Dry Fasting, Late Stage Lyme, and Starving to Heal with Michelle Slater

Over 400,000 are diagnosed with Lyme every year. In 2011, literature professor Michelle Slater started experiencing symptoms, leading to the diagnosis of Late-Stage Lyme Disease. From there, she developed an autoimmune disorder and other symptoms that made it extremely difficult to perform everyday tasks to the point that she considered medically assisted suicide.

But Michelle isn’t just a dedicated educator–she is also a survivor. Despite the physical struggles from her disease, she kept firmly on the path of healthy living. She started researching different treatments and modalities, eventually finding a program in Siberia that would change things for the better.

She became symptom-free in 2017, regaining her work, her memory, and her life. Michelle developed a renewed passion for educating others on the science of the alternative treatment that healed her and for inspiring others through writing her story–a true example of being Beautifully Broken.

Tune in to this amazing episode with one of the most inspirational people I’ve met!

Episode Highlights

[00:00] Michelle Slater

[03:05] On Her Struggles With Lyme Disease and Its Symptoms

[05:31] The Methods Michelle Took to Resolve the Symptoms of Lyme

[07:20] On the Journey to Her Treatment in Siberia

[12:06] Dry Fasting

[17:04] Detailing the Dry Fasting Program in Siberia

[21:57] Why Dry Fasting Should be Done With Medical Supervision and Who to See 

[24:27] Reliving the Positivity of Youth

[26:22] Inflammation and the Power of Fasting and Lifestyle Changes

[32:42] On Losing Symptoms and Improving Health After Her Journey

[33:52] On Her Book: Starving to Heal in Siberia 

[35:55] On What It Means to be Beautifully Broken

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Freddie Kimmel and Michelle Slater (00:00.174)
Ladies and gentlemen, I get to do this work. I get to sit down with people like Michelle Slater, who takes us on a journey for being completely bedridden with neurological Lyme to the extreme in which she was examining medically assisted suicide. Now people like Michelle and the stories they offer on this podcast, they leave clues and I don't want to spoil it, but today she is symptom free. She takes no supplements or medications and she is 100 % recovered.

from late stage neurological Lyme. There are 400,000 people diagnosed a year with Lyme. So stories like these are beautiful resources. And again, they leave clues. So please listen, take this information as education. This is never medical advice. And it's important to use these powerful healing modalities with discernment, with a guide and with grace. It's always an invitation to the body to level up, to heal.

to shift and transform. I am so excited for you to hear Michelle and her message and her beautiful tale of being beautifully broken. Let's jump on in.

Welcome to the Beautifully Broken podcast. I'm your host, Freddie Kimmel, and on the show we explore the survivor's journey, practitioners making a difference, and the therapeutic treatments and transformational technology that allow the body to heal itself. Witness the inspiration we gain by navigating the human experience with grace, humility, and a healthy dose of mistakes, because part of being human is being beautifully broken.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (01:43.78)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Beautifully Broken Podcast. We have a very special guest with us this morning. We have Michelle Slater, who is a PhD. And she is a perfect example of somebody who has come through this lens of being beautifully broken. Michelle, welcome to the show. Thank you, Patty. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's an honor to have you here. I was saying, let me just be transparent. The podcasting world, it's...

It's wild trying to navigate who you want to get on the show and how you can get people on. And I've got this list of a hundred people that are like waiting to just get in. And I get requests all the time to be on the show. And nine times out of 10, I'll blow through the emails like, no, no, not at this time. It's not completely resonant. And I read your email from your personal experience and your story and your book that's coming out. And I was like, I want to have this conversation. This is so exciting. So the universe connected us.

