631. Why Your Thyroid Hates Intermittent Fasting + The 7 Skills to Lasting Health — with the Trim Healthy Mamas

Summary

Podcast Summary

The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast

Episode 631: Why Your Thyroid Hates Intermittent Fasting + The 7 Skills to Lasting Health — with the Trim Healthy Mamas
Host: Dr. Amie Hornaman
Guests: Pearl Barrett & Serene Allison (Trim Healthy Mamas)
Date: May 19, 2026

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Overview

This episode features Dr. Amie Hornaman in conversation with Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison, the creators of the Trim Healthy Mama movement, discussing their new book "Seven Skills to Lasting Health." The trio tackles why much conventional advice around thyroid health—especially skipping breakfast and intermittent fasting—can be uniquely harmful for women, particularly those struggling with thyroid issues, menopause, and metabolic challenges. Instead, they advocate developing foundational health "skills" rather than rigid "rules," centering on sustainable, inclusive, and gracious lifestyle changes.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Why "Skills" Not "Rules" Matter

• Grace Over Perfection: The central message of the book is practicing grace with oneself in health journeys:

  “You can fall off the car, you just get back on and there's no shame involved. You practice a little bit more and little by little, you get better till these skills become a natural rhythm like breathing.”
  — Serene Allison [00:00]

• Sustainable Change: Skills can be improved over time, abolishing the “all or nothing” mentality that leads to burnout and abandonment of health goals.
• Simplicity Amid Information Overload: The book aims to cut through dietary noise and fad confusion, providing “a white flag of common sense” founded in ancient wisdom and modern science.
  — Serene Allison [08:03]

2. The Seven Skills in Brief

• Focus: The conversation highlights the 1st and 2nd skills—eating breakfast and consuming adequate protein—as revolutionary, particularly for women with thyroid and metabolic concerns.
• What’s Left Out: The book isn’t about detailed science or hormone panels but about essential, actionable steps anyone can follow for lifelong health.
  — Pearl Barrett [12:14]

3. The Surprising Importance of Breakfast (Skill #1)

• Counter-Cultural Approach:

  “So many people are educated beyond their common sense and they're told to skip breakfast.”
  — Serene Allison [15:22]

• Mechanistic Insights:
  • Breakfast, especially with protein, reduces morning cortisol (which otherwise sabotages thyroid hormone conversion and fat burning).
  • Skipping breakfast increases cortisol all day, raises risk for metabolic disease, and keeps women in a muscle-wasting catabolic state.

  “Breakfast eaters have a greater longevity than non-breakfast eaters... Without breakfast, cortisol... lasts higher all day long."
  — Pearl Barrett [18:59]

• Moderation: It’s not about immediately eating upon waking or stuffing oneself—gentle approaches like EAAs or waiting an hour are encouraged.

4. Sufficient Protein Intake (Skill #2)

• Key to Metabolism:

  “Without muscle, we have no metabolism. What fuels our muscles is protein.”
  — Pearl Barrett [16:13]

• Protein Distribution:
  • Rather than cramming protein into one meal, aim for 4 protein “fuelings” a day to stimulate muscle synthesis, especially as we age.
    — Serene Allison [28:43]
• Animal vs. Plant Protein:
  • Animal protein is emphasized for its leucine/lutein content, a trigger for muscle synthesis.

  “Women are really doing harm to themselves with plant proteins… it's not doing the job.”
  — Pearl Barrett [30:18]

5. Intermittent Fasting: Risks for Thyroid and Female Metabolism

• Not Suited for Most Women:
  • Intermittent fasting may work for a while, but tends to backfire—stalling metabolism, increasing cortisol and insulin resistance, and causing muscle loss.

  “Fasting does the very thing we're trying not to do... it depletes our muscles and puts our metabolism in more of a hibernation mode.”
  — Serene Allison [25:49]

  • Men and women respond differently; women have heightened hormone sensitivity and need more regular nourishment.
• Alternative Paths to Autophagy:
  • Resistance training and adequate sleep are better means of cell maintenance without metabolic drawbacks.
    — Serene Allison [25:49]

6. Fuel Separation: Managing Calories Without Tracking

• No Calorie Counting:
  • Instead, meals are structured around either healthy carbs or healthy fats (always with protein), naturally keeping calories and blood sugar stable.
• Inclusion Over Exclusion:

  “Inclusion rather than exclusion... all of our meal types, we never allow spiking of the blood sugar. Our program is very protective.”
  — Serene Allison [36:13]

• Gut Health and Food Diversity:
  • A broad, inclusive diet supports gut microbiome diversity and lasting wellness.

7. All-Encompassing Wellness: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science

• Balanced Omnivore Messaging:
  • The book encourages a mid-road between plant-only and carnivore trends, focusing on foods that have been historically nourishing for humans.

  “We jokingly call ourselves meat-eating vegans.”
  — Pearl Barrett [25:20]

• Lasting Health = Inclusion:
  • Extreme exclusion and perfectionism are more likely to lead to metabolic issues and burnout.

8. Mindset Transformation: From Dieting to Skill-Building

• “I Get To” Mindset:
  • Shifting from seeing health as deprivation to privilege:

  “What am I missing? Nothing but inflammation and junk. So when we totally, like, get a twist in our minds, it changes everything.”
  — Pearl Barrett [41:16]

• Grace as a Practice:
  • Developing health is about joy and releasing harsh self-concepts and rigid rules.
    — Serene Allison [43:23]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Eat breakfast. I mean, people would think, what this is like, is this your ABCs for nursery rhymes?... But she had a lot of wisdom when she told us that.”
  — Serene Allison [15:22]
• “Breakfast eaters have a greater longevity than non breakfast eaters.”
  — Pearl Barrett [18:59]
• "It's about developing these skills, finding that beautiful middle ground, bringing in grace for yourself. Everything these ladies are talking about... this is what's going to get you healthy. That Spartan mindset... that's going to get you sick."
  — Dr. Amie Hornaman [44:19]
• “We are all made as humans and humans eat certain things and we just get to enjoy those.”
  — Pearl Barrett [49:49]
• “Nothing like ancient wisdom to bring you back to sanity.” — Serene Allison [39:23]

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Notable Timestamps

• [08:03] Serene describes the need for simple wisdom amid dietary noise.
• [09:38] Focus on skills, not diet rules—story of perfectionism and burnout.
• [15:21] The foundational skill: why eating breakfast matters.
• [18:27-21:03] Deeper dive on breakfast’s hormonal impact, how it affects cortisol and muscle preservation.
• [25:49] Fasting and its metabolic pitfalls for women.
• [28:43] Distributing protein for maximal muscle synthesis.
• [34:17] How "separating fuels" works—meals organized around either carbs or fats, always with protein.
• [41:16] Mindset shift: “I get to…” enjoy the process vs. feeling deprived.

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The GLP-1 Debate (Obesity/Diabetes Medications)

• [50:39] The hosts and guests discuss the polarizing use of anti-obesity/GLP-1 drugs (e.g., Ozempic, Wegovy).
  • GLP-1 agonists can be life-changing for some with genuine metabolic needs but are not a panacea and can be abused for unsustainable, unhealthy rapid weight loss.

