Breaking The Diet Cycle with Ashley Fillmore

Introduction to Ashley Filmore and the episode theme 0:00

Hey health junkies, on this episode of the Health Fix podcast, I'm interviewing Ashley Filmore. Now, before I get into talking about Ashley, let's face it, most women struggle with their weight, and we've been programed to think it's harder to get the weight off after a certain age. And so the process can feel super hopeless. But what if there are clues to why the weight is sticking around? Could it be that there are certain behaviors that you've created as coping mechanisms that are showing up as you get older?

Or maybe you thought you let go of some of these behaviors and they're coming back because declining estrogen levels will trigger carb binges. So you might find yourself going. I was never like this before. What the heck is going on? Well, the good news is Ashley and I are going to dive into that today. And we're going to talk all about this binge detox diet, repeat failure after failure, kind of thing that a lot of women experience, myself included. And we talk about food shaming ourselves. We talk about why you do find yourself deep into a bag of potato chips or tortilla chips and salsa or Glock, or you're repeating scoops of peanut butter each time you go into the kitchen and throwing the little chocolate chips on them, too, at certain times of the day.

There are huge clues here. So Ashley Fillmore is a leading expert in sustainable weight loss who helps women heal their metabolism, balance their hormones, and achieve body composition changes that last a lifetime. Now, she is the founder and president of Metabolic Fix, a premium online coaching company that has helped thousands of women finally break free from chronic dieting for good and achieve long term, sustainable results using the metabolic fix method. Ashley is so committed to helping people, it's impressive, and you'll hear that here in the podcast.

And her podcast is cheers to Your Success podcast, which I had the pleasure of being on as well. So you definitely want to go check out her podcast as well. Because we talk about Chinese medicine, we talk about aging. We talk about hormones too. Over there. So she's got a lot of great guests as well. So you don't want to miss out on that. Well, I've talked a lot about Ashley in my podcast. You might be intrigued. So you're probably like, let's get on with it. So let's do it. Let's get on with the podcast.

Welcome to the Health Podcast, where health junkies get their weekly fix of tips, tools and techniques to have limitless energy, sharp minds and fit physiques for life.

Ashleyu2019s personal dieting and hormone struggle 2:53

Ashley Fillmore, welcome to the Health Fix podcast. Thank you so much for having me on, Ginny, and I'm so excited to speak with your audience today. I'm excited because we've talked about hormones and metabolism already because, guys, guess what? I'm on her podcast. So we'll talk about that a little bit later. But it's, you know, it's refreshing to hear a, a non one size fits all approach to, to hormonal health and metabolism and how we really work on dialing things in because so many women are frustrated this day and age.

And I'm guessing that you must have had your own little frustrations or maybe big frustrations along the way that brought you to helping women out in this stage of life. Give us your story. Yeah, so I did have some pretty big frustrations earlier in my life, actually, but I actually think it was a blessing in disguise because it's really allowed for me to serve women now that are 35 plus 40s 50s that are going through a lot of changes and many of them have dieting histories as well, or they have an unhealthy relationship with food, with their body.

And there's a lot of unpacking to do. And unfortunately, if you're not addressing it just because you're 40 or 50 doesn't mean it's just going to go away. You can still have the same problems with your nutrition, your relationship with food, dieting that you did when you were in your 20s. And so my story actually started in my 20s. I was right out of college. So just like my first internship actually became my first full time job, I was so excited. And, you know, just thinking back to that version of myself, you know, so young and just excited to start working with people, my degrees and exercise and nutrition.

My internship was and that I was the head personal trainer and nutrition coach. And so I just felt so proud. And I remember diving into my work. And at that time, I didn't have TikTok and social media or even podcasts to listen to. And I would look at magazines and I would see these women. And in my mind at that time, they all were in better shape than me. And I ended up telling myself that to be a great personal trainer and nutrition coach, that I also needed to look better than I did, was pretty much what I said.

People would take me more seriously. I would be viewed as more of an expert, and so I felt like I needed to hit this really high bar. And so my dieting history actually started there, and very, I guess you would say I had the intentions of wanting to look like the woman on the magazine, which we all know is usually photoshopped, isn't usually the way they look year round, and that is the absolute best version of themselves that you're going to see. But in my mind at that time, that wasn't what I was thinking.

