The Bossticks - #46: Ally Hilfiger, BITE ME - A discussion on Lyme Disease

Episode Date: January 17, 2017

Writer, Artist, Designer & Producer Ally Hilfiger (@allyhilfiger), joins Lauryn & Michael to discuss her battle against Lyme disease. From being bit by a tick at age seven to winding up in a psych ward, Ally shares her personal journey of getting well. Hilfiger details why Lyme disease is so hard to diagnose, what the process of writing her novel "Bite Me" was like and she explains how one of the very first reality tv shows "Rich Girls" inaccurately portrayed her. To connect with Ally click HERE To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential Bombshell Body Guide and Meal plan.  tired of combating inflammation & bloat? Want to feel lighter and sexier? Check out lauryn's latest 7 day meal plan. In this simple & super effective plan you'll find: + tsc grocery list with every ingredient you need for the 7 days. + what the f*ck to do when you love carbs guide. + quick and delicious recipes: breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and dessert. You will also find 28 weeks worth of fat burning, muscle toning, 27 minute long, effective workouts you can do at home with no equipment. USE PROMO CODE: HIMANDHER at Checkout for 20% Off

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Seriously, you guys, you will love these. Go to RXbar.com slash the skinny. All right, let's get the show on the road. The following program is a podcast.1.com presentation. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie.

And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. Okay, and we're back again. Wow, you've perfected that. I make him do it even when we're not podcasting. She makes me do it at dinner when I come home in the house, when I show up at the office. when we're sleeping.

In the morning, when we wake up. I think we look at each other. We're both shocked that we made it another day in the morning, wake up, and I say we're back again. Still on this side of the dirt. I'm Lauren Everett's creator of the blog and brand The Skinny Confidential. And I'm Michael Bostic, entrepreneur, internet marketer, brand consultant, podcaster, husband. Chihuahal Whisper. Lately, you've been a real Chihuahua whisper.

Yep. Can't stop, huh? All right. So before we get into the show, we want to thank you guys for subscribing, listening, and rating the Skinny Confidential Him and Her podcast on iTunes. We so appreciate the reviews and your messages. They make my day. If you guys haven't rated or reviewed or subscribed, go to iTunes and please do it. So we're very excited today because we are interviewing Allie Hillfigure. And why I'm especially excited about this is because I read her book, Bight Me, and I loved it. I felt like her and I were having a conversation, basically,

when I was reading her book, and it was really authentic and raw, and I highly recommend it. So today we have a lot of different questions for her. Yeah, I got a couple questions of my own. Like what? You'll see when we get into it. You love to prep, huh?

Yeah, I like to prep. I like to get some interesting questions so we can extract the juiciest information. I don't like that word juicy. That sounds a little pervert, huh? Yeah, it sounds super juicy. Anyways, the questions will not be reverted. They're just good questions. No, we're going to ask her about her struggle with Lyme. We're

going to talk to her about her journey. She has a little girl, her husband, or her fiancé. They're getting married. Her fiance, yes. We have Taylor here. I don't know what's going on. Tell me about what's going on. So recently, I'm having Taylor follow us around with a camera. I'm actually miced up right now. I'm hot. Mike is hot. And he's basically just filming our every move. And I don't know what I'm going to do with the footage, if anything, but I wanted to have it. We could put it together. and maybe do like, we'll see, like, maybe the audience can chime in and see if they, what they would like. Maybe we do a weekly episode, maybe we just do a video once in a while, but basically I just wanted to, like, document instead of create and just document exactly

it is what we do on a daily basis, when it comes to what we're working on, what we're, where we're traveling, when we're in the studio, interacting with friends and family, just kind of like a behind the scenes look. Like an extended Snapchat, kind of. Basically, like, we want to have a place on YouTube where you guys can go and watch an extended Snapchat, all the behind the scenes, what we do on a day-to-day basis. Taylor's been watching our every move. I mean, I feel like I was sleeping today and you were right there with the camera. It takes some getting used to, right? Like we were all at dinner last night, me, you, Taylor and Mimi, and he's got the giant camera and I miced up. And