  “Some people struggle making incretin hormones... but why not give them that help too if they need it?”
  — Pearl Barrett [51:41]

• Moderation and Monitoring: Use should be responsible, micro-dosed if needed, and alongside food-based and lifestyle skills—not as a replacement.
• Risks of Misuse: Social/media trends risk overuse and unhealthy weight loss.

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Resources & Bonus Content

• Preorder bonuses for "Seven Skills to Lasting Health":
  • Recipe videos
  • Mini-podcast series on each skill
  • Full companion series

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Conclusion: The Heart of the Message

Pearl and Serene, alongside Dr. Hornaman, call for grace, inclusion, and a return to time-tested eating wisdom for sustained thyroid and overall health. Rather than following faddish or restrictive health dogmas (intermittent fasting, carnivore, or strict plant-based), women are encouraged to nurture their health with balanced meals, especially breakfast and protein, to protect their metabolism and hormones as they age. Ultimately, learning these seven skills is about receiving the gift of health, not pursuing an unattainable ideal.

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Recommended for:
Anyone confused by conflicting diet advice, women struggling with thyroid or metabolic issues (especially in perimenopause or menopause), and listeners ready to abandon “all or nothing” thinking in favor of sustainable, gracious self-care.

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For more:
Preorder "Seven Skills to Lasting Health" and find resources in the show notes.
Podcast: [The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast]
Guests: [Trim Healthy Mamas]

Transcript

[Serene Allison]

The banner over the whole concept is grace. It's all about just, you know, this is a sustainable, lifelong journey and you

[Pearl Barrett]

can fall off the car, you just

[Serene Allison]

get back on and there's no shame involved. You just practice a little bit more and little by little, you get better till these skills become a natural rhythm like breathing.

[Dr. Amy Medling]

Welcome to the Thyroid and Hormone Fixer podcast. If you've been told everything is fine, but you're gaining weight despite doing all the right things, struggling with brain fog,

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

mood swings, low libido, or feeling like

[Dr. Amy Medling]

a stranger in your own body, you're in the right place. I'm Dr. Amy, the thyroid Fixer, and I want you to know right now, I see you, I believe you, and you don't have to figure this out alone anymore. We're going to do this together. But I'm also not here to play nice with bad medicine or empty promises. This show is meant to disrupt the entire health space. We're going to challenge the status quo, connect all the dots other providers miss and give you real practical science back,

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

tools you can use.

[Serene Allison]

Today.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

You're not going to get any more

[Dr. Amy Medling]

recycled biohacking advice, just truth, strategy and hope. Let's get you back to feeling like the badass human you're meant to be. I need to talk to every woman who's been told that your labs are normal while your body is screaming at you and rebelling against you. Fatigue, brain fog, the weight that will not come off, mood swings, hair loss, feeling dismissed, frustrated and confused. I get it. And that is exactly why I wrote my new book, the Thyroid Fix. The no Nonsense Guide to Fix Fatigue, Fogginess and Fat that Won't Budge. That just says it all. And it is now available for pre sale. So I need your help to spread the message. I am giving you an ask as my listener and a promise at the same time. If you pre order the thyroid fix, my promise to you is to continue delivering all kinds of free advice and information, content, education, empowerment, because that's what I love to do. Whether it's here in the Just Fixture Thyroid Facebook group or I'm on live. I will give you everything I possibly can if you do me one favor, which will be a favor for yourself as well. And pre order the Thyroid Fix. Now, this book is not another list of supplements, vague advice. It's not a diet plan. It's not filled with recipes. It is a clear, honest guide. It is the Thyroid Bible. It is the last thyroid book that you will ever need because it teaches you how to read your own labs. No other book has done that. It teaches you what medication and dose you need. No other book has ever done that. It will help you to understand why you are being misdiagnosed, why you're being under treated, and why you can't talk about hormones, weight loss or menopause without talking about the thyroid. I called it Thyroid Bible because like I said, this is going to be the thyroid book of the next few decades. When you pre order, you're not just supporting me, you're telling the publisher. This message matters and it needs to get out to the world and it needs to get into the hands of women who have been ignored for far too long. So will you go to thyroid fixbook.com and pre order a copy of yours today? It'll be shipped to you on May 12th and you will get free entry to our all day live event where I will be there answering your questions live, teaching live, and bringing in amazing guests for you to also connect with and ask your questions too. So thyroid textbook.com pre order yours today. Do you want to burn fat while just sitting around? Do you have extra weight to lose? Do you want less inflammation? Do you want to reduce your oxidative stress? Do you want to improve your lipid panel? Maybe become more insulin sensitive and once again burn fat while you're sitting there at rest at your desk or on your couch watching Netflix? Well now you can with the power of T2 that is in Thyroid Fixer. Now, Thyroid Fixer is not just for those with a thyroid problem. It's for anyone looking to lose body fat to improve their metabolism to have better energy. Thyroid Fixer actually works at your mitochondrial level, so it is stimulating your metabolism. It's also activating ATP which gives you more energy, nice and steady through the day. Here's the other really cool thing that Thyroid Fixer does. It turns on a gene that prevents fat from accumulating all over your body. So that means, yeah, if you slip up and you have the Oreo cookie or the sweet potato fries which are my two favorite, they're my downfalls. That is not going to put extra fat on your butt, your hips, your thighs and your abs. Oh, and your arms. You don't want those jiggly arms. So why don't you just improve your fat burning potential and actually turn on

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

a gene that prevents fat from accumulating

[Dr. Amy Medling]

on your body with the power of Thyroid Fixer. So as a listener of the Thyroid Fixer Podcast, your first time purchase, you can use the code listen 20 L I S T N 20. We'll put that down in the show notes. And if you've already purchased it, but you just want to save a little something, something extra, then use the code, listen, 10L, I, S T E N1 0 and grab some thyroid fixer. Stock up today because it will help you burn extra body fat and who doesn't want that?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

So if you've been told to skip breakfast fast for 16 hours, just eat less and your thyroid is worse than it was a year ago. Today's episode is going to make you feel like someone finally turned the lights on. Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison built the Trim Healthy Mama movement. And they are dear friends of mine, colleagues of mine, they've been on the show before. We absolutely love them. They are skilled authors. I have here their last book, Trim Healthy Wisdom, which I literally keep on my desk. Today we are talking about their new book, seven Skills. And this is going to take it to a whole another level. We're stripping away all of the noise and they're about to tell you why everything you've been told about breakfast and possibly your entire eating regimen is wrong. So hi ladies, it's so good to have you back.

[Serene Allison]

Thanks for having us.

[Pearl Barrett]

And you know, you held up that huge thousand page book and then, you know, this new book, seven Skills is our shortest book we've ever written and

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

so it has been hard for you to do because you have so much knowledge.