And so I just started dieting. And to make a very long story, a little shorter today, I did all of the diets from Weight Watchers. I was really popular. Paleo was very popular, but I took it to the extreme by cutting out all of my carbs. All, I mean, essentially everything that wasn't meat and potatoes and vegetables. You know, I did fasting. I was working out, doing CrossFit workouts. I was doing less mills, which is a fitness class series, body pump and step aerobics, kickboxing. And some days I was doing up to four hours a day of exercise.

So I lost weight. I lost body fat. But here's the thing I was the most unhealthiest version of myself when I had my Dutch testing diet and hormone hormone panels ran, I had the hormone profile of a perimenopause woman. I did not have a cycle. I had a horrible relationship with food. I was restricting and bingeing and just cycling through that. Every single week. I did not feel like the best version of myself and I couldn't get pregnant. And at that time I was frustrated because I thought, why am I not able to conceive?

But you know, it was right in front of my face. And so I hit my version of rock bottom and had to say, okay, I have to pick myself back up. I have to stop feeling like I can diva and do all of these things to my body and not pay consequences for it. And so that's what I experienced my own holistic journey to getting hormonally healthy, metabolically healthy. I had severe metabolic damage, you know, at the young age of 20, I was eating, you know, 1100 a thousand calories a day, working out multiple hours a day.

I was a size double zero, but very unhealthy. So you know, the first thing I want to share with your audience is being a size two or a zero doesn't equal healthy for all of us. And for many of us, pushing your bodies to extremes to just try and hit a super small size of pants or push your body beyond where it needs to be isn't true health. And so through that journey, I realized health does come in many shapes and sizes, and I was going about things in a very unhealthy way, although I really did have the best intentions, so it was eye opening for me.

I ended up getting healthy. I killed my metabolism. I was working with a functional doctor as well, rebalanced my hormones, my cycle came back. I now have two beautiful daughters, six and nine years old, and now that I'm in my late 30s, I'm in a very different season of life and have been fortunately practicing what I preach, living by the metabolic fixed principles and philosophies to help me thrive. Now in my late 30s, as things are starting to change for myself, as well, you know your story isn't uncommon and I can definitely resonate with a lot of it.

Stopping my my cycle by over working out, you know, by going into hardcore paleo CrossFit, you know, it all. It all resonates. And I think a lot of women right now can be like, yeah, I've definitely been there in some form or other. And when we get to this phase of life, you know, there's a lot of changes, right? Our moods are changing. We're feeling different in our body. And then the fat can be on the belly and all boy, you know, and different distribution of how we look. And it just kind of adds to this like oh my God, what if I can't get this off?

What if I can't, you know, maintain a lean physique?

Why cookie-cutter diets fail women 9:26

What, you know, what do I do in the and I mean, I'd be lying if I didn't have that sort of like, oh, my gosh, I'm going to be my mother. Right. And and notice respect to her. She just didn't know what to do. Yeah. And was frustrated. And I probably got my diet hit. While I know I got my diet history from her. So I know a lot of women are definitely in that category. And and unfortunately, what's thrown at us right now is dial in your macros, eat like this guru, eat like this person for the menopause diet.

And then a lot of people try these things and they feel defeated. Nothing happens. So give us the scoop. What have you kind of discovered, especially with yourself and your clients, that we need to be looking at before we dive into macros? Yeah. So I think number one is we have to look at you as an individual. And this is so important and something that is so neglected, I really don't know of a diet that is a multi-million dollar company thinking about all the big names. You see, they are multi-million dollar diet companies and industries where they're, you know, selling various things to you from you know, shakes and pills and all of the things that come along with the diet that truly looks at you as an individual.

And so step one is you have to pull away from that and you have to invest and work with someone or a company that is invested to looking at you as an individual, to help you determine what is best for your body specifically, the customization just isn't there, and it's not something that can be offered when there is a huge mass produced programs and hundreds if not thousands of people are going to be doing the same thing that you're doing. And that's mistake number one. And I actually fell into that trap as well.

I'll say for me, I had education and I had the knowledge with nutrition and exercise, and I still fell into the trap. So I think for someone that's, you know, thinking, I'm not a nutritionist, I didn't go to school for exercise or nutrition. I didn't do any advanced certifications or become a doctor. As you are, you know, or any of that. It is 100% understandable that it's so easy to fall into these, these traps because it sounds great. You want to get that result and you want to feel better. Like you mentioned, if you're gaining interest in your midsection, if the scales going up, if you're lacking confidence in your clothes and you're struggling to stand in front of a meeting or work with your patients, or have an intimate moment with your partner, those are real life moments for us that matter, and those are the reasons why we're doing the diet.

