. Every single doctor is telling you that you're normal and everything is fine. You've been to multiple conventional medicine doctors trying to use your insurance, hoping to God that somebody has an answer. Then you've dropped thousands of dollars on functional medicine or integrative medicine because you keep hearing how functional medicine gets to the root cause of the problem. But not every functional medicine practitioner knows the thyroid and knows the hormones and can treat you as a nuanced, personalized individual, a unique person. That is exactly what my team and I do. We specialize in thyroid problems. We specialize in hormones. You can't do one without the other. You cannot just see someone for your thyroid and have them ignore your hormones or have them half ass your hormones. They better be a hormone and thyroid expert. If you are going to spend your time, your energy and your money if you are going to invest in functional medicine, they need to be a thyroid and hormone expert and treat you as an individual. They can't have a cap on how much T3 that they're going to give you. They have to personalize your treatment plan to get you feeling your best, no matter what that looks like, so that every system in your body functions at the very top, at the very best. And that is exactly what we do. I made it my mission because I went through this. I was dismissed, I was gaslit, I was misdiagnosed, and I dropped thousands of dollars before I found an answer. That is why I made it my mission to be able to treat people in all 50 states so we can prescribe via telehealth, thyroid and hormones and peptides. Yeah, the GLPs as well, to all 50 states, most of Canada and now Puerto Rico. That is my mission to be able to help you wherever you are, because I want you living your best life. I want you to join me in optimization land where you can go out and love life and go out with your friends and go out with your partner and not gain weight looking sideways at a brownie. Yes, we do have financing options available. I'm talking like 0% or 12 months, the whole thing. Based on your credit score. We got you. And our programs are affordable. They're completely and totally affordable. And they will get you from point A to point B. They will bring you into optimization land. So please don't waste another moment struggling, please. I want you living here with me, a great, happy life in optimization land. So go to my website@dramy.com, click the Become a patient button so we can have a chat. Let's talk it out. Let's hear what you've done, what you haven't done, what's worked, what hasn't worked, and let's get you on the right path to feeling your absolute best. If you can imagine the best life ever that is absolutely possible for you. I'm not BSing you. I am not BSing you. I was in your shoes. Many of my patients have been in your shoes. We will get you there. And that is my promise to you. So Natalie, Jill, my guest today, and I are going to talk about killing fat and how to lose weight in midlife. Your 40s, your 50s, your 60s, even your 70s. And okay, we'll let you 30 year olds in, but we're really talking about midlife because it's really hard to lose fat as you age. But Natalie's figured out a way, and I love that she calls herself the fat killer. And it's not just the stuff that we want to lose around our midsection, it's also the stuff in our minds that we're telling ourselves she's going to drop some bombs Today as well. So, Natalie, she is the founder, owner and CEO of Natalie Jill Fitness. She holds a degree in health and human performance and is licensed in pretty much everything. I mean, from functional fitness training to sports nutrition to personal training to health advocacy. I mean, you name it, she's licensed in it. So the woman knows her stuff. She is also an author of a multitude of amazing books, one of them Aging in Reverse, which is what I want to do always. So let's dive in, enjoy this, take some notes. Midlife weight loss, is it possible? Can you do it? Because you know this is a season, so you might as well be thinking about it. So, of course, weight loss, fat loss, it's the beginning of January, everybody is thinking about it, but I, especially the middle aged women. You know, all of us, 40s, 50s, 60s, we tend to battle that extra weight a little bit more than, of course, when we were in our 20s and 30s, and the weight would just fall off after we dieted for two days.

So it's a little bit more of.

A struggle right now, but yet it's totally doable. So, Natalie, you've been a guest on the podcast. Well, we did a joint podcast before, but you're back on because you're really an expert in the area of fat loss, especially when it comes to midlife. I mean, hence your podcast, midlife conversations. Like, this is what we need to talk about with these that are struggling, right? Yep.

And it seems to be the struggle bus, especially for midlife women, because we were raised in the 80s, the 70s, early 90s, and it was a whole thing. I mean, body image has changed a lot over the years. I mean, we were that. We were the years that started all the plastic surgery. We were the years that grew up with moms on Diet tab. We were the ones that we were in this whole diet world. So it's this thing that comes back and seems to haunt us, especially every New Year's, like, oh, resolution time. It's time to put it on the list.

It is. And you know, I mean, not even so much resolution, but I think the way that we feel after the holidays, it's almost like, okay, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. You had too much wine, you had too many cookies. And now that weight that you really have been battling for the last six months to a year now, okay, that scale went up a little bit. Now it's really starting to bug you. And now you realize, you know what, I need to take charge in the new year and really get this weight off just so you can look, feel and perform better. I mean, it's not just about aesthetics. It's not about impressing anyone else. It's about how you feel, how your clothes fit and then really even staving off disease and, and helping you live longer.