Thank you. I'm really happy to share with you and I know that our stories resonate. So yeah, this chronic illness container, right? Exactly. The lime, the mold, the 15, 20 years of being on a loop of not being able to feel resonant and right. Michelle, can you just start us out? What was the time in your life that was really hard for you? Let's start there. So we had Lyme disease and I eventually developed an autoimmune disorder and I had mold.

exposure. So I had a whole variety of things that happened, but it really stemmed from the line. But you know, it's mysterious. I had all kinds of alarming symptoms around 2011 ish. And it really, it was a dark, dark period until 2017 when I had a complete recovery. But I would say that it was just it was mysterious symptoms. It was alarming. I was a professor at the time and it was interfering with my ability

to teach, to think, move my body and I was experiencing high levels of pain. So that was when it started and then it took a long time to reach a diagnosis of Lage Stage Neurological Lyme. And by that time, of course, it had wreaked havoc on my body. When you say Lyme disease, know, there's such a, I see this list going down from the ceiling all the way to the floor, because it's such a different felt experience for each human being. For you and your body,

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (04:07.928)
What would you say your major symptoms were from Lyme? So there were a variety of revolving symptoms. I had extreme pain in my joints, in my hands. I couldn't even like pick up my phone and send a text message or put my hands around a steering wheel. And I would have migraines. I've never had headaches before. And then I would have this just intense, just

clouds in my brain. couldn't think I couldn't finish a sentence. couldn't think of things. couldn't tell people what I wrote my dissertation on and it was a deep penetrating fatigue as well. And then you know as time went by I developed other symptoms that would come and go. had tachycardia. had tinnitus. had sinus issues insomnia night sweats just you know it came to the point that if I wanted to go downstairs to

get breakfast, I would have to slide down on my bum one step at a time. And I was so tired just getting to the bottom of the stairs. I was like, curl up on my floor and just stay there until I could make it to the kitchen. So it was a dark time. And how would you describe your experience again? You know, many people in this will say this vertical struggling with Lyme or undiagnosed chronic illness. They try many, many, many, many, many things. What were some of the things that you

attempted to try to resolve these symptoms? So I'm a very proactive person with my health. so I tried and I'm a trained researcher. So I found every mode of testing possible. And it's a long story about the Lyme diagnosis, because testing is, you know, it's a complicated thing that I, you know, I don't have to go into. But you know, I tried allopathic medicine, I tried the gold standard antibiotic treatment for Lyme once we had

a diagnosis, but I've always been a very healthy person. You know, I was a raw vegan for a long time. I've eaten organic. I've juice fasted since I was a child when no one juice fasted. So it was always organic vegetables, very plant based. I've been meditating and doing yoga, you know, since I was a teenager. So on top of trying the gold standard antibiotics, that was the first approach I would then, you know, use all of my alternative health treatments.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (06:31.288)
In addition to keep my immune system strong and when the antibiotics really didn't work and I was taking them at high doses, I tried a variety of supplements, vitamins, far infrared saunas, fasting, water fasting, juice fasting, rife machines, all kinds of things. Everything you could possibly imagine. I think I tried it. Yeah.

Yeah, it's wild the things we go to and it's frustrating, but something in your journey, I think magically, I like to think is all these failed attempts that they're not failures, that they're diamonds or they're little, they're just like tokens leading us into the forest, into maybe a path of light. So you find yourself, and I just have to read the title of your book because it's amazing. You have a book coming out, Starving to Heal in Siberia. Michelle.

How did you find yourself in Siberia? And let's talk about how this relates to Lyme. Yes, buddy. That's very interesting question, indeed. So I found myself in Siberia because I had, as I said, I had exhausted all of my resources and I was on the verge of committing assisted suicide because I thought I cannot live in this body anymore. And I cannot live here. I cannot inhabit this place. And I can't show up in the world with my light. I have no light to share with anyone.

And, I couldn't teach, I couldn't ski, couldn't run marathons, I could no longer do yoga anymore. I couldn't even bring light to my loved ones. So I thought I'm at my end. So I said, if I'm really at my end, let me see if there are any final, final, final options. And just one day I was lying in bed and I will obviously never forget it. And at that time I had Candida as well as a side effect of the antibiotics. And

I wasn't even looking for Lyme searches. I was looking at Candida cures and I found this magical phrase and it said that dry fasting, according to Siberian doctor Sergei Filonov, that dry fasting incinerates diseased cells in the body. And I was so struck.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (08:47.5)
It sounded so magical. you know, I was aware of the process of, know, autophagy or self-eating. And I thought, well, yes, we are designed in our DNA to go through this process of autophagy and wild animals do it when they're ill. And so I just furiously tried to find him and it was difficult to find him, but I did. And it was a very, very

convoluted process to getting to Siberia, but he agreed to take me on as a patient and so with the help of my husband, I was able to go, he hauled my body to Siberia and I live in this place that is the antithesis of what one might imagine, Freddy, no gulags, no cold tundra. It looked, it was this lush, mountainous landscape with

beautiful flowing rivers, color of turquoise because they are fed by the glaciers. And the doctor was warm and welcoming and I felt really nurtured and I just put all of my faith into him because he was my last ditch effort. I need to celebrate the role of the caregiver for a second because I'm imagining you in the United States and then how are you getting to Siberia only by the love of your partner? Because you said the word Hull.