If we're really being honest, it's because we don't feel good in our bodies and our clothes and our with our health. But there's nothing wrong with having a goal, but it's how you go about approaching that goal and starting with number one customization, which is harder to find these days, and you being looked at as an individual and everything assessed from your dieting history, your exercise, what you do for a living, the amount of stress you have. You're if you have children, if you're taking care of aging parents, which is very common in the 40s and 50s, if you have underlying health problems, how much time can you commit to your health and fitness goals?

And then we can continue layering it on from there to labs. And if you've had hormone panels ran, but all of those things should be taken into consideration before you are starting any protocol with your nutrition or your workouts or your lifestyle. Makes perfect sense. I mean, I've tried all the other things, right? You know, and and many people have and, and, you know, whether it's, it's counting macros or we're looking at following a specific diet plan because a lot of people will come to my office and say, hey, doc, just tell me what to eat.

And I'm like, I'm not gonna do that. I'm just not, I can give you parameters and things to talk about, and but we're going to talk about tweaking things, and that's why I said I don't do diet, work. And I don't do that kind of work in my office because it's just, it's it's a lot. You need a comprehensive program. So how much time do you guys spend, you know, do you spend on average with clients in the beginning of working with you, actually nailing down what to focus on, where to to head. Exactly. Yeah.

So the first part of the journey is one assessing. So there is an assessment period. So if you come into my community, number one you're not going to have this meal plan. And these workouts that's already designed. Everything's tailored for you. So initially it can be a bit of a shock because it's like oh today's day one. And you're telling me to just eat as I normally are, as I already have been to do the workouts I'm already doing, I'm filling out these papers about my health and what I've done and how I'm feeling and my measurements.

I'm uploading photos, but it takes a week of just reviewing your food, reviewing your exercise, studying your charts, your health history to get you started. Now that's the start. Full of full transformation for someone listening in. If you are going through perimenopause, menopause, or maybe you're even in your 30s and you just want to learn how to eat the correct way for your body and not the mass population, you know, it takes six months on average to get someone in a great spot. Now, sometimes it takes longer.

If you have a dieting history and you've spent 1520 years of your life dieting, there could be a lot of things we have to work through related to the mindset component, which is often overlooked as well, not just nutrition and ensuring that you understand what you're doing and you're being taught how to do it correctly. But it's six months to truly get you from A to the end point. And yes, there's a lot of teaching. There's a lot of you understanding why you need to do this.

Mindset, food guilt, and changing habits with age 15:28

It's a lot of, you know, you breaking all thought patterns related to food, which is always a part of this. But then even through the program, it's tweaking things based off of your biofeedback and the way your body's responding and your overall health, your labs. There's various things that we're looking at. And so in real time, your program is shifting to meet you where you are in that moment. But then the fundamentals for you are always usually solid in there as you're going through your own journey.

But week one, it just even get you started at a minimum. It's a week of making sure that we're understanding what you're eating, you know, when are you eating? If you're drinking, whatever it is, there's no judgment. It's just you being fully committed and saying, hey, I really want to feel better. But if anyone has experienced a rock bottom like I did, you are willing to do anything to feel better and to get in a better place. So I know for me it was like, I'll do whatever. If you want me to write down anything, I'll write it down.

So there, that's a huge part of it. Versus a traditional program where you're just given macros, you're just given a caloric target and you're just given some workout, and hopefully you like it and it works out with your schedule. Right. And so that's what you're getting at. And then you're expecting yourself to adhere to that and to do it. And maybe if you're lucky, someone will check in with you occasionally and see how you're doing. But maybe not. And so unfortunately, it's really changing the way that you go about it.

And that's why we try and offer a very different experience, because I do know that a cookie cutter, as I'm explaining approach is not going to serve any of my clients. They would all end up very unhappy with their experience. It's true, it's true. I think so many people, I mean, so many people in general, but women in particular, as they're heading through perimenopause into menopause and beyond, the weight is such a factor. I mean, I don't I can't tell you how many people have come into my office crying their eyes out, you know, and and I feel for them.

I feel. Yeah. And and one of the biggest things you mentioned was the mindset and thinking how you think about food. Because I do think that a lot of us from 80s diet culture on have really been a little bit damaged when it comes to our food thought process. What are the most common things that you see in terms of where people need to tweak their thought processes around food? What where can be some common hangups? So a common hangup is feeling guilty or embarrassed because you have an appetite?

