In this episode, Haylie Pomroy is joined by Natalie Jill, bestselling author, midlife health strategist, and host of the Midlife Conversations podcast, to explore how mindset and belief shape the way women experience aging, menopause weight gain, and hormonal shifts.

Natalie shares why she believes belief set, not genetics or hormones, is the single biggest factor in successful aging, how she uncovered gut imbalances and a ruptured breast implant behind her own midlife health crisis, and why becoming your own health detective matters more than chasing a quick fix for perimenopause symptoms.

Together, they discuss why menopause weight gain involves far more than hormones alone, how environmental toxins and gut health quietly drive midlife symptoms like fatigue, bloating, and brain fog, and why choosing health over appearance can completely change what the next chapter of life looks like.

Discover why changing your belief about aging may be the most powerful health decision you can make, and how becoming a health detective can help you build metabolic health and lasting vitality at any age, here on Fast Metabolism Matters.

If your body feels like it's running on empty, overburdened, or just not responding the way it used to, Haylie's latest book, Toxic Overload, tells you exactly what to do. Download your free digital copy today and start understanding what your body is trying to tell you.

Free Download: Get Your Copy of Toxic Overload 👉 https://hayliepomroy.com/pages/toxic-overload

You don't have to figure this out alone. Inside Haylie's private membership community, you get personalized guidance and support, member discounts on supplements and shakes, and the ability to ask questions directly to podcast guests like Natalie Jill. Join free for 30 days and take the next step on your health journey.

Join the Fast Metabolism Membership, First 30 Days Free 👉 https://hayliepomroy.com/pages/fast-metabolism-membership

Natalie Jill is the host of the Midlife Conversations podcast, a top-rated show that covers everything from hormones and gut health to mindset and business. She is a Certified Personal Trainer and Licensed Master Sports Nutritionist, as well as the creator of Total Body Thrive and The 7 Day Jump Start®, programs designed specifically for women in midlife and menopause. Natalie is recognized as a leading voice in women's health by Forbes and Greatist, with multiple features in Women's World, Stronger Hers, and Oxygen magazine.

Website: https://www.nataliejillfitness.com/
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nataliejillfitness

Haylie Pomroy, Founder and CEO of The Haylie Pomroy Group, is a leading health strategist specializing in metabolism, weight loss, and integrative wellness. With over 25 years of experience, she has worked with top medical institutions and high-profile clients, developing targeted programs and supplements rooted in the "Food is Medicine" philosophy. Inspired by her own autoimmune journey, she combines expertise in nutrition, biochemistry, and patient advocacy to help others reclaim their health. She is a New York Times bestselling author of The Fast Metabolism Diet.

Learn more about Haylie Pomroy's approach to metabolism and whole body wellness through her website: https://hayliepomroy.com

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayliepomroy/
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Edited Transcript:

Natalie Jill: Can you look 20 again? No, I'm not telling anyone to look 20 again. Can you be 20 again? No, but can we optimize our aging and be a different version of ourselves so we can lead this next chapter a lot more powerfully and have a really happy, fun, enriched, full life?

Haylie Pomroy: You guys, I have a very special guest today. It is Natalie Jill. She is the very popular host of Midlife Conversations. She is also a bestselling author in the fat loss space. I said fat loss, guys, not just weight loss, which, as you know, is very near and dear to all of our hearts. Natalie, I want to thank you so much for taking your time. I know you're crazy busy, but I appreciate you being here for us and our community.

Natalie Jill: Yeah, I'm excited to dive in and chat.

Haylie Pomroy: I know. This is going to be exciting, because I've been listening to a lot of your podcasts, I've been watching a lot of your videos, and I will tell you, I'm super fired up. I'm 52 years young this year. Yay, me.

And I really work a lot on my health and wellness. Obviously, I wanted to be a vet, did not want to be in this space whatsoever. Life had a different plan for me. But I think so many people in our demographic and in our space are really noticing changes in their body.

As an expert in this space, I'd like to know, what's the biggest challenge that you see for us, for women, as we age?

Natalie Jill: Yeah, so the biggest, I love this question, because I think people are expecting me to say, it's hormones, or it's your age, or it's your thyroid, or it's your genetics, or your diagnosis. And I'm not going to say any of that, because you asked me what the biggest challenge is, what's the biggest obstacle. The biggest obstacle is our belief set. And I could talk all day on this, and I won't, because people will tune me out.

But I believe so strongly in this, because no matter what cards you are dealt, and look, I have the worst genetics. I have got everything in my family. If I just look at genetics and DNA, everything's stacked against me, everything. I've had lots of bad luck and setbacks and all of the things. And it doesn't matter, because belief set and believing in possibility and focusing on that outweighs all of that.

I will tell women this till I'm blue in the face, that you might think that everything you're doing isn't working, and it's because of reason XYZ. And what I want to tell you is, until you break through and decide that there's a new reality that you are capable of, that can happen for you, that's going to be a real possibility for you, nothing will shift. That is the most important thing.

Haylie Pomroy: I love that. And we were just talking the other day about an individual who has identified some of the common biomarkers that can lead to weight loss resistance. You named them: environmental toxins, thyroid issues. We were able to kind of remodel her metabolism. She lost like 70-odd pounds.

Natalie Jill: Amazing.

Haylie Pomroy: It is amazing. But she was in an interview, and she said, I still see myself as fat.

