Olivia Adriance: How To Make Healthy Food Fun, Pregnancy & Unsolicited Advice
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You cannot trust anything that's coming out of like my taste buds during pregnancy, which has been really interesting in developing a cookbook. This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast, and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn.

Olivia, welcome to the Pursuit of Wellness. It's amazing to be here. Thank you so much. I am a pal girl, which I actually don't even know if I've told you this. I had no idea. So it's fun to be, you know, on the other side of the camera. That's so sweet. And guys, just if you're not watching on camera, Olivia is literally about to give birth. Like we talked about doing this episode and you were like, what?

Yeah, unless I'm giving birth that day. And like, literally you were like, I might be cramping. So I can't believe you're here right now and you look amazing and congratulations. And we're all so happy for you. Thank you. Yes, for context, I'm due in two days. This is crazy that you're here right now. Kind of the most pregnant that you can be.

Which is insane because you literally have heels on and you look good. Like this is insane. Like you look amazing. I'm glad that we're recording in the morning because by the end of the day, I'm not sure if the heels were, yeah, it's like a downward spiral. What time are you in bed nowadays? Last night, 930. And I've been letting myself sleep in

until 7.30. Yep, as you should. And it's been amazing. Like the last week I just committed to you are not going to be an early riser. You need to like sleep as much as you can now before this baby comes out and like completely wrecks your schedule. Right.

Like rest up, honey. How much has your routine changed from before you were pregnant to now? I was definitely a lot more rigid in my habits and routines and everything was like super systematized. And I think one of the main takeaways from pregnancy is I'm building a lot more flexibility and less rigidity into my schedule. It's like, okay, I need to give myself some margin and

I can't run at the same pace that I was running. And I'm sure you can relate so well to this where you're like in the zone, in work mode for so many years that you start to operate like a machine and pregnancy does not...

really allow for that. It's like that masculine feminine vibe that everyone talks about. And some people don't like that word, but I feel like, yeah, I was in fight or flight for so long. And this like going through IVF and pregnancy completely shifted the way that I approach my life.

for the first time. And it's kind of nice because it really does force you to change your perspective on how you do things. Like such a release of control. Yes. And realizing that part of that release is actually very liberating. Yes. At first I held tightly to like,

Like, no, I want to maintain like the same level of putting out content like I was. And I want to be working out like I was before, eating like I was before and realizing that I could release some of that rigidity and nothing would really change. Yes. All that much like work kept going on at a normal pace. And I felt really good. I felt really strong.

It's just, it's helped me be more flexible in my mindset about everything. Yeah, which is a great learning lesson to bring into the rest of your life as well. And I can't wait to talk about like workouts and pregnancy nutrition.

Before we hop in, you have 1.6 million followers. You have an amazing food page. Honestly, I think your page is my favorite to follow. It really is because you post, you make food fun. And I feel like you focus on gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free most of the time, but the food is still so delicious and fun looking. What do you think?

where did your love of food begin? I'm so glad that that is what comes through on my page, first of all. Yeah. It's been very intentional for me to create a space where like,

Food is fun. It's joyful. It's healthy. And it happens to be gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free. It's not like, all right, we're starting with the rules and now we're trying to force it to be interesting. I really want food to just be an enjoyable part of everyday life. It started because very similar to your story, I have very acne prone skin and I battled it from the time that I was 10 years old until like my mid twenties when I was getting deep skin

cystic acne that I just like could not figure out how to fix. So I really made a lot of diet and lifestyle modifications. And one of those was switching to a gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free diet, really trying to limit inflammatory foods and, but still eat joyfully. Like I felt like a lot of the content that I was consuming at the time was, okay, if you're going to

eat quote unquote healthy, it has to look a certain way. Chicken and rice. Chicken and rice. Yep. Like you're boiling things, you're steaming things. Like that is the extent of the excitement that we're getting into. And I was like, that is not enough for me. So I started to share content around the time of like my mid twenties, um, started to get really into cooking, started sharing content and realize that there is this whole community of people who

wanted to eat this way and experience joy and like eat healthy. And maybe they were dealing with the same skin issues as me, or maybe it was just a desire to feel good or other health issues, but it started to reach so many people and it was really exciting. And the last four years of really devoting myself to like building a business in the food content space has been

and very exciting. I think that is how I found your page. I think it was because I was struggling so badly with acne and I tried some crazy diets. Like I've spoken about it on the podcast. Like if you even go back and look at my podcast videos from a year ago, my acne was so, so, so bad. And I went through phases of like full keto, only eating meat, like crazy shit, honestly. And now I'm like, what was I doing? Like none of it helped.

but it was like this control factor of like, if only I eat like this, then maybe my skin will get better. And it ended up being some gut bacteria that I needed to do antibiotics for, which was crazy. So none of the diet things actually ended up helping me.