[Serene Allison]

It's a miracle. It's really a miracle. I just feel like we, we got everything we had to say out and that thousand page thesis and then we came up with this short book and it was really said better.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, this speaks to both, both types of readers. The one that wants. But Trim Healthy Wisdom, I mean this has everything, hormones, thyroid, you name it. Whereas seven. Well, I'm going to let you guys talk about seven Skills. But you know, sometimes we need just that little handbook to like a quick reference. So what, what inspired you then to write 7 skills? What tell people what it's about?

[Serene Allison]

What's the need today? You know, more than ever. The voice is screaming at you, right? With all the fads, all that, what you should be doing, you know, and all the sensationalism. Things are coming every 11 seconds into your, into your reels on your screen and it's like, oh, there's just so much noise that people are so confused. And so, you know, in their mind it's kind of like a battle going on that they feel like giving up and just going and having a corn chip or something like that because it's just too much information, we wanted to cut through all that noise and bring a, you know, a white flag of common sense, you know, some, some ancient wisdom that harmonizes with some cutting edge science and saying, hey, there is a sane path that doesn't have to be so complicated and it's simple and it works.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yes, yes, exactly.

[Pearl Barrett]

The idea of skills, that was kind of new to us because we've always practiced our way of eating and moving in a very non rulesy approach. But people would come to our plan and get very rulesy about it, and we could never kind of strip them from the rules until we realized, hey, you know what? The way we do things is just a bunch of skills. And the great thing about skills is you can stink at them at first. You can be pathetic. Like, it's like your daughter learning to play the violin. You want to run out of the room with your hands over your ears. But, but skills are something we get a little bit better at each day and it takes away that pressure to be perfect. And I think perfectionism is why so many people quit.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yes, yes.

[Serene Allison]

I think, you know, they do this 30 day stint of perfection and then somehow they go out with a friend and you know, have like a, a burger with a white bun and all of a sudden it's like, throw in the towel. It's all wrecked. Because it's not about grace in those diets. It's all about, you know, the rules. And we feel like with seven skills, the whole one of the skills is called actually give yourself grace. But we feel like overarching the banner over the whole concept is grace. It's all about just, you know, this is a sustainable lifelong journey.

[Pearl Barrett]

And you can fall off the car,

[Serene Allison]

you just get back on and there's no shame involved. You just practice a little bit more and little by little you get better. Till these skills become a natural rhythm like breathing.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

I love that. Oh gosh, there's so much there to unpack. Okay, first of all, I didn't even pick up on that when I saw the name of the book, Seven skills. But now that you're outlaying it, I'm like, oh my gosh, you're right. It wasn't seven rules. It wasn't seven things you must do right now. It's seven skills that you can develop. And that gives the reader so much grace. Especially in this day and age where there is so much coming at us. I actually call it screw it syndrome. I think people fall into screw. It's where there's you know, it's like there's this diet and there's that diet, and there's glp and there's. There's Carnivore, and there's fasting and. And it's like they're trying. Either they're trying something different every day and. And, you know, just throwing in the towel and saying, I screw it, this isn't working, or they're really giving it their best effort, but then they're being told by Instagram that what they're doing is wrong. And you do. You eventually just go, you know what?

[Pearl Barrett]

Screw it.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

I'm just gonna eat the damn pizza.

[Pearl Barrett]

Yep, exactly.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

I don't know what to do anymore. So I just. I love that. So when you were writing this, how did you pick seven? Like, how do you narrow it down to these seven skills, which we'll get into? And, like, just as importantly, what got left out that you're like, no, no, no, that's not important.

[Serene Allison]

Do you know what's so funny? Do you mind me just running in here first?

[Pearl Barrett]

You used really?

[Serene Allison]

Yeah. So she doesn't mind me being rude. She'll just give me a, you know, tell me off later when we get off.

[Pearl Barrett]

You were gonna say slap and you tempered yourself.

[Serene Allison]

I tempered.

[Pearl Barrett]

You know what?

[Serene Allison]

We didn't actually have to think, oh, we shouldn't have that one, and which one should we choose? Do you know what's so funny?

[Pearl Barrett]

Oh, they flowed. Yeah.

[Serene Allison]

Seven just was it. We didn't have to think, how many skills are we going to do? It was just they. They were seven. But now I'm thinking about it. Seven is the number of perfection. And we're not about perfection here. But it just was. Seven is what made this book complete. And would you say that too, Pearl?

[Pearl Barrett]

Yeah. Never left anything out. Like, I just feel it is very complete. But, you know, if we say so ourselves. But it. But it is. When we go through each one, I don't think that we left anything out. We left intricacies out. Like, hey, you know, now your book the Thyroid Fix is incredible. And it's talking about all the, you know, the thyroid hormones and the ranges and all that. We didn't go into those details. This is a very basic book on how to live.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, I love that. I love that because you're right. When you develop these seven skills, it's not just about health. It's not just about eating. I mean, as we know, when we improve our entire health profile, it has this trickle effect into your relationships, into your family, into Your friendships, into your work, into your ability to make money, because you just feel better on the inside. So it's so much more about than just aesthetics and health. It really does extend out.

[Dr. Amy Medling]

Yeah, it really does.

[Pearl Barrett]

And it's. And really this book, like you said, it's more than what you're doing, it's how you're doing it. This book is covered in grace. And. And when we have grace for ourselves, we have it. Our family members too, if we're doing, you know, women have come to this way of eating that where we help them balance their blood sugar and get protein and all of this. But if they do that with a stringent mindset and write, everyone in this family, you are joining me and get that off your plate and do not bring that into this home. It's never gonna last. No, that's high stress. Yeah. So we just trying to get rid of the stress because we've seen it over and over. We've done it to ourselves too, and we've made those mistakes. And for anything. That's why we called it lasting health. For anything to last, it has to be doable every day.

[Serene Allison]

And we feel like it's a very gentle approach. You know, it's all about eating, not starving. It's all about celebrating foods and celebrating the food groups. And I feel like that gentle approach is healthy long term too. You know, of course we're eating the healthy foods with it. But for metabolic issues, a lot of the reasons why people have increase in hormone issues where they're actually not producing enough and they have to get on these GLP ones is because of this yo yo, extreme Spartan dieting that actually makes their body not even produce the right incredent hormones. And so I feel like we want this to come out as like a book that gives somebody hope that they don't have to be in this battlefield with food anymore. But we also want to help the new generation so you don't have to walk in the steps that we did where we kind of wrecked our metabolisms and got so broken trying so hard. So we really want to have a voice to the generation coming.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

I love that. And it's so important. It's so important. So we, we're going to encourage people to get the book to get the seven skills, but let's dangle some carrots. So of all of those seven skills, give me like the. The one light bulb skill where everything like kind of finally clicks for the woman.

[Serene Allison]

I feel like it's precept upon precept. It sounds so it builds upon.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

It does. It builds upon itself.

[Serene Allison]

But one that we love to start with. And it's the first one, actually, we

[Pearl Barrett]

couldn't start without it. Right.