So it's so interesting because when it comes to fat loss, I truly have a different approach than any other person I've seen out there in the fat loss industry. I'm not just about, this is what we need to eat, this is what we need to restrict, this is the workout we need to do now. Yes, I became known for fitness and nutrition. However, the method that I've used to help over 250,000 women and I say release the weight, I don't even like to say lose the weight because that implies we're finding it again, to release it is quite different. It's, this is not about just being stricter, just pushing yourself harder, giving up this specific food group, following this trend of diet this time, it's truly a shift of foundational concepts, of shifting underlying beliefs. And when we do that, it changes everything. It's kind of like building a house on unstable sand. You could build a dream house and it's going to collapse without that right foundation. Now, we have been built. We are tough. We are Gen Z. Many of us, some, some listening are probably millennials. Gen Z, we're tough, maybe older, and we think we know a lot of things. And I want to point out that all of our thoughts have got us to right now, right here today. So if you are on that struggle bus again and you are navigating weight loss once again and thinking, okay, this is creeping up, I've got to navigate it. I'm tired of navigating it, I'm sick of dealing with it. I would encourage you to listen on because truly, it is about changing that foundation that changes a lot for us.

And that's what I love about you, is that you don't just, oh, here's a cookie cutter diet, here's some exercise to do, you'll be good. You're getting deep, you're getting into those beliefs. And I see that with my audience, I see that with my patients too, that sometimes that's the sticking point. We could be doing all the things we can be optimizing their thyroid, we got them on the bioidentical hormones, they're doing great on paper, but why can't they lose the weight? And oftentimes do you find it is about that mindset?

It's so Funny, because if I were to tell somebody it's mindset, they're going to be instantly triggered. They think, what do you mean? I have a positive mindset. I'm in the right place. It's not in my head. And that's not what I mean by mindset. I, I want to call it foundation instead of mindset. Because what happens is we become the sum of everything that we've experienced in our life. Like, we've got all these stories, all these backgrounds, all these things that have built up who we are today, and all the experiences we've had, all the experiments on diets, all the ups and downs in our scale, all the things have made us who we are today, right? So we have this strong foundation that runs around 247 in our minds, in our body, in our belief set that we start approaching new things with. And we wonder why we don't have change. Well, we can take on new actions, but we're not fixing that foundation. We're not fixing that. So we've got to go deeper before we can fix that. And when I say go deeper, I don't mean I'm going to get you crying with the tissues and we're going to go back to your childhood. That's not what I'm talking about. But we have to really redefine some things. Let me give you a few examples. When people ask me what I do, I say, kill fat. And they say, okay, fat, we kill fat. And I say, yes, but fat to me stands for false assumed truths. It's a belief that we've been carrying for years and years and years. For example, you might have patients that come to you, Dr. Amy, they say, I have thyroid problems. This is my problem. This is why I can't release weight. And they're only saying I have thyroid problems. This is my story. Well, the truth of the matter is there's people with thyroid problems that have released weight, right? There's. Okay. So that becomes a false assumed truth. If you believe because of your thyroid problems you cannot lose weight, same thing with age. Same thing with a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, for example. Same thing with anything. As soon as you say, I had a hysterectomy, therefore I can't lose weight, or I've hit menopause, therefore I can't lose weight. If anyone else on the entire planet has had a result different than that, then it is not a fact and it's a false assumed truth. So one of the first things we as women need to take a grasp of is what are these false assumed truths that we've been carrying around our whole life and how do we fix those? Because if you truly believe that that is your stop, then you are creating a self imposed stop and there's no way to break through it. I can give you the most perfect diet, I can watch the 24 7, I can push you on the workout, you can get them on the best protocol Dr. Wise. But it's not going to last if we don't fix that false assim.

Truth is a mic drop. Like my jaw is actually opening. If anyone's watching this on YouTube, I'm like, oh my go. Because listen, as long as I've been in this industry, as long as I've been doing this, I have never put it together like that. Like you just explained it and that is amazing and it's brilliant and it's true and it, I can already think of patients that, that I can apply that to like, oh my God, that's it. It's the.

Yeah, well, think about your patient that comes into you and they say, I have tried everything. Nothing works for me, nothing going to work for me. It's just that like that's not a fun patient for you because you already know I am battling a lot. Now it becomes this game of I've got to prove something, right? This is not, this is not fun. But the patient that comes in and says, I know there's something more for me, I know that this is not where I'm supposed to be, I know and I'm ready. That's a very different mindset. It's the same thing with balls assumed truth. If you approach anything new in your life with this belief set that it's not going to work for you, all the reasons why, then it's not going to work for you. Nothing's going to change that. So when people come to me, when my clients go through my Thrive program, when they are working one on one with me, whatever it is, when they tell me that things will not work for them, I say, you're right. Because if that's what they believe, it will absolutely not work for them. And I absolutely. One of the first things I've got to unwind with people is that belief. Because as soon as you believe that to be true, it becomes true. And you know what, what's interesting is I can say this in health world, it's true with our finances, it's true with our business, it's true with our relationships, it is true in all the things. If you believe it to be. So you're going to prove yourself, right?

Well, we actually have science to back that. Anyone that studied the, the power of the mind. Yeah. And, and this isn't just foo foo, new age stuff. There's, there's actually back science. There's brain scans, there's MRIs, that's been done. Joe Dispenza is really, you know, well known for this, that we can see changes in the brain happen and we can also pair that up with changes in the body.