But eating gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free made me feel better. And it definitely helped with the inflammation of my skin. So I feel like that is how I ended up on your page. And I'm sure how so many people find your recipes. But like when I think of your recipes, I think of the brownies, the nachos. Like it is really fun and colorful, which is so cool. And I love that because I went through a phase on my page of doing a lot of recipes, like maybe for like six months.

And that was the hardest content that I've ever had to produce. It would take me the entire day. I would have tripods here, tripods there. Like I'm running around making sure my angles are good. I ended up like hiring someone to help me. And I was like, I don't think I can keep doing this. Like what is the actual process of creating a new recipe and then shooting it? Someone actually recently asked me if they, like they were trying a bunch of different things with their content. And they were saying like some of my lifestyle stuff does well.

But like my random recipes that I'll share do like really well. Do you think I should dedicate more time to recipes? And I was like, well, I am biased because that's just my preferred creative art form. Like I love to cook. That's a unique differentiator for me.

But that is by far the hardest type of content that I do. And if I'm going to whip out every now and then I'll put like a day in the life or what I eat in a day or that type of content. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so easy. So much easier. It's so great. Yeah. Like a collage. I'm like, oh my.

I should really start incorporating more of this. So it is definitely a heavier lift, but it has just happened to be the thing that I feel like is what I can offer uniquely to my platform. But in terms of process, my process has gotten much more expansive as I feel like there's more pressure and more eyeballs on my page. Like in the beginning, it was easy to just

This is what I'm having for dinner tonight. Like, I'm just kind of throwing things together, pulling things out of my pantry. It's delicious. It's fun. But now I do feel this pressure that everything needs to be tested. Yeah. So it's like I'm going through the process, making the recipe multiple times. And then I have a recipe tester who tests the recipes. Before you film it. Before I film. To make sure it's actually good. Make sure it's good and, like, poke at it a little. Yeah. Ask me questions like, okay, if –

someone is going to substitute this type of flour, what's going to be the outcome? Like, you need to be specific about... Like, does it fall apart if you use almond flour? Exactly. And those were things that were very much a learn as I went because I am a home cook. I'm self-taught. I didn't go to culinary school. I didn't learn about like the chemistry of different flours. And I

It's been a really good learning process as people have given me feedback that like, I tried this and it was terrible. And I'm like, oh, well, what did you change about it? And they're like, roughly everything. Okay. Sounds like a you program. Yeah.

Okay, that's a little bit of user error here. But it's good for me because now when I have my blog posts written, I can be a lot more specific about like, okay, if you're going to make this substitution, it's going to be cakey or it's not going to have the same rise or whatever it is. So yeah, it's a lot of like me personally making the recipes, getting them tested and then...

shooting them and it's like a whole process. It just seems so detail oriented and then even the aesthetics of it. Like for Bloom when I used to like

do the props for the shoots. Like I used to be behind the camera and I would help have the lettuce and whatever fruits we were using. Food styling is really, really difficult. It's so hard. Yes. Because the food looks good for about two minutes. You're like, okay, it has to have the perfect sheen on it. And I have so much respect for food photographers. Yes. And for projects that I work on, like my eBooks and a future cookbook.

There is no way I am shooting those photos because it is an art form. It's so hard to make food look good for like a long period of time. Yeah, they're like spraying things and putting like nail varnish on fruits. Like there's all these tricks to make food look better. My last ebook shoot, we had like a basic matcha latte in it. Yeah. And...

