Weight Loss Stalled After 50? One Woman's Real Story

Nikkiey: Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

Let's go down that path. I mean, again, you guys, like Lisa's beginning, we've been through multiple phases, but from where she started around 50 with WarriorBabe to a couple years in, the transformation she made was just absolutely incredible. And I feel like we're all in this next chapter together, and I'm so excited to do this by your side. And that is what we have now.

Hey, everyone. Really quick, before we dive into today's episode, I have an exciting milestone to celebrate with all of you. The WarriorBabe Show has officially reached 500,000 downloads. That's half a million downloads in just a year and a half of being born. I could not have done this without you guys. Thank you all so freaking much.

And now I want to hear your stories. If you could just take 10 minutes of your time to fill out a testimonial, that testimonial link is in the description below. That would mean the absolute world to me. How has The WarriorBabe Show positively impacted your life? What have you taken away from this show? How have you applied it? And what results have you gotten? Your story could be featured in one of our special celebration episodes to come. So if you could, please head over to the testimonial link. The link is in the show notes below. Share your journey with me. Thank you all so much for being an essential part of this freaking amazing The WarriorBabe Show community. You guys all rock. I love you all so much. So let's celebrate this achievement together. Again, that testimonial link is in the show notes below. Thank you all so much.

What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Or if you are a new listener, welcome to the show, and welcome to one of the first episodes you may be listening to, because this is going to be an amazing episode for you to dive into if you're new.

First of all, I am so excited for this episode. I have not only one of my clients, my badass client, but also a friend and a mom and a wife. She's going to be here to share her entire journey of what it was like before WarriorBabe, during WarriorBabe, and what we're going through right now. She's been a member since 2019, and she's going to talk about where she started her journey, the ups, the downs, the lessons learned, the wins. I know she's going to provide some valuable insights into managing some aspects of your journey you'll be able to resonate with, and offer practical tips and heartfelt advice. And not to mention, I know she's a badass, but she's just a down-to-earth human being. I'm excited for her to share some things on this episode that I hope you can take and run with and implement. And if not any of those things, just be seriously inspired by her journey. So, Lisa, welcome to the show.

Lisa: Hello. How are you? It's really an honor to be here with you today.

Nikkiey: Yes. I'm so excited for you to share your story. I know there are going to be so many points where so many women will be able to resonate with you. The women listening are either struggling, going through it, or are action takers, as you are. So let's just start from day one. What was your story before WarriorBabe?

Lisa: My story before WarriorBabe was that I struggled with weight loss my whole life. I was never super heavy, but I was also never where I wanted to be. I always struggled with 15 to 20 extra pounds. And I tried everything, going back as far as I can remember, definitely late teens, early 20s. I did every single fad diet that came along. I know we talked about this a long time ago, but if it was the grapefruit diet, I was doing the grapefruit diet. If it was the elimination diet of don't eat this, don't eat that, I did everything.

Every time a diet would come along, it had so much hype to it. And it was like, oh, well, this is it. This is the magic one. And I would do it. I'm a really determined person, and when I put my mind to something, I'm going to do it. So I'd always go in and lose the weight, and then I'd go off of it because it's not attainable. I mean, the cabbage diet, you're too young for the cabbage diet, but some women out there will remember the cabbage diet. You can only be on that for so long. So I just went from diet to diet to diet, and nothing ever worked. And I didn't realize at the time how destructive what I was doing was, not only mentally, but physically, what I was doing to my body.

I did this throughout my 20s, my 30s, my 40s, up until I was just turning 50 when I started with you. And I'll be 56 on Friday. So it's been a long journey. But when I saw you on Instagram, this was WarriorBabe before it was WarriorBabe. It was you. And you resonated with me. You were younger than me, but what you said made perfect sense to me. Talking about the macros, talking about signs that your body was unhealthy, symptoms of stuff, so many factors. And I was like, this makes so much sense. Because I've always worked out and I've always eaten correctly, but I knew nothing about macros. I didn't know how to put that together. I had always eaten within calories. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to reach out. And I reached out, and you reached right back out, and we just hit it off. And I was like, this is my person.

Nikkiey: Lisa. Guys, you're listening right now, and I can't wait for us to dive into your journey, because you are not only a dedicated individual, like you just mentioned, but an incredible human. You have been a gem to work with. But going back to what you said, you did all of the things, you tried all the things. I know that's going to resonate with so many of the women listening right now.

And to your birthday, happy early birthday, badass. Let's go. I'm happy you brought up your age, because I wanted to let everybody know as we continue unpacking your journey that you started when you were around 50 years old with WarriorBabe, and now you'll be 56 on Friday. You do not look like you're 56. Everybody watching on video, you know, she's a beautiful human.

And I want to note something really quick before we dive into anything else. I was younger than you. Why did you want to listen to me? Because a lot of women who join WarriorBabe are older, and some of our coaches are younger. What made you listen?