Natalie Jill: That's right.

Haylie Pomroy: And I just went, okay, so how do we repattern the body as we heal the body?

Because that's where true healing happens. And another one who was talking to us said she could not bring herself to not buy a size 18 pair of jeans.

She needed jeans. They were going on a trip. She had lost in the 60s, done amazing, healed her metabolism. There are several reasons why I wanted you on. One of the reasons was to talk to our community about that shift that has to happen. There's a new you; there's truly a new you. Your metabolism's different. There are healings that have happened in the body, but how do you change that so that it's identified as self and it's reality? I love that you say that that's the biggest shift, because everybody's body's different.

Natalie Jill: Yes. Everybody's body's different. And here's the thing. I'm not saying these things don't play a role. Like, I just got back from Europe. I was just noticing the European culture, and I can't speak for every country. I was in Portugal, Spain, and the Rock of Gibraltar. And I was just noticing how obesity was not a thing. Like, people were active. They were walking around everywhere. I didn't see the obesity epidemic that we see in America. I'm not saying it's not there in some pockets, but it just wasn't as in your face as we see here.

And what I noticed was the food quality was different. The soil is different. Regenerative farming is different. The way that people move throughout the day, less using cars, more walking, more like that. All of that plays a role. I thought, okay, is this the thing? Well, it's part of the thing. It's part of the thing, because you could have all the things stacked against you. Like, you could have none of that. You could be here in the US. You could have all those things. It's not there. And there are still people who are fit, and there are still people who are not fit. And then you go, well, what is that difference? What is that thing? Is it luck for some people? Sure, it is. But there's no point in focusing on that.

If that's not you. If you're not in the luck, you're like, I wasn't born five foot 10, blonde hair, blue eyes. I wasn't. That's not my luck. Then you have a choice. You either fall victim and become all of the problems, or you decide there's something else for me. And it might be harder. It might take me longer. It might not be as easy, but I'm going for it.

Haylie Pomroy: And it has to become a compelling high-water moment.

Natalie Jill: Yes. And the other thing is a decision. It's a decision that I'm going to try. It's like an actual firm, declaring decision. It's a decision. Like, when you decide something, that's very different than I'm going to try, or I'm going to think about it, or I'm going to consider it. A decision like, this is happening.

And if you think in your life about anything you've been successful at, I need to take it away from your body and health for a minute. Anything you've been successful at, you made a firm decision. You literally decided, like, this is what's happening. This is what's going to happen. It has to be a decision. And it has to be not focusing on all of those problems. I believe in epigenetics, and I'm assuming you do too, Haylie.

Haylie Pomroy: Absolutely.

Natalie Jill: Epigenetics is huge. And for those of you who don't fully understand that, that means despite what your cards are for your DNA or whatever, you can change it by changing your environment. What has failed to be mentioned in epigenetics is that mindset and that belief around that. But if you can take that on first, you work from a different foundation.

If you work from the foundation of everything sucks, nothing works for me, I've tried everything, my hormones are shifting, my metabolism slowed down, my husband hates me. You work from that slate; it's going to be very challenging to get results. But if you can almost go to la-la land, like, no, I'm thriving. I'm going to be healthy. I'm going to be the size that I want to be.

I'm going to be healthy. My lab markers are going to be what I want. If you can operate from that slate, you start to get results.

Haylie Pomroy: I love it. I love it. I love everything that you're saying. And I'm a big advocate on, you can turn a lot of things on, and genes are one of them. And you can turn a lot of things off, and genes are one of them.

We have a lot of people who go in, I use the word like medical gaslighting. We'll just throw that out there. They go in and they're told by their docs, like, how do we combat these stereotypes? You're just getting older. And one of our students, we have a coaching certification. Our student said the other day, and I've just used it a million times. She said, just because it's common doesn't make it normal. And these are women who are going through like menopause and having weight gain and hot flashes. How do we combat those stereotypes?

Natalie Jill: Okay. A couple of things. First of all, your doctor is not God. That's number one. And your doctor might not have it, might not even be the most educated doctor. There are some amazing doctors and there are some not so amazing ones. They're human like everybody else. They go to medical school, they learn what they learn. And then how much do they continue their education? How much do they practice what they learned? And then how much do they actually practice healthcare versus sick care?

Most doctors in Western medicine, not all, so don't come at me, not all, but most doctors in Western medicine, they are taught, look at symptoms. Here's the prescription. Here's the solution for this symptom. I remember years ago, just, I'm going to take this back to, I was in my 20s, I'm in my late 20s, I'm 52 right now. My late 20s, I was having all kinds of random symptoms. I had swollen lymph nodes. Every time I ate, my stomach hurt. I had these heart palpitations; I had a list of probably 25 symptoms that were really weird. And I was losing weight, but not in my stomach. And my stomach was like sticking out and it always hurt. Every time I ate, my stomach hurt.

And I went to my internist, who my family loved. And I said, I've got all these things going on. I want to figure them out. And his exact words to me are exactly what's wrong with our medical system. He said to me, let's not look at all the symptoms. Let's take one thing at a time and figure out what's causing it.

What? What? Okay. That's our problem. You see a doctor for five minutes. This is no fault of theirs. This is how they're trained. I've got to assess. Oh, you've got hype. You got it. Your A1C is a little high. Metformin for you. Oh, your cholesterol. It's not normal. You know what? You're going to go on statins. You know what? Your blood pressure is high today. Oh, you know what? Here's high blood pressure medicine.