[Serene Allison]

It sounds so simple that it's like, well, tell me another skill, because I just want to bypass that one because it's just too simple. I don't even want to just. I don't even want to compute it in my head. And it's eat breakfast. I mean, people would think, what this is like, is this your ABCs for nursery rhymes? I'm like, for toddlers? No, because so, so many people are, you know, with their diet, they're educated beyond their common sense and they're told to skip breakfast. But when we eat breakfast, we actually help our bodies start to trigger muscle synthesis in the morning. And so we're actually feeding our muscles, which is feeding our metabolisms, because muscle equals metabolism. And we're actually telling our body to not produce so much cortisol on the second meal effects as we go on in the day. And so eat breakfast, I feel like is something that grandma could have told us, but she had a lot of wisdom when she told us that, yeah,

[Pearl Barrett]

and it's not just eat cornflakes or, you know, Captain Crunch. I mean, there's a way to eat break that's. Yeah, don't eat breakfast. It's always going to be that great just doing it. Good. But here's how to eat breakfast. Here's what it looks like. It has protein. And that's the second skill. It goes right into the second skill is eat sufficient protein. Because, yes, protein is having a movement on and all the social reels. But I think that it's very hard to capture why in these 8 second reels, all the influences are giving, you know, especially as we women are aging, our protein needs go way up. And like Serene said, without muscle, we have no metabolism. What fuels our muscles is protein. And so we talk about, hey, we're not all about like, you know, high protein and so that we're abusing our bodies. But we are about sufficient. We talk what about what sufficient is and how in every meal. That's the first question. It's just an easy skill we ask ourselves when we go to have a meal or a snack, where's my protein? And that question changes everything for women. Because, you know, sometimes women are just so busy and it's like grabbing a bagel and grabbing a little cup of yogurt for lunch. And then, you know, they're famished in the evening. So it's just like, I haven't had protein, so I'm scarfing past Easter and then I'm adding corn chips and. And protein stabilizes everything.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

It does. Oh, I love me some protein, believe me. And I love that skill, too. But I'm actually going to go back to that first one because you're saying, oh, you know, people want to bypass it. They just want to skip over. What's the next skill? But hold on. So the breakfast one. This is hugely controversial because everyone, every IG influencer is out there saying, you need to skip breakfast. It's not the most important meal of the day. You need the intermittent fast, which we're going to get to also, because I want to pick your brain about that, but you basically are the lone voice yelling, no. So this is a very important skill and you've unpacked beautifully as to the why, but this is it. It is controversial and it is going to make women stop in their tracks and go, wait, this goes against everything I've been told on Instagram. And I love how you go into the why. Why we need to start incorporating in breakfast.

[Serene Allison]

I feel like eating breakfast takes your body out of that hibernation mode and it kind of tells it like, wake up metabolism, rise and shine. The harvest is in the field, the sun is shining, and you're telling your body it's okay, you can burn calories. And I just really. Pearl has some incredible. She's really good at saying the studies and I'm not so good, but. But there's some incredible studies with longevity. When it comes to longevity, when we eat breakfast, total mortality goes down in breakfast eaters. Pearl, can you bring on that study?

[Pearl Barrett]

Well, I can't, like, pull the, you know, the reference, but it is true. Breakfast eaters have a greater longevity than non breakfast eaters. Now, why? You have to think why. Okay, so skipping breakfast out, our cortisol, as you know, is higher in the morning for most people. Well, breakfast, especially when it has protein, brings it down to a steady level. Now, without breakfast, the cortisol they've done studies, raises and lasts higher all day long up until the late afternoon. So cortisol makes us less efficient fat burners. We need cortisol, but we don't need too much of it. It should be just to that balance level. Well, women are going around skipping breakfast, trying to lose weight, when what they're doing inside their bodies is actually working against that long term.

[Serene Allison]

Mm.

[Pearl Barrett]

And cortisol causes things like heart attacks, stress. Of course, mortality goes up. You know, when we have higher cortisol. Many risks for disease go up.

[Serene Allison]

And when we don't eat breakfast, we're in that catabolic state. Right. Because we're not bringing in amino acids to feed our muscle tissue and to stimulate muscle synthesis. Where are we going to get those amino acids? Because it's not just for our muscles, it's for our body. Every organ in our body uses amino acids. So we have to break down our own precious muscle tissue to feed and supply our organs with amino acids besides from our muscles. And so I think having your body in a catabolic state is counteractive. It's counterintuitive.

[Pearl Barrett]

Serene said something to me one day. You know, when we talk about this skill, I don't even think we wrote this into the book because we're kind

[Serene Allison]

of a little bit weird.

[Pearl Barrett]

That's what we did. Write it.

[Serene Allison]

Now you're going to say it.

[Pearl Barrett]

We were trying to be short, you know, short winded. But she's like Pearl. I remember, you know, when I had babies and when that baby wakes in the morning, my first instinct is to feed that baby. My baby is starving. Whatever needs to happen about myself, I'll do later. But let me feed the baby. Which is like I look at my muscles when I wake up in the morning. As start, they need to be fueled and I'm the mummy of my muscles while I make sure they're fed.

[Serene Allison]

Yeah, that's my little internal game I have in my head. I'm mummy muscle.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yes, I absolutely love that. And let's go one step further. That high cortisol, as we know we've talked about it on your show, that comes back and pushes up reverse T3. It hinders that T4 to T3 conversion with the thyroid. So high cortisol can also affect your thyroid, it can affect your hormones, like you said, your heart, it affects your blood glucose. And you know, this is a real problem in America right now. We, we have 93% of Americans are insulin resistant. And realistically, after hearing you and really kind of thinking through this, it's landing for me, it's making sense. Why don't we bring back breakfast? Bring back breakfast, bbb. Because that would help so much with just that insulin resistant component. Provided they're not starting the day with cereal.

[Pearl Barrett]

Exactly, exactly. And I feel like a lot of people get put off too. We have many women coming like, oh, I just don't want to eat in the morning. You know what? I experienced that I was never someone who had hunger in the morning. So I don't we're not telling anyone to get extreme here. And as soon as you wake up,

[Serene Allison]

you know, have your big amount of

[Pearl Barrett]

four eggs or whatever we're saying, hey, do what you can, but get your protein, girl.

[Serene Allison]

Do you know what I do when my feet hit the floor though? Because I am muscle mommy. Yeah. I have immediate EAAs. That's just water anyway.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

That's easy.

[Serene Allison]

That's so easy. And then when I mosey along my life and have my shower and do my thing and finally get downstairs, I'll eat breakfast. But it could be like a couple of hours after waking. But immediately I'll have those EAAs because gotta look after those baby muscles.

[Pearl Barrett]

Right? And that's your way. But we don't tell people they have to do it. If you want to get, if you want to eat an hour after you wake, that's fine. It doesn't have to be five minutes. But you do want to replenish your muscles and you do want to turn down your.

[Serene Allison]

Another thing too in this book is we tried to really keep the balance between the two wars. You've got your plant, only people these days. And then you got your carnivore. It's like plants are out to kill you. You know, all of these saponins and oxalates and phytates and you know, all of this stuff, lectins. And then you've got, you know, you got the carnival crowd.

[Pearl Barrett]

Well, actually they're mixed. You got your plant based and then you.