I understand the state that you're describing to me in that late stage neurological line where you can't even barely get down the stairs, let alone go to Siberia. Wow. Let's just send some love to your partner from this interview and everybody that's listening right now. just want to celebrate him. That's absolutely incredible. Yeah, it did help that he is Russian. So he spoke Russian and he was able to contact my doctor.

you know, find the ways for me to get there. But it is true that the caregiver is taxed in these situations. And I do have appreciation for all those out there who are helping people who have autoimmune disorders and chronic fatigue and all these mystery illnesses. Yeah.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (11:00.618)
Yeah, the universe really laid it out for you. They're like, well, let's give her a Russian husband and let's make sure he can communicate with this guide who's going to be able to help her heal. So you're there. You're in Siberia. Continue. How did things start and what was the plan? So my doctor always says in Russian, which I learned means we will see. So I'm very organized and very what is the plan? And just like you, what's the plan? And he was like,

We will see. So, you know, he wanted me to settle in and so I didn't start, you know, the treatment immediately. So he gave me time to settle in and then, you know, it is dry fasting. I had a significant amount of preparation to do before he would take me. So to get there, I wasn't just going to land and dry fast. So I had to do, I did what I did that day lying in bed when I found him.

I was like, I'm going to dry fast right now. And please, dear listeners, do not do that. Do not do what I did. Let's define dry fasting because I mentioned it for sure on the show before, but just for anybody who hears this new, go ahead and define dry fasting for us. is very common. Yes. So dry fasting is classic dry fasting. According to the medical definition, the way that Dr. Filono practices it is to refrain from not only eating,

drinking, so no water, no food, and no even lotions, creams, no brushing the teeth, no rinsing the mouth. That is absolutely out of the question for long periods of time. And so what I did as my prep beforehand was it's about it's like training for a marathon, right? You're not going to do the marathon. So I did one day, I did three days.

I followed his protocol and it was this very elegant solution, Freddie, because for years I've been so concentrated on what I could put into my body to kill off this disease. There was this elegant solution of what can I take out of my body? And so he was like, I want you to go off all medications. I want you to go off all supplements, no caffeine, no alcohol, which obviously was not an issue.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (13:24.745)
at that time when you're not well, you're like, you know, I don't think I'm going to, you know, partake in that. So it was just reducing my diet to very simple plant days, which is what I was on anyway. And then when I got there, I was ready to do the longer fasts. So the first one that I did within a few days of my arrival, he started me and I did seven days of dry fasting. So that was my first one.

And then he had a rest period to you have to rehabilitate after the dry fast. And so as he says, the exit is the most important part of the fast, even more than the fast itself. It has to be done with great precision and care. And you have to then really treat your body, you know, like this sacred place where you're really taking care of it. And then I did a nine day dry fast.

for nine days with no food, no water, no showers, no rinsing the mouth, no washing my hands. And he wanted me to sleep outside so that I could, you know, at least be exposed to the moisture in the air. So I slept outside the entire time. I put my sleeping bag out under the stars and it was this very safe environment in the mountains and surrounded by nature. I undertook his treatments. They do a lot of medical massages and cupping.

very, very vigorous liver massages to facilitate the process. And then he, and the only, my only job every day was that he said that walking as much as you can really aids as the body is breaking down these disease cells and, you know, decomposing, you know, and ridding itself of debris. So that to me, Freddie was unfathomable because I had been bedridden.