you know, people look strange, but I think, you know, it's starting to be more accepted. People like, okay, they're probably doing something for the internet or they're probably doing something for YouTube. And I think, you know, a few years ago, it would have been really awkward to walk into a rush home with somebody falling in with a camera, but it's starting to be a little bit more accepted. So now he has a mic, headphones, cords hanging down him, and his phone. So I'm blessed. You're going to thank me later when we have all this amazing footage, or maybe, maybe not depending on what. Yeah, Taylor, you better be getting a good angle. You need lighting or something. I don't know what that thing is that you're holding underneath the camera. What I like about this is there is no lighting and prep or like, this is not produced. It's literally he's just following us around with a raw camera.

I was trying to eat lentils and go sheets last night, and Taylor was right up in that. Oh, trust me, we know. We got it. We reviewed the footage. Is it good? It's, well, it depends how you define good, but it's, yeah, it's... Oh, we'll see. Yeah. I get first approval. Might not make final cut, but something I'll save for forever.

I'm fine with that. Taylor had some weird medley that was like pasta with clams and muscles, and we need to film him eating that. Yeah. Well, whenever Taylor orders, I try not to look at the plate. I just don't even look in his direction. Taylor slept on a blow-up mattress last night on my bed of nails. He decided to take my pillow, sleep on it, put him right out. And then he awoke this morning to his heavy metal alarm where he has to solve a math problem

to turn it off. So why don't you tell us about that, Michael? I'm going to tell the funniest story about it. He was telling me, you know, because I give him shit all the time. Like, listen, man, you got to be up on time. you got to be in the office on time. And Taylor is a night owl, right? So he's not an early riser.

And so... You don't say. Yeah. Surprising. So what he did was he installed... I'm not sure what the app was, but he installed in... What's it called?

Alarming. He installed... It's alarming. Yeah. He installed an app on your phone that... It sounds absolutely terrible. But it basically prohibits you from hitting the snooze button and the sleep button.

It continuously goes off over and over and over again until you solve a... series of puzzles or patterns. I think there's one that you have to like shake, but the setting that he put it on was math equations. And there's easy, medium and hard settings depending on your skill level. And so the first day he was telling me, he put it on medium and you have 10 seconds to solve each math equation.

And he couldn't solve them quick enough. So the phone just kept rattling and going and going. And it got him so fired up and pissed off that he had to go into his phone apps and actually uninstalled the app to get the alarm. to turn off, I was dying laughing. And what was even creepier was that around 8 a.m. or 8.30, maybe, another alarm went off that was heavy metal music. And I told Taylor that if I was hooking up with him and that alarm went off, I would be out the door and he would never see my ass again.

Yeah, I had to drive with him yesterday in the car and his music of choice was like, bloodthirsty atheist or something like that. It was just screaming metal. So. And then you put on piano bar Spotify and he was loving it. I'm really in a piano bar, Spotify. these days. He took a nap. He took about four naps yesterday, huh? Yep. Okay, you guys, so before we get into the interview with Allie Hillfiger, I am going to tell you about Michael Lauren. Yes, it's called Michael Lauren. Lauren with an E though, not a Y. So it's kind of amazing because I'm actually wearing Michael Lauren's black flares right now. They sent me some and they are so comfortable, but they're also

chic. And they cover my shoes too. Like, you know when you wear high heel shoes and you kind of want the whole shoe covered. So just the point kind of peeks out. And they're super slimming. So I'm a fan. They also sent me their leopard onesie with a hood. Mimi is so excited for me to wear it tonight on our sleepover. It's going to be very cute. I'll be Snapchating it. So Michael Lorne delivers casually chic on-trend options for all occasions and they have a special offer for the skinny confidential listeners. All you have to do is go to Michael Lorneclothing.com and type in code Skinny for 20% off your first order plus free shipping. Make sure you get the black flares.

That's Michael, L-A-U-R-E-N Clothing.com with promo code skinny for 20% off your first order plus free shipping. We'll be right back with Ali Hilfiger. Hey, I'm Steve Bertone, the host of the Forbes interview podcast, where we sit down with the people you see on the cover of Forbes. We're talking the world's wealthiest and most influential leaders. Like Richard Branson, Jessica Alba, Adam Carolla, Ashton Coucher, Michael Phelps, Jason Derulo, Gio Ciri, and IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama.