[Serene Allison]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so we say how, you know, one of our skills is eat more veggies. We're all about how veggies actually clean out your muscle and get rid of those fatty deposits that make insulin resistance more of a thing. Right, right. And so we talk about that, but in the eat more protein. We talk about how what is really the protein that helps trigger muscle synthesis. It's the protein with the lutein. Right. That is the muscle, boss, that really tells the muscle, okay, you can grow. And so with that, there's that balance of celebrating the animal kingdom and then celebrating the plant kingdom.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, no, it has to be that combination. Listen, I'm all about if you want to be carnivore and that's working for you, and it's just working for you, go ahead and stay on it. But I really truly believe that we need to find that balance somewhere in the middle where we are bringing in plants and we are bringing in those veggies just for you. Like you said, there's benefits there that we're missing out on for the gut,

[Serene Allison]

you know, because that's the one thing with long term carnivore is that gut dysbiosis. Right. That gut, my microbiota just depletes and starts to diminish. And it's really our gut that's the filter for all these things we see think are so bad about plants. Right. All these anti nutrients. But when our gut is in high working order, it is the filter and then we just get the benefits of plants. But we can't fix our gut without plants. Yeah.

[Pearl Barrett]

And I think though there's some people, obviously some people can't do gluten, even though, you know, we're all about, well, hey, try God's gluten, sourdough, ancient grains. But still not everyone can do that. And we all have sensitivities. And we're not saying to everyone, you must eat every food on this earth. We're saying, hey, we can't get away from our original design. You know, we passed as kids and God created us as omnivores. We are not carnivore, even if an influencer tells us we are. There are many benefits to a carnivore diet, just as there are many to a plant based diet. But it's when we take the best of both and merge them. Serena and I and jokingly call ourselves meat eating vegans. I mean, we love plants, we love meats.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's the, the combination. That's the omnivore part. Yeah. Okay, next controversial subject is intermittent fasting. So people are the argument for intermittent fasting is the autophagy, the metabolic flexibility. So what is your counter? Because your women aren't gaining weight, they're actually losing it by eating breakfast. So what's the mechanism that you've watched play out in your community for intermittent fasting?

[Serene Allison]

Oh, we just think that there's other better ways for autophagy, like resistance training, you know, and getting to sleep on time. I feel like autophagy doesn't have to be done only by extreme fasting. And fasting does, you know, the very thing we're trying not to do. It depletes our muscles over time and puts our metabolism in more of a hibernation mode.

[Pearl Barrett]

And so we get a lot of women come to us and they even say, but fasting worked for me for a while, until it didn't. And many times they'll start off, you know, with 16, eight or what, whatever, and go down to Omad one meal a day. And even that doesn't work. And we get them coming to our plan and their. The metabolism is at a complete standstill.

[Serene Allison]

And we can't help the fact that we kind of wrote the book through the lens of a biblical view. We feel like we were created by the Creator and there's a blueprint for our body. And, you know, I feel like that fasting is based more upon maybe like a hunting cat's digestive system, not for a human. And it's like, okay, we, we go out and we do the hunt and we have the big meal and then we just go rest in a tree branch and we don't eat for another two days.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Right.

[Pearl Barrett]

And women are different. Like, you know, we have two kisspeptin receptors in our brain. Men have one. So men can do a lot of this, more than women can, without the repercussions. But women, these are like antenna and they're scanning the environment and they're like, when is my next meal coming? Do I have the right nutrients? Am I getting enough calories? Am I getting enough protein? And when it's not coming in, the metabolism goes down and the insulin resistance goes up. And we share that in our book. So, yeah, so the fasting thing, it is. It has been so huge. I think women are burned. Yeah, this is the way I feel. I think many tried it and many, many are burned. And I personally don't want to go through my life fasting. I want to eat. I love eating. But I think there's a natural thing. We all fast overnight.

[Serene Allison]

Right.

[Pearl Barrett]

Well, that's why breakfast is break the fast.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Right.

[Pearl Barrett]

So we're all different, some of us. That overnight stretch might be serene, can only go 10 hours. She has this rocking metabolism where she has to eat before bed, like cottage cheese or something. I can go from like 7 at night all the way till 8, 9 the next month. I can go up to 14 hours. Usually it's about 12 for me. But it's when you're skipping that first meal, it's when you're going so far up to that 16 that one meal is gone. And the muscle fueling in the morning doesn't happen. That's when we say, hey, you're not doing yourself favors.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah. And sometimes you're white knuckling through it. You're miserable. That's going to increase your cortisol. If you're miserable fasting, then you're increasing your cortisol. And this ties into your skill. Number two, protein. There is no way a woman can get in adequate amounts of protein. Only eating once or twice a day, it's not going to happen.

[Serene Allison]

And we like to see it not just how many grams you're having in a day, but how you're separating it to every few hours so you're getting a fresh window for muscle synthesis because, you know, it's not about. We can only absorb a certain amount to use in our muscles and the rest can just be, you know, peed out. So I feel like it's like if you really want to take care of your muscles like a muscle mummy, I like to think four, I like to do five. But I'd like to suggest four protein fuelings a day, four windows for muscle synthesis, four windows of at least three grams of lutein in that meal to kind of be the trigger and say

[Pearl Barrett]

that when she's saying lutein, you know, some of your viewers might know about it, but it's just, it comes mostly in animal foods where it's that lutein is the amino acid boss. So it sure your muscles are synthesized and it's not difficult or mathematical. If you're having a serving, a 4 to 6 ounce serving of, of chicken, tuna, you know, if you're having eggs and egg whites together or something, you're getting it.

[Serene Allison]

So it's not like, let me do my math exactly.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

But now is luchin also in your EAAs that you're starting the day with?

[Serene Allison]

Yes.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Okay.

[Serene Allison]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Three grams.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Okay. We can supplement with it as well. But also if we're focused on the animal foods, we're getting it naturally. Yes.

[Serene Allison]

Protein too.

[Pearl Barrett]

Yeah.

[Serene Allison]

Has natural high lutein.

[Pearl Barrett]

Beef, you know, all, all the protein. Really where women are really doing harm to themselves is they're using a lot of plant proteins on the market.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pearl Barrett]

And. And they're touted, you know, combined combination of this and rice and hemp and all these different things and complete in it is not doing the job that they're spending their good money on so

[Serene Allison]

much of them to get that 2 to 3 grams of lutein that you need to trigger muscle synthesis. And it's so chalky and dry and when you add water to it, it explodes in this big dry mass that sticks in your throat and then it's not as bioavailable. And I've kind of walked through that because I was a staunch raw foodist vegan for decades and was in terrible sarcopenia in my youth. And so, you know, I kind of like feel compassion and feel passion at the same time to talk to those that are kind of in that plant only I'd like to say ruts, but I'm trying to be nice at the same time, you know?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Right. Well, I would also say, what is your belly doing with that plant? I remember when I was on the plant based protein kick as well. You know, I actually thought it was normal for my stomach to randomly speak out loud. I mean, it was angry for at least a couple hours after I drank my plant based protein shake. And it's almost like you chalk it up, like, oh, yeah, okay, that's just happening. No, it's not supposed to happen. That is wrecking your gut.