This is what's happening. So, that thing that happened in my twenties was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. You know why? Because I accidentally, because he said, "Let's look at one thing at a time," had an endoscopy after going to a cardiologist and all the things. And the endoscopy accidentally found that I had celiac sprue. I was one of the original don't-eat-gluten people before people knew what gluten was.

Haylie Pomroy: Before it was trendy and hip.

Natalie Jill: Before it was trendy.

Haylie Pomroy: I used to have to order croutons and bread online if I was ever going to have a carb.

Natalie Jill: I carried a card around that said all the things I couldn't eat. But I'm so grateful for this, because I, one, learned about medicine, and I learned about unprocessed food. I changed my life because of that. And that is one of the biggest blessings that's ever happened to me. I love that I can't have gluten. I don't want to have gluten. It's amazing. I love that I learned unprocessed eating. I believe it's helped me age well. It's helped me lead people around this. That was one of many things that happened to me years ago that changed my thoughts about the medical system. I think Western medicine has an absolute place. Like, you have an emergency, you want Western medicine, you have a bad infection, there's a definite place for it. But to have your five minute appointment with your doctor dictate your entire health trajectory, that's a problem.

Haylie Pomroy: Five minutes of anything. But for some reason, there's so much gravitas given. We had an individual whose labs we got run. We were looking at it and they had signed off on the labs. And one of the medications that they were on the lab for was significantly low. And we said, hey, go back, talk about what you were on the med for. It was a statin. You're on the med for this reason. Now you're extremely low. Why don't you guys talk about it?

Well, my doctor won't be back in town for six months and I don't want to go off the med without his permission. And I just went, get somebody else in the office to talk to you. It was just super crazy.

Natalie Jill: Do you know how small the percentage is, by the way, you all listening, of actual life expectancy changes from being on cholesterol medication? Like, it's very low. It does more damage than good for most people. And I can say that because I'm not a doctor. I'm just going to say it.

Haylie Pomroy: Isn't it a nice freedom?

Natalie Jill: Because your high cholesterol could be protecting you in a lot of ways. That's just one thing. I'm not going to go down, there are many of your listeners I'm sure who are on things, whatever, I get it. There's a place for all of that. But when you say your doctor says it's your age, this is a big problem. I would, number one, don't go to a doctor who's going to say that. And if they do, you probably should turn around and find a new one and find the one who actually believes differently and is looking at things differently. This is a big problem with women and hormones. I'll tell you that right now. They come in, they say I'm post menopause, or I've just got, menopause is a day, like the day your period stops after a year, or they're in extreme perimenopause; they've got problems going on. And they say, I don't like how I feel. And instead of a doctor saying, let's look at hormone replenishment, let's look at how we can get your hormones back to great levels, which could be super protective for you. They say, let's give you synthetic birth control pills and put you on antidepressants.

Haylie Pomroy: Yeah, that's great. Because all of us are deficient in that.

Natalie Jill: Yeah, we don't like build back up the problem we do. This is just, I mean, obviously, you just got me started on a whole tangent that I could go on with for days. But when you asked me, like, what's the big thing with fat loss? It's this. It's the belief set in so many ways, believing that's possible for you. But also, who are we listening to? Are you listening to that doctor who says you're just getting old? Accept it? What? No. Find evidence of somebody who's 70, 80, 90, who is living the way that you want to live then, and rewind what they did.

Haylie Pomroy: Absolutely. Remodel that. Success leaves clues.

Natalie Jill: Always.

Haylie Pomroy: And people are generous, I think, with their breakthroughs. You know what I mean? I want to ask you, so we talk about healing the metabolism. We focus on food, micronutrients, nutraceuticals. I'm a huge advocate of all things natural therapies. And for me, I feel like we share a lemon law. We should both be turned in on the lemon law, the car thing. When your car has so many problems, they just say, turn it in. That's how I felt going through my life when things first started happening for me in the autoimmune space in my 20s. And so I had to re-engineer my metabolism and my immune system. And that's what we do kind of as a community. But I would just ask you, so many women find that their midsections during menopause or the hormone transition. Why do you believe the midsection is...

Natalie Jill: It's true. Okay. So first let's talk about fact versus reality. The fact is your metabolism does slow down. If all things are just created equal, someone can come at me and go, no, it doesn't. Well, we can make it so it doesn't, but your just aging in general is something that happens to all of us. Your metabolism is going to slow down. You're going to lose muscle. When you lose muscle, you burn fewer calories at rest. Your metabolism changes. You're going to have sagginess; things drop and change.

Those things are real. It doesn't mean you're stuck with those, but the thickening of the middle that happens, that happens for a number of reasons. It happens from a combination of those things. It happens from hormone shifts, because you lose estrogen. You're going to gain that. It happens from stress. Cortisol is going to raise that. You're going to have some of that happen; these are all the negatives first. Like, I'm just telling y'all things.

Haylie Pomroy: You just said, I know that people believe this; you've got to address the stress.

Natalie Jill: Yes, stress is here. Stress is a big one. I'm telling you the why first, like why it happens. And then the big one is environmental toxins and your gut. This gets overlooked a lot. You might think like, well, everything's toxic, blah, blah, blah.