I'm holding the matcha and the food stylist is like, don't accidentally drink it because we put Windex on the glass to make it like really, really vibrant and clean. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Please don't drink Windex. Do not drink Windex. That's my worst nightmare actually, drinking Windex. That day was the day that I found out that I was pregnant. Oh God. Like, I can't even imagine. I'm like sipping on Windex. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Oh God. But yeah, like that's what it takes because food looks good in real life. But when you put it on camera, you almost need to like zhuzh it up. And that has been one of the biggest learnings I feel like in my content creation, because I am not someone who is naturally driven by the aesthetic. I don't really have like a great eye for food styling. I

I always say like, if you come over to our house and you think it looks nice, it's because of Kyle. Kyle has much more of like an interior design eye. Does he? He does. He's like very much into the aesthetic. And I'm so grateful for that. I'm not either. Like these, I see these girls with like gorgeously curated feet. I mean, honestly, I would think that you are because your feet is so gorgeous, but that is not the way that I lean, honestly. No, I love having help in that regard. Yeah. Even like Kyle will help with,

like what I'm going to wear. He loves having a little bit of a say in like my outfit. It's really cute. Where is he from originally? Pennsylvania. Where in Pennsylvania? Montrose. Okay. It's this little town in Northeast Pennsylvania. I went to school in Philly, so I kind of know some of the areas. Okay. Where are you from originally? Eugene, Oregon. Okay. Yes. I read that. Did you grow up around horses? I grew up not really around horses, but like out in the country. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So some of our neighbors had horses, but it was like a lot of cows, chickens, sheep. Yeah. It was very cute and wholesome. It's gorgeous. We're actually going to go this summer after baby's born. With the baby. With the baby. Have her meet the family. Yeah.

and spend a little time away from the Texas heat, which will be nice. I was kind of like thinking about having a baby in this heat and I feel like it would be really tough because it's not like you're going outside at 3 p.m. It's insane. I'm a little bit worried about being like freshly postpartum in the 100 degree weather. Yeah.

Because yeah, I think you want to be taking them outside. You want them to get vitamin D and that light in their eyes in the morning. But like, my gosh, I'm going to be a hormonal mess and just like sweating. One thing I've been obsessed with for my skin for a very long time is red light therapy. And my personal favorite brand is Bon Charge. Their mission is clear to empower individuals to live more fulfilling lives through science-backed beauty and wellness products.

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That's HungryRoot.com slash POW, code POW to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. HungryRoot.com slash POW, code POW. Like how do you even begin to think about your life postpartum? Like I'm sure it's really difficult to even know what to expect. Like how are you kind of approaching that? I've been talking to a lot of women who I...

who have businesses. I'm trying to educate myself on like what they're doing, what they wish they would have done differently with their babies in the beginning. And overwhelmingly what it sounds like is it's really hard to go back to work. No matter like how late into it you phase back in, it's just really hard. And I do feel grateful that I work from home. Yeah. So like going back to work,

is going to look very different. That is such a privilege. It's been a balance of like,

baking in that flexibility. Like we talked about, like I'm not giving myself a super rigid, okay, after eight weeks or after three months, I'm like going to be fully back in the swing. Yeah. I've prepped enough content to give myself like a couple months of time off. Yeah. So I'm planning on at least two months of like stepping away. Amazing. Which will be really nice and just bonding and soaking in cuddles and

us learning each other and how to breastfeed and all of that stuff. All the things. All the things that you have to start learning. So I'm definitely looking forward to taking my first ever break from content in the

four years. I was thinking over the weekend, I haven't not posted like the most I've ever gone without posting is four days. Yeah. So what is that going to look like? Are you going to like delete social or just not go on? I think I'll still have it. I will still be posting like all of the content that I prepped. And then every week my sub stack is going to go out. So I will be like promoting my sub stack, but that's one of those things that like I have

assets that I have built so that I can put posts out on my story and I don't have to be like recording something live. You're prepped. I feel really prepped. And it's been a lot of work to like, my assistant Chelsea is here and she has been so helpful in like editing videos and making sure I have time to review them before. The editing is a lot.

It's a lot. It's honestly actually one of my favorite parts of everything. I love editing, but it's, I mean, even with recipes, especially, it's tough. Do you still edit your own videos? Well, it depends what it is. If it's a podcast clip, my producer Darby helps. But if it's like a vlog or something I'm making, I will edit it for sure. I do love the editing and that was hard for me to turn over because I felt like, yeah, well, this is where I'm like, part of my creativity comes in. Yeah. But in the first trimester...