[Serene Allison]

I was a bloated goat. Yep. You know, I was very thin as a plant foodist. I didn't have much muscle tone, but I always had a bloated tummy to the point where people would ask if I was pregnant when I wasn't pregnant. But it was all that roughage.

[Dr. Amy Medling]

Yeah.

[Serene Allison]

Just swirling and twirling in there.

[Pearl Barrett]

Didn't have the bricks and mortar.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yes, exactly.

[Dr. Amy Medling]

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[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Now. Okay, for the woman out there that she's, she's trying to lose weight, when it comes to counting calories, I mean, we all, all three of us grew up in the Calories in, calories out mindset where we would, you know, track our calories and fitness and Shape magazine would tell us stay under 1500 calories to lose weight. You have never, throughout all of your books and your, all of your philosophies, you never count calories. You don't cut food groups, you don't macro track. So what is the rule? Like, what rule do you go by to make sure that a woman doesn't necessarily way overeat? Because even though it's not about calories and calories out, you know, there comes a point in which, listen, if you're consuming way too much food, sure, you might tip the scale and not be able to lose weight.

[Serene Allison]

We have school number four, which is separate your fuels. And when you're separating your fuels, there is a natural ebb and flow of calories. And there are just two different meal types. Well, actually three different meal types where one is more carb centric, but it's gentle carbs. And so we do encourage to keep it in a healthy window so they're not spiking their blood sugar.

[Pearl Barrett]

Always with Lean Pro, that protects, you

[Serene Allison]

know, overdoing calories too. And it's always every. Every one of our meal types is anchored around protein. And that's called the email, the one that's more carb centric then our S meal that stands for satisfying, that is more of your, you know, beautiful healthy fats. It's based around fat as your fuel. It's always angered around protein. And you keep your carbs lower. Right. So that's your non starchy vegetables and things like that. And then we have our crossover meal, which is kind of a balance of the two. It's kind of our maintenance meal. People are losing weight too quickly or if they're in seasons of pregnancy or nursing or they just have a high metabolism, but they want to keep their blood sugar in check. They're anchoring this meal around protein but celebrating both fuel types. So when we teach separating the fuels and anchoring food around protein, that does naturally keep calories in check. And like we said, all of our meal types, we never allow spiking of the blood sugar. Our program is very protective of the blood sugar spikes.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pearl Barrett]

And so I think it's a way, the way woman get it is more like, hey, I'm just gonna celebrate the different food groups and different meals rather than restrict. I'm gonna celebrate my fats right now. And I'm gonna have avocado on my salad with some steak and with some goat Cheese and nuts. And I feel so satisfied. But then on another meal, I'm actually gonna celebrate my. My carbs. So I'm gonna have a sweet potato, I'm gonna have a, you know, a lean chicken breast, and I'm gonna have a salad and. And I'm gonna really enjoy that macronutrient.

[Serene Allison]

And.

[Pearl Barrett]

And when they look at it like that, you know, it's that grace thing. They don't have to say, restrict, count, do all that. It just naturally falls into line.

[Serene Allison]

And that way we get to. They get to lose weight, but they get to include all of the food groups and the macronutrients. And that's really the basis of our program here at this, you know, on the seven skills to lasting health, is inclusion rather than exclusion. Because I feel like all the noise out there, everything that's bombarding, you know, on our screen, these reels coming in, it's all about exclusive, excluding, what we should be excluding, exclusion, exclusion. That's where I fell off, you know, thriving in health my whole life, because I was always excluding something. When I was a raw food vegan, I was excluding the animal foods. And then, you know, I went the other way. And then I hardly ate any plants. And then it was always like, you know, butter is evil. No, grains are evil. It's always exclusion. But we are trying to encourage, include the healthy, clean foods as much as you can. You know, sometimes it's a fallen world, right. And we have food sensitivities. But as much as possible, inclusion, because that brings that wonderful gut, right? When we have more inclusion, we have more of a diverse microbiota. Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And here's what I love, and here's why I want every single listener to get this book. I want every single one of my patients to get this book. Because this has been on my mind for years now with all the information out there, with the bombardment, with the overstimulation of information that why don't we just keep it simple and instead of going to this extreme or that extreme, find that happy medium where we are fueling ourselves with what God gave us to eat and not excluding these beautiful food groups like fruits and vegetables and meat for the vegans, because God gave us this to eat. Finding that beautiful happy middle ground just makes sense. It's the one thing that actually makes sense. And even to me, last year, you ladies know, I went through my whole cancer journey, and it's like you get bombarded with, well, go low carb and go carnivore. Take sugar out of your diet and don't feed the cancer cells and don't, you know, fruit's gonna feed the cancer cells. And I'm like, but there's antioxidants, too, and there's fiber and there's. And, you know, I'm a menopausal woman, so I need that for my gut. And the microbiota that you talked about in the beneficial bacteria and. And it just, like, why don't we just find that middle ground which you so beautifully are giving us? So that's why I want everybody to get this book, because it's the first thing that actually just makes sense.

[Pearl Barrett]

And it's ancient wisdom, and I think that's why it makes sense. You know, when we turn. When you go back in history and in the book, we have a whole chapter called When Scripture Meets Science. And we also go back in history not to just like biblical history. We go back to the way people lived. And they were not the puffed up, white, processed carbs, but they were eating good carbs, they were eating roots, they were eating fruit from the trees. They were also eating meat, and they were also doing it in rhythm. And I think these things, like you said, they were. So the pressure to go on these extremes is. I mean, we felt them. And like Serena said, we've done it.

[Serene Allison]

And there's nothing like ancient wisdom to bring you back to sanity. I mean, because we were. I was in such a broken place in my health. I mean, young and just literally, I had, like, a dowager's hump. I was so, you know, overrid by sarcopenia. And I was just desperate. And being a believer, I just, you know, opened the Bible, like, with my snotting nose and my crying eyes are like, God, I've come here, you know, for my spiritual wisdom my whole life, but you've got to have something practical in here. Me? Practical for me, because I'm just. I feel like I'm just falling apart. I feel so broken at an age I shouldn't feel broken. Yeah. That's amazing. You know, it was amazing. You know what? Scripture just, like, just was right there, just jumped into my face. And I'm going to paraphrase it, but it was in Deuteronomy, and all the food groups were there. It was like, I give you the harvest of the field, the blood of the grape, the fat of the ram, the milk of the goat, and I'll make you ride on the high country, like.

[Pearl Barrett]

And I was like, oh, my goodness,

[Serene Allison]

this is God speaking to me. Like, it was like light bulb moments. I'M like, it's all there, Serene. Like, your whole life you've been excluding and you've been pushing out, but here's God saying, no, I give it to you. I give it as a gift, and it's for you to thrive. And from that moment, we were like, we're going to do inclusion as far as it's possible within our bodies. You know, we're going to include. Because, I mean, all that exclusion just had me off in the gutter with my help.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah. And how about that? I mean, whether it is. I love that the Bible spoke to you like that and literally changed your life and changed your health trajectory. And so for the woman that, let's say, has been beating herself up at every single meal for the last 20 years, what is the mindset shift that. That she has to have in order for these seven skills to actually stick?