Fine. When you're 20, everything's working a little bit differently. 30, 40, 50, it's like wear and tear. It's like you use the same oil in your car over the years; eventually that oil needs to be changed. You're eating, you're doing the same things. Your body's not processing it all the same.

Your toxic load as you get older is building up. Your gut health, it's building up. Where you might've eaten something before and it didn't necessarily affect you. All of a sudden you're like, wait, why am I lactose intolerant? What's going on? All that stuff kind of compounds. When you said what's going on with my waist, my belly, all of that's happening and you're losing skin elasticity. There's a whole triage of things, but here's the difference. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is like where you get to choose. You get to say, all this has happened to me. This is what's happening. Aging sucks. I'm going to stay here and say, I've tried everything. That's your choice number one, you can do that. And the entire media, friends, all of that is enrolled in that. A lot of people are enrolled in, like, let's keep you there.

Or you could say, oh, heck no, I'm going to figure this out because I want to age well. I don't want this. I realized that an increase in belly fat leads to an increase in visceral fat and other problems. I'm not enrolled in this. I don't want that. You say, okay, let's be a detective. Let's be a health detective. Let's figure out why these are happening, and what I can do to reverse it, slow the progression, all that. And then there's a whole lot of things you can do, but you've got to be first.

And now, like, I'm curious, and I don't accept this.

Haylie Pomroy: I love it. Like, no, this is not happening to me. And if it has happened to you, you have the capacity to reverse it.

Natalie Jill: And it happened to me. I'm going to be really real. About a year and a half ago, almost two years ago now, I was known for fat loss programs. I did fitness fat loss programs. And I didn't know what was going on with my body. I'm like, okay, maybe I've been wrong. I crossed over 50, and I'm like, what's happening? I'm getting thick. I don't feel good. All of a sudden I can't have certain foods. Like, I had a foggy head; all the stuff, I was like, maybe I'm wrong. I literally paused my programs, and I referred my entire audience to somebody else's program for a while. I wanted to serve my clients. I don't think I'm the best person to help with this right now. And I went into a depression. I'm just telling you the story that happened.

I had a few months of I'm depressed. I've been wrong. This sucks. People who are older were right. Like, 50s, not the same. And 60 might be worse than 70. That's what the story in my head was. And I felt miserable about it. And something interesting happened. I had enough. And I said, I'm going to go back to the method that I used to teach, the thing that I figured out in my thirties. And I'm going to go through my process of making a decision, getting in touch with a new vision, and becoming a health detective.

And I started, I shifted my podcast to Midlife Conversations. I did a summit on midlife topics also. I started going deep down the rabbit hole of all these different topics and what's going on, and something incredible happened. I figured out how I can shift all those things. I figured out that part of what was going on was my gut health. I would have never imagined I had a leaky gut or even parasites or any of that. Somebody might roll their eyes listening to this, but most of us have them, just so you know.

Haylie Pomroy: We work in immunology. We're in South Florida.

Natalie Jill: 50% of people have parasites.

Haylie Pomroy: Higher.

Natalie Jill: And no, they're not good for you. No. Okay. Higher. So, I cleaned that up, instantly started feeling better, but then the person who coached me through that said, okay, something's feeding those. What's feeding those? You've got to be a detective. What's feeding those? Okay. What's feeding those?

Well, I learned I had a ruptured breast implant, a silicone breast implant, because I had, this is going to make me sound really dumb, and I own it. I was really dumb. I had five sets over 30 years. I was caught up in it.

Haylie Pomroy: With ASIA syndrome, was it an adjuvant response? Like, did you have an immunoglobulin response?

Natalie Jill: Now I understand that I had this rupture for a while, and it was feeding other toxins. I didn't understand this. I thought I was fine, all the things. But because I had max...

Haylie Pomroy: I just want to throw this in here. Because you said, I want to throw it in here for the community, when the body is being poisoned. When we have toxins released, this is what I always tell people, when you start to have gut health issues, and there's a parasitic or Candida involvement.

Natalie Jill: Something's feeding it.

Haylie Pomroy: You need to track the poison. You need to track the poison, because our body, in its brilliance, will invite friends to the party to clean up the trash.

Natalie Jill: That's exactly right. They work with your body, but that doesn't mean they're good for you.

Haylie Pomroy: Right. So sometimes when we kill off Candida, or we kill off parasites, sometimes we can even feel worse if the toxin is still poisoning us. And remember, guys, these are fat-soluble toxins, and fat-soluble toxins store in the fat.

Natalie Jill: This is what happened. I clean up the gut and the parasites, and all of a sudden my weight starts going a little bit back to normal, but I'm realizing something's feeding them. I then learn I have, I could see it on a, for those of you who are going to ask, I saw it on a breast MRI. I saw it on an ultrasound. I saw it on a mammogram. I'm not a fan of mammograms. That's a whole other topic. But I did all of that, and I saw that I had this massive rupture, that it had disintegrated in me.