When I was a horizontal person, it was hard for me to like keep my head up. And I was like sitting down in between filming different recipe clips. Like I was so tired. Yeah. I finally released that. I was like holding so tightly to it before I finally released it and had Chelsea start helping with editing. And she's like such a whiz at it. She's so good. I'm like, why did I hold onto this for so long? Wait, I, okay. I want to talk about the beginning of your pregnancy. So, um,

When did you first get pregnant? September. It was like a wedding weekend from one of our friends, which was really cute. Oh, that is cute. And were you guys trying? We were, yeah. We had decided like, okay, I think that we're ready to do this. Okay, tell us about the moment you found out you were pregnant and then I want to hear about your first trimester. I had just come from...

an ebook photo shoot. And I was like, gosh, I'm so tired. I don't, I, maybe it was just because being on camera all day, you're not, it's a lot. So you're tired. And I was kind of poo-pooing this idea that maybe I was pregnant and I was supposed to get my period that day.

And I was like, oh, maybe like the stress of building up to this photo shoot and launching this e-book. Like I'm just, you know, maybe I won't start today. I should have been clued in by the fact that my boobs were insanely sore, like way more than normal PMS symptoms. But I was having all of those normal PMS symptoms. I was like a little crampy. It was like unbearable.

A little in my soft girl era. Crying. A little crying. Yeah. I got home from the shoot and I told Kyle, oh, I was supposed to start my period today, but I didn't. And he was like, I think you should take a test just so we feel like, I don't know, just so we know for sure. I had these little flimsy paper Amazon tests. The pregnancy test?

Oh, I don't know. I forget what they're called. Are they pink? It was the packaging pink? Yes. I've used those. Okay. I think I've used every single test on the market. You're like, I'm a pro at these tests. I love that you know the brand name. Oh, I know all the brands. Yeah. I took that little flimsy guy, peed on it and...

And only like one line developed, which was negative. Yeah. And so I was like, okay, well now I have this flimsy little stick that's covered in pee. What do I do with it? So I just like set it in my sink and then popped in the shower. Yeah. Got out of the shower and a second small line had developed and

And it was like not enough for me to be fully convinced. Those tasks take a minute. Okay. I didn't, I didn't know that. So I was like, oh, negative, like moving on with my life. But I sent a photo to my sister because she, for context, she gave birth three months ago. So we're three months apart in our pregnancies. Oh my God, that's so special. It's really cute. So every trimester that she was just popping out of, I was just entering into. That's awesome to have someone to talk to. It was really nice. It's like such a good resource.

But I texted her and I was like, is this positive? And she goes, very positive. Oh my gosh. Very positive. So I ran into the laundry room where Kyle was and I was like, babe, babe.

It was positive. And he goes, take another. Like, so just we need to prove this. Like, you need to take another. So I took another one of like the flimsy little paper ones. It was also positive. And so I was like, okay, now it's time to bring out the big guns. The clear blue. It's time for the clear blue. It's time for the clear blue. Because you want to see that pregnant, like the word. I need to like make sure that this is solid.

Um, so I had one clear blue test that had been in my drawer for like five years from right after Kyle and I got married. I had a little, Oh, am I pregnant? And like bought a pack of two. Yeah. And so literally it was like so old. It was positive. I was like, Oh my gosh, this is insane. It was kind of a full body experience as I'm sure you know, it's like,

well what now yeah yeah this is crazy because you don't feel pregnant yet no you certainly don't look it you're just like the first thing for me too though like but I wasn't sure if it was hormones or not yes like I was like is it just from my IVF meds or like I didn't know but I do think that's like a telltale sign for a lot of people yeah I really should have been like more

in tune with like obviously this is because it's hard to believe it is very hard to believe that you dream about and then it happens and you're like how is this real and then you like keep taking tests oh to like prove to yourself that you're still pregnant i took one every day i think for three weeks i'm sure yeah because it's like and then you schedule like your first appointment yeah

And you really want to be pregnant at this appointment. So I was like, okay, I'm just going to keep taking tests. And how long did you keep it secret? Because I feel like you didn't talk about it publicly until like for a while, right? I think I was 22 weeks pregnant when I finally announced. Oh my God. So you really held that in. I held it in for a long time. And I...