That's a huge one. Yeah. I know it sounds so simple, but it's so true. How many times have you or I can even think of myself? Felt guilty because I went back for seconds, or my plate was just as big as my husband's arm, or I'm eating as much as, you know, the cousin, teenager or whomever it may be. And it's feeling shame because growing up in the 80s or 90s, you were taught to eat little portions. You know, as a woman, you had small portions on your plate. You didn't eat large portions. I'm not referring to binge eating.

That's totally different. But I will say there's nothing wrong. And for me, that was a big hurdle to overcome. I've always had a big appetite. I love food and it's not even overeating. It's just the way that my body's built. I can eat a decent amount of calories, but for many years I felt ashamed of that. And so I would hold back on eating or I would eat smaller portions. Or when my husband and I first started dating, I never wanted to have more food than have. I was very aware of that. So I'd say, number one, the one of the biggest hangups is being ashamed or embarrassed to actually eat enough and to not feel like you should feel guilty because you actually have an appetite.

Now, if you need help improving what you're eating, we can do that easily by just helping you find better alternatives and balancing your plate differently. But you should never be ashamed of the fact that you eat more than 1200 calories a day. So that's number one. I'd say the next hang up is probably something you've heard about a lot too, and maybe even tried is carbs are evil. I see women stay away from carbs, literally like they are a disease and they want nothing to do with them. Or nowadays I'm seeing more women transition to keto, but they're buying keto products that are heavily processed.

And I mean worse for you than just eating pure sugar, to be honest. But turning to that, and since the diet's promoting that, they feel like they're doing really well and they're eating keto bars and keto cereal and keto snack cookies and all of these things, which really nowadays is the same as the low fat, you know, SlimFast foods and snack wells and those types of things. But now it's just keto versus one of those products. Those are some of the biggest hang ups that I definitely see. And the last one is, is no one is telling you that as you get older, go through perimenopause, menopause, that your nutrition needs to evolve in transition just as your body is.

And so that's another hangup is a lot of women I work with are 45 years old or 50, but still trying to do what they were doing when they were 20 years old. And so it's this disconnect between, well, that used to work for me. Shouldn't it work for me now? And my argument is, well, no, your body, your life, your metabolism, your hormones is in a different place now, You know, that's a great point. I mean, a lot of people will think about, you know, oh, I just cut the carbs down, or I stopped eating pizza for a week, and you know, everything went back to normal.

But I think what a lot of people maybe are wondering about, and I'm hoping you can help explain this, is we also tend to eat sometimes the same. Like for me, I love chips and salsa. Guacamole. Oh, I can make a dinner out of it. I used to do that in my 20s and it worked. So the opposite side of this is also going into that. Correct. Looking at some of those habits that you might have carried over where like popcorn and a glass of wine worked in your 20s. Exactly. And, and this is where the mindset component comes in, is, you know, there's a lot of foods that we eat for comfort and there is nothing wrong with that.

You know, for you, I'd say, and I love it to some salsa, some really salty chips is wonderful. Wonderful. I mean, I can make a meal out of that as well. And it's tasty. It just literally checks all the boxes for me. And everybody has their own version of that. And so I think we do go on autopilot and we think, oh, well, I used to be able to have this really enjoyable popcorn and wine or walk and chips and salsa or whatever it may be. And, you know, I could still lose weight and feel pretty good or wake up feeling good. And now I wake up puffy.

My rings aren't moving, I feel bloated, the scales up 5 pounds and I just don't really know what's happened. It's not like I did anything different. I think it's having that realization that, you know, okay, well, my body's in a different place now, even as simple as alcohol. I mean, you know, there was a day where probably a lot of us could drink. I know for myself in my 20s, and I'd wake up and I felt great, but now I have a couple glasses of wine. I feel like I was hit by a train. And so I think it's understanding that your body's also shifting, and it doesn't mean that you have to give up those foods, because that's also sad.