Absolutely.

Tumor shrinking, you know, inflammation going down. I mean we can, we can see that pair up between the mind and.

The body all the time. And this is why there's also, I believe, a placebo effect with things too. I just want to be. I'm going to point out how this works in a lot of ways. Like sometimes we have medical amazingness and we, and people say, well, it was a placebo effect. Well, I wouldn't throw that out entirely because what's wrong with that? So if you believe something to be harming you or to be fixing you and it works, that's amazing. I actually want to grab more of that energy. I think it's incredible. So when you approach what I teach in fat loss on those grounds, or you approach anything in your life on those grounds with a new belief set, you're going to have so much more success. It's really, it's really quite remarkable.

Now, is there any point of time where you can't break through that mindset? Is there, are there people out there that are so stubborn or can you really kind of. I mean, if they want this for themselves, I will.

I'm pretty much a turn off to anybody that's going to be that stubborn. So what I'm saying to you, if you're like, I'm done with this trick like that, you're not my person. I already know that. Just like it wouldn't be your patient either. But if this resonates at all, then I'm probably an ideal coach for people because that's who I like to work with. Now that doesn't mean we spend all of our time there, but I set ground rules throughout my method and that's one example is those false assumed truths. And I. One of the exercises that I typically walk women through first is identifying what are those false assumed truths and what's the actual truth and how do we focus on that and how do we create those into beliefs, thoughts and actions that bring a new reality to us? Because the truth is you can become an entirely different Version of yourself in the next eight weeks, in the next 12 weeks, in the next year by changing your thoughts, actions and habits. And you do that by first identifying these false ass truths.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, Absolutely. I love this. Okay, so you're starting with the most important aspect of, of weight loss. You really are. I mean, that is the most important. What else are you finding?

Yeah.

In these midlife women.

Oh, my gosh. I could go on with a long list of things, but let's just kind of pick a few, you know, of the most important. And you can, you can ask me deeper where you think your audience might want to go. But I want you to picture weight loss kind of like a tripod. Okay, so we've got state on top. State. We got plate and we got weight. Okay? So state is your mindset. It is the whole key of where the foundation is. Okay, so it's the point. It's important, it's critical. It has to be there. It's the top of everything or it's the foundation. I maybe should reverse that upside down in my mind.

But that is the core part.

But a tripod doesn't stand up with just one leg. It needs three legs. Right, so then you've got your plate, which is how we're eating. That is important. Those actions are critical. Like you've got to take the actions every single day with the right foods. And my premise on foods and we can go deeper here is I teach focusing on addition, not deprivation. See, most weight loss coaches, most nutritionists will teach you all the things you can't have. That puts you in deprivation mode. It puts you in failure mode. It does not work right. So I'm going to teach you all the things you can have. And we're going to put so much of the good in that we make less room for the not so amazing. So it's a definite another thing that happens with our minds because now we feel really good. We're adding in versus subtracting. But then there's another part of that tripod and that's the weight. And that's just what we're doing with our bodies, how we're moving them. That's the physical aspect. We have to have movement. Now, that doesn't mean what people think it has to mean. I'm not saying go beat yourself up at the gym, do extreme things. I'm not saying work through pain, none of that. But we have to move our body. A body not in motion will not stay in motion. So the first thing I wanted to sort of outline is that tripod is going to be critical when it comes to fat loss or change in our health.

Absolutely it is. Oh, my God. Yeah. And I'm with you on the deprivation. I think there's, I mean, we've seen in this industry way, way, way too many nutritionist coaches, functional practitioners really focus on the elimination diet and, and reducing this, and reducing that reduced process to, and as, as good as it is to take out garbage foods. I mean, we're not saying, yeah, go ahead.

And I, I don't have garbage foods on my plans. I want to be fair, like, but. And I still teach people what category they're in.

Yeah.

So for example, when I teach carbs, there's lots of different carbs. You know, there's vegetable carbs, which can be amazing and unlimited. There's low glycemic fruit carbs, which are amazing and unlimited. There's. Then there's starchy carbs which we can pack on a lot more calories in, but they're still nutritious like yams. And you could, you can. Some. Someone might argue that grains can be good. I'm not a huge fan of grains, but that could be an argument one way or another. But then there's things like muffins, cookies, cake. Now those are still carbs. Are they the ideal carb? No. So that they're the not so amazing carb. So what I do is I teach clients, I teach people to go through my method. How do we fit those things in so we can actually have a life, but we don't make those the primary focus.

I love that. I love that. And so going out to eat, that's a big one. I mean, all the ladies want to go out with the friends and have some drinks. So how does, how do you incorporate in living a life, living a normal life and being social?