I decided to have an explant surgery and not put them back in, because I'm now going down the rabbit hole of toxins and all that. I remove those. Everything starts to come together. My weight, my leanness, everything goes right back to what it was in my forties right away. Now you could say, oh, she removed her implants. She did parasite cleanses. That's not the reason. The reason is I made a decision. I got clear on the vision. I became a health detective. My journey might be different from your journey. It probably is different, but the commonality is we all have to be a health detective. You have to be a detective. Even when I cleaned all that up, I was still getting, I mean, this is a genetic thing for me, for sure. I get like five hot flashes an hour when I don't do hormone replacement, like literally five hot flashes an hour. And my mom at 78 still gets hot flashes. Her mom, up until the day she died, got hot flashes. It's a very highly genetic thing, if you get hot flashes and night sweats and all that too.

I, again, detective mode, I don't take just a quick answer. I'm not going to say, oh, no, I'm going on antidepressants or I'm going to, no, I went on hormone replacement. That's what I wanted to do for me: bioidentical. I am leaner now, stronger. I have a full six-pack right now. I do not spend hours at the gym. I don't eat just chicken and broccoli at all. I don't count macros. I don't count calories. What I did is I made a decision. I got clear on my vision, and I became a massive health detective. And that's what I teach women.

Haylie Pomroy: Hi, it's Haylie Pomroy, your host. I've written six New York Times bestselling books on metabolic pathways. And my latest book, Toxic Overload, tells you exactly what to do when your body's overburdened. If you go to hayliepomroy.com/book, for a limited time, you can download a digital copy of this book completely free. That's hayliepomroy.com/book. Grab your free copy while supplies last. Now back to our show.

I absolutely, absolutely love that. Can I ask you a couple of questions?

Natalie Jill: Yeah, of course.

Haylie Pomroy: Okay. I was at the International Congress of Autoimmune Disorders. And over in Germany and Israel and France and Turkey and Russia, we were with docs from St. Petersburg. They talked about this thing called ASIA syndrome with implant leakage. There is an adjuvant, and an adjuvant is an immune modulator, whips up the immune system.

You had said two years ago things changed. What their correlation was, we were looking at individuals with long COVID and viral reactivation, but they were saying that the adjuvant that was in the COVID vaccine, and they weren't by any stretch of the imagination anti-vaccine; they were like anti-adjuvant. They just kept saying, we got it wrong, guys. We got it wrong. We got it wrong. And what they were talking about was the immune modulator that they added to the vaccine to whip up the immune system, because we were in this crisis situation, so that the immune system would have a strong response to this vaccine, and that that adjuvant was viewed by the body as a toxin.

And you have a lot of people post-COVID who have had this hormonal dysfunction, rapid weight gain, and ASIA syndrome was where a lot of the research was on the breast implants. But they're using ASIA syndrome now, it's like an identical receptor site adjuvant, with people who have had the COVID vaccine. And it was fascinating. I mean, my mind was just blown.

Natalie Jill: That would not be me for a couple of reasons that you just said. That's definitely not me. I will tell you something that I don't know if you looked at this, but I'm convinced. And again, I'm not a doctor. I'm not a scientist.

I'm just me. And I just share information.

Haylie Pomroy: I'm really a woman with tons of experiences.

Natalie Jill: Well, I get obsessive on things. My whole family, or my mom, not my whole family. My mom's always like, you should have been a doctor. I don't want to be a doctor. But I will get obsessive and study and figure things out. And this is what I think: my theory on breast implants.

For years, I had breast implants, five sets over 32 years. Excessive, yes. I had all the different kinds, silicone, saline, all of them. Dumb, I know. I started at age 19.

Haylie Pomroy: Not dumb. What did you do?

Natalie Jill: Well, I think it's dumb looking back. I think, looking back. However, the first four sets I had, I had massive capsular contracture, where your body basically is trying to get it out of you; it forms scar tissue around it, and it squeezes into a hard ball.

What I believe now to be true, I don't care who says I'm wrong. This is my knowing, just like some people have a knowing about whatever. This is Natalie Jill's knowing. That capsular contracture was protecting my body from the chemicals in the implant. I know it. I know it. Because what happened was, when I went to a new surgeon, who's amazing, who was like, we're not going to get capsular contracture again. This is what we're going to do. We're going to clean it out. We're going to create a whole new pocket. Like, she's known for this. You're not going to get capsular contracture. She made me look amazing, and then they were soft and all the things. However, that's when all my problems started. Because my body was no longer protected from those chemicals in the implant.

How do I know those chemicals were in me? Well, I did a total toxin report, and it literally showed high levels of all kinds of things that are in the stupid implant shell. So there's that.

Haylie Pomroy: And you probably weren't ingesting that. I was not. It was surgically put into the body. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I love that you're so candid in sharing all of these things, because our bodies are designed to protect ourselves. And oftentimes, our bodies store fat.

Natalie Jill: They're smart.

Haylie Pomroy: Yes, the health detective component. Our bodies store fat-soluble toxins in the fat, or it goes to the brain. We have neurological problems. Or it goes into other areas of the body, and we expire.

Natalie Jill: That's right.

Haylie Pomroy: It's smart, and it's divine, and it's supposed to do that. I want to remind everybody, though, that's listening, is every aspect of healing is nutrient-dependent.

Natalie Jill: That's true. Absolutely is.

Haylie Pomroy: To go cash a million-dollar check at the bank, that is a nutrient-dependent event. Whether you release toxins, that's a nutrient-dependent event. When you burn fat, one of the most nutrient-dependent events that you can do is sleep. People think you do nothing.

Natalie Jill: You heal.

Haylie Pomroy: You do all kinds of things during deep sleep. You lose your weight, too. You lose your weight when you sleep.