But you do have to start looking at it differently and say, okay, like this is really tasty. It's obviously very comforting to me. Maybe this is something I can still have sometimes as a snack paired with some protein, but not as a full meal. Or instead of having the wine. Could I have some kombucha and get a similar feel? Pour it in a wine glasses, I do you feel like you're having something, but you're not also having that negative effect on your sleep and on your overall health. And so I think it's just being aware that we have to come out of autopilot and we have to turn on and say, okay,

Stress eating, backup plans, and smarter snack swaps 23:50

why am I doing the things that I'm doing and and not in a judgmental way. As women, we can be so hard on ourselves. If we're not perfect, then we're not good at all. We're a failure. But looking at yourself with compassion, because it truly you are going to be always the number one person they are to care for you. And so we have to look at ourself from a point of compassion and care and say, you know, like for me, it's why am I finding myself every evening with a jar of peanut butter and a half bar of chocolate?

What is going on here? Or why do I find myself in a Mexican restaurant eating two piles of chips and salsa before my entree gets out? And it's having these conversations with myself? Or why, after a stressful day, I had immediately to go get my bar of chocolate. It's having these realizations and conversations with yourself to understand your unique eating habits. If you don't conquer that, it's going to be really challenging for you to lose weight. If that's a goal or to improve your body composition or your overall health, you have to really start assessing.

It's like vision yourself being there, but you're setting back on the sideline, just observing, watching your eating habits, watching the way you manage stress and taking notes about this. Maybe even journaling. Today was a really hard day for dinner. I had chips and salsa. It was just comforting to me, and I used to do that in my 20s or maybe younger days, and it just made me feel great. Now I don't feel so great. And as I tell my ladies, it's not all or nothing. You don't have to give up these special moments or foods that you love, but it's figuring out now.

How do you work these things into your current phase of life as you are simultaneously improving your overall health? If that's a goal of yours, I think is a wise way to think of it, because I think a lot of people, their first response is going to be like, but I still want to eat these things. How can I still, you know, have the cake and and not gain, gain the pounds that, you know, I wouldn't back in my 20s. And that's incredibly insightful. So do you have folks in your program write like a journal?

Is there a constant kind of journal? And then talking with the coach about what came up? Yes. So one of the biggest things we do, one of the pillars here at Metabolic Fix is your mindset number. Number one thing we're addressing. Yes, we're looking at your metabolic health. Yes, we're looking and discussing hormones with you and understanding your menstrual cycles if you're having them. And if not, where are you in your journey? We're looking at your exercise and your nutrition. But I will say equally, we are working with you on your mindset.

Actually, that is one of the number one pillars, because your mindset, your relationship with food is going to trickle down in your ability to be compliant, your ability to stick to the plan that we create as a team together. And so, yes, mindset understanding why you're eating the way that you are, you know, and I know having done this for 20 years, even through the assessment week, just by simply logging your food, I know through my own research, but actual published research shows are naturally going to eat a little bit better just by journaling what you eat.

But if you can still try to just be as you know, eat us as you normally would to the best of your ability and not deviate from that. That information is very insightful, but it's also important for you to start understanding why you are doing the things that you're doing, but flip the script instead of doing it. And I'm horrible. I'm a failure. Nothing works for me. I just can't do this. Everybody else is doing great. My neighbor down the street is at her optimal weight, with five kids taking care of her aging parents, and I can't even push away the ice cream at night.

Don't judge yourself that way because that will keep you on that negative loop. It's looking at yourself and saying, I know that I need to change. So to change, I'm going to have to do things differently. This is going to be uncomfortable. It's going to be challenging. But with the right support and help, I can get through this. So step one is understanding why do I even eat the way that I eat? What do I like? Is it stress eating in the evenings? Is that why I'm turning to the food? Am I lonely?

Is food the one thing that's not talking back to me in my day, you know, can I just zone out? And this is my way of decompressing. Once we start to learn that about you, it becomes so much easier to teach and help you become compliant to whatever protocols we create related to optimizing hormones, metabolic health, building muscle mass, sustaining muscle mass, and reaching your weight loss goals. It's incredibly insightful. I think, you know, one of the biggest questions I would love to hear kind of how you work with folks when it's when it is a stress eating thing, because I think that is so common for so many women, especially in the evening.

You know, we've kind of went through the day. A lot of people will tell me they do great, you know, breakfast and lunch, all good dinner. It's off the rails. What kind of what kind of protocols do you do you help folks with? Like what kind of things do you do to kind of help them with the stress eating and kind of working on managing that? Right. Well, 90% of the women that are over eating in the evenings are also not eating enough during the day, and that's usually fueled by cortisol. So cortisol is pumping in our bodies, especially in high amounts.

