Trust Your Gut With Brie

You’re not imagining it.

If you’re 35+ and something feels different — your sleep, your body, your mood, your motivation — and your bloodwork keeps coming back “normal,” this post is for you.

Because here’s what nobody tells you: your hormones don’t wait for a diagnosis to start shifting. Progesterone quietly declines around 35. Testosterone starts its slow drop around the same time. By 45, it’s not subtle anymore — for women, that’s perimenopause creeping in years before menopause actually hits. For men, it’s testosterone dropping faster while SHBG quietly steals what’s left of it.

Most people get told they’re fine. Most labs only check the bare minimum. And most doctors aren’t trained to look for optimal — they’re trained to rule out disease.

Swipe through for:
🧬 What actually changes at 35 vs. 45
🩸 The signs to watch for if you’ve never touched hormones
💊 What HRT really is (and isn’t)
🧪 The bloodwork most doctors skip — and what “optimal” actually looks like

This is the conversation I wish more people had before they spent years thinking they just had to live like this.

You don’t.

👉 Save this for later, and DM me “HORMONES” if you’re ready to find out what’s actually going on with yours.

Because here’s what nobody tells you: your hormones don’t wait for a diagnosis to start shifting. Progesterone quietly declines around 35. Testosterone starts its slow drop around the same time. By 45, it’s not subtle anymore — for women, that’s perimenopause creeping in years before menopause actually hits. For men, it’s testosterone dropping faster while SHBG quietly steals what’s left of it.

Most people get told they’re fine. Most labs only check the bare minimum. And most doctors aren’t trained to look for optimal — they’re trained to rule out disease.

Swipe through for:
🧬 What actually changes at 35 vs. 45
🩸 The signs to watch for if you’ve never touched hormones
💊 What HRT really is (and isn’t)
🧪 The bloodwork most doctors skip — and what “optimal” actually looks like

This is the conversation I wish more people had before they spent years thinking they just had to live like this.

You don’t.

👉 Save this for later, and DM me “HORMONES” if you’re ready to find out what’s actually going on with yours.

200g of carbs gets that forehead vein pop’n 😆

FLAT DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN LEANER.
Sometimes it means under-fueled.

There’s a major difference between simply losing weight and building a physique that looks tight, strong, full, and athletic.

You can train hard every day—but if you’re constantly cutting calories, fearing carbohydrates, under-eating protein, or neglecting hydration and recovery, your muscles may look smaller, softer, and depleted.

Carbohydrates replenish muscle glycogen—and glycogen helps create that firm, full, rounded appearance.

The goal isn’t to eat as little as possible.
The goal is to fuel with purpose:

⚡ Enough protein to build and preserve muscle
⚡ Strategic carbohydrates to fuel training
⚡ Healthy fats to support hormones
⚡ Proper hydration and electrolytes
⚡ A progressive training plan
⚡ Consistency long enough to create visible change

More restriction is not always the answer.

If you want a strong, sculpted physique, you have to give your body something to build with. You cannot starve your way into rounded muscle.

So—who’s ready for a six-month challenge?

Not another quick fix.
Not another crash diet.
Not another plan you abandon after three weeks.

I’m talking about using this fall and winter to transform how you train, eat, recover, and show up—so when spring break arrives, you’re not scrambling to “get ready.”

You’re already ready.

Six months from now, you could reveal a physique you’ve never been able to achieve before—not because you punished your body harder, but because you finally followed a strategy designed to work with it.

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start building, DM me “SPRING” for details. 🔥

Some much needed downtime 🌅

Flat stomach when you wake up. By 2pm you look 5 months pregnant. Every. Single. Day. 😩
Cut gluten, dairy, sugar — still bloated. BMs once a week, or you’re running to the bathroom. And foods you used to eat with zero issues are now giving you bloating, itching, sinus flares, headaches.
This isn’t random. It’s bacterial — and there’s a test that proves exactly which organisms are behind it →
Swipe to see what a real stool map uncovers, and why “just take this probiotic” was never going to fix it. 👉
As a Functional Health Coach, this is exactly where I come in. A stool map tells us what’s there — my job is turning that data into a plan that actually resolves it. I work the 5R framework with every gut client:
Remove → Replace → Reinoculate → Repair → Rebalance
No guessing, no random supplement stack. Just a sequence built around what your map actually shows. Bridget Terrien
DM “MAP” and let’s find out what’s going on in your gut.
chronicbloating

The pattern is clear:

Muscle wasting. Crepey skin. Uneducated peptide dosing. Starved appetite, Alcohol nightly. Curves traded for a number. Young women who lift are building the very muscle that carries them through menopause — while others are losing it before they even get there.

None of this is random. It’s what happens when weight loss has no strength behind it. GLP’s and peptides are a remarkable tool… let me repeat “TOOL” when under the right conditions and guided by a professional. If you’d like to change the way you’re using your peptides and understand the science 🧬 behind them; I specialize in this and much more.

So here’s my question for you: are you chasing a smaller number, or a stronger body? 👇 Tell me where you’re at — I read every comment. Bridget Terrien

Nobody warns you that perimenopause comes for your muscle AND your bones at the same time.
Estrogen drops → bone density drops → muscle mass drops → and suddenly the workouts that used to work… don’t.
Add GLP-1s into the mix — and yes, I’m a huge advocate for them for many reasons when used correctly — but here’s what most people don’t know: research shows up to 20-40% of the weight lost on GLP-1s can be lean muscle, not just fat. If you’re not strength training while you’re on one, you’re not just losing weight. You’re losing the very tissue that protects your bones and your metabolism as you age.
Protein + resistance training = your GLP-1 insurance policy. Non-negotiable, not optional.
This is why I coach women through this exact transition. Strength training now — GLP-1 or not — is the single best thing you can do to protect yourself from osteoporosis and muscle loss later.
Strong mind. Strong body. No exceptions. 🔥
MuscleMatters Bridget Terrien

Stop Guessing, Start Testing

“If you are bloating from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed—even after just drinking water—hear me out: A probiotic will not fix this. Eating one meal a day will not fix this. Your gut isn’t lacking a generic supplement; it’s lacking a strategy.”