Natalie Jill: It's interesting, because I watched my husband, who is not a female, obviously. He's my husband, and we genetically are completely different. He's got nothing bad on his genetics. He's one of those people. No kidding, my husband's ripped, and he's healthy, and he can eat whatever the heck he wants. He might think he's fat for a day. Where? I don't see anything. He eats like Skippy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. It does not matter. He will have a Diet Coke. He doesn't care. He'll tell you he gets enough protein and all the things. Great. He eats whatever the heck he wants. He does not have an issue. Someone like me cannot do that.

I enjoy my life. I eat great foods, but I have to be really on it. I need to make sure everything's organic. I'm super sensitive. If there are pesticides, I can feel it. I'm very sensitive to processed dairy if it's been pasteurized. I'm a high-maintenance eater. However, the payoff is I feel amazing. I don't feel restricted. I don't feel restricted at all. You listening, whatever your cards are, it's just a decision. I didn't say it's going to be easier for you. I didn't say it's going to be a piece of cake, nothing like that. I just said it's a decision. And then, do you want to? And then for someone who says, well, that's no fun. No, it is fun. I'll tell you why it is fun. One, I feel flipping amazing at almost 53. I feel amazing. I've got energy. I've got focus. I feel good. Nothing hurts, and even though I've had multiple injuries in the past, I don't get injured anymore.

I feel amazing. And you know what? I'm going to be this way at 80 or 90.

That's what I want for myself. This is not a vanity thing. This is not a, like, I want to look a certain way. I want to be a certain way. I want to be active.

There are so many circumstances we can't control. I'm very aware of that, but I can tell you that I will do my absolute best, in whatever circumstances are handed to me, to work on this attitude and belief around it. It doesn't mean I don't succumb to the negative feeling sometimes, or, I got it. I was there. I was in a pity party for myself a few years ago, but I hope to surround myself with people that, like, if I call you, Haylie, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I just got this terrible news, that instead of you saying, you're right, that sucks; just give up. I want to hear, what are we going to do about it?

Haylie Pomroy: I want you to hand me your spyglass. And as a detective, a friend detective, what are we going to do about it?

We have a girl retreat with all of our girlfriends. And one of the things that we do is we do a lot of that vision. Where do you want to be? And I was wanting to go back into dating and I was talking to my, it's been wonderful for me, quite frankly. I don't know, because I wanted it to be wonderful. Like, I was like, I want this to be wonderful. It's been amazing. For me, it's been amazing.

But one of the things that we do for each other is we help identify kind of what's your priority. We try to set those visions for the following year. Our girlfriends get together. Women in general, I'm going to go into the women's space for a second. We have so much unique pressure on ourselves, I believe. So, what do you tell all of us out there who are struggling to put their health and wellness as a priority?

Like, I feel like we get so much praise for being the best wife or the best mom or the best women in business.

Natalie Jill: Yeah, totally.

Haylie Pomroy: I love being a successful woman in business. I love it. I love it. I love writing books. I love every aspect of it, but I get a lot of praise for that. I don't get a lot of praise for being a badass at reversing my immune system.

Hi, it's Haylie Pomroy, your host. When I was going through my health crisis, the worst part of it was feeling lost and alone, and I decided that I didn't want anybody else to feel as desperate as I did. That's why we set up a private membership group where you can come in, ask questions, get support, be connected with people who can actually help you on your health journey. If you go to hayliepomroy.com/member, you can join me for 30 days for free. I'll see you there. We can jump in, and we can start to organize the path for your wellness. That's hayliepomroy.com/member. I will see you there. Now, back to our show.

Natalie Jill: Yeah, that's interesting. We are in a nation that is very outwardly focused, very worldly, like, unfortunately, and I don't know where your listeners are or where you are with faith. But whenever I feel caught up in like the worldly things and that, I turn to faith for that, for me, because that's not my intention. I work to not be focused on that. I'm not perfect at it by any means, but I work at that.

My shift is: what value do I add to other people or the world? Instead of making it about ourselves, if you are not feeling amazing, and you are feeling crappy, and you can't move well, how are you showing up to your loved ones? How are you showing up as a leader? How are you showing up to friends?

How are you contributing to the world? Are you taking from it? Or are you contributing to it? For those of you struggling with that, like, I want you to think about that for a moment. Okay?

Now one thing that we did not talk about that I'm absolutely walking through, and I do not have this figured out. This is my next book, by the way, because I'm like, this is what I've been working on, is the place of not so much of the accomplishments that you're talking about, but even though that's a very important topic, it's the physical appearance of aging. And this is a very hard place for women, especially in Gen X, because we grew up in massive diet culture and Barbie culture. And all of this outward appearance is super important.

And we're the first generation that is, like, literally trying to reverse through, like, Botox and fillers and all the things. Okay, like, surgeries have been around for years, but this is like a new thing. And then you add like filters on social media and all this, there's like a whole big extra thing happening with ageism. And you don't even really actually know what a real 50-year-old or 60-year-old or 70-year-old looks like, because we don't see it, we just don't see it.

Okay, so there's this whole other stuff. Follow me here.

So, what happens is, we have a choice. We can get caught up in the appearance game, or we can do the work now, because it just gets worse. Because, like, think about it, you work all these years to look a certain way, like 20s, 30s, you're working out to look a certain way. We just own it. We did. You're doing things to look a certain way. Got it.