And so when he said, you are also going to be walking 10 kilometers a day, I was like, he is not, he has no idea what state I've been in. And what I found to be very interesting is that the more I dry fasted, the better I felt. And I started, my energy started increasing and I had the capacity to take those walks slowly on a flat dirt road, pretty flat, but I was able to do the walk and.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (15:47.31)
complete all of his treatments. And when I came out of that nine day dry fast and you break it with hot water, and then I would just have hot water for a couple of days, followed by very, very simple watermelon, vegetable salad, that sort of thing. I felt, Freddie, like I had reincarnated, but back into my 17-year-old body, I just felt like I was...

shining and bouncing and free. And my memory came back, my ability to run. And I've written four books in the five years now since I've regained my health. So everything came back and he did want me to do another long dry fast. And in my case, but he thinks that everyone throughout the world, because of this toxic world that we live in should dry fast regularly. And he does it himself. So it's something that I maintain.

do dry fast periodically, not because I have any symptoms that have ever come back. have not. I'm grateful for that every single morning that I go running and then my gratitude does not wear off. Michelle, this is so good. There's so many things I want to unpack here. So when you were in Siberia, how many dry fast did you do and how long were you there? So I was there for two months the first time I have gone back several

times, not because I was ill, but just to continue the process of I discovered for me this is the ultimate way to maintain the immune system. so I was there at the initial time, the initial time that led to my complete recovery for two months. And during that time, I did the seven day dry fast and then I did one nine day dry fast. And he took extra care for the exits.

with me. And there are other treatments that they can do once the exits are taking place. So when I came home, though, he wanted me to do another nine day dry fast on my own a month later in a place where there was nature. So I was able to do that in my home state of Massachusetts in the Berkshires. And I found that since we had trained my body and my body had become so adept at it and acclimated and it

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (18:14.094)
the body knows what to do and it becomes its own doctor. And so it's just for me become a very contemplative. I feel very peaceful. I meditate a lot while I'm dry fasting. There is nothing about it that's uncomfortable. So when I do go into that and just I'm in my peaceful dry fasting state, so no, there's no discomfort. It's not like going to the Gulag. It's not that.

That's incredible. And it's nice to have a frame of reference just to understand scope. You know, the seven day, the three day initial fast, the nine day, and then another nine day at home, you're doing things to help. And you referenced a way to assist the body in helping things exit. I'm assuming that's like everything that your body is taking care of from that process of autophagy, where the immune system is going in and working with all these, we'll call them unfriendly.

bacteria, species and viruses that the body doesn't want. So it sounds quite complete. Was fast number one, were you on board? Was it easy for you to do or were I can only imagine the mental chatter because I fast, but I'll do water. I'll do some elementy. If anybody's had elementy, like, it feels like candy, but it's just it's minerals in a drink. But to have nothing on the palate, I can only imagine the mental emotional chatter must be intense at first.

So because I have fasted like you juice fasting, which I no longer, I think of just fasting is not fasting or water fasting. I would say that the first one I did at home that day, it was just 24 hours. Yeah. I've certainly felt not worse than I did with the symptoms that I had. I said, well, nothing can be worse than that. So, you know, my mouth was very dry. I did feel weak on the first one.

the first 24 hour. And then when he wanted me to do three days at home before I went to Siberia, I would say that that one was the hardest. The initial ones can be the hardest and even the first few days. and I was, you know, I had taken so many medications. So my liver was, you know, just processing all of this. There was a lot for my body to deal with on those first dry fasts. But the first three days I was so

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (20:37.405)
I really did think a lot about water. wanted to look at water, running water, know, streams, waterfalls looked very appealing to me. They always do while you're dry fasting, but I was so determined to overcome my illness. I was so motivated to heal and I meditated a lot. So that really helped me. But I would say that when I got to the seventh day in Siberia,

I trusted my doctor. could tell that he was a person worthy of my trust and that he was, you he was a serious MD and he practiced this for 30 years with patients. He has healed a variety of diseases. And so my body was then already becoming used to the dry fasting. And I would say that the seven day my mouth was dry. You have no hunger because your mouth is dry. So you don't really feel like eating when your mouth is dry.

Most people, the struggle is thirst, but not hunger. I had a very peaceful feeling and I was just surrendering and I was just hopeful. Yeah. Only because, I just want to throw this out there and I'm like, programmed for compliance these days only because I want people to be, I realize how unique your body is and your story. And I would always want to frame this, like you said in the beginning.