All this on the Forbes interview. Download or subscribe on podcast.1.com or iTunes. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. All right, you guys, we are here with the cutest. Ali Hilfiger. She's a writer, artist, designer, was on the reality show, Rich Girls, recently published author, which we'll get into, and she is the daughter to Tommy Hilfiger and engaged with a little girl.

Yeah, little girl. Hi. And producer. We were just talking right before. And producer. Yep. Got a lot going on. Yes, I do.

I know. So I was really interested in talking with you because I read your book by me. And I loved it. Thank you. So just tell us about you, about your book, everything. We want to know everything. All right. Well, first of all, how did you find it?

What made you want to read it? I think it was someone Instagrammed it. Okay. And I was interested in learning more about Lyme disease. And I fell in love with you while I was reading it. And I watched a reality show when I was in high school. And so it was just really interesting to see more layers of you through the book. And at the end, I was like, oh, my God, I got an interviewer.

Oh, well, I definitely don't hold back in the book. No. And I had gone through so much in my life. And I thought, you know, these experiences have to be talked about in order to help other people, maybe go through some of theirs. Because I knew that what I had gone through, especially with Lyme disease, It needed to be talked about. There's so much misconception and confusion around Lyme disease. And it's really sad because so many people are sick and suffering out there and dying. And it's just so misunderstood. So I thought, let me bring some clarification, awareness, and education behind what this disease is really about and how it affects people.

It's a really widely growing epidemic in our country and the world, actually. now it's in all 50 states, in 80 countries, and so many people are just devastated and they don't know what to do. So I thought, you know, I could also maybe offer a couple of tips and hints and solutions that I used for me that don't cost any money, like writing exercises and, you know, mindfulness exercises that you can do that really helped me get through my hard journey. But basically, I was bit by a tick at seven years old and became really, really sick all throughout my childhood and teenage years. But in my teenage years, I also started working in the fashion industry, in the entertainment industry, acting, producing, designing. I did the rich girl's show,

which was, you know, a very bittersweet experience. And then I experienced a major psychotic and psychiatric breakdown from the Lyme disease invading my brain. And thank God a doctor there noticed. And she was like, no, this isn't, you know, anything out. This is, this is Lyme disease. And the doctors found it. It was like in my blood. It had come up through the, you know, over the count. It was very clear that I had Lyme disease and a co-infection called Ibizia.

And, you know, I had been tested before for Lyme disease. And they said, oh, it's borderline or it's not enough for us to diagnose or, but it got worse. Because the testing is so inaccurate. So then, I mean, that wasn't the end of the story. It wasn't like, yeah, I got diagnosed, let's move on. It was, oh, my God, I've got these treacherous years ahead of me to try to treat it, because there's really no cure once it's gone untreated and undiagnosed for as long as it had been for me, which was like over 12 years.

So the journey through getting well was really what I talk about a lot in the book as well, because it can be very depressing and very lonely and very discouraging and a lot of ups and downs. and I came to a place of, instead of feeling victimized by the disease, I became like a warrior. And I was like, I am ready to battle this. And I'm not going to let this get in my way because there was like a moment where I was like, I'm either going to live in a bed for the rest of my life and feel dead or die. Or I'm going to, I had this clear vision of my life ahead of me with like having a family and having a baby and doing more things and designing more clothes and making more movies and, you know, making more social

impact documentaries and things like that. So I really put on my battle gear and went more toward the natural homeopathic meditation, eating clean, changing lifestyle route, which was a lot harder, but it was actually a lot better. So to back up just a little bit, how did you end up in the psych ward to get the diagnosis. Right. How did, like, because I know there was a process and maybe you didn't know at the time you said you got bit when you were seven, but did you, did you always know it was Lyme disease or were you unsure what was going on? I had no idea. I knew something was wrong because I had constant pain in my body and my joints and was fatigued a lot and had a lot of strep throat.