And we're distracted with work or life or multitasking. Oftentimes our appetite is on the back burner. We're not thinking about food, but when we get home, we're able to decompress. And this is when we finally check in with us, right? We check in with us and we're tired. We're exhausted or burnt out. We just want to sit down. And we're also really hungry because guess what? We didn't eat all day, or we under ate throughout the day, or we're fasting until noon, or having breakfast and skipping lunch because we have patients or work or all the things.

And so it's number one, you're not eating enough during the day. And so it's looking at your schedule and making yourself a priority to ensure that you are eating full meals. Now, with that being said, the overeating may still happen or the stress eating may still happen in the evenings. Even if you know that you're getting sufficient calories and nutrients throughout the day. And so step one is we have to have a plan B for you. And so this is a really important thing is having that plan B because oftentimes we think and assume the solution to not stress eating is just stopping to stop stop do it anymore.

If it was that simple we would not do it. And to be honest, stress eating contributes to a lot of the unnecessary weight gain women experience. But it's not that simple. So it's have a plan B, and this has worked wonders for my clients, and I hope it will work for your audience as well. Instead of saying you're not going to have anything, have a backup plan, but make that backup plan your primary plan. So have your normal dinner because you're probably going to do that. It's what happens after dinner.

Maybe you are snacking as you're eating dinner and you eat up over, or you overeat during dinner. Or you may even restrict yourself. Eat a normal portion dinner, get a shower, decompress, and then you go back in for the snacks after dinner. So it's knowing which way are you? Are you snacking before as you're eating and then eating large dinners? Or are you eating a reasonable dinner and then snacking in the night as you're watching TV or doing the things? So I think with either either version A or B, having a backup plan and knowing yourself and saying, I know that I don't want to stress eat, but it's inevitable.

I probably will do this tonight. What am I going to have instead? So purging the house is key. If you normally stress eat on ice cream or chips or cookies, get rid of it. Do not rely on willpower. Research shows your willpower is the lowest at the end of the day, it's like a battery that's depleting throughout the whole entire day, so it's at its lowest. That's also contributing to the stress. Eating is your just depleted. Think about the battery. You're the battery. It's on E and it's almost out.

It needs to be plugged up and recharged for the day. So you need to make it easy for yourself. You've made decisions and you have decision fatigue usually by that point in your day. So I like to say know yourself and have a backup plan, but you can't trust that you're just not going to eat the ice cream and go for the alternative. So get rid of that commit. Make a commitment, get rid of it. I know it's not great to throw away things and waste money, but get rid of it and make this the only time that you do it or give it away.

Whatever you need to do. But then you need to replace those foods with similar foods that are healthy and still going to hit the spot for you. So this is when I work with my clients and I say, what is it that you like?

Repairing metabolism and reversing under-eating 32:48

If it's ice cream, try also bars. If it's chocolate and just sweets, what about you? Portioned out an ounce of dark chocolate and you have that with some tea? Or what if you have some popcorn or rice cakes with peanut butter and a few dark chocolate chips? And this is where your personal preferences come into play. But it's ultimately you having a plan B for yourself that is reasonable, healthy, but still going to satisfy you. Have that portion after dinner. Don't even worry about calories or the fact that you're having a snack.

Number one is just cleaning up that snack, giving yourself something to still eat. That's step one. Continue to practice that. And I promise you, just by cleaning up and the snack and not having highly processed versus a cleaner option, you're going to see results. You're going to feel better. And you're not saying, hey, I can't have anything at all. That's huge. That's huge. Yeah, I think the substituting and that helps big time now in terms of folks who maybe that on the opposite spectrum, they're not eating enough.

They haven't seen their weight budge. Maybe it's going up. They're panicking. What do you do when you've kind of dieted yourself into a very slow metabolism, if that is even true? I don't even know. Yeah, right. So what I typically do, and this is very common, and this is why within my company we have the three phases of transformation. We have the repair phase, the rebuild phase and the results phase. Most women want to start in the results phase, but their body is not ready for it. And so, you know, a big part of the journey is explaining, hey, this is actually why you're not losing weight is you're trying to push your body, you're under eating, you're not eating enough, and your metabolism can upregulate and down regulate.

And so we refer to this as metabolic damage, metabolic adaptation. But here's the good news. Don't let those words scare you. Because just like your metabolism will down regulate if you're under eating, it can also up regulate the mistake many women or programs are making is they are adding in calories way too fast. So you have to go about this in a very strategic way. So a lot of women come to me and say, hey, I was eating 1000 or 1200 calories a day. I decided that I needed to bump my calories up because I read on a social media post of yours or listened to your podcast that I wasn't eating enough. And that's why I'm not losing weight.