End of 40s, 50s, you start realizing, you know what, it's a little bit more than the looks. It's, I've got to feel okay. Like, I don't. I don't like this ache and pain.

I don't like my knee hurting. You start realizing this. Do you start chasing the physical? Or do you start undoing a little bit of that and start focusing on how do I get myself healthy so I'm ready for this next chapter? How do I do that?

Now, I'm the first one in the salon coloring my hair when my grays come out. No problem there. But there are things I've personally stopped doing to myself that I'm not going to do to myself ever again because of this. For example, I don't do Botox. Have I done it in the past? I had tried it in the past. I'm never doing it again. Why am I never doing it again? Well, do I like my forehead lines? No, because nobody else has them. And people love to comment on my forehead lines, like, you're a bad Botox. No, I just don't have it.

But why? Because I think we should have expressions. I think when we don't have expressions, we lose connection with people. There's a connection. You're talking to robots. Two, it's a toxin. And I know what that does to our body. You can tell me it's local. You are injecting a toxin in you. I pay attention to things like that, and I don't want to keep adding to the list of things we do. When I did that toxin report, I saw that I had high levels of HEMA in my blood. I'm like, where's HEMA coming from? Guess what it was coming from? Gel nails. I'm like, do I really need gel nails? No, I don't. Non-toxic nail polish. I got a little bit off tangent here. But I want to bring this up because there is a big thing going on in ourselves about external versus internal. And what I want to share with you is I'm not going to tell you to just age gracefully, because I certainly am not. I'm not going to tell you to just accept. But start thinking: where can I lessen the load on where I'm so dependent on the outward appearance? And how can I get myself to a peak state of healthiness and vibrancy, so I can show up better in the world?

Haylie Pomroy: I love that, because a lot of people look good and feel awful.

Natalie Jill: That's right. A lot of them do.

Haylie Pomroy: And it doesn't allow you to have the life and the vitality that you need and deserve. And so you lead a lot of challenges and incredible groups. Obviously, you're incredibly inspirational and aspirational. I appreciate you sharing.

Natalie Jill: Depends on who you ask. Some people, I'm a little much. Wait a minute. I didn't ask for all that. Okay.

Haylie Pomroy: You know what? I love that comment that says, am I too much for you? Go find less.

Natalie Jill: I'm a lot for people because I'm an interruption. I'm an interruption for people. And I don't want people to live a mediocre life. I feel sad when a woman tells me that they don't feel good getting dressed in the morning. I feel sad that they're not being social. I feel sad that they turn to wine at night to shut off their brain. I feel sad that they're not having sex with their husband. There are a lot of things that I actually feel compassionate about. And I'm like, wait a minute. I hear from women all the time; they feel invisible. They feel invisible. Okay. I understand that. But invisible to who? Invisible to who? What are you trying to be invisible to or not? That's a question to ask yourself. And then how do we fill that up?

And I'm telling you right now, it's a decision first. If I'm triggering you a little bit, this is probably even more important. There's something in you that you're like, usually when we're triggered, you've got to follow that. Maybe I'm not your coach, but you've got to follow that. But I just want women to know that this next chapter can be really powerful. Can you look 20 again? No, I'm not telling anyone to look 20 again. Can you be 20 again? No. But can we optimize our aging and be a different version of ourselves so we can lead this next chapter a lot more powerfully and have a really happy, fun, enriched, full life?

Haylie Pomroy: And when you have people holding that out for you, you had people holding that out for you when you were in...

Natalie Jill: Yes, absolutely. Heck, my daughter is one of my biggest cheerleaders, because I'm so grateful that I raised my daughter to believe that anything's possible. She'll do it to me first. She'll tell me; my husband's learned this with me. I don't have friends in my life who don't do this. I have to bless and release people who don't do this, because I don't want to be around pity-party aging. I don't care. I don't want to hear all the things falling apart, and that suck, when we age. I don't want to hear it.

We can joke about our eyesight. That's about where it stops. What the heck?

Why are menus written so darn small? I can't stand it.

Haylie Pomroy: Well, look what I have on today. I was tired. I had show notes. I was like, okay, fine. I have to throw glasses on today. It's just one of those things.

Natalie Jill: We can joke about that. We can joke about things that we, my daughter says, like, mom, that's not how you use that word. I'll be like, oh, is this the vibe? She'll be like, mom, don't ever say that again. She's 17.

There are things that we can joke about aging, but don't tell me we're getting old and life sucks. I'm not enrolled in that.

Haylie Pomroy: Good. Good. And I love that you're telling everybody in our world and our community, everybody that's out here listening, that you don't have to buy into that. You don't have to buy into the stereotype. If someone, especially if someone you're paying, like your doctor or your healthcare practitioner or anybody, doesn't have a vision of you as being outrageously healthy.

Natalie Jill: No. Turn around and leave.

Haylie Pomroy: Then they're not yours.

Natalie Jill: Okay. Oh, I didn't even say this. I know I'm running over your time here.

But I want to say, if your doctor is not aging the way you want to be aging, you need to look at that too. Like, does your doctor work out? Let's start with that. Muscle is the most important longevity thing you can do. Don't let your doctor who does not work out at all tell you that you need an antidepressant and birth control pills. Come on.