Morning-to-night bloating & nausea
The exhausting flip-flop between constipation and diarrhea
Migraines, stubborn acid reflux, and thinning hair
The Reality Check: These aren’t isolated issues. They are the downstream smoke of an upstream fire in your microbiome.

Tool #1: Visualizing the Battlefield (GI-MAP vs. Biomesight)
Explain how you get answers. You don’t guess; you look at the actual data.
The GI-MAP (PCR Technology): This DNA-based stool test looks at the quantitative presence of specific microbes. It doesn’t just say “you have bacteria”; it measures pathogens, H. pylori, opportunistic overgrowths, and parasites.
Biomesight (Next-Gen Sequencing): Excellent for a granular look at the entire ecosystem—mapping out your probiotic strains, short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production, and the exact balance of your microbiome phyla.
The Uncovering: These tools allow you to measure Zonulin (the gatekeeper of gut permeability/leaky gut), secretory IgA (immune response), and elastase (pancreatic enzyme output). This is why water causes bloating—the barrier is compromised, and the wrong strains are fermenting everything.

Tool #2: Connecting the Dots with Bloodwork
This is where you bridge the gut to the rest of the body. When the medical system tells them their CBC is “fine,” you look at functional ranges to track inflammation and hormonal deregulation:
Inflammatory Markers: High-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) and Homocysteine. If the gut is leaky, LPS (lipopolysaccharides) enter the bloodstream, triggering systemic inflammation that drives migraines and joint pain.
The Thyroid & Nutrient Connection: Tracking Ferritin, Vitamin D, and B12. If the gut is compromised, malabsorption kicks in—leading directly to thinning hair and crushing fatigue.
Metabolic & Hormonal Markers: Fasting Insulin and HbA1c. Gut dysbiosis drives ink

Tool #3 Beyond the Surface: Decoding Your DNA
He

“If you are bloating from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed—even after just drinking water—hear me out: A probiotic will not fix this. Eating one meal a day will not fix this. Your gut isn’t lacking a generic supplement; it’s lacking a strategy.”

Morning-to-night bloating & nausea
The exhausting flip-flop between constipation and diarrhea
Migraines, stubborn acid reflux, and thinning hair
The Reality Check: These aren’t isolated issues. They are the downstream smoke of an upstream fire in your microbiome.

#1: Visualizing the Battlefield (GI-MAP vs. Biomesight)
You don’t guess; you look at the actual data.
The GI-MAP: This DNA-based stool test looks at the quantitative presence of specific microbes. It doesn’t just say “you have bacteria”; it measures pathogens, H. pylori, opportunistic overgrowths, and parasites.
Biomesight (Next-Gen Sequencing): Excellent for a granular look at the entire ecosystem—mapping out your probiotic strains, short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production, and the exact balance of your microbiome phyla.
These tools allow you to measure Zonulin (the gatekeeper of gut permeability/leaky gut), secretory IgA (immune response), and elastase (pancreatic enzyme output). This is why water causes bloating—the barrier is compromised, and the wrong strains are fermenting everything.

#2: Connecting the Dots with Bloodwork
This is where you bridge the gut to the rest of the body. When the medical system tells them their CBC is “fine,” you look at functional ranges to track inflammation and hormonal deregulation:
Inflammatory Markers: High-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) and Homocysteine. If the gut is leaky, LPS (lipopolysaccharides) enter the bloodstream, triggering systemic inflammation that drives migraines and joint pain.

The Thyroid & Nutrient Connection: Tracking Ferritin, Vitamin D, and B12. If the gut is compromised, malabsorption kicks in—leading directly to thinning hair and crushing fatigue.
Metabolic & Hormonal Markers: Fasting Insulin and HbA1c. Gut dysbiosis drives insulin resistance, which alters cortisol patterns and s*x hormones, leaving clients stuck in a chronic state of low energy.

The Strategy: Kill, Clear, and Rebalance

#3 Beyond the Surface: Decoding Your DNA
Headline: Your DNA Is Not a Diagnosis. It’s an Instruction Manual.
We don’t analyze genetics to tell you that you are “doomed” by your ancestry. We analyze your DNA to understand how your body handles inflammation, processes hormones, and responds to nutrients right now.

🧬Understanding your genetics (like the MTHFR gene and others) allows us to prevent future complications before they become chronic conditions. This is the ultimate preventative strategy.

A comprehensive protocol doesn’t mean taking 20 random pills; it’s a phased approach:

1. Remove & Kill: Utilizing targeted, biofilm-disrupting botanicals to break down the protective shields of opportunistic bacteria, H. pylori, or yeast without nuking the entire system.
2. Support & Clear: Actively supporting motility, liver detoxification, and bile flow so the body can actually flush out the die-off toxins (preventing nausea and symptom flare-ups).
3. Rebuild & Rebalance: Only after clearing the weeds do you plant the seeds—using specific prebiotic fibers and targeted probiotic strains based on their unique test results to repair the mucosal lining and tighten those gut junctions.

The conventional medical system is built for acute care. If you don’t have a disease state yet, you get sent home with an acid blocker or told it’s ‘just IBS.’

I don’t look at your body in isolated parts. As a functional health coach, my job is to connect the dots between your microbiome, your bloodwork, and your symptoms so we can stop managing your dysfunction and start restoring your health.”

If you want to claim your health back.. DM me and let’s set up a consultation to reclaim your life 🫶🏻