Jamie Myrold’s Journey Through Menopause, Keto Recovery, and Finally Just Eating
A real client. A real timeline. And a whole lot of brain untwisting.
“I just wanted to feel good in my body, no matter what shape that body takes.” — Jamie Myrold
This is the episode we’ve been wanting to share for a while now.
Jamie Myrold is a VP at Apple, a fierce advocate for women in leadership, and one of Sheena’s longest-standing clients. Their relationship goes back almost a decade — starting at Windy City CrossFit in Chicago, where Sheena introduced Jamie to barbell lifts and strength training. Years later, when menopause hit and Jamie’s body started doing things she couldn’t explain, her husband Eric reached out to Sheena. And a whole new chapter began.
What followed was a four-year journey that included menopause, keto recovery, reverse dieting, an autoimmune diagnosis, HRT, microdosed GLP-1s, an elimination diet, and — through all of it — the slow, patient work of rebuilding a relationship with food and her body.
Jamie’s story isn’t a before-and-after. It’s a before-and-during-and-still-going. And that’s exactly why it matters.
When Menopause Hit, Everything Changed
Jamie didn’t get the gradual lead-in that some women experience with perimenopause. She went straight into full menopause — and the changes came fast. Weight gain. Libido changes. Energy shifts. A body that suddenly felt unfamiliar.
This was before menopause awareness exploded on social media. There weren’t a million podcasts and Instagram accounts dedicated to the topic. Jamie was navigating it largely on her own, without a provider she trusted. She’d never been a “doctor person” — not because she didn’t care about her health, but because she’d been dismissed by providers one too many times.
Eventually, she found a naturopath in Santa Cruz who changed the game. Someone who listened. Someone who educated her on what each supplement was for and why. Someone who let Jamie make her own decisions about HRT. That partnership — built on trust, not pressure — became the first real piece of the puzzle.
The Keto Hangover
Before reconnecting with Sheena, Jamie and Eric had done keto for years. And yeah, it worked — at first. It always does.
But the long game told a different story. When Jamie started working with Sheena on nutrition, she was eating around 1,200 calories a day. Her macro mix was dominated by fat, her carb intake was almost nonexistent, and her metabolic capacity had taken a hit.
Sheena’s approach? Not restriction. Addition.
Instead of cutting more food, they added. More protein. More carbohydrates — introduced in literally 10-gram increments because Jamie’s brain needed time to unlearn everything keto had taught her. More color on the plate. More variety. More calories.
They spent an entire year building Jamie’s intake back up to 1,800 calories. No crash dieting. No dramatic overhaul. Just slow, steady restoration of what her body actually needed to function.
Jamie calls this period a “brain twist” — both freeing and disorienting at the same time. She had to stop weighing herself. She had to trust a process that looked nothing like what she’d been told would work. She had to sit with the discomfort of eating more when everything in her had been trained to eat less.
The Spreadsheet That Changed Everything
One of the secret weapons in Jamie’s journey? A wildly unsexy Google Sheet.
Sheena built a simple checkbox tracker — protein logged, steps taken, vegetables eaten, workouts completed, meditation done, days without alcohol. Jamie, a VP at one of the world’s most design-forward companies, took one look at Sheena’s basic-ass spreadsheet and ran with it.
Why? Because checking boxes works. It gamifies consistency. It celebrates the small wins — the days you showed up even when it was hard. And over four years, those boxes painted a picture that scale weight never could. When boxes went unchecked, Jamie could see it reflected in how she felt. When they were checked, the evidence was right there in black and white.
The spreadsheet evolved over time — adding new checkboxes as new habits came online. It became a living document of Jamie’s growth, not a rigid plan she was failing at.
The EOE Curveball
Right in the middle of dialing in her nutrition, Jamie was diagnosed with EOE — eosinophilic esophagitis, essentially an allergic inflammation of the esophagus. Certain foods would trigger an immediate reaction where food wouldn’t go down, wouldn’t come up, and Jamie would be stuck in a terrifying, panicky limbo.
The doctor wanted to put her on proton pump inhibitors — medication that, once you start, is notoriously hard to stop. Jamie said no. She opted for the dietary route instead: a full elimination diet that stripped her plate down to almost nothing.
This meant finding new protein sources, navigating histamine triggers, and reworking a nutrition plan that had just started clicking. It was paleo on steroids, as Sheena put it. But Jamie pushed through, identified her triggers, and slowly reintroduced foods until her list of options expanded again.
The unexpected win? Once Jamie started microdosing GLP-1s months later, her EOE symptoms disappeared completely. The low-dose medication appeared to address the underlying inflammation, and a condition that had disrupted her life simply… stopped.
The Last Piece of the Puzzle
By mid-2025, Jamie was doing everything right. Protein was on point. Strength training three to four days a week. 10,000 daily steps. Food logging streak stretching back years. Calories were dialed in. Habits were locked.
And still, the last few pounds wouldn’t move.
Sheena and Jamie arrived at the same idea independently: what about microdosing GLP-1s? Not the aggressive doses insurance companies push. The lowest possible amount — just enough to give Jamie’s metabolism the nudge it needed after years of keto, menopause, and metabolic adaptation.
With Dr. Saunders’ support and Sheena’s monitoring, Jamie started in August 2025. She hasn’t changed her dose since. The weight has come off slowly, steadily, sustainably — exactly the way it should.
Today, Jamie is at her goal weight of 125 pounds. She’s on the lowest possible dose of testosterone cream. She’s alcohol-free. Her hormones are balanced not just from HRT, but from eating the right amount of protein, the right amount of carbs, and training in a way that fits her actual life.
The Red Dress Moment
Jamie gives presentations on stages around the world. Before one particular event, she had her eye on a red dress — and wasn’t sure it would fit.
She sent Sheena a photo from backstage. The dress fit. Arm muscles visible. Confidence radiating. And the number on the scale? Didn’t matter. Because body composition had shifted. Muscle had replaced what used to be there. Jamie could weigh 134 and fit into something she couldn’t fit into at 128 — because the shape of her body had fundamentally changed.
That was the ultimate brain untwist: the scale is not the story.
What This Means for You
Jamie’s journey took four years. Four years of weekly check-ins, incremental adjustments, new practitioners, unexpected diagnoses, and a lot of patience.
It wasn’t linear. It wasn’t fast. It wasn’t glamorous.
But it was sustainable. It was hers. And it worked.
Here’s what Jamie’s story reinforces — and what we believe with every fiber of our coaching:
There is no one-size-fits-all. Jamie’s plan doesn’t have a name. She calls it “the just eat diet.” It doesn’t fit into a box because it was built for her, not borrowed from someone else.
Your body isn’t broken — it’s been misled. Years of keto, calorie restriction, and conflicting advice didn’t make Jamie weak. They made her metabolism cautious. Rebuilding took time, not punishment.
You need a team, not a guru. Jamie has a naturopath, a primary care physician, a therapist, a nutrition and fitness coach. No single person has all the answers. The magic is in the collaboration — and in finding providers who actually listen.
Trust the process — even when your brain is twisting. Eating more when you’ve been told to eat less is terrifying. Stepping off the scale is disorienting. But the evidence is in how you feel, how your clothes fit, how you show up in the world.
Progress is not a straight line. Jamie gained weight before she lost it. She was diagnosed with a new condition in the middle of her journey. She had to adjust, pivot, and stay the course — over and over again.
Done trying to force your body into someone else’s plan?
We work with women who are ready to stop starting over — and start building something that actually lasts. Nutrition and fitness coaching built around your body, your hormones, your real life.
👉Book a free consultation and let’s figure out what works for you.