Lisa: Well, because what you said made sense. You weren't trying to sell some quick fix. From the very beginning, you would say, this takes work. It takes dedication. It takes commitment. You have to put in the work. I can give you all the tools. I can tell you where your macros need to be. I can tell you what kind of workouts we need to do. And I can give you the tough love. Because remember, I told you that I'm a bulldozer, and I bulldoze over people. And you were like, nope, I got you.

And you have. You've given me tough love whenever I've needed it. You've lovingly jerked my little chain. You've called bullshit on me when I've had excuses. And that's what I was always used to doing. I was used to excuses. That's how I would weave my way out of the commitment I'd made. I would use an excuse, whether I wasn't feeling well, whether things were going on in my life, life got busy, anything like that. And if I'd ever just stopped and been honest with myself: everybody's busy. Everybody's got problems. Everybody has issues. We all have busy lives. It's how bad did I want it? And being able to sit down with you as a coach and hear, this is what we need to do if we want to accomplish this. How bad do you want to accomplish this, Lisa? And I was like, I want it bad.

Nikkiey: Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with the body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com/apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com/apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

I love that. Mic drop. That's what makes the best client-coach relationship: when we align, you're communicating to me what you want, I'm communicating that you do the work, and then you go and actually do the work. That's what makes ultimate success. In a partnership, it's not a one-way street. It's a two-way street. We're working together for you. I've got the plan, the expertise, the knowledge. You've got the drive, the want, the desire to accomplish what you want to accomplish.

So with that said, the excuses you shared, a lot of women deal with those. I'm too busy. I don't have enough time. Kids, soccer practice. I don't feel like meal prepping. Before we started working together and you became a WarriorBabe, what were your expectations of the program before joining? And how did you think it could help you get to where you wanted to be?

Lisa: When I went in at the beginning, with everything that I'd heard, that's what I wanted. But in the back of my mind, I still had that old mentality. This was before I was working with you, before getting into it. In the back of my mind I was like, yeah, yeah, this is the next quick fix. This is going to fix me. And the one thing we started working on right away was my mindset. And I did not like that. I did not like working on mindset, because it made me accountable to myself for some things. And I did not like that.

I was the person who was on five days a week and off two. I was at 71%. I would do really good five days a week, and then on the weekend, I dug my heels in, because I was like, no, I like having my weekends. I want to do what I want to do. I want to eat what I want to eat. It's not like I was a drinker, but I was a social drinker. I liked my Saturdays with my girlfriends or my husband or my daughter, going out to the wineries. I liked that. And I would convince myself that was my treat meal. But my treat meal lasted six hours. It was a 48-hour treat meal.

And the reason it was a two-day thing isn't that I went out and did things both days. People complain that it's really hard to get down 120 ounces of water. Girlfriend, I could get down 20 ounces of wine, probably. The wine was not an issue. But you don't realize how much you're drinking until you really start measuring and see what four ounces of a drink is, and you think, wow, I've been going out all day long.

So what happened is, that night, I slept horribly. Sleep was terrible. I woke up in the middle of the night with anxiety. So sleep was trashed. I'd wake up the next morning and my day was completely unproductive because I had anxiety. I felt kind of depressed because of that. So I didn't eat well the next day. Not that I went out of my way to eat junk, but I felt like I needed extra bread or carbs because I felt hungover. Then Monday morning I was back on it, all the way through Friday.

I remember telling you at the time, because you had me doing my weigh-ins on Saturday morning, that's your way of keeping me from having anything Friday night. But that's what I did. And I convinced myself that was good. I'm good as gold five days a week, and I deserve to have some fun. That was my mindset at the time.

Nikkiey: And I think a lot of women can totally resonate with you on that. They're go-getters during the week, and then they want to be off for the weekend. And then four or six weeks later they ask, why am I not seeing the results that I want to see? Well, let's backtrack a little and get down to data and evidence. When we look at the big picture, we'll use four weeks as an example, that's about 30 days. Of those 30 days, there are two, four, six, eight days' worth of weekends. Then you do quick math: 30 minus eight is 22. I'd need to calculate it, but that's you showing up at around 73%.

Lisa: You did that math. That was 71, 73%.

Nikkiey: And everyone, the grading scale has changed drastically, but when I was in school, that was sub-failing.

Lisa: Yeah. You weren't going to graduate top of your class at 71%.

Nikkiey: Exactly. And that's you showing up at 71, 73% for yourself and the goals you want to achieve. So everyone listening, just think about that. Consider yourself, if you are like Lisa was at the beginning of her journey. What we worked on at the beginning was Lisa taking ownership of her mindset, like she's sharing with you, which is so hard for a lot of women to do. But in order to get to where you want to be, you have to take responsibility and do right by what you need to do to start showing up for yourself.

So let's talk about our entire journey. It's been since 2019. I haven't pulled up our stats inside Trainerize looking all the way back. Geez, I can't even go that far back, which is wild. Oh wait, I think I actually can. We've been through so many different phases together. But before we hit the ground running, I want to preface this for everyone listening. You're a late menopause bloomer. You haven't gone through menopause, right?