Now. I'm eating 2000 calories and I've gained 10 pounds. And the question is, well, how did you bump your calories up? Oh, I just instantly increase them. You never want to do that. Like with everything in our body, it's sensitive to change and wants to maintain homeostasis. So in the repair phase we very strategically based off of your dying history, your dieting history, the level of metabolic adaptation you have, we can determine that through looking at how much you should be eating versus how much you're eating, getting some accurate food logs.

And for you, we can then come up with a game plan to get you to where you need to be. But it should be a gradual process that's strategic and based off of your biofeedback, you should be working with a coach or a practitioner that's monitoring you every week, giving you feedback, coaching you, guiding you, letting you know if something needs to change. So when you go about it in that way, you reverse that metabolic downregulation known as metabolic adaptation. Your metabolism starts to upregulate.

So burn energy more efficiently, which then allows for you to start losing some of that body fat that it's holding on for dear life because you're not eating enough. And that's when you also start to see an upregulation in your energy levels. You start to generally experience more weight loss if you've struggled with that. But it's finding that sweet spot for your body is the key. And it sounds like there's a little work involved. It's not, you know, easy peasy. Which, you know, obviously I think a lot of us are still hoping for that magic.

But but, you know, it makes sense. You know, I, I've always tried to kind of explain to folks your body. You're kind of like an odd one. You're an experiment, and you gotta, you know, sleuth it out and and figure it out. And it sounds like you guys are really diving into that. So for those folks, that's that's key. I like to hear that it's slowly coming back up because I have heard of the reverse dieting thing and all of that. And not so great results for for a lot of folks. Yeah, it's a home. Yeah.

So with hormones and let's go from perimenopause like go around perimenopause into menopause. What do you see as the biggest hurdles with hormones and and eating and and triggers and different things for folks in perimenopause. And what can some folks be thinking about to maybe get ahead of the game and start to evaluate for themselves? Where can I make some changes? Yeah. So I think one of the biggest changes I see with women is just really having that moment where you really do realize things are different.

It's not just a bad night's sleep, it's not just one bad month for you. Things are really starting to shift in your body and you have to do things differently now. And as you probably know, not sure if the listeners know, after the age of 30, we will naturally start losing muscle mass when it comes to our metabolic health, our metabolism. So much of your metabolic health and your metabolic rate, how many calories you can burn without gaining weight, how many calories you need per day. It's going to be influenced by the amount of muscle mass you have on your frame.

Perimenopause nutrition, strength training, and protein 38:38

So if you're losing muscle mass and also have a dieting history, and also simultaneously going through perimenopause, where estrogen and progesterone in your testosterone are dropping down, you're not going to be in the best place in your 40s as you're starting to see some of these changes. So I think number one is you have to start being proactive about what you're doing and how you're doing it in this new season of life. And so some things I would say to get ahead is take a look at your protein intake and make sure that you are eating sufficient protein.

Now, like with everything, the amount is customized. And I hate to say that because I wish I could say, hey everyone, eat x amount of grams of protein and you're going to feel amazing. But I can't guarantee that because there's so many things we need to take into consideration. Generally speaking though, I say shoot for 100g of protein at a minimum, cut. If you're under 100 pounds, come talk to me. But generally speaking, you know things would need to be a lot different for you. There's usually other things going on in that situation as well, but starting with around 100g of protein.

But really the best answer is working with someone that's going to tailor things for you, but just a starting spot. So when you're eating your meal, shoot for a minimum of 20g of protein. You can do this through having not only meat products, but dairy, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese. There's vegan protein powder, seafood. You can mix up your protein sources for sure. So that would be number one is really get on top of that because the protein intake is going to one help preserve and build muscle mass.

And as I just mentioned, muscle mass is key not only for hormonal optimization but for longevity and also to keep your metabolism wrapped into high gear. As we get older, we need as much max muscle mass as possible to to not only again maintain our weight and feel great, but it's going to ensure that we hopefully have that flexible life as we age to live on our own and do those things that we don't want to lose. And so then I'd say strength training is key. You don't have to follow everything you see on Instagram or social media.

It could be very basic. Some of my clients work out in the comfort of their home with a weight bench and a couple sets of dumbbells, so having weight bearing exercise like strength training is key for building and sustaining muscle mass for for your hormones, for cortisol regulation, as long as you're not doing higher intensity, you know, orange theory classes as an example, every day of the week or CrossFit, you want to make sure that it is just really traditional strength training. You don't have to have all the bells and whistles and walking.