This is not something to go just jump into tomorrow. so who is the guide in the, is there a guide in the United States? Is there a center that's understanding the education and the awareness around a dry fast for we're going to call it this medical supervision window here in the States. Yes. I'm so glad that you brought that up, Freddie, because on every interview that I do, I stay emphatically, do not do this at home. Do not do it without medical supervision.

And those are, asked the right question. So thank you. There is no one who is medically trained to supervise dry fast in the United States. In fact, there are some people who have social media accounts who are doing extended dry fast that are very dangerous. And I really would counsel people against thinking that a dry fast longer than say 11 days is a safe medical way to proceed. And it's very alarming to see that.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (23:00.319)
I would say that Dr. Filonov, he sees patients on Zoom now. I was his first American patient. And since I went, I, you know, and I started writing a blog, many people have gone to him. And so now he has a whole system, which he never had before. So he takes patients over Zoom. He has a translator. He is very accessible. You know, he really cares about each one of his patients. And he does run fasting retreats no longer in Russia, but in...

Montenegro, Turkey, various places where people can get in with visa situations, current state of the world. So, you know, I do really recommend reaching out to him. know he has a website, which I think is female.net. And so with supervision, one can drive fast, very safely. But if you do it, you just have to do it right.

And then in my book that is coming out on Tuesday, Starving to Heal in Siberia, I worked closely with my doctor as I was writing it. And I take the reader through the entire protocol, the prep for dry fasting, how long you can safely dry fast at home, how to exit, what exit foods to eat. I have an appendix with recipes and with meditations to help facilitate the process. So.

I would say that my book is very medically sound because I've worked closely with the doctor as I was writing it. Beautiful. One thing you said that really stuck out for me, you said after your nine day fast, you were reborn into a 17 year old body. And I love that you chose that age because I have a visualization that I do. There's this memory I have of being in a theater in high school and just kind of running around with reckless abandon.

no fear for pain or joint pain. And so the 17 year old version of me is like, I can see that glowing light and that image. think it's something very powerful that I'll hold in my meditations when I'm working through a little bit of adversity or a little bit of joint pain that day. That's a great visual. Do you find yourself with these guided meditations and the space that you're holding in your consciousness? Do you try to go back and visit that younger version of yourself ever?

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (25:16.26)
So I feel that I embody that younger version of myself. So I feel like that light that I felt then, that purity, that light that just, you know, yeah, desire to bring light to the world, to now to pay it forward. I mean, my mission with this is to pay it forward. So I do visualize a lot with light, you know, bringing light into my space, into my body. And so I feel that I sort of embody that younger version of

myself at the same time that I'm, I am really in a 47 year old body. you know, I run every day. I've been rock climbing in the Swiss and French Alps all summer. So I'm just like celebrating that my body's working very well for me. And so I, I kind of still feel like I'm embodying that. Yeah, beautiful. Well, you look amazing for your age. Incredible.

And I find that I do find there is an anti aging benefit to going without food. I was just listening to a podcast the other day and they were two data scientists out of the University of Arizona. And I can't remember their names, but they were looking at the fact that you're more likely to die of obesity in the United States than you are of starvation. And that I almost pulled over in the car. You're more likely to die of obesity in the United States.

And of course, we could look at obesity as just a product of metabolic dysfunction. But you're this shining example in this doctor's work of where we've taken what the body's natural mechanisms are and we've just realigned those to self-correct. And I think for me, that's the most exciting message about hearing you tell your story and your personal experience. would like to add to that. I'm so glad that you brought that up, too, because it's inflammation and obesity.

as we know are so related and in inflammation also in the body is what leads to disease. And so the dry fasting just eliminates inflammation. So that is really interesting. And then in terms of the adipose tissue, so a person could dry fast for two or three days just on one kilo of fat alone in the body.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (27:30.368)
I mean, there are reserves. It just has to be done wisely. But it is a way to, think that that is absolutely right. The problem is excess adipose tissue rather than caloric restriction, which, know, and Mark Mattson's work on that has been really interesting too on caloric restriction and anti-aging. So it is a fascinating field and the potential to make medical breakthroughs is vast.