So I teach everything lifestyle based. It's, it's very important and I would, I think it's a huge red flag if you ever come across any nutrition plan that's not lifestyle based because temporary. It's not the goal to learn something and then be done with it. That's not the goal. The goal is to change your habits and what you're doing so it becomes so routine and regular. Your body's craving it and you want to continue. So we want to make things simple, easy and fun. That's, that's rule number one. Things have to be simple, easy and fun. So I teach everything in a way that works in lifestyle. So anything that you learn to eat you should be able to easily, at a friend's house or at a restaurant, be able to work that in. So is it realistic for me to say, never have wine? No, that's not realistic. That would be deprivation mode. So instead I say work it in. Now, wine is not technically a carb, right? But I would count that as a carb in the same way it reacts in our body. So I would say if wine's a thing, then we're probably giving up a starchy carb. We're going to maybe have some vegetables and protein and a healthy fat with that, but not have the starchy carbs with that. And wine is also a trigger for other not so amazing foods. So if I meet you out for dinner, Amy, and we, we have a couple of glasses of wine, we're much more likely to order the nachos and cheese, where if we order the healthy meal first and then maybe sip on the wine, it's a little different. So it's little things like that that make it work into a lifestyle.

And, you know, to piggyback off what you said, if you, if anyone is working with a nutritionist that totally pulls out all alcohol. And I always mention Andrew Huberman's podcast where he dives into the alcohol conundrum and what it actually does to your body. And I, I, I respect that, I admire that. And there's truth in that, that we don't want to pound our bodies with, with poison, essentially. But I love that you are taking into account that we are human, we are not perfect. And as much information as we bombard our minds with. We know that alcohol is poisonous, but it's still fun every once in a while to do.

No, exactly. No. I'm not personally a drinker. However, I'm not gonna say I never, ever, ever, ever, I'm gonna have an amazing cocktail. If you're like, hey, I made this amazing cocktail. You wanna try it?

Right?

I don't personally love what alcohol does for my body. I don't recommend it. I'm not saying, hey, let's all go drink a lot, but I also realize there's a lot of other reasons people choose to have it. For stress reduction, for end of day, it's a ritual with their husband, whatever it is. So of course I work that in. What I go heavy on is education. So I'm going to teach you exactly what happens when we drink alcohol. I'm going to teach you exactly what happens when we eat too many, too much sugar. I'm going to teach you what happens when we eat aspartame, I'm going to teach you what happens with food glycation. I'm going to teach you. So you have the. Oh, I get it. Not just you can't have seed oils. Here's what actually happens to your body when you have seed oils regularly and then go in the sun, things like that. So when you know the understanding, you change the habit.

This is why you're on the podcast. We're so aligned. Because I, I'm huge into people knowing the why. If you know the why, just it's exactly what you're saying. If you know the why, you are going to think that even if it's in a millisecond thought, you are going to think before you do. And maybe you still do, but maybe sometimes you don't because you think through. You know what? The last time I gave in and did, I felt like crap. And I know why. Because Natalie taught me why.

Yes, because that it changes our decisions when we do things. I mean, we, you and I were super transparent on our last podcast together about silicone breast implants.

Right.

We had different information when we first put them in than we maybe have now. Right. So you and I have been through a similar path with our experience. You still have them in, you're thriving. You're doing amazing. Me, mine are out and I'm thriving and doing amazing. We both, both different things. I based my decision, taking him out on different information that was coming into me and how I was feeling in my body. So I made a different decision. If I didn't know that information, I wouldn't have made that different decision. So we as humans make different decisions for our life based on knowledge. So I don't love when a teacher just tells us what to do without really explaining the why behind it. So you can make your own decisions on it.

Absolutely. I love it, love it, love it. Okay, midlife ladies. I see a lot of low protein intake. Are you seeing that too? Oh, yeah.

Okay, so we have is Dr. Gabrielle Lyons, who I believe you know too will say that we're. We have a chronically under muscle problem, not an over fat problem. And, and I do believe that we are under muscled. I think we, what happens as we age is we are not progressing, we are not challenging ourselves and we are losing muscle and then we're going lower on the protein too. And our body's not utilizing things exactly the same. So protein is key. It's important. It's the first ingredient I line up with our meals and our food however, I'm going to say this, I'm going to say this. I have changed my stance many times on how much protein. So I'm going to say. And it depends. And it depends. So if I, if you come to me and you say, you know, I work out all the time, I'm trying to dial this in, get into my ideal shape, whatever. I'm probably going to tell you you need to be eating about your body weight and protein grams a day. Okay, that's, that's what I would advise. I probably advise you that. However, I don't know that I advise somebody that, that has 70 pounds to lose. I don't know that I would advise somebody that, that is brand new to working out. I don't know that I would advise that to somebody that's not working out at all. So it's a really, truly comes to, and it depends because excess is still going to get stored as fat on our bodies. And if eating your body weight in grams of protein a day becomes an excess issue for you and you're not actually utilizing that, then that becomes a problem. So it comes back to an it depends. There's a lot of nutrients I want us to get in to really thrive in midlife. You know, I teach aging well. I'm not personally, not personally a fan of being on a carnivore diet or giving up all fruits and vegetables. I think we need those nutrients, so I'm gonna want people to get those in. So if that doesn't leave room to squeeze in all the extra grams of protein, I'm going to be aware there. So I don't have a set like you have to have this body weight amount, but we got to be making sure we're having enough and many of us are not having enough. You know, you look at a standard American diet and I know most of your listeners are more educated than this, but I bet there's some listeners right now that will even say that for breakfast they had a banana and oatmeal and yogurt. Okay, great, you had the banana, oatmeal, and how did you feel an hour later? Probably hungry because we were heavy on the carbs and sugar, very low on the protein, very low on the healthy fat, and we were not having low glycemic stuff. So protein becomes important. You'll notice if you have a higher protein meal, lower glycemic carbs like vegetables, or high fiber like sweet potatoes, and you have some healthy fats, you're not going to be as hungry an hour later.