Lisa: Right. Yeah.

Nikkiey: Are you experiencing any symptoms in terms of perimenopause?

Lisa: I'm not really sure. I had a uterine ablation a few years back because I was such a heavy bleeder. Once I had that, it immediately stopped any kind of bleeding, but every single month I still get all the symptoms. I get the breakouts on the chin. I get the moodiness. My husband says I'm not the nicest person in the world. I don't believe him. But I get irritable. I get the cramps.

But when I went to the gynecologist, all they cared about was when my last period was. And since my last period was a few years ago, well, you're in menopause. They wouldn't take my hormones. They wouldn't test them. They just put me into the menopause department. And I was like, okay, well, I don't really feel like I'm there, but I didn't see a way out of that. They wouldn't do my blood work for me. So I do feel like I'm still very much in my cycle.

Nikkiey: And we'll get to that later.

Lisa: Yeah, totally.

Nikkiey: Everybody definitely needs to hang around to listen to that, because what we're experiencing now has been the biggest insight into Lisa's next steps in her transformation and her journey.

You've done an incredible job transforming your body since we first started working through the initial things we needed to work through together. Looking back, you started around 153 pounds. And yeah, the weight dropped. I'm going to have to figure out how to get an edit of your before and after into the video so everyone can see it. And I'd highly encourage everyone listening on audio to make your way to YouTube or our socials, because we'll have the before and after of your journey. So you started at 153, and how tall are you? Remind me?

Lisa: Five six.

Nikkiey: Five six. So 153 pounds. You had more body fat on your body than you had muscle. And then, bam, when we got through the jam, you dropped all the way down to around 131. But then over time we were able to get your body to put on more muscle, and there was a drastic difference. And let me preface that: you've been decreasing body fat and putting on more muscle, even at the age you shared you were at.

So you did that incredible transformation. You put in the freaking work, man. When Lisa is on, Lisa is on. You're determined, the light switch is there, and you just want to get it done. What I really respect about our relationship is that not only do you want to get it done for you, but you always share that you have me to show up for on a weekly basis. You have to put in the weekly adjustment form. You have to do the stats. You have to be honest in your form with me. And if you're not honest in your form, you're just doing a disservice to yourself, to me and to your journey.

So you've had an incredible transformation. Let's talk about that a little bit. From when you came into WarriorBabe, through our initial stages and that first few years of working together, and then the after photos we were celebrating and so impressed by, what changed the most for you there?

Lisa: It was a little slow going in the beginning, and that was all on me. Once we dialed it in, and you were continuing to work with me every week on mindset. Because I used pure motivation when I came into the program. Everything I did for losing weight, or what I would now say is body fat, but at that point it was just weight, because I was losing muscle and fat, which is what got me into the particular mess I was in when I came to you.

Once we started tightening things up, I had gotten myself to a point where I had become a little insulin resistant. And keep in mind, for anybody listening, anything I'm talking about is specific to me. It's my journey. What works for one person doesn't work for another. We worked really closely on this, but I was really sensitive to carbs. I would eat carbs and my stomach would just blow up. We started checking my morning blood glucose, and it was always really high, like 120, 123, 125. So we worked on bringing it down. We started reducing my carbs, and we got to a point where we were able to bring that morning glucose, that blood sugar, down.

That's when I was able to lock in. Getting my blood sugar balanced helped me mentally and physically to lock into the routine. And that's when I was really able to start digging hard in the gym, really focusing on building that muscle, and making better food choices. Because by then we had been together for a minute. And like I said, you were so good for me, because I'm really used to running the show, and apparently you're a little better. You would just call me out. You'd be like, that's bullshit, Lisa. That's bullshit.

Nikkiey: Yeah. That's why I love it.

Lisa: You know, and so—

Nikkiey: Go ahead.

Lisa: So that really helped me stay focused and stay on that road. But things were changing within my body. I had always had some things I struggled with that weren't going away. My brain fog. Short-term memory loss was really bad. The fatigue. I would have fatigue from the time I woke up in the morning, and after lunch, after I was done at the gym, it would just hit. My sleep was horrible. I could go to sleep really quick, but between 2:30 and 3:15 every single night, I would wake up and it was like I had adrenaline rushing through me. I'd have all these crazy thoughts going through my head. I'd worry about improbable things that would probably never happen, and I'd worry about them until I fell back asleep. So then I would wake up exhausted.

And I was constantly working on these things. It's not like I was ignoring this stuff. We were always trying something new, adding melatonin or GABA or L-theanine or magnesium, different combinations. But some of these things just weren't getting better. So I knew there was something else there.

Nikkiey: Facts. Let me jump in here. Like I mentioned a couple of minutes ago, we've gone through many different phases. Initially, like Lisa shared, we worked on the mindset, and then she got her shit together and crushed it. We made a huge transformation with your body. But leading up until last year, you had a couple of health scares, and this led you down the path of wanting and needing answers. And on the work we were doing together, as your coach, we noticed there was a bit of a stall happening with your progress. There were new medications introduced. We were trying different strategies to work with it, and nothing was really panning out as we'd hoped.