Haylie Pomroy: Exactly. How do people get ahold of you?

Natalie Jill: Well, the best thing, depending on when you're listening to this, I do a free class twice a year. And I happen to be doing this right now, nataliejillclass.com. Just go to nataliejillclass.com. If this stuff resonated with you, if this is like, I cannot listen to another word from this woman, then you don't want to come to class, because I'm going to be on a soapbox. And I'm going to be chatting with you, and I'm going to be taking questions and coaching people on this. If you're like, I need more, I need this interruption, then join nataliejillclass.com. It's free. It's literally free. And I do this twice a year. And I have this happen to be coming up. And we're going to go deeper there.

Other than that, I have a podcast called Midlife Conversations. You can find that on all podcast platforms. And then I'm on social media everywhere. But Instagram is pretty much where I live: @nataliejillfit.

Haylie Pomroy: I love it. I love it. Natalie, I'm super excited and super pumped. And I work like joyfully. I just feel like I'm propelled with goodness when I'm in the process, but I work so joyfully on feeling incredible every single day. I love the topics that you're bringing to the table. We have obviously a lot of synergy in our stuff, but please tell me you'll come back.

Natalie Jill: Yeah, I'd love to. I'd love anything. I love talking. I love talking about life topics. And I love just disrupting. And by the way, if you listening have something to say to midlife women, do it, because I don't think we're represented enough in a positive light.

We're starting to be, we're starting to have more people talking, speaking into this. We are the biggest population. I mean, oh my gosh, we are a huge population. And there are a lot of women, men are too, but mostly women are really struggling with this. And we need to change the narrative around this.

Haylie Pomroy: We have to change the narrative. And I think one thing that women do really well is collaborate. I think whatever you want to call it, girl power or women collaborating or minds, brilliance, brilliance, minds, whatever it is. But I think when you bring the ideas to the table and we just start to talk about it in candidness, sharing what we've gone through, my goal, my mission, is that people don't have the struggle, don't have the gap between where they are and where they want to be. My whole life's work is to shorten the gap.

Natalie Jill: So good. What happens is, like, I feel like the problem is two things. We're not present, that's the answer to it. But the problem is, one, we compare so much to the past, what once was, what used to be, that's the one. And then the other end of the spectrum is we are afraid of the future because of what we're hearing on the media or what others say about aging.

My daughter, who's like my wisest guru, she's 17. But my daughter is, she is a Bible expert, which I cannot claim to be, but my daughter is so good. She's taught me so much. And what she said to me yesterday in a conversation is, she's like, mom, do you know, in the Bible, how many times it says, do not look, I'm probably messing this up, but don't look to the past. Like, do not look to the past. Do not look to the past. I'm like, well, wow. There are some wise words there too, but it's just so interesting.

Haylie Pomroy: It's a theme that's been around for a long time. And usually when themes stick around for a long time, it's because there's truth.

Natalie Jill: And so, I guess my point on that is, like, that is our, and we've heard this, no matter who you are, whether you are religious and/or you are into new whatever, you've heard this message about being super present to what is and how you want to feel right now and things like that. When we start looking at like, how I was at 20, or what people are telling me is going to happen, that's the problem zone.

Haylie Pomroy: And so I bought my house, my one house in LA, from a woman who was 96 years old and had just recently quit riding horses. And she was going to go, and I thought it was very interesting; she was going to go move up North to be with one of her kids. And I will tell you, my mind said, oh, because you're slowing down, is what I thought was going to be the rest of her sentence. Her kid, who was in his sixties or seventies, was starting to have some health issues, and she was going to go up and help him.

She's 96 years old, riding horses, but jumping into the caregiver role, and I bought the house and said kind of stay as long as you want. I wasn't ready for the house yet, but I got to ask her a lot of questions about, and to your point, physical activity, joy, and wellness. And she had a compost out in the back. The avocado tree that I have at my house that I built my kitchen that we film in around, because I didn't want to touch it. She grew it from a seed. There's only been organic, I didn't even look inside the house. She's telling me this: the tangerine tree, the avocado tree, the persimmons, everything was organic. She's never used a pesticide on the property. And she's 96 and riding horses.

Natalie Jill: I love that.

Haylie Pomroy: Exactly. And moved up North to take care of one of her sons. I just thought that was such a cool vision.

Natalie Jill: That's goals to me. Like, I would rather compare myself to that than to a lot of what we see on social or whatever. I was like, that's amazing. That's my goal in life. I love that.

Haylie Pomroy: She never had social media whatsoever.

Natalie Jill: But I guess my reason behind, I mean, I live on social, obviously my business is there too, but it's just that danger zone of, like, just the scrolling and the comparison. And, like, you don't know what's real. So that's my whole thing, is like, we don't actually know a real example of what a thriving 50- or 60-year-old looks like, because you don't know what's real anymore.

You can add AI into the problem, and it's really going to get confusing.

Haylie Pomroy: And I love what you said; you can be a health detective and have outrageous health. I'm a big proponent with you. I'm all about unpoisoning the body and toxins and how our super smart body responds. Natalie, thank you so much for coming on.

Natalie Jill: Thanks for having me.

Haylie Pomroy: Guys, check out the event, take advantage of her generosity and abundance of energy. I just love it. Please promise me you'll come back on. This was very exciting.

Natalie Jill: Yeah, absolutely.