I just, I was so used to having a platform that was like very focused on food and less focused on my lifestyle that I didn't really know how to talk about something this big and personal. And it like, it felt so sacred to me that I wanted to keep it

just close to my heart for a while. Kyle and I got married before I ever had a platform. So it was just like, I had never had any sort of big moment happen personally publicly. And I wasn't sure how I was going to react to that. And also how my audience would react to it because like they're very much here for recipes. And I think that was reflected in, you know, it was obviously like a moment when I finally did announce where I

There was a lot of support and it was so sweet. But I also lost 7,000 followers that day. No. So it's like clearly there's an audience that was very much... 7,000? It was a lot. And it's like odd that I even know that, but I was very curious how my audience was going to react. That is really interesting. Yeah. Because I guess...

Yeah, your page is very food focused. I feel like since being pregnant, maybe it's shifted a little bit. I definitely talk more in my stories about lifestyle. Yeah. I had always woven those elements in, but it was like what we're eating on date night. It was still like food adjacent. Yeah. And then now I'm much more open about talking about pregnancy and things that are definitely more personal. And the response has been...

incredible in stories i just think once things hit my feed people are a little bit resistant well also because you don't know like what algorithm it's landing on and if you hit men or some other group of people it could just go downhill so quick i can always tell when one of my videos isn't going to my followers and it's going to like the for you page yeah because then i'm like getting comments rogue crazy comments i'm like okay this has gone too far

It's like the cons of anything going viral. I stopped reading comments on viral videos so long ago because they were the most heinous. Yes. And like the least reflective of my audience or of myself. So I was like, you know what? Yeah. Viral videos, I don't look at them. They're almost like not meant for us to see. Yes. I feel. Like I've had a few podcast clips go viral and-

I mean, obviously people come on this show and have strong opinions about things and talk about certain topics that are kind of controversial. And that comment section is so scary that I just wouldn't even go there. Yeah. And I think that's like a healthy method, honestly. Yeah.

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getting unsolicited advice while pregnant is a crazy wild thing that I just didn't really anticipate. How has that been for you? I guess I expected it a little only because I have a friend who she was doing fashion content and then she got pregnant and she was like the best

meanest comments you will ever get are like mom shaming type comments and, and just a lot of unsolicited advice on what to do with yourself, with your body, with your baby, with what you're eating. And like everything becomes a moral decision suddenly when you're pregnant. And so the unsolicited advice has been interesting. Um, I was definitely very particular about

A couple months after I got pregnant, like I started to notice that everything was affecting me so much more. I was like really soft. I feel that way now. Oh my gosh. Everything was making me cry. Every like piece of advice that felt...

triggering was like really upsetting me. Yeah. So I've been very intentional about stepping away from my DMs, which has felt really strange because for the longest time I loved being like so connected with my audience and I still definitely pop in there pretty frequently, but I'm not like looking at that request folder as much. Yes. Like if someone has moved out of the request folder and like they've, you know, they're contributing to conversation in a positive way, then I'll engage with that.

But yeah, the request folder is like a little bit scary. So scary. And I think that's the best thing you can do to protect your peace. Especially like when your hormones are all over the place and you're emotional. Like I think I looked in my request folder this morning and I had a crazy message. Oh no. Crazy. Like it's always about my dogs. Oh. Which, yeah, they're the loves of my life. Like...

It's crazy. What are they even possibly saying about your dogs? So we have a bigger, older dog named Lulu, an angel. We've had her for 11 years and she's older and it's tough for her in the heat here. So we always have her go to our Greg's parents' house on Long Island because it's cool. She can swim. She grew up there. She loves it. And she also hates traveling and we travel a ton in the summer. And my small dog, Arnold, loves traveling. He'll go anywhere. But people think I'm like abandoning Lulu. Yeah.