And then my reading skills and memory started to deteriorate kind of kind of around like eighth or ninth grade. And I had a lot of fainting spells because of weakness in my blood. And, you know, the sort of psychotic breakdown happened right after the TV show came out. And I think that I was, it was like a mixture of being completely freaked out that I was like all of a sudden famous. And I couldn't go to a target without being recognized. And it was really overwhelming to me. And there was nobody managing me or protecting me. And there were a couple of traumatic things that happened during the filming that I don't get into in the book, but this would affect anyone.

And so I didn't have any tools to process anything that happened, let alone, like, being a star, one of the first reality shows on television. What year was that? 2003. Yeah, this was before the Hills. This was just right after the Osbournes. Yeah, you guys, I think that was the first show where I felt like I was watching, like, someone that was art. age. You guys were, the way, though, that they interpreted you through rich girls is completely

different than I feel like how you are and in the book. I know. I learned so much more about you through the book than I did on the show. Well, I mean, and this is the other thing is, you know, the TV show misportrayed me so greatly that I was heartbroken. I was heartbroken. And so I just, and I didn't have any direction in my life. and, you know, Lyme disease bugs were eating my brain, essentially, and not putting enough oxygen in my brain.

And I did things like I was talking in circles. I was having anxiety attacks. I was constantly nauseous. I was paranoid that I was being followed. I couldn't organize my thoughts at all. Like, I couldn't, I couldn't figure out how to get to the kitchen to make myself food. I couldn't figure out even how to, like, take a shower and get it. I was so just kind of crissue.

crippled. And for people that don't know what Lyme's disease is, can you explain when you say bugs are eating your brain? Like, explain that because you go in depth in the book, but I just want, like, just someone that has no idea what it is. So a brief, like, sign, like, my, here's my nerd in me. At Lyme disease is a bacterium. It's a corkscrew bacterium that lives inside of ticks. And the ticks bite and feed off of animals, lot deer and everything. And they attach onto you. And if they've be attached onto you, then they put these little teeth in your skin and transmit the Lyme disease and these spirochete bacterium go into the mitochondria of your cells and kind of corkscrew their way in and they spread and they multiply. And does it have to be a certain tick? It does have to

be a certain tick. However, that's now changing. Okay. Is it like a deer tick? It's a classically a deer tick. However, right now it's more than just a deer tick, which is really scary. And And there is not only one strain of the bacterium. There are multiple strains of the bacterium, which is why it's difficult to detect. Also, once the corkscrew gets into that mitochondria inside of the cell, if you don't catch it right away and blast it with antibiotics immediately, it creates this film and this barrier around the cell that's almost impenetrable. So is that why it's so hard to diagnose?

The reason why it's so hard to diagnose is because the tests are so old. It's like having a typewriter instead of like a Mac Pro. Okay. And you said when you were going through this, a lot of people said that you were negative. Like a lot of doctors said you don't have it. They said because there's a lot of false negatives that come up because the testing is so inaccurate and there's so many strains of the bacterium so it's not sensitive. It's not a very sensitive test.

It would be like if you were pregnant and you peed on a popsicle sticks. Yes or no. I'm not going to tell you. Got it, got it. So you're saying, so you can't, there's nothing black and white about the test. Exactly. Okay. Yeah.

So can you tell us the story of how you figured out that it was Lyme disease? Sure. So I was like going crazy, writing on the walls, like totally sick of like materialism. And I was having this like spiritual breakthrough also at the same time. And my dad was like, holy shit. Like we need to get her into a hospital. I had no idea that he was planning. this. My mother thought that I needed like a good psychic. Anyway, he tricked me and I thought I was

going to Jamaica. I was like, you know what? I just need to go to Jamaica. I have a vacation, be by myself, like, chill out by the beach, be in nature. I'm like, totally hippie at heart. I just like want to be barefoot naked on an island somewhere all the time. I love it. And he said, all right, let's get in the car. I'll bring you to the airport. I packed my bag, got in the car. And I was like, you're not going to the airport. Where were we going? He's like, I'm taking you to the emergency room. And I was like freaked out. I thought that there were going to be cameras there and people and stalkers and all these things. And we got there. They injected me with something. And I woke up the next day. And I looked down and the shoelaces were out of my Adidas sneakers in this hot. And I was like in

this little bed in this room alone. Did your dad think you were doing drugs? Yeah. I think he thought that I had like, I smoked weed to ease the pain and the nausea, like the knee pain, the joint pain, the nausea. So I think he thought that the weed must have been laced with something or he thought that I did something besides weed, but like, I really swear to God I didn't. So, and maybe the weed was laced. Who knows? But.