So this leads into what we wanted to dive into. I feel like there's a lot of value in what you're going through right now for a lot of women who may be going through this too, and who aren't taking the step deeper that you're taking to really understand what's going on internally with your body. When you understand what's going on internally, you're able to address those deficiencies, and that's where you start healing internally. Then you externally get the results you want, and we're able to lock in the specific workouts, the specific nutrition you should be following, and the supplementation you're on.

So let's go down that path. Again, you guys, we've been through multiple phases, but from where she started around 50 with WarriorBabe to a couple of years in, the transformation she made was just absolutely incredible. And I feel like we're on this next chapter together, and I'm so excited to do this by your side with the data you have now. So fill everybody in on what happened last year, how you felt in terms of what you were seeing physically and what we were trying to work on. I want to hear it from your perspective, and then we'll get to how we're navigating it now.

Lisa: Okay. So in January of 2023, I started having some abdominal issues, some pain in my abdomen. I ended up in the ER in the middle of the night one night with what I thought was just diverticulitis. I'd never had it before, but I knew what it felt like, because my mom used to get it. I figured they'd give me some medicine and I'd be gone. They came back and said, not only do you have severe diverticulitis, you've got two abscesses in your intestines and a perforation, and we're sending you to the floor for possible emergency surgery. I was floored. I'd never had anything done before. I'm not on any kind of medication.

So I was in the hospital for five days with that, on heavy-duty IV antibiotics. They sent me home with oral antibiotics. It was either a 14-day or 21-day course, I really can't remember. But I started noticing something during that time. I've always had a racing heart, and that comes from my anxiety, which is uncontrollable, and medication never worked for it, so I'm not on anything for it. But my heart rate started going from like 173 down to 35, all over the place.

Three weeks later, I ended up back in the hospital by ambulance from the gym, while I was just walking, because my heart rate again went from up in the 170s down to 35. They ran every kind of test in the world and checked my heart out inside and out. Your heart's beautiful, that's what they said. Your heart is absolutely beautiful. But after I wore a heart monitor for a couple of weeks, they put me on a beta blocker, because they said I have supraventricular tachycardia.

It really bothered me, because I thought, you just told me my heart's beautiful, but you're putting me on a beta blocker. I don't want to be on medication. But they said, because you have all this adrenaline hitting your heart all the time, that's causing the spike, so we're putting you on this. And that's when everything really stalled for me. My body just hit a wall.

It was hard for me. I really had to dig into some of the stuff you and I had worked on, the things you had reinforced with me and taught me about mindset, because all motivation was gone. It was all about determination and pure willpower to figure it out myself. Because whenever I'd go into any of the doctors, whether it's the gynecologist, the heart doctor or the GI doctor, they'd look at me and say, you look very healthy. And when I looked around at the people around me, I'm like, I guess I do. But that's not fair to me, because I've been telling you all these issues and symptoms I've had for years now, and you're telling me I look healthy. That's what I always got. And they'd check my blood work with their standard panel and say everything is good. So I decided to start investigating it myself, because I was like, there needs to be more.

Nikkiey: Yeah. Pause right there. During this time, you guys, as Lisa just shared, there was the hospital scare, there was the new medication, and then there was us trying to get the right protocol in place that would still facilitate the results we were going for. Lisa and I have done multiple types of phases, though for the majority of the time you lived in maintenance. And whenever we wanted to proceed forward in a deficit, the deficit was one of the hardest things for us to crack at this point. We were trying to find a new baseline where your body would adapt, but also respond to what we were trying to have it do. And we felt like we were just hitting walls and not getting to where we wanted to be.

At the beginning of your journey, obviously, things worked. But then there's a point, and I think a lot of people experience this, where it's not so much about the protocols we put into place on the nutrition and fitness side. This is where we need to dive a little deeper, which is what you're taking into your own hands right now by looking for deeper evidence. Because as you just shared, you've been given a clean bill of health when you go to doctors and endocrinologists and GI and all of this.

At one point, you knew you were going to do all these things, and I was like, thank freaking God, because I don't know that there's much more I can do on my side as your coach. I need data. I need to know what's going on internally with your body. It's not a matter of me saying, here are different macro percentages, let's go try that. We already did that. We knew it wasn't working. Should we go back up with more carbs? We went to lower carbs. We went to higher fats, went to lower fats. We played around with your protein, put your protein up. We did all the things, and we knew that wasn't our avenue anymore.

So now here we are. Share everything you're working on and what you're diving into. This is almost like your epiphany bridge, right? Here we go, baby. This is Lisa 2.0.

Lisa: Yeah. So I realized I wasn't being fair to myself, and I wasn't being fair to you. You were doing everything you could on your end, everything that was possible, but you only had half the data. You only knew that side of it. You only had half the equation to work with, because the other half is who I am inside, cellularly. That's what I had to ask myself. What are my genetics telling me? At that point, I didn't even know what my blood type was. People would say, you should eat for your blood type. I don't know.