Absolutely, yeah. Now, what is too low for you? What is your. What's your bare bones cut off with the protein grams per day, Bear?

I don't. I wouldn't say, I'm not going to say a gram number, but I'll say I want you having at least three solid servings of protein a day. So I'll say that would be my bear. I'm gonna still push people a little higher, but remember, I'm dealing with weight loss and fat loss, so people are not coming to me that are in the five or ten pounds. I can help those people, but I'm having. When You've got the £70 to lose £50 to £70 to lose me, pushing this high protein agenda does not necessarily work so well. So I'm gonna say let's focus on your three main meals. Having a higher amount of protein. Exactly. Not be the exact specific answer you're looking for, but that's how I would advise them.

Well, no, where I was going is I would. I will call out most of my listeners and my patients that are listening too, that they will say, oh, I get in enough protein. I go, really? All right, let's. How about we write it down? Yeah. And then they write it down. And even though they are getting in three servings, it's like two ounces.

Okay, so let's go. Okay, let me give you, like, for me example, I'm having at least 30 grams three times a day, at least. So we're. I'm automatically getting in about 90 grams no matter what. There you go. Then I'm adding in protein pre and post workout when I work out. So. So, yeah, so ultimately I am getting about my body weight and protein, so that's what I do. So, yes, in that case, I see what you're talking about. But no, if you're having like a bite of a protein bar and you're like, I am getting in my protein, or you're having an egg and saying, I'm getting my protein.

Yeah, one egg. Yep.

I. Yes. That is not correct. That is not going to be enough. Correct.

Yeah. And I want to drive that point home to the ladies, too, because it's not getting in enough. Your body's not going to burn fat.

Absolutely not. Yes, you were right. And I noticed, like, you and I had dinner together in, when you were out visiting here, and the first thing, you and I and your husband and mine, who are all fit, we looked at the menu and our first thing is, what's the protein? We're all looking. That's our first go to what's the protein we're ordering and then what are the sides we're gonna do with it?

Right.

That's how we all literally looked at the menu.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So piggybacking off of that and tying in the fact that we were. Many of our. Our listeners here were born in the 80s, 70s and 80s, or were raised in the 70s and 80s. The starvation mode theory. Right. We heard that back then. Don't let your body go into starvation mode or it will hold on to fat for dear life. Are you. Are you seeing a lot of your. Your women, your clients starving themselves?

Yeah. Yes and no. So let me. Let me go. Okay, so it's not as extreme as what we were told 15 years ago, that, like, you, your body will eat all its muscle if you skip a meal. Like, that's not. So I want to back up a minute and explain. The idea of eating every few hours came from our fitness era. It came from the bodybuilding and the fitness world. And really, truly, it was about how do you maximize the protein that you're eating to build more muscle and stay lean? You could not process too much protein at one given meal, so you have to spread it out. That's really where that came from. So then that got transferred to the diet industry, and everything was eat five, six, seven meals a day. Break them into small parts. Let's do that. Okay. What happened was that doesn't work initially for people because if you're eating a highly processed food diet, way too many calories, and you break it down to smaller meals like that, you are going to lose weight over time. What happens over time, though, is that has become less critical. And what we've noticed is people start eating too much, and now you're hungry all day long, and you're secreting insulin all day long, and you're never in this state of fasting, which is a problem. Okay. Because when you're secreting insulin, you're not burning fat. So we don't want to be eating all day long and grazing like a cow or we look like a cow. I'm just gonn put that little out there into the universe. We don't. I. I'm not a fan of that all day long. Okay, so that's number one. So then where does fasting come into play and what should we be doing? Well, I'm a huge fan of giving our bodies breaks. Longer breaks, lots of different ways to do it. Longer breaks between meals. Because when you are not eating, you're not Secreting insulin. Okay. And you're giving your body a rest and you are in fat burning mode. So that is good. So how do we do that? Well, number one, we spread out and do less meals. So I'm a fan of, instead of eating six meals a day, can we start with three or can we do two even? I'm good with that too, too. Or three meals a day. Maybe the small, low, gr. Glycemic, just protein snack, something like that. Maybe. Can we do longer spans at night? I like modified fasting. Can we go at least 12 hours or 13 hours or 14 hours between dinner and breakfast? Gives your body the break. Now, that being said, if you don't eat for one day, if you fast for a day, is that going to put you in starvation mode? No, it's not. It's giving your body a break. Now, if you're doing that as a weight loss tool, as I'm just not going to eat this week, that's called an eating disorder. So that's not a good idea. I don't suggest that. I don't know if that answers your question, but that's, that's really what. But no, we're not. By skipping a day or skipping a meal or going too long, we are not putting ourselves in starvation mode or slowing our metabolism down.