That must have been difficult having your family question you. Yeah, it was, it was, it was very difficult. It was very, they were very confused. They didn't understand. And I think to this day, my dad kind of thought, God, was she smoked? Did I let her just smoke too much weed and it got to her? You know, it's the poor guy. Can you imagine?

Yeah. And just anyone out there that's maybe having the same struggle that you were having and their family doesn't understand. What can they do to bring awareness or just, what did they tell their family? How do they approach this? You know, it's tough because you have to really advocate for yourself. And you have to do what's right for you in a very authentic way. If it's, you have to know, you have to educate yourself.

And if you have to, if you educate yourself about Lyme disease or about a chronic illness and the healthiest ways to support what you're going through, then you have to do that and stay true to yourself and then give your family a book to read it because nobody gets it until they feel it. And that is what's happened with Yolanda on Housewives, who I really respect for bringing attention and living her truth. It seems like she was completely authentic with her diagnosis. And I feel like that brought awareness to it.

I absolutely did. I really, really applaud her for being so vulnerable and so raw on that show. She is that. She and I are good friends. And she's an amazing, really down-to-earth, authentic, genuinely amazing sweetheart. And it just broke my heart to see her ripped apart by all those women and to not believe somebody with like a physical illness. It's like, okay, so if somebody walks in.

is that I just got diagnosed with AIDS. And everyone in the room is like, you're a liar, you're making this up. Why would someone want to make that up and feel like, what? Yeah, we get into this all the time on the show. I don't, I just, my issue with it is why is somebody, why is people so concerned with other people's health and issue? I mean, to chime in on someone else's health. Yeah.

Yeah. I just don't think it's productive anyway. So can you describe the conversation with your family, with your loved ones when you actually had a diagnosis and they had. a diagnosis? Sure. So, well, I met the psychiatrist in the hospital and I was talking to her and later on, I said, you know, I have this joint pain and these memory problems and these sleep problems and headaches and night sweats and everything. She said, well, we're going to send you to a Lyme doctor. And I said, I've been to one. She said, no, no, just please, just go again. It's been years.

Went to the doctor, got the blood test, which is like pints of blood, by the way. And a couple weeks later, I get the call to come in and get the diagnosis. And I think my dad came in with me the second time. I felt validated. I felt like I had won the lottery. I was like, whoa, I am not a liar. I'm not making this up. I'm not a psychiatric patient. You know, I'm not a drug addict. I am a woman and child who was ill for years. And nobody did anything about it. They tried. My family tried. My parents through wonderful people, really, really loving, loving people. Like, kind of never met anybody liked them in the world. And I felt bad for them, too. I was like, oh, my God, like, this, this sucks for you guys, too. But at the end, it was a big relief for everybody. So if someone's

out there, what are symptoms that maybe if they don't know what's going on? Because you said for so long, you had no clue what was happening. If someone's listening and they're dealing with some of these symptoms. What are they? You know, I would go, there are so many, I would go on to project lime.com and see what they say on different websites because there are so many and so many different people have different symptoms. I mean, classically, it's extreme fatigue, constant headaches, confusion, memory loss, a lot of joint pain, aches and pains in their legs and, you know, a noticeable difference in their cognitive abilities and fatigue, you know, and function. And I think that if you know that you've been in a woody area or in grass and