Nikkiey: There's a little more in there that we can share in a little bit.

Lisa: Yeah. So then I was like, well, what is real blood work telling me? I wanted to have a full panel done without my doctor being involved. And I'm not taking anything away from the medical side of anything. I'm just saying that this was my journey, and I wasn't getting the results or the help I needed, so I was taking a different path. I just knew I needed to do some self-help and self-love for myself.

So I started deep diving. Well, before I even started deep diving, I started doing some little biohacks, and you were really proud of me, because I started doing breath work. Now, for anybody that's listening, I know somebody's rolling their eyes.

Nikkiey: For anybody that's listening, getting Lisa to do that is like trying to pull teeth out of a human's mouth.

Lisa: It would be easier to get me to run.

Nikkiey: So the fact that Lisa started doing breath work, my friends, should be an inspiration. If you're somebody who can't sit still for more than 30 seconds, or you're rolling your eyes at the thought of breath work like Lisa just said, if Lisa can do it, trust me, you guys can do it.

Lisa: And trust me, if I'm still doing it, it's because it works. I can't quite explain the feeling, but in the moment while you're doing it, it's almost like a euphoric drug-type feeling. In the beginning, and even now, I still get all these really weird, cool sensations while I'm doing it. But afterwards I feel so much better. I'm ready to conquer my day. My anxiety levels come down so much. My strength gains in the gym went up enormously, because all of my cells were getting oxygen. You're literally slowly suffocating at night when you sleep. You breathe very shallow, and your body doesn't get the oxygen it needs. So I said, I'm going to try this for seven days. And after seven days I was like, I kind of like this. Okay, I'm going to do it for a month. And then that was just it. There wasn't even a discussion after the month.

Nikkiey: Note too that you shared you have anxiety, and I'm sure tons of listeners can totally resonate with that as well. What difference did you feel with the breath work in the anxiety you live with? How does it feel now?

Lisa: It is so much better. I still have anxiety, but I think a lot of that is going to be corrected very soon, because my anxiety isn't the kind of anxiety people take medication for. Mine has no rhyme, no reason. It comes out of nowhere. I could be on vacation, having the happiest time of my life, and anxiety will set in. I've had it for as long as I can remember, and medication doesn't work. Those are your three criteria when they start looking at the next part we're going to talk about. So I think this will continue to clear up as I get myself straight cellularly.

Nikkiey: Yeah. Okay. So you did the breath work, and then you also did—

Lisa: I do an ice pod every morning. My husband and I are addicted. You couldn't ever get me to stop. We started in the bathtub, because I was like, I'm not going to spend that money if I can't get my butt in there. And the first day, I'll be honest with you, I lasted 19 seconds. Then my husband got in and he lasted a minute and six seconds. So I was like, all right, buddy. The next day I did three minutes. We did it in the bathtub for the first month just to make sure we could do it.

And once we started doing it, we instantly felt enormous health benefits. My husband has horrible joint pain, and it's just gone. He does it every day, religiously. Mine really helps with anxiety. I go all the way up to my face so it gets all the nerves in my neck. And there are other health benefits. It releases cold shock proteins from your liver to help scavenge antioxidants in your body. So for aging benefits, I'll stand there all day. Submerge my head.

Nikkiey: Yeah. So you started biohacking, you started doing all of those things. And then your next steps to getting more answers were—

Lisa: I decided I needed to do a few things, and I needed to do them in order. So I decided on genetic testing to find out what was going on with my genes. It came back that I had some pretty big gene breaks, or mutations. One of them, which a lot of people have, is MTHFR, but I was homozygous for it, which means both of my parents gave it to me. For anybody who doesn't know what that is, it means I can't methylate synthetic forms of vitamins like B12 and folate.

Every single grain product in the United States, whether it's our wheat, cereals, rice, pastas, anything, is sprayed with folic acid, and it's a synthetic form. It's called cyanocobalamin. And for somebody who can't metabolize it or methylate it, it's poison for your body, because it builds up and builds up. That's what started happening with my thyroid. We're adjusting things on my thyroid now, because it started attacking my thyroid. My gut health started going. It does things with the catecholamines in your body, which are what release your adrenaline, your fight or flight.

So immediately, before I even had my blood work done, I cut out all processed food. And I would read the labels on everything, because you would not believe how many health food products have synthetic folate and folic acid in them, or cyanocobalamin, which is just poison for me. Vitamins have it. Energy drinks have it. Celsius. Everything I could think of reading. Protein bars. Protein drinks you get at the store. Everything you'd think would be healthy, because they say fortified with B vitamins. Well, that sounds good, but for somebody who can't methylate it, it's not good.

And that was leading to things like my skin getting really, really dry and scaly, no matter how much water I drank or how much moisturizer I used. Nothing helped it. And the brain fog finally lifted. Gone. Gone. My short-term memory is coming back really well.

Nikkiey: Yeah.