Do you find that women do tend to fast too much? Like they jumped on this intermittent fasting train and they're fasting like, like guys do.

I don't personally find the fasting problem too much with women. I think there's a lot of questions about how to do it properly. What I do find with women is not eating enough. Like really not eating enough. So they, they say, okay, I'm getting my meals in, but they're truly not eating enough. And I'm, I talk, I'm talking. They're having 800 calories a day and they think this is their plan and that a hundred percent will slow down your metabolism. Over time, your body will adapt and think, oh, this is what we're l. And now when you do have those days where you eat normal or eat more, you're gonna store a lot more. So that's, that is a problem. We are slowing down our metabolism by doing that.

I have one patient that was actually told to eat 900 calories a day by her practitioner that she was with before she came to us. So now we have to literally reverse dieter.

Yeah, we have to fix our tablet. And I, and I, and unfortunately I have some clients that come through my program and I Can see that. So anyone that comes through my programs, we do an extensive intake form because I need to. And I. Whether I have 500 people or a hundred people in a. In a group, I, I'm gonna. I read those forms. I do. My team does. We look through them. I'm looking for these, these signs. And I customize live calls based on what I'm seeing. And I. Every time, every class, there's a few people in there, they're like, fighting with the last five pounds or, you know, and they're the ones like, the scale's not moving. The scale's not moving. And I'll look. And this is what they've done to themselves. Yeah, they've. And, and it's a hard thing because I've got to teach them. Do you want to age well long term and fix this, or are we really going to stay stuck on that scale number? Because we got to fix it before we can get better.

I love it. And I love. Here's the other thing. Kind of again, piggybacking off the starvation and eating too little calories. I love that you're coming in with this program during a time where women are running out and taking the Beverly Hills soccer mom jug of choice for weight loss. The GLPs, oh, yeah. Big. The Manjaro, the trulicity. And they are not eating. They are eating away their muscle. They're losing muscle.

You know, it's funny because I, you know, I just had surgery at the time of us recording this right now, and so I didn't eat probably for three days. I'm just being real. Like, I was. I was under anesthesia. You had to fast and you had the anesthesia, then you're, you know, the whole thing. And when I looked at myself, I didn't get on the scale. I just looked at myself and I'm like. And I could see it. It's not just what. You're losing muscle. You're like, it's not. It's not. That's not a healthy weight loss. The second I ate a normal meal, it all came right back. Creating that over time, you're going to start looking like that skinny fat is what I'd call it is not a healthy look. And it's not good for your bones. It's not good for longevity. It's not good for anything. So even if you are that person that's microdosing your ozempak or whatever it is that we're doing, you're doing, I don't want to get in the middle of that, you don't pride yourself on. I have no appetite and I'm not eating. You don't fool yourself. You're going to age rapidly, you're going to mess up your metabolism, and you're going to hurt your. Your health long term.

Yeah, yeah. No, it crushes your appetite. I mean, I've even played around with Manjaro and have done a couple podcasts on my experience and the research behind it.

Yeah. And.

And that. You do lose muscle, I notice. Loose. Yeah. So, yeah, I had to refeed myself because it crushes your appetite. You don't eat enough.

It does. So I really, like, the first thing I started really looking at when I. After my surgery is like, I had to get that protein back in.

How do I get.

And adding in more fat, adding in more of those things to balance that out, because I wasn't trying to, like, be that, oh, I lost all this, you know, whatever, because I'm not eating. That's not. That's not what I'm looking for. But I do know that inflammation, that unhealthy fat, gain all of that. You want to lose that. Absolutely. I'm all for that, but there's healthy ways to do it, and then there's the. The not so healthy. And I call that the starving yourself not so healthy. And I honestly think it's. It's an eating disorder. Honestly, it's just another category of an eating disorder.

Yeah, no, it's gonna. It's going to develop a whole new category of eating disorders that we didn't even name yet. That's right. Yeah.

I'm accidentally anorexic, is what it's becoming. It's really.

Yeah, exactly. I don't.

I don't say that lightly. I understand this is a really big thing for people, and I'm very familiar with eating disorders. I really am. In fact, I actually don't take people in my programs with known eating disorders because I do think they're better suited working with their therapist or somebody fully trained in that. But I'm all too familiar with them. It's. It's close to home for me with. With family, with. I've been around this, so I don't say it lightly, but disordered eating is. Is dangerous. And if you are listening to this and this, any of that is resonating with you, I am going to encourage you to talk to somebody that really can help you through that, because you might. Might feel like a cool, like, control thing initially. Like, I've got this and. But it will deteriorate your health and it will hurt. It does harm you.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I would even argue that what you're doing with your clients and in this program, you're. You're able to take those with, like you said, not a full blown eating disorder, but with this disordered eating, these disordered thought processes around food and what they should process.

Yes.

And absolutely transform them and reshape how they even view food. Right.