Yeah, and I think what's also exciting here, and I just I would implore anybody hearing this just to remember it's you don't have to do one right. You can stack some of these things that we talk about. You know, there is the idea of eating very clean, removing all food from a box, right? There's this trend now where I'm like I'm watching everything that was junk food from the 80s be made into a keto friendly Oreo cookie bar with cassava flour and God bless them and.

go wear a blood glucose monitor and watch how your blood glucose spikes from these holistic snacks. You know, it's not a better version, but we have this idea of stacking these things on. Like, you know, I have to offer this and I just, I've thought about this before in the middle of my, and I'll keep it short for the audience. So like, Freddie always talks about his cancer in the middle of me going through cancer, which was pre bookended by like six years of Lyme in the middle of a huge surgery. was called a retroperitoneal lymph node section.

RPLND. And that's where they go and take all your organs out and they put them back. After that surgery, I went through basically like a medically induced fast for almost 12 days because the organs weren't turning back on. I was just, I couldn't do it. There was nothing happening. You know, there was no ice chips. It was all tubes in my body. But I had this period of like five months where

all the inflammation of my body from Lyme, because I was on Plaquenil leading up to that, was gone. I was like, am I? Because I was asking my doctor, am I healed? I can open my hands. They're like, we're not worried about that right now. We're looking at these necrotic tumors and seeing if your cancer is gone. Every little bit of inflammation was gone for four and a half months. I could eat anything. I had no food sensitivities, all of it. Then it hit me like a brick wall.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (29:47.107)
like it just and I remember it was probably like a one day shift from going to like it's good and then it was like that again and I never connected the dots to that 12 days in the hospital but that had to be it right? I think that the power of that so that's how if we manipulate the fast with the exits and with the pulse dry fasting and you know then in a true dry fast without even any liquids then that could have been extended

and had tremendous healing power. What a remarkable journey you have been through. it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. I went to the doctor for the first time in like three years yesterday, a real, I sat down with the nurse practitioner because like you, I've found enough stuff to work from a lifestyle perspective. That's made me pretty healthy and robust and you know, all the good things. There's always room for improvement, but it was just this great reminder of like this

You know, there'll be times when you do want to sit down with somebody outside your little internal circle. You want someone to mirror back. Is it all good? Is it bad? So it was great to sit down with a doctor and have a professional opinion. And it was really empowering to say, my God, I went three years. I stopped all my medications, right? Thyroid was in range. It could be optimized, right? There's little things that could be optimized, but it was all decent. And so that's my body did that.

Right. I didn't do that. My body, I put enough lifestyle things in place for my body to be able to heal. But your story is just a, it's such a powerful reminder. I know the power of fasting. I know the power of going without and it's, we forget, especially in this country. do. We absolutely do. And I will add that there is this, this drive to put into the body, put into the body. And I wanted to add that since I did my initial dry fast,

in Siberia and I had taken thousands of supplements. I came home and I filled this massive wine cooler with all of my supplements and medications because they said don't take anything anymore. So it was full of what I've been taking every day and I still kind of have it just to look at it. It's like a piece of art, it's an installation and I haven't taken anything since then and you know and I don't get sick.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (32:14.083)
I did have COVID in Switzerland this spring skiing. I didn't even know that I had it. I was just trying to get on the plane back to the States and took a test and it tested positive, but I was like romping around outside because my immune system is so strong now that, you know, it's, I'm able to just ward things off and then I maintain it, but I don't have anything in my body, but you know, my food.

It's incredible. another thing I just want to reflect on and just get a second version is you said you have absolutely no symptoms and you had neurological Lyme, you had systemic inflammation, you could barely walk down the stairs and you're still not taking any supplements. I still do not take anything. That's wild. I do not have any symptoms. I have the full return of my memory of my body. In fact, I have far more energy than I had had, you know.

and even right before my illness. So I would say that it catapulted me into this state of just really radiant health. I would never have reached that without having gone through what I went through. So yeah, you've been gifted with this and obviously you've been gifted with the beautiful talent of writing and putting your story down in black and white and sharing with others. So

Clearly you are like a soul that picked this journey and I'm going to go through this suffering and I'm going to bring it to other people. At least that's the way I'm looking at it right now is you're the shining living example of being through on the other side. So the book, Starving to Heal in Siberia, which will be out by the time we release this podcast, what do you want people to take from it? What do you want people to do with your book? I would like people to read the book who are suffering.