Lisa: So those were my two major firsts. The brain fog, I was so used to it that I absolutely thought it was normal. I thought that's how you're supposed to feel. So just to get that to lift. I went to a whole foods diet. Nothing processed. All my meats are grass-fed and grass-finished. My chickens are organic. Because the problem is, if you're feeding the animals grain and I can't process that, I'm eating it in the meat. And it's super high in omega-6 oils, which from the testing of my body are through the roof, along with inflammation, cellular inflammation. These are things I wouldn't have known before.

Nikkiey: Amazing. And it's a true testament to getting a little deeper into the data of what's going on with your body. If you don't have the ability to process folic acid, and it's in a lot of the things we eat on a daily basis, how is anyone supposed to know that if I just say, hey, here are your macros, go follow them? You can't eat some of the things that make up one of those macronutrient groups, and then you wonder why your results are stalling. Obviously there are a ton of other reasons that could be, but your reason specifically was the foods you were eating. That affected you physically, but also mentally, with the lifting of the brain fog. So many people experience brain fog and short-term memory issues, and think about what that leads to later in life, potentially because of foods some people are eating that they're unaware of without the evidence you went looking for.

Okay. So you got all that information. This is my favorite part, you guys, what she's recently been diving into for herself. So first, start with what you've been told your whole life and what you have now.

Lisa: Right. Since the very first time I went into the doctor on my own, at 17, I told them I had all the symptoms of being hypoglycemic. And every time they tested me, they said, no, you're not. I'd say, well, my thyroid hurts all the time and it's got little knots on it. They'd test me and say, no, your thyroid's good. Every time I went to the gynecologist, they'd tell me my hormones were perfect. And I just got to a point where I didn't believe them.

So my next step after the gene testing was to have full panel blood work done. Something I didn't realize is that some of the biggest labs now, which I won't name, are changing their normal standards for hormones. They're reducing them because so many people nowadays have lower hormones, especially testosterone. So they've actually lowered what the normal range is, which I find really, really disheartening.

So I got my blood work done and was really surprised. I had an appointment set up with my functional medicine doctor to go over the results. The first thing I was floored about was that my liver was struggling and was in the early stages of fatty liver disease. That comes from having the gene breaks I've had for so long and eating improperly for them, but also not supplementing with methylated vitamins.

Nikkiey: It's a really easy fix. This is nothing scary to have. I have the same MTHFR break, and I take the methylated vitamins.

Lisa: Yeah. It's easy, and you just clean up your diet. My cortisol was through the roof. Insulin-like growth factor was very, very low, super low, which was screwing up all of my hormones. My female hormones did not suggest menopause at all. She said, you're not in menopause. Nope. And that was the craziest thing to hear.

Nikkiey: Right. Because I thought some of the symptoms we were experiencing in the last year would be signs of you going into perimenopause. And then hearing that, I'm like, damn, you are a late bloomer.

Lisa: I'll get around to it someday. I like to stand out. And the other one was sex hormone binding globulin, which was extremely high. What that does is cause your estrogen to be very high, so I'm very estrogen dominant. And it binds your free testosterone and holds it down. So my free testosterone is very low, and that was very high.

And then she said, and your thyroid is trash. I don't think she expected my reaction, because I said, I could kiss you. Because it never made sense to me that my thyroid has been growing goiters and getting worse and worse, and they'd say, yeah, it's fine. When I asked about it before, I said, it seems to me that if I have a healthy thyroid and goiters are growing, that would tell me it's trying to protect itself from something. And they said, yeah, that's a great question, and we just don't know. Some people just get them. That's not a good enough answer for me. I have no kind of medical degree whatsoever, let's just put that out there, but that doesn't make sense to me. And she said, your numbers are terrible.

So they've started me on a natural form of thyroid. And there are several supplements right now in the beginning, but they're not meant to be long term. They're meant to get my body functioning how it should, and then we wean off. We do blood work in three more months to check. And I have more genetic testing coming in that I think will really take us to that next level.

Nikkiey: Amen to that. And remember in our one-on-one, what you said to me about your thyroid. You were like, well, my thyroid is trash, from what you heard from the doctor. Tell the listeners: what can't be accomplished if your thyroid isn't working?

Lisa: Well, it's the master hormone gland for your body. So your metabolism is completely off. Everyone thinks about our hormones as just our sex hormones, but we have so many hormones in the body, and they all have such an important function. If they can't do what they need to do, it's like I'm just treading water, or spinning in quicksand. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not getting any traction, but I'm wearing myself out trying.

Nikkiey: Yeah. And that's where, honestly, there are things you can do when you're 20 or 30 years old. You can follow things and get results. But things start to catch up a little later in life, as you're sharing right now. With our protocol, follow this with your macros, follow this with your workouts, let's work on your mindset, like we did at the beginning, you had amazing success. But now we're at the point where I think a lot of people just think, oh, this is just how my body is. You even said it. Brain fog, this is just what I'm supposed to expect now. Because it's what you're told.

Lisa: We're told that.

Nikkiey: What do you mean by that?