Yes. If they're open minded. If they're. And I'm gonna always say that, like I will. That's my preface with people is you gotta be open minded to me as a coach. Because I do. I'm not about a people, a people pleasing coach. Let me explain what I mean. A lot of coaches are really good with the clients that come in and say all the things that are wrong in their life. Go I. They say, you're right, that sucks. I don't do that. You know why? Because me saying you're right, that sucks. Does not support or help you change.

It doesn't. And it embeds that thought.

No. So I'm going to help you decide. Do you want to fix that? And if you do, let's get a plan together to fix it. And let's focus on creating that to people. They either love me or they don't want to work with me.

Yeah, but. But I tell it as it is because I'm there. I see the best in people. I see what their possibility is. I see their potential. And I will push hard. I will help them get there. They have to want it for themselves too.

Yeah. See, we're the same person. You just have dark hair, blonde hair.

Yeah, I know. I know. It's weird that I just met you not too long ago because I feel like I've known you my whole life.

I know, I know.

Seriously, I'm sending you pictures of my boobs yesterday. Like, who are.

Who am I? Yeah, you know, I mean, we got that going. But no, on that note, since you brought it up, your, your explant surgery and we're just going to tease a little bit here. I will be doing a full episode on Natalie's explant journey because it's. It will be the best report experience, the whole thing that you've ever heard. Heard when we're talking about bii. It's why you ended up losing some weight.

I did. So here's my deal. Okay. So speaking into weight loss. Okay. So before I got implants, I was 19 years old. I'm 52. Right. Now I remember my exact weight before I got implants at 19. At age 19, okay? And I was healthy. I wasn't like a scrawny little thing. I was, I looked good. At age 19, I was teenager. Years and years go by all these things. I have implants. We'll tell that whole story another time. But I have over 33 years, had five, five sets of implants over 33 years. I had an autoimmune disease. I do have an autoimmune. I had a lot of things that happen in my, my world A year ago, year and a half ago now. About a year and a half ago Now, I was 20 pounds heavier than I am right now. Now. No one would have looked at me and said, I'm overweight. I was fit. I had abs. I'm fit, right? I'm strong. But no one would have looked at me and said that now I was having some, some health challenges. I was having some things. And in my teachings, because I am a believer in. I don't believe in false assumed truths. Let's get to the root of this. I don't take no for an answer. I knew something was off with me. Not just because of the weight, because a lot of the ways I was feeling. So I started wearing a glucose monitor, which is something I would encourage a client that's stuck like, I'm a detective. I want to get to the root of things. And I had some serious blood sugar things happening. And the answer I got from my first western medicine doctor was, oh, you're headed towards type 2 diabetes, metformin, you know, all the traditional stuff. And I said, no, that's not my, that's not my reality. That's not, That's. I know that's not what's going on. So I dug and dug and dug and dug and dug. And that's a whole nother episode to figure out what was going on. But I did step by step, layer by layer detective work, which is what I do with clients too. Getting to the root of the root of the root. First it was working through, getting, making sure my diet was fully back dialed in. I was doing all the things I teach do. I have something going on in my gut Biome figuring that out. And then ultimately it led me to taking out what I learned. I had a ruptured implant. But what I wanted to share about this is I weighed myself. I'm two and a half weeks out after my explant. I am back to the exact weight I was before I put them in at age 19. And I think that's wild. And that is not. I don't. And I don't look weird. I don't look anything. I don't look, like, scrawny. Nothing like that. I still look strong. I'm. What I've lost is inflammation. What I've lost is the excess stuff that I did. My body didn't need. It wasn't me. Our bodies are very smart. And when we have something going on with weight that we know deep down is something deeper rooted, and we keep blaming age or menopause or our thyroid or my. Whatever. No, we've got to get to the bottom of the bottom of the bottom. And it starts. It starts with what I am talking about today with this tripod of the state plate weight. It starts there.

Yeah, I know. I love that. And your results have blown me away.

They blow me away.

I didn'. Honestly, I had no. I wasn't going into that. Trying to lose weight. That was not my goal.

Right.

Just one of the things. But I. But with that weight release, because I don't want to. I would have been fine the £20.

I'm.

Honestly, I'm fine either. I felt good then. What is different is how my body feels. The pain is gone, the inflammation's gone. A lot of that. So there's more to weight loss and weight release than just a way that it looks. If it's not the healthy stuff for you that you're carrying, we've got a lot of other problems going along with it. And a lot of things that we're chalking up to other things is not that.

Absolutely. Now, I would say someone should work your program, go through everything first before they jump to, okay, I need to lose weight. I'm gonna go get my. My breast implants.

No, no. I am not a fan of just go. No. And. And I would say the same with everything. Honestly, I'm. When women say, oh, I just need to go fix my hormones. Well, how we've done this other stuff first, because that's going to change your hormones change as you clean this stuff up. Right.

Okay.