Take a look at your day and see if you can sneak in some walking. See if there's opportunities for you to get outside and move your body. You know, these are very simple things that can help you get in front of your health as you go through these hormonal shifts. And then lastly, add in more vegetables. It's great for detoxification. It's great for your gut health. It's just great for your body in so many ways. So even without having a hormone panel rad, look at your diet and get in more vegetables.

That's going to support your liver. It's going to support your your GI health. It's going to help ensure that you're having a bowel movement every day, which is something a lot of women aren't having. And it's a way that our body just gets rid detoxify. So we have to make sure that we're doing those things every day. So I would say those are some things that you can do to get in front of your hormones, in your health, as you're going through these transitions. Absolutely great, great suggestions and things that I think are doable for folks.

You know, the mindset, all that let's get that takes work. And that's where folks like you come in. And so of course, I want to have you tell us a little bit more detail. You've given us some great highlights about the Metabolic Effects program. I'd love to hear a little bit more and tell folks how they can find you if they choose to work with you. And then also the cheers to your success podcast. We get to talk about that too. Yeah, yeah, I know we just had you on my show, which was amazing. I know we had such a great conversation about similar, a very similar topic, you know, going into more of the labs and different things that come along with this.

But yeah, so my metabolic fix program is really for that woman that's sick and tired of dieting, that's sick and tired of following the cookie cutter generic programs. They've done it. Or maybe they have it. They're just busy. They're in their 40s now, they're in the peak of their career, and they want to feel great. And some women nowadays, with all of the information, are scared to diet for all of the reasons we've talked about. And so the program is for those women that check those boxes that are really looking for expert help, that's looking for customization.

So with my program, you take full on assessments. We determine what phase you start in, either at either repair rebuild or results phase. And then we ensure that everything from your nutrition, your workouts, your mindset, your lifestyle, everything, every protocol is built and customized for you, meeting you where you are. The one thing I will say is it's very much so a partnership.

Metabolic Fix program, podcast, and where to find Ashley 43:58

It's not just a program where you come in and you go on autopilot. We're working together as a team. Your opinion matters. We're not only listening to your biofeedback as far as your energy, your digestion, your sleep, all of those things matter greatly. But we're also making sure that you're happy and you feel like you can sustain the things that are taking place in your life that are changing, that you feel like you could keep this up and you understand why you're doing it absolutely makes sense.

Absolutely makes sense. And you said six months for a lot of women. So, you know, definitely not the common program that I hear, you know, three months those kind of things. And then you're left with what do I do next. So absolutely crucial. Let's talk about your podcast for a minute and how that supports women going to your program and just women in general. Yeah. So my podcast, cheers to your success, which you were just on and I can't wait for your episode to come out. It's pretty much a continuation of everything that we talked about today going into hormones, metabolism, nutrition, exercise, mindset, navigating, as I like to call the messy middle, where you are maybe raising your children, working in your company or in your career.

You have aging parents, your body's changing, and just some behind the scenes views of what that looks like. I've many clients that come on my show to share their stories. Wonderful experts like yourself, and also a lot of solo episodes. I release 1 to 2 episodes every week, and it's a really great way to come and learn, and a very digestible way where you walk away understanding what you've heard and with great actionable steps and tips that you can implement right away. Makes sense. Makes sense. Yeah, sounds like you and I both are on the same mission.

Just get that information out there. So what about social media? Where can folks follow you? See what you're up to on those channels? Yes. So I'm on Instagram and I'm there daily. So my handle is Ashley underscore Fillmore filmography one. So I'm there hanging out. If you want to learn more about everything I share today I also have my website Metabolic fix.com, which goes into my one on one coaching program and other offers that I have, and then my podcast. I'm always hanging out there again, releasing weekly or sometimes two times a week releasing episodes.

Awesome. So much information. You know, that you've got out there. Great solid stuff. And I definitely appreciate your customized approach to the metabolism because boy, it is a doozy as we get older. Yes. Well, thank you so much for having me on your show today. Hey. My pleasure. We'll do it again soon. Thanks. Hey, fellow health junkie. Thanks for listening to the Health Mix podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please help support me to get the word out about the podcast. Subscribe, rate and review and just get that word out.

Thanks again for listening.