Lisa: Every time I go to the doctor, any symptom I have, it's a sign of getting older. As we get older, our body slows down. Fucking false. My husband is 60 years old and he is like the Energizer Bunny. I have friends that just go, go, go. I was the one where, if it was after three o'clock, I wasn't doing anything, because I didn't have any kind of energy. I was almost lethargic from being so fatigued. And now I go out and play pickleball.

Nikkiey: Yeah. I'm so happy to have you share your entire story, because there are so many people, even WarriorBabes in the community right now. We partner with Equal Life, and we have the ability to get that information. You did the gene testing with a different company, but you still did the Equal Life testing and gathered your hormone testing through that, your cortisol, your A1C, and we were able to work off that in combination with the other company you went with.

Lisa: Yes.

Nikkiey: And I think a lot of women are stuck thinking, oh, this is just going to happen as I age and I need to accept that I'm aging. But you don't need to accept that. That's exactly what your story is all about, and why I wanted you so badly to come on this podcast and share it, because it's so inspiring. Knowing you as a human, you're a go-getter, you're determined, you won't take no for an answer, and you kept going to get the answers. You intuitively knew what was happening, but you needed someone to confirm it. You weren't getting that confirmation, so you sought out more avenues.

There are so many resources people can use to get answers. You don't have to accept what people are telling you. That's why I called you Lisa 2.0. You're on your next bill of health, correcting what's deficient and not working right now. And as you noted with the supplements, you're not on supplements for the rest of your life. You're on supplements to get things working for you and stabilized.

For a little while, what we were doing was, let's play around with things, let's try adjusting things, let's hope something sticks. But you can only do that for so long until you have to say, dude, something else is going on internally, and I can't help you until we figure that out. That's why I love that you took it into your own hands to get those answers. Now you're going on this journey of taking supplementation to correct deficiencies, and as you do, we'll be able to really hone in on getting you the type of results you want, because now everything is working for you instead of against you internally. How does that make you feel?

Lisa: It makes me feel very proud of myself, that I had the determination to not give up, to not take no for an answer, to know that I knew my body. Let's face it, we're just a number when we go in there. So being able to know that I know things are going on and these aren't normal. I'm too healthy of a person to be feeling like this at 55. I'm determined to live my life to the fullest, and I want to make the most out of my day, moving around. So it makes me super proud that I took that initiative and had that determination, and being able to go side by side with you, every Friday telling you updates: this is what we found out, they want me to implement this.

Nikkiey: Yeah. Like your entire protocol now.

Lisa: It's doing its thing. And they put me on a testosterone booster, but that's only for about 60 days, and then you have to come off of it and they check you. It's all natural. There aren't any kind of drugs or anything like that. So I'm so excited. This next chapter is going to be incredible.

Nikkiey: What would you say— By the way, thank you for sharing that.

Lisa: Yeah, absolutely.

Nikkiey: I think a lot of people need to hear that. If you're listening and you really want to get the results you're seeking, and let's say you're like Lisa, who, when she's in it, she's in it and she follows the protocol. And you're thinking, I'm healthy, I work out, but I'm not getting the results. Well, one, let's really dive in and look at your level of consistency. Let's make sure the plan you're following is right. But the last piece is, there are probably more answers we need to get figured out. And don't just accept that age is a number. Just because you're getting older doesn't mean you have to feel all these types of symptoms.

Lisa: Right. You shouldn't have to feel old to be getting older.

Nikkiey: Exactly. Now going back to WarriorBabe and your journey. I tell you, man, I was blessed to have you as a client and to have the partnership we have. You mentioned it was the OG days when you joined WarriorBabe, and obviously I'm your coach, and I don't take on any more clients now, but we have an amazing team of about 65 coaches who all work individually with clients just like Lisa, or younger, or a bit older. What would you tell someone watching this right now who is unsure about taking the next step and becoming a WarriorBabe?

Lisa: I would tell them that if they've been watching and following and they're feeling a pull, pull the trigger. I would not still be here otherwise. I'm not somebody you hired to do this. I've been your client for years. I wouldn't still be here if this program wasn't everything it claims to be. You've put your blood, sweat and tears into this company from the very beginning, from when it was just you out there working it hard. And you take pride in who you hire. It's not an easy thing. You don't just hire anybody. You hire coaches who have the same goals and mindset and heart for helping other women. That's what makes us so special, because this program isn't about men and women. It's about women, because we are so unique and so different and so special, and the coaches are able to deal with the emotional part of it. These coaches are all super qualified to be here.

But if you're coming into the program, make sure you're ready to do the program, and you better be honest with your coach, because if you're not honest with your coach, they can't help you. You're doing yourself a disservice. You're not going to get results, and you're going to get angry that you spent money and aren't getting results. It's not fair to yourself, and it's not fair to the coaches putting in the work. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be 100%. But you do have to show up, and for nutrition especially, you better be there at least 90%. And you better be making wise choices.