[Pearl Barrett]

I just think we've seen all or nothing so many times, right. And we've all done all or nothing. And I think when you look at it like, I get to. So for me, I am so excited about each new day because I'm a foodie and I just love food. So I get to eat these incredible breakfasts. I never feel deprived. I get to fuel my body at lunchtime with some things that I like. It would be different to serene. I get to move my body wisely. I get to have the proteins, I get to have the carbs. I get to. What am I missing? Nothing but inflammation and junk. So when we. When we totally, like, get a twist in our minds, it changes everything. And when we get to practice these skills, messing up, who cares? Getting back on and practicing them again. I think when we come to this place, of all the things we can receive rather than what we have to deny ourselves of. Wow, it changes.

[Serene Allison]

Yeah. And I think that's so right, Pearl. And I feel like for me, encouraging a woman that may come from my. My mindset, that was just my more of a Spartan. Like, I was more harsh on my body than you were a Pearl. You. You were like, yeah, I'll dabble in this and dabble in that, but I was a rules follower. You know, I was like, I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna do it hard. You know, if I'm gonna exercise, I'm gonna get in the gym for hours, and I'm gonna get up at 4. You know, it's one of those types. But I feel like encouraging that the message of grace is gonna be the one that's gonna make this A lifelong beautiful journey because I kind of burnt out with that hardcore approach. And I feel like if you can just release, you know, because I had to release and say, I don't have to be juggling all this and I don't have to try so hard. Health can be a gift, and it can be something that's just comes from a joyful approach, not such a spartan approach. And so to just put. Allow yourself to experience grace is I suppose what I'm trying to say, allow yourself for. To realize it can be easy. It can be easy to be healthy.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And that speaks to so many women listening now, because I'm like you and a lot of my listeners are like us in that it all. It is that, that Spartan mindset and it's that driver mindset and it's the perfectionistic mindset where we. Where we don't allow ourselves to have grace. But. But we need to. I need every woman right now to just take a breath and realize that your health doesn't get better by pushing, by perfectionism, by demanding, by following one set of rules. Like we talked about in the beginning, it is about developing these skills, finding that beautiful middle ground, bringing in grace for yourself. Everything these ladies are talking about that wrote about in their book, this is what's going to get you healthy. That Spartan mindset that go, go, go drive yourself into the ground, that's going to get you sick. That is ultimately going to get you sick.

[Pearl Barrett]

True. And we've seen it with hundreds of thousands of women, and yet we know these things. But we keep taking back. We keep, you know, that's why we remind. That's why we wrote this book. Not only to remind others, but to remind ourselves, you know, when we release. And then we also get into our feminine, which feels really, really good when we receive. You know, as women, we're receivers. I've kind of been learning about this and walking into this and. And food is a gift. The healthy foods are a gift. You know, the things that falsely like presents, like things laden with sugar and stuff, they're not gifts, okay? They're actually very deceitful. But healthy food is such a gift. And when we receive it joyfully. Well, I think that's what I was trying to say. That changes everything. At least for me. I wake up in the morning to receive.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, absolutely. Now, this is a more personal question between the two. You.

[Dr. Amy Medling]

You're right.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

In this book, did you, did you fight at all? Did you have to come to a middle ground? Were there any, Were there any points of Contention where you're like, no, that's not going in.

[Serene Allison]

Yes, this has to go in actually, this book. No fights.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Okay.

[Serene Allison]

There is another book and it was. Well, actually it was the wisdom book there that. A thousand page thesis, but it was the recipe book that's not yet out, but it was going to be attached to it.

[Pearl Barrett]

We almost got divorced.

[Serene Allison]

We almost got divorced as sisters, like literally. And it was, it was a sourdough fermentation recipe. And I've just done it in my head for years. I raised all my children on it. And Pearl's like, write it out in steps and write it out. Like, you know, all in amounts. And I tried to. And she'd be like, it's not clear. And I'll be like, they will understand.

[Pearl Barrett]

They will not understand.

[Serene Allison]

It was so bad.

[Pearl Barrett]

She's an interesting voice. Like, I'm sure it wasn't exactly, but it may have come across that way.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, that's good. If that's all you're fighting about is fermentation recipes, that's not too bad. So all of the, all of the theories and the practical tips are all agreed upon.

[Dr. Amy Medling]

I love that they're all agreed upon.

[Pearl Barrett]

We, but we, we don't live our lives perfectly. You know, twinsy, like, you know, I'm the drive through sue, she's the purist of the duo and women relate to.

[Serene Allison]

I've got kefa grains and you know, like kombucha sponges coming out of my ears like it's my whole house is one fermentation factory. And she's a nice can opener in the corner of a kitchen.

[Pearl Barrett]

It works for both of us. I think that's where women really get caught up too, thinking they have to be a type. And when the type isn't their natural type, it never lasts. So I think, you know, if you're a convenience person, you can be healthy. If you're a from scratch person, you can be healthy. But many from scratchers, yeah, they burn themselves out. And then many of us drive through suit types. Well, then we just abandon wisdom. So I think there's this beautiful middle ground for all of us. We, we can learn from one another.

[Serene Allison]

Yeah.

[Pearl Barrett]

Yeah.

[Serene Allison]

It's so true.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Serene Allison]

Going back to the fighting issue, Pearl and I, we don't really fight anymore because we spend our whole growing up years sharing a bedroom and fighting. So we kind of got that tick that box and got it over and done with.

[Pearl Barrett]

Occasionally Nate's. Nate's looking at us like, I've seen you.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

You know how to find that middle ground. That's beautiful. I love it. So June 2nd, this book hits. So I want every single woman to go out and, and pre order because you have a ton of preorder bonuses with this book. So tell us, what are all these beautiful bonuses that they can get when they pre order the book?

[Pearl Barrett]

Yep. Because there's recipes in the back of the book too, just ones that are gonna really help you kind of get your feet wet. Make you think, oh, now this. I can do this. So we go make a bunch of them videos, making these really simple meals. Those are free. We did little mini podcasts on each of the skills. So if you really, if you're an audio person or you want to watch us talk about them way more in depth than we did here today, we did those. That's the basics of it, isn't it, Nate? Yeah. So just like, like extra information.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah. Okay, I love that. I love that. And we're going to put all of that in the show notes. Don't wait until June 2nd. You want to pre order it now so that you can get the seven skills to lasting health right now and you can get the entire 7 skills companion series free with everything that the ladies just talked about. We'll put all of that, of course, course, in the show notes. Tell us, besides the book, you have, your podcast, you still have Kiora. You're still writing even more books. Like, is that's what's keeping you guys busy these days? Yes.

[Serene Allison]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pearl Barrett]

We're writing a lot of books. You know, you just. I don't know, we just have more to More mistakes. We make more. We understand about things. The more we walk with women, we come, we learn from them a lot too. And so we kind of walk this journey with hundreds of thousands of women and, and we.

