The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - #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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Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinnyny 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 Everts, creator of the blog and brand The Skinny Confidential. And I'm Michael Bostic, entrepreneur, internet marketer, brand consultant, podcaster, husband. Chihuahua whisperer. Chihuahua whisperer. Lately you've been a real chihuahua whisperer. Chihuahua whisperer. Lately, you've been a real chihuahua whisperer. 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 Hilfiger. And why I'm especially excited about this is because I read her book, Bite 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 perverted, huh? Yeah, it sounds super juicy. Anyways, the questions will not be perverted. 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 fiance. 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. I'm having Taylor follow us around with a camera.

I'm actually mic'd up right now. I'm hot. The mic 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. Maybe the audience can chime in and see 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 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, 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, we want to have a place on YouTube where you guys can go 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 um 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'm miked up and you know people people look um strange but i think you know it's it's 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 restaurant with somebody falling 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 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 like lighting and prep or like this is not this is not produced. It's literally he's just following us around with a raw camera. I was trying to eat lentils and goat 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 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. All good, but it's, yeah, it's. Oh, we'll see. Yeah. I get first approval. Might not make final cut, but it's something I'll save for forever. I'm fine with that. Taylor had some weird medley that was like pasta with clams and mussels, 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? 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. You don't say. Yeah. Surprising. So what he did was he installed, I'm not sure what the app was, but he installed, what's it called? Alarming. Alarming.

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 uninstall the app to get the alarm to turn off. I was dying laughing. And what was even creepier was that around 8am 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. And then you put on Piano Bar Spotify and he was loving it. I'm really into 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 Hilfiger, 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 peaks 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 Snapchatting it. So Michael Lauren 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 michaellornclothing.com and type in code SKINNY for 20% off your first order plus free shipping. Make sure you get the black flares. That's michaellornclothing.com with promo code SKINNY for 20% off your first order plus free shipping. We'll be right back with

Allie Hilfiger. Hey, I'm Steve Bertone, 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 Kutcher, Michael Phelps, Jason Derulo, Gaius Siri, and IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama. All this on the Forbes interview. Download or subscribe on podcastone.com or iTunes. This is the Skinny Confidential. Him and her. All right, you guys.

We are here with the cutest, Allie 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, a little girl. Hi. And producer. We were just talking right before.

And producer. Yep. Got a lot going on. A lot. 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 was the, 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. Oh. And I watched your 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, this, 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. And it's a really widely growing epidemic in our country and the world, actually. Now it's in all 50 states and 80 countries. And so many people are just devastated and they don't know what to do. So I thought 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 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 Girls Show, which was 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 anything else. This is Lyme disease. And the doctors found it. It was like in my blood. It had come up over the count. know, over the count, it was, it was very clear that I had Lyme disease and a co-infection called by BZ. 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 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? 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 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 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 being a star of one of the first reality shows on television. What year was that?

2003. Yeah, this was before The Hills. This was right after The Osbournes. Yeah, you guys, I think that was the first show where I felt like I was watching someone that was our 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 the other thing is, you know, the TV show misportrayed me so greatly that I was heartbroken that I was heartbroken. I was heartbroken. And so I just 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 anxiety attacks. I was constantly nauseous. I was paranoid that I was being followed. I couldn't organize my thoughts at all. I couldn't figure out how to get to the kitchen to make myself food. I couldn't figure out even how to take a shower and get out. I was so crippled. And for people that don't know what Lyme disease is,

can you explain when you say bugs are eating your brain? Sure. Explain that, because you go in depth in the book, but I just want someone that has no idea what it is. So a brief, like, here's my nerd in me. Lyme disease is a bacterium. It's a corkscrew bacterium that lives inside of ticks. And the ticks bite and feed off of animals, deer and everything.

And they attach onto you. And if they've been 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.

Because... Is it like a deer tick? It's classically a deer tick. However, right now it's more than just a deer tick, which is really scary. And there is not only one strain of the bacterium. There are multiple strains 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. 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 stick. Yes or no. They're not going to tell you. Got it. Got it. So you're saying 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 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, 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 are 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, um, 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? That must have been difficult having your family question you. Yeah, it was very difficult. 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 it just anyone out there that's maybe having the same struggle that you were having in their family doesn't understand what what can they do to bring awareness or or just what do they tell their family?

How do they approach this? You know, it's 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 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 a physical illness. It's like, okay, so if somebody walks in and says, 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 shows. 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. They need a storyline. 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 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 psych 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 are wonderful people, really, really loving, loving people, like, kind of never met anybody like 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. What can, 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 projectlime.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 a noticeable difference in their cognitive abilities and fatigue 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 bullseye rash. That's 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 bullseye rash, should you still go get tested?

Absolutely. 100% immediately. As soon as you find that tick, you, first of all, the very specific way you have to pull it off and take it off. I mean, just go get right to a doctor. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. I didn't know that either.

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 went was years with an iv uh a um a pick a pick line into my heart with ivs and and con 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

figure out like i wish i wish i wish that that's we're trying to figure out the global lime alliance is an incredible organization that is working their tails off with the medical community to find an accurate way to diagnose and test like a really clear Mac pro way to test as well as a way to treat, especially chronic Lyme disease. Cause 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 were 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 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. Do you see him in the book? I feel like you said you saw him. I did. You met with him.

Yes. Okay. Yes, I did. And he's incredible. He's incredible. I actually hang 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 like. Absolutely. So tell us about your process of writing Bite 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 very sad. And I said to Steve, I don't think I can live in New York anymore. I mean, I was born and raised in New York, worked in New York all 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 LA. 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 I, like, 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 what 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 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. When you have somebody holding you accountable, you have to read it to them. Yeah. 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? Cause 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, 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 like 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 for fitness,

that they're allowed to post the picture to everyone. And so this guy did a test with five different people like two five people and then their five friends and all five of them lost the weight wow because they figured if i don't this my body's going to be shamed in front of everyone vanity really is a good motivator 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 what's and including everything else that's bad with it yeah can you can you drink can you like for women though but we don't want the line i don't want the line 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 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, so as you're writing the book, are you still struggling with Lyme disease? No, um, not, no, I was pregnant and feeling, feeling pretty good. Actually. It was, it was after the book tour, I was like, Oh my God, I'm exhausted. I need to take a break and like 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. They're 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 you are what you put in your body. So if you choose whole foods, like this morning I had, I kind of make these big salads every week. So I had a couple salads.

I had a lentil parsley salad and then a quinoa red bean chive with fried egg and some steamed like squash and he's like it's kind of easy because it's in the fridge already throw it in the bowl and fry an egg and throw it on top and it's done it's so healthy eating moderation yeah no cigarettes no yeah you just have to be smart you 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, um,

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 help 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. Um, and that's one writing exercise and the other one are written intentions. And it's a very specific, it's a formula. So 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 write 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, that's really, really cool.

We've got to do that. I was doing 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 me, that's spending time with my daughter and Steve. And I also put really healthy things into my body and know that 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 AllieHillFigure. And my book is called Bite Me. And I have a website called AllieHilfiger.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, plain 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 not boring. Because when I hear like informative and I'm 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. 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 want to read both of them. So I 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 I'm 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 Lime community as well as the world. So check it out on limetrials.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 Ally Hilfiger again for coming in. We got to have her on for part two. 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 to 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 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 the skinnyconfidential.com on the podcast page, you can actually go and put your name or username

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, put your social media handle, your name, whatever you want to plug and 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 episodes every Tuesday at podcastone.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 Lyft 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 PodcastOne.com, the PodcastOne app, and iTunes.