For me, and I know some of you aren't going to want to hear this, alcohol was poison. It was poison. I know that now from wearing a Whoop for so long. When I have alcohol in my system, and I don't care if it's half a glass, my recovery goes out the window. My strain is super, super high for the day. My heart rate when I sleep at night is in the 80s if I have alcohol in my system, versus my usual 59 or 60.

It's about putting in the work. But these coaches and this company are amazing. They're qualified. I see the work they put in. I see how much time they take helping clients. They've got calls all the time that they always want you on. You can ask questions. You get so much insightful advice from them. And you can always reach out to your coach. Where else can you get that, where they're there for you like that? So my money has always been, and will always be, on WarriorBabe. I told you, you're stuck with me.

Nikkiey: Facts. I love it. Thank you. I appreciate that. That was very sweet. And you've been here since day one, so you've seen the ups, the downs and everything in between. I've seen how hard you've worked.

Lisa: Thank you. Thank you.

Nikkiey: It's been a freaking absolute— Actually, I want to pull back. Can you share with the squad what type you are, if that's even allowed on the podcast, and the story behind what happened that day? Because then I got a check-in note that said, oh, I'm going to pursue doing this.

Lisa: Oh yeah, I can say anything I want. Some of y'all will probably be disappointed in me, but I gave blood for the first time. My husband was giving it, because he has to. And I went in there and all of a sudden I just felt brave. I was like, hey, can I give blood? They said, sure. So I got in the little chair and gave them my blood. And I don't like needles, by the way. I don't like anything like that. I'm trying to concentrate on this movie, I'm trying to focus, and I'm getting kind of hot and sweaty. She comes over to take the stuff off, and I could feel the warmth from the bag or whatever, I don't know what it was. All of a sudden everything started getting really hot, and I broke out in full-body sweats.

Meanwhile, keep in mind, my husband's already done. He jumped up and he's over in the other little room. And she looks at me and goes, are you getting ready to pass out? No, I'm just really hot. So they had to get all these fans, and she said, do you want a juice box? I was like, I do. And she brings me a little granola and a little juice box. So I'm sitting there with my juice box. It was really, really tough. And the rest of that day and the next day, I was like, this was tough. And then I told you on Friday, I'm going to do this.

Nikkiey: I hear the story. I get the play-by-play of what you're experiencing. And then we have a check-in three or four days later, or a week later, I forget when it was, but it was that week.

Lisa: Okay. It was that week.

Nikkiey: Yeah. Even better. It wasn't even enough time to let it pass. I get a check-in and she's like, oh, I'm going to continue to do this.

Lisa: Every six weeks.

Nikkiey: Every six weeks. Oh, great. Okay. Let's make sure next time you have your juice box, you have a banana.

Lisa: Snacky snacks.

Nikkiey: Snacky snacks. So anyway, Lisa, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast today. A lot of women are going to be able to resonate with where you were at the beginning, with the triumphs we experienced early in your journey, with the years we've worked together since, and with what you've experienced in the last year.

And to sum it all up, we've been working together since 2019. That's five years. Geez, man, I can't believe that. That's amazing. It goes to show you that it's not a quick fix. You're on a journey, and you've gone down a ton of different avenues. You've been able to adapt, and we've been able to strategize and plan and then implement the next path forward. And I think that's the best part of working together. I'll probably speak for you on this one, but we get along so well, and we're able to work together in a way where I know you and you know me.

In order to build that type of relationship, it takes time. A lot of people listening think, oh, I'm on to the next program, I'm on to the next coach, I've got to reestablish my relationship, I've got to have this person get to know me. But I think there's so much value in working with the same person, having the type of communication we have, and being able to work together on your plan instead of thinking either of us knows everything. We're working together to give you the ultimate best way to move forward. And there are so many different ways we've navigated these last five years. It's not like we went through one cut, and every cut has been the same. It's been different every single time. So I think that's pretty cool.

Lisa: And I just want to say this real quick to the women: stop comparing yourself to your friend, or the girl you see on Facebook, or the person you meet up with wherever. We're all different. Just because one thing worked for them doesn't mean it will work for you. Stop jumping ship so much. Just concentrate on the basics: your nutrition, your exercise, your focus. Focus on you.

Nikkiey: Yeah. Amen to that. Well, I think that's a good ending note. Again, thank you for your time and for coming on the show today.

Lisa: You're absolutely welcome. Thank you for having me.

Nikkiey: Hey, everyone. Thanks for sticking around to the end of the show. I hope you really enjoyed that episode. Really quick, if you're a woman aged 45 through 65 and finding menopause challenging, listen closely. WarriorBabe is here to help you reclaim your body and your confidence. At WarriorBabe, we've empowered over 18,000 women to lose stubborn body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better. Our personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more ensure you get exactly what you need to see real results, and real results that last. Imagine feeling stronger, more energized and in control of your health. Don't let menopause hold you back any longer. Head over to warriorbabe.com/apply and join our amazing community today. That's warriorbabe.com/apply. The link is in the show notes below. Thanks again for listening to the episode, and I'll see you in the next one.