you've been bit by a tick, even if you don't know that you've been, you don't have to get the bull's eye rash. That's it, that's a not true. You don't always, when you get bit by a tick, a lot of people don't even know. So if you get bit by a tick and you don't have the bull's eye rash, should you still go get tested? Absolutely. One hundred percent. sent immediately. As soon as you find that tick, you, first way, the very specific way, you have to pull it off and take it off. I mean, just go get right to a doctor. I don't know that. Oh, yeah. You don't have to get the rash. Wow. Hearing you describe all this is crazy because now, like, looking at you and hearing you speak, you're obviously very composed and clear. And so what can you do

to treat this? Like, what did you start to do to get better? I mean, my story is very complicated. I I was years with an IV, a pick, a pick line into my heart with IVs and, like, boatloads of antibiotics and herbs. And then I moved on to homeopathy in different drops. And again, IVs and injection. I mean, I did so much that I can't even. I wish, I wish, I wish. That's what we're trying to figure out.

The Global Lyme Alliance is an incredible organization that is working their tail. off with the medical community to find an accurate way to diagnose and test, like a really clear MacPro way to test, as well as a way to treat, especially chronic Lyme disease. Because once that biofilms around the cell and it's impenetrable, we're trying to find something that can penetrate that and to like get you better. So that's crazy. I feel like in 20 years people are going to look back on this and be like, wow, I can't believe people are so ignorant about this. Hey, there's a really good book out there actually by Dr. Richard Horowitz called How Can I Get Better? And he has, his first book is why can't I get better? But it's by Dr. Richard Horowitz and his books are so helpful. They were like

my Bibles. And they tell you all the symptoms, the way to help, the way to treat, the different ways to help yourselves. It's incredible. Did you, do you see him in the book? I feel like you said you saw him. I did. Yes. And he's incredible. He's incredible. I actually hang out. out with him now. I go to dinner with he and his wife. His wife is a really amazing astrologer. And he's just an amazing gentleman and he's really informed and kind and compassionate and really cares about what he does. And he's doing a lot in this world to help practitioners be better practitioners when dealing with their patients. That's good to know. People need to read that book if they're struggling with this, I feel. Absolutely. So tell us about your process of writing Byte Me.

Okay, so we, well, so after I had a clothing line called NOM, and I got so sick, and I was devastated because I thought I was really better, I got so, so sick. And I had to close the company, which was completely devastating to me. It was like losing a child. That's kind of extreme, but it was, it was very sad. And I said to Steve, I don't think I can live in New York. I mean, I was born and raised in New York, worked in New York on my life, went to school there, everything. And I said, I don't think I can do it anymore. I think it's making me sick. I think it's perpetually keeping me ill.

I said, we have to move. And lo and behold, he got another job offer out here in L.A. And I said, that's where we're going. Let's go. Let's go chase the sun. And we took a road trip out here. And right before the road trip, I sat down on my laptop and wrote out a few paragraphs. and I said, I think I'm going to write a book about this.

And about a year into living in L.A., I became pregnant. And I had no, I did not think that I could get pregnant. I really didn't. And as soon as we found out, we went to, like, so many doctors, like, is this okay? Am I healthy? Is the baby? Everything was fine. And I said, this is when I'm going to write the book.

So I sat down with a friend every Wednesday and read her a chapter out loud. And I had to write a chapter a week. and I was held accountable. And she was a writer and author herself. And so she'd give me notes. And it was a really cathartic healing process for me because it kind of like, it was like closing a huge chapter of my life and moving forward. And then when I gave birth, we sold the book.

It was kind of crazy. Self-published or do you have a publisher? I have a publisher. I think that's really cool that you were held accountable. For people that want to do something or write a book or execute a blog, I love that you said every Wednesday you would do a little bit and kind of chip away at it until it became this amazing book. Exactly. Yeah, that's great advice.

Well, you had somebody holding you accountable. You had to read it to them. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's the same with meditation. I mean, I just went to like a Buddhist Zen meditation retreat for like a day with my girlfriend. And the teacher said, you know, it's not realistic to say, I'm going to meditate twice a day every day going forward. No, that's not realistic. Why don't you start with five minutes a day at first?

because it's a new year. And then you have to hold yourself accountable and get your partner's number, call them every Sunday, every week, and say, how did you do this week? And you've got to make yourself accountable for things. It's difficult. You get busy. We forget. But if I think, oh, my God, I've got to call Courtney and tell her whether I meditated or not.