you know, who perhaps have the same frustration or despair and feel that they've been told to get used to a new normal and it feels very abnormal. So I would like to provide hope through my journey and the protocol that I share. But it's even, it's also for healthy people or people who are interested in these scientific breakthroughs or what is ancient knowledge that we're now rediscovering about the bodies.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (34:33.383)
capacity to heal and maintain itself. So because I think that we can all benefit from an upgrade in our immune systems and our everyday health. And so I just want to share it for others. I'm a very private person. I never intended to write, you know, a memoir slash self help book, but I had to do it because I feel so compelled if anybody could benefit from this story.

And the people who have read my blog already and gone to Siberia and gone through this process, I have people who just keep telling me how grateful they are. And I watch them get their lives back. And that's the greatest gift for me. So I just want to pay it forward. Incredible. I celebrate everything you're doing. I celebrate your story. It's a true masterpiece of being beautifully broken, you putting the pieces back together. And with that, Michelle, what does it mean to you to be beautifully broken?

I thought about that a lot, Freddie. I love your title. So for me, I was always this very driven person. I was a high functioning person and the Lyme disease, you know, it threw me down so that I was broken. And then I thought that I would, you know, never be able to rise back up again. But it taught me, you know, I was always

goal oriented, will get my PhD and then I will get a 10 year track job and then we'll write an academic book. So I always had to like, think my self worth was very much associated with my high productivity levels. And so when I was, you know, lying flat in bed with lime, I realized I must just love myself as I am one niche. So I came up with this slogan, my nickname is Mish and I would say one niche lovable as is, you know, like a used car that's like dented.

And it's like one Volvo for sale as is. So it's like one niche, lovable as is. So it really taught me to accept myself like the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi Sabi with my dented bits and my body that just didn't work properly and had pain. it just, I think that coming out of the line, I still have that with me. So I'm functioning again, I'm writing again, but I don't have that.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (36:55.047)
Driven goal oriented, my self love is wrapped up in whether I have a PhD or I have the tenure track job. I still feel one niche lovable as is post-lime. And for me, that's one of the greatest gifts that lime gave me is to come to that epiphany. Beautiful. Well, Michelle, we'll link your blog and we'll link the book that people can pick up on Amazon and the show notes.

And it was just an honor having you here. And I'm so reinvigorated about this topic. So I'm going to get your book and I'm going to go start reading. yeah, wonderful, wonderful having you here. I've really enjoyed speaking with you. And I know that we share this like minded approach. So thank you for having me and for sharing my story. Yes, of course. Thank you for being a guest on the beautifully broken podcast. Namaste.

Freddie Kimmel and  Michelle Slater (37:55.816)
Team, thank you for creating a wave of momentum that is driving season five of the beautifully broken podcast. My heart thanks you for tuning in. And if you enjoy today's show, head over to Apple podcasts and now Spotify, Spotify is new and you can leave a review five stars if you loved it. And before you go, I have something really important I need to offer. There are two ways we can build this relationship. The first,

is to join my membership program at buymeacoffee.com forward slash freddy set go. You get early access to all the podcasts, bonus episodes, discounted consults, and free webinars covering all the wellness technologies. The second is to support beautifullybroken.world. That's right, I have a brand new website and new store, beautifullybroken.world. Listed on here are all the wellness tools, supplements,

educational courses and products that I absolutely love. Most of them offer significant discounts by clicking the link or using the code. Please know that they don't cost you anything extra. And at the same time, they do support the podcast through affiliations. What? What's that? I just got a message from my lawyers, my internet team of lawyers. They wanted me to tell you that the information on this podcast is for educational purposes only. By listening

You agree not to use the information found here as medical advice. Do you agree? Yes, you agree to treat any medical condition in yourself or others. Always consult your own physician for any medical issues that you may be having. Finally, our closing. The world is changing. We need you at your very best. So always take the steps to be upgrading your energy, your mindset, and your heart. Remember, while life is pain, putting the fractured pieces back together is a beautiful process. I love ya. I'm your host, Freddie Kimmel.