[Serene Allison]

And when we get information from that, we want to share it.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yes, I know. Yes. And that's what I love about you, is as you're learning, you're literally putting that information out. You're constantly re educating your community, all the women out there to, okay, here's something new. Here's something new. Just like these seven skills, like, this is the handbook. If I would have known about this book before I finish thyroid fix, even in the thyroid fix I put in them, like, I am not tied to one diet. You need to find the way of eating that works for you. But honestly, I would have just been like, so you want to go out and get seven skills and just call it a day right there. That's here you Go and attract her.

[Pearl Barrett]

I know, I read that part and I'm like, she's kind of saying it, but yeah, you were saying, listen, it's so diverse and there's so many conflicting diets out there, but yeah, we can all be unique.

[Serene Allison]

Yeah.

[Pearl Barrett]

We are all made as humans and humans eat certain things and we just get to enjoy those certain things every day when we make skills out of them.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Pearl Barrett]

And this book, you know, as we said, it's the afternoon read that we never been able to do before. Our readers were like pearl serene. I love what you do, you know,

[Serene Allison]

a year and a half to read.

[Pearl Barrett]

Yeah. Or I'm a reader and I really want to give this to my sister in law, but I never would because it's too long. Can you write something short?

[Dr. Amy Medling]

There you go.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Exactly. Exactly. So I'm going to end with just something a little bit controversial. I want to pick your brain about GLPs because through cure you offer GLP ones. But has your stance changed at all? Do you write about that in the seven Skills? And what is your stance on GLP since they're so, so hot right now? I mean, hotter than they were even a year or two ago.

[Serene Allison]

I mean, it's changed our family's life. You know, my husband, he tried everything. He was ticking all the boxes and he had one of those metabolisms that he just needed that little bit of help. He needed more incredent hormones. He used to be in so much pain. All that pain is gone. His inflammation markers are down. His. He's a different man on his blood panel. Just a different man. He looks, you know, on his lab work, about 20 years younger. It's just, it's just amazing. And he's lost weight, but he did it so gradual. And we do speak out now about how it's done because I feel like people are using it more in high

[Pearl Barrett]

doses, but I think there's a more nuanced conversation overall. I think when GLP1s first came out, they'd been around as, you know, for like 20 years as blood sugar management and things like that. And then it came in as weight loss and this sensationalism. The Internet went wild. You got these two camps, Never Shall Touch, and then over here you're like, well, hold on, it's working for my friend. She lost 80 pounds in four months.

[Serene Allison]

It was like these two sides of

[Pearl Barrett]

a coin and everyone was battling. And I think now slowly there's this conversation starting to say, hey, just like we replace our thyroid and our estrogen progesterone if it's low. Some people struggle making incredent hormones, but why not give them that help too if they need it? And so when we came out saying that, we got a lot of pushback. We got people, half of the people

[Serene Allison]

left our group, half.

[Pearl Barrett]

But there was a lot of people very upset with it. But you know what, many of them have come back and, and we've been really humbled to hear when they've said to us, you know what, I'm actually, I'm open to that now because I think the science is coming. I don't know what you think, but I. They cannot replace diet and they cannot replace movement, but they're fulfilling a need. What do you think?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, I'm right there with you. I think these GLPs are the biggest Jekyll and Hyde drug of our lifetime where it is helping so many people, changing their life, getting them out of that, that high insulin, high blood sugar, which we know equals all cause, mortality and death mode. And then we have the Instagram influencers treating this like a multi level marketing company where they're, you know, handing out their codes and they're putting, you got Serene Williams jabbing herself and promoting her husband's company. And, and yeah, I think on the one hand these, these Hollywood celebrities have taken it too far where they look horrible, they look skeletal, they look 20 years older, they're losing their facial fat, they're losing their precious muscle that we need to keep as we get older. It's like your book Find the middle ground, that beautiful micro dosing or dosing whatever it is for you that keeps your muscle, that lets you lose the fat and stay in a healthy place. Find that middle ground with them.

[Serene Allison]

Yeah, and I feel like people are using it to either just eat their quarter slice of tiny pizza, like eat low calorie and just make it easier on them, or using an intermittent fast. But I feel like it's, they shouldn't be used to shut down hunger, maybe to get rid of food noise that's excessive because some people really struggle with that constant incessant, like intrusive thoughts about food all day long. So I feel it can really help with that. But how we kind of like supported my husband to do it was like at 4 to 5 protein fuelings a day, you know, with 3 grams of leaching. So you're stimulating muscle mass and being in the gym three to four times a week doing resistance training because you know if you're going to take the benefits of an incredent hormone, you Got to kind of do it with responsibility

[Pearl Barrett]

and, But I think like, it's so unique. We don't, we don't say that for everyone. You know, I personally needed to get on estrogen, testosterone, progesterone and thyroid. I learned about all the benefits, the anti inflammatory, inflammatory benefits of GLP1s and I was like, please me, I don't need to lose weight, but I want those benefits. And so I microdose. But I just kept dropping weight. I couldn't.

[Serene Allison]

The dose was so low, like barely there.

[Pearl Barrett]

I had to go off. So at this time, I don't know if I'll revisit it in the future. I can't do it because I don't like skinny.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Pearl Barrett]

But I want to be strong. But I think I've seen like Serene's husband, like other woman we've walked with, it's just been just a wonderful tool for them.

[Serene Allison]

Yeah. We had a friend that was just in constant, constant pain.

[Pearl Barrett]

Yeah.

[Serene Allison]

Just constant.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yes.

[Serene Allison]

It was just, just such an oppression on her life, the level of pain. And she didn't even do it for weight loss. But she's completely out of pain. She's just a new woman with a new life. And so I do believe they can be such a blessing. I just think they can't be abused.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Exactly 100. Okay. I just want to get your take on that. Beautiful. Thank you, ladies. Well, you know, I love having you on the show anytime. For all of your books that you're going to write, you're going to come back on. But for this one seven skills, we're putting all the links in the show notes for everyone to go grab now. Grab it today so you get the pre order bonus. And thank you so much once again for writing this, for putting it out into the world. It's so needed. It's just so needed. So I love you ladies.

[Dr. Amy Medling]

Thank you.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And until next time, thanks.

[Dr. Amy Medling]

The information shared on the Thyroid Fixer Podcast is intended solely for informational and educational purposes. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, treatment or before making changes to your healthcare regimen, including medications, supplements or other therapies. Use of the information provided in this podcast does not establish a doctor, patient or client, provide a relationship between you and the host or between you and any other healthcare professionals featured on the show. Any medical opinions or statements made by guests are, are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or affiliated parties. Statements regarding dietary supplements or health related products mentioned in this podcast have not been evaluated by the fda. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Some episodes of the Thyroid Fixer podcast may include sponsorships or affiliate links. The host may receive compensation for discussing or promoting certain products or services. Any such sponsorships or affiliations will be clearly disclosed during the episode. All opinions expressed are those of the hosts or guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of any sponsors. The inclusion of a product or service does not imply endorsement by any healthcare professional featured on this podcast.