Like my ego and my pride want to say, guess what? I meditated five times this week. That's really good advice, especially a lot of the listeners are bloggers, or they're trying to kind of build something or write something. So that's amazing advice. There's some extreme advice that I heard someone give. And it said, if you're trying to get in shape, take a picture of your body in your underwear before you do it.

And you give yourself a month to lose X amount of pounds or do whatever. And you give it to one of your closest friends. And if you don't go to the gym and you don't lose the weight. And this is just an example of fitness. That they're allowed to post the picture to everyone. And so this guy did a test with five different people. It's like five people. their five friends, and all five of them lost the weight.

Wow. Because they figured, if I don't, my body's going to be shamed in front of everyone. Vanity really is a good motivator. It's true. It's like with smoking, you don't want, I used to be a smoker. And, you know, not only with, like, Lyme disease, you can't smoke. It's like lack of oxygen. It's still, including everything else that's bad with it. Yeah, can you, can you, like, with what you have?

For women, though, but we don't want. I don't want the lines. Yeah. Like, that's so ugly or the smell. So vanity is great. Drinking is a good question. Drinking you have to be careful with. However, if you do everything in moderation and you don't overdo it and you choose wisely,

then yeah, you can have a drink or two. It's not a big deal. You can't, like, be drinking a bottle a night. You know what I mean? But if you're smart about it, you choose organic things and nothing with too much sugar and, you know, you don't overdo it, then you're okay. That makes sense. So as you're writing the book, are you still struggling with Lyme disease?

No, not. No, I was pregnant and feeling pretty good, actually. It was after the book tour, I was like, oh, my God, I'm exhausted. I need to take a break and, like, go on another thing of homeopathics just to kind of upkeep my body. And that's been great. Tell me about homeopathics. I want to know about that.

I don't know. There are little drops that you take under the tongue or in a little water. And they're great. I mean, I don't really want to get into it too much because I'm not an expert or anything, but they've worked for me. I also believe in just a really clean, healthy diet. I think you are what you eat and when you are what you put in your body. So if you choose whole foods, like this morning, I had, I like kind of make these big salads every week.

So I had a couple of salads. I had a couple salads with a lentil, parsley salad, and then a quinoa, red bean, chive with fried egg and some steamed like squash. And you just like, it's kind of easy because it's in the fridge already. Throw it in a bowl and fry an egg and throw it on top and it's done. So healthy eating, moderation. Yeah. No cigarettes. No, yeah.

You just have to be smart. You just have to be smart and like healthy and no one's going to be perfect. Like you can't also the hugest part in my book at the end of the book, I talk about the power of being kind to yourself and forgiving yourself. and not being too hard on yourself. Because if I go out and have a glass of red wine or two and eat a bowl of pasta at an amazing Italian restaurant, I'm not going to go home and beat myself up for it.

I'm going to say, oh, my God, this is amazing. What a great night. I had so much fun and, like, really bring, like, positive vibrational energy into it. I'm not going to, oh, my God, I can't believe I did that. And now I'm going to feel like shit. No, you've got to bring positive thinking to whatever you're doing. And if you don't, then you're going to feel negative. your body is going to feel the negative vibrations.

So I have a lot of writing exercises at the end of my book that helped tremendously. That helped me in ways that I can't even explain to you. I think I was reading something. Did you do some kind of like strategy wheel? I'm probably saying focus wheel. Focus wheel. Yep. It's a focus creation wheel.

And that's one writing exercise. And the other one are written intentions. And it's a very specific, like, it's a formula. You have to follow it with the directions. And if you do those written exercises, and I did them every single day in this notebook, almost every single thing happened. It was wild. That's creating a strategic future.

Well, it's like writing affirmations, too. I read in a journal in the morning. So where can people find that? On my website or in the back of my book. Maybe that's where I saw it. Yeah. Yeah, that's really, really cool. We've got to do that.