So I look at it as like, if you picture a really clean body of water, picture a really, really clean body of water. Like beautiful, pristine, clear, blue water. And I throw one piece of trash in. I can see exactly what the eyesore is there. I know exactly what the problem is. That piece of trash. Now if I have a really dirty, mucky body of water, lots of stuff going on, and I throw one piece of trash in, I can't even See that piece of trash? It just looks a mess. So what happens is when we don't have this stuff dialed on first and we're just trying to skip steps. Oh, I just need a prescription. Oh, I just need to fix my hormones. Oh, I just need to do a parasite cleanse. Oh, wait, no. Just need to remove my implants. Nope, it's not that. It's not just one thing. We've got to start with cleaning up the pool, and then we start plucking if things aren't changing.

I love that. That's perfect.

That.

Yes, yes. 100%. Ding, ding, ding. Yes.

Yeah. And what's funny, Amy, and I see this come up because I. I've been very vocal about removing mine. And you, you know, of all people, what I was going through, deciding, like, I was not. I was not enrolled at first. Like, I was like, this is not you. And I was really, really close on this, talking about this and our last episode, I hadn't decided yet. And what's interesting to me is how many women have said because they see my results now, they want them out, but I'm cautioning them to not skip the steps.

Yes.

It's still a major surgery.

Right? Right. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I'm so glad that you shared that. That, that just kind of came up in this conversation because it just seeds for the next podcast and it just gives some. Gives women something to think about.

Yeah.

Okay. We've talked about food. We've talked about thoughts. We've talked about exercise to a point.

We haven't talked about that. Yeah, Let me, let me, let me mention a quick thing on that. Okay. And we can go. We're gonna have to go. We're gonna have to do like a part 2 or do a class together for people to go deeper here, because I already be a whole another level here. But. But I'm going to say let's just start with the two takeaways I want you to have. Listening about movement is. There's two words that are really important. Progression and intensity. Now, we have to be progressing what we're doing to change our bodies. And that's a period after that, end of story. You have to be progressing if you're doing the three same three sets of 12 you did 20 years ago. And you're saying your age is the problem for not changing your body? No, the reason you're not changing your body is you're doing the same exact thing you've been doing year after year after year. You have not progressed. You've got to challenge yourself. Same with the word intensity. Intensity does not mean go be an Olympic athlete or go be, you know, a sprinter. It doesn't mean any. Intensity means you are making it challenging for you. You're being intense for you. So what does that look like? Well, let's say we all go outside and there's a hill and you're an avid runner. Somebody listening and somebody else listening is an avid hiker. Somebody else listening hasn't worked out in a year. Somebody else is a couch potato. Doesn't even walk. Like, we got all different levels, right? And we go outside and my runner decides that she's gonna run up the hill as fast as she can. Okay. Because she's used to running flat. Right. And my hiker decides instead of hiking up the hill, she's going to jump up the hill, like, do jumps up the hill. Okay. And my person that's never worked out in the last year or even walked around the block goes out and says, I'm just gonna walk up the hill no matter how long it takes me. We're all being intense. It's whatever is intense for you is what's challenging you. And that's what helps change our body. So when I go to a gym or I'm watching women work out and they say, I put in, you know, 60 minutes a day and I do the elliptical for an hour and then I weight train for this and I've got a trainer and I do Pilates And I do CrossFit and I do. They're telling you all the things and how much time. It doesn't mean anything to me. Are you progressing and are you being intense? That's what changes your body.

Oh, that's so good. That is so good. And that allows everyone to come in and be active and not feel the pressure, the stress of I have to go do CrossFit. Oh, I have to go to the gym an hour a day. Like, no, you don't have to. She's giving you permission that you don't have to kill yourself at the gym. I love that. I love that.

No, I do teach people clearly. I give them ideas of how they can do it, but it's those rules. Yeah. And honestly, you could change your whole body in five minutes a day if you're committed to it. If you don't believe me, go to try to do pull ups for five minutes straight, like. Or go hold a plank for five minutes. Right. That would change your body. No, I'm not saying that's the workout to go do, but what my point is is it's not about the time. It's your progression and intensity.

Right, Exactly. I love this. Oh, my God. Can we go deeper? All right, so I think we need to. To do some kind of interactive class workshop for all the listeners so that they can. Yeah, we. We need to do this because there's too much information.

Okay, So I have a series of interactive fat loss classes coming up, but I want to do one specific with you and your audience, and I think that's what we need to do. That way we can talk to your audience, take them on live, ask the answer their questions, and go a lot deeper.

Okay, so you know what let's do Monday, January 8th at noon Pacific, 3pm Eastern. And everyone listening, you can go to fix your weight loss.com NJ for Natalie Jill. So fix your weight loss.com NJ and there you can sign up for our free class on the 8th. We will see you there. We're totally capping it at 300. So you want to sign up now. You want to actually be there and be engaged, too, because we are going to be giving you our attention, answering questions at the end. So this is going to be interactive. This is going to be learning and diving deeper. So we will see you guys there. So check the show notes. Anyone listening? If you're listening to this, you know, February, sorry, but you still got a ton of great information on the podcast. But if you're listening to this within the beginning of the year, then check the show notes. We're going to provide a link so you guys can join us on a much deeper dive into everything. Weight loss in midlife.