I'll do my research. Good for you. So my last question for you is, today, like right now, Lyme disease never goes away, right? Technically and scientifically, no. Okay, so how are you coping today? What have you done to sort of get to where you are? Like, what's your day to day with it? My day to day with it is waking up saying, I'm so grateful for everything in my life. And I really, I really focus a lot on gratitude. And I believe in, you know, people exercise their bodies and we, and we brush our teeth.

to maintain our oral hygiene. I believe in also emotional, spiritual, psychological hygiene. And so if I walk into my day with a healthy practice, mental practice, then that translates into my physical body. And I do something every day to make myself happy. And for that, for me, that's spending time with my daughter and Steve. And I also put really healthy things into my body and know that, you know, you know, moderation is definitely the golden rule. So not too much popcorn. It was so nice to have you here. Tell everyone where they can find you,

give everything, all the info. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. You can find me on Instagram at Allie Hillfiger, and my book is called Bite Me, and I have a website called Alleyhillfigure.com. I highly recommend her book, you guys, to all skinny confidential readers.

You guys will love it. I read it in like two days. Well, it's a funny book. It's like an entertaining. It's a quick plane read. It's a good airplane book. It's very informative, too. It is informative.

But it's like, when people hear like, oh, it's informative. It's like, it's not boring because when I hear like informative and like, I'm like, oh, that's, like, remember information. No, it's not boring. It's actually, thank you. It's, you tell your whole life. It's like your life story. It's almost like an autobiography a little bit. It is.

And my father just came out with his. Oh, he did? I want to read it. What's it called? American Dreamer. Oh, you got to read that too. I'll read both of them. Yeah.

So just before we go, what's next? What's for you? A lot of things are next. Actually, possibly a podcast. I know. I know. And talking about designing clothes again, I really, really miss designing clothes. And I'm producing a documentary now called The Lime Trials, co-producing it with Mickey Sumner.

It's by Lindsay Keys, written and directed by Lindsay Keys. And it's going to bring a lot of awareness and hope to the Lyme community as well as the world. So check it out. Limitrials.com. Very cool. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me, guys. I think that interview was really awesome.

A lot of value there. What an interesting person, interesting life. So just want to thank Allie Hill Figure again for coming in. We got to have her on for Part 2. Yeah. There's a couple other questions I want to ask her. Yeah, we'll have her on again. Before we take off, I want to jump in real quick and tell you guys about Amazon.

Everyone knows that the world shops online now. people only go to the malls that drop the kids off or buy a super pretzel. And of course, Amazon is the biggest online mall in the universe. But did you know that every time you guys use Amazon, you could be helping us to keep this podcast going? Yes, that's right. If you use our Amazon banner when you shop, a small amount of the purchase goes directly to help support this podcast at no extra cost to you. Okay, so here's how you do it. Go to Podcast One, click on the Killer Deals link, click our show logo, and you'll see Amazon and all our sponsors.

Then when you click the link, bookmark it, so it's super easy to use the next time. It's a cool way you can help us keep producing this podcast every week. All right, you guys, remember to send in your questions to Twitter, Instagram, using the hashtag Ask Him and Her. Thank you guys for listening. We will be back next week. Hopefully we can do call-in soon. Make sure to fill out the form on the Skinny Confidential under podcast. We actually just put on, I don't even know if you've seen it yet, but I just had a new form put in on your site at theskinnyconfidential.com on the podcast page.

you can actually go and put your name or use your name and then ask a question and just hit submit and it automatically sends it to the podcast of the skinny confidential email so if you do that we will feature that question on the show if it's chosen and yeah it's easier to do it that way like your social media handle your name whatever you want to plug and um you can invite taylor on a date whatever answer the question all right you guys we'll see you next week thanks for listening to the skinny confidential him and her with Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic download new episode every Tuesday at podcast1.com or subscribe now on the podcast one app. My name is Anthony Ponce and I used to be a reporter on NBC, but I got tired of being part

of traditional news media. So I quit that job and became a lift driver. And now I interview whatever passengers end up in my backseat. So if you want to hear the best stories that real people tell me when we're driving around the city, check out my podcast. It's called Backseat rider on podcast.com, the podcast one app. and iTunes.