Even though she like lives the best life. Yeah, she's obsessed with her. Having like the ideal summer. She's having, she's summering on in the Hamptons. Like she's fine. But I get these heinous DMs about how I'm horrible to my dogs and I shouldn't be a mom. Anyway. Oh my gosh, that's so sad. But I laugh at it. I'm like, this is a crazy message to send someone. But in real life, I feel like I've been so much more emotional lately and like a little bit irritable. Oh my gosh. I went through and this was around like

16, 17 weeks, I got pregnancy rage. And I can't imagine you with pregnancy rage. Everyone I tell, they're like, no, like you're so sweet. That sounds funny. I was like so easily irked by everything. And I remember one day I told Kyle,

You are not doing anything, but I am so mad at you. You are being so wonderful. Everything about you is making me angry right now. The way you're breathing, the way like you're walking when you put your hand on my back that one time. Like sometimes that gets me too. I'm like, don't touch me. Don't go near my hair. Other times I'm like, please touch me. Oh, I just want cuddles.

I feel like truly bad. At least you were honest about it. Like at least you were upfront, but it is a really crazy, like out of control feeling. Yes. I've noticed it come in and out. And like, it just feels also it's tough with your partner because I don't know if you felt this way, but I feel like everything about me is changing. Like the way I look, the way I feel, my life, the what I think about everything and Greg's life is exactly the same. Yeah. Yeah.

And it can be a little hard to not like let resentment like bloom a little bit. But I've tried to be very aware at least of like where I'm feeling annoyed that, you know, he's able to carry on his normal life and he doesn't have these like oppressive emotions sometimes. Yeah. Where I will – I'll be in church and I'll literally just –

start like sobbing yeah out of nowhere and I mean I guess it's emotional you know they're there like are you okay and then after one service we were leaving and I was still crying and he was like so where do you want to go for lunch and I'm like I'm not even hungry I can't believe that you're not sad you should be sad too and he's like oh

When I was going through IVF and we actually go to the same church and I would go to those services, I would be crying like low key by myself because it just, it is really moving sometimes. The waterworks. Were you there on Mother's Day? I don't think so. That was, it was like last month, but-

Oh, I knew that Mother's Day was going to be like very sobby for me. So it was it was very much a no makeup day. We're going in bare tissues. No makeup. Seriously. What kind of workouts have you done during your pregnancy? And then we'll talk about nutrition. So I had just taken up running right around the time when I got pregnant. That quickly fell off.

No more running. No more running. And it wasn't like doctor prescribed, like I don't want you running anymore. I just quite physically could not run. I was going to say, I see a lot of pregnant girls still running and I'm like, how? Because my boobs hurt too much. I was so fatigued that I could hardly go on our normal walks. So I'm like very impressed by pregnant women who continue to run. And I think that's, it's very empowering. It's very cool to watch. Yeah, it's awesome. Just wasn't my journey. So in the beginning I was...

Walking, doing Legree and doing strength training. So Legree I was doing like twice a week, strength training twice a week and then like daily walks. And I would say things started to change for me with Legree around 13 weeks. I started to feel like, oh, I'm not able to engage my abs in the same way, which was so much earlier than I expected to kind of lose that control. Yeah.

So 13 weeks, I was still going, but I started meeting with the instructor before every class. And like she was telling me all the modifications that I needed to make that day. It was funny because by the end of pregnancy, I was modifying the whole freaking class.

like you're like I was just laying there I'm like taking my own class like why am I even here it's a lot of abs that's what yeah scares me because I was doing former right and that's like so intense and it's so much abs I'm I don't even think I could do it right now I ended up stopping at third around like 33 34 weeks because I was so heavily modifying the ab series and

And it was like I was doing the same three moves. You know, they're moving everyone through like this series of nine moves. And I'm like, I'm just going to be over here doing like bear the whole time and like barely lifting my knees off of the platform. So around...

20 weeks, I had to stop walking and that was so hard on me because I love walks. It was like the way I was getting outside, the way I was clearing my head. It was really good for my mental health, but I developed SPD, symphysis pubis dysfunction. Oh, I haven't heard of that. That one's a fun one. What is that? Basically, the relaxin that's flooding your system makes your pelvic area very loose. So the muscles are

are under constant stress. And I was just so incredibly sore in that area. And when I describe the pain, it feels like

a strained hip flexor, but like across your whole pelvis. Wow. Okay. So that was really hard. And I started seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist and she was like, unfortunately walking is one of those exercises where it's like very passive shearing of that area. So it's kind of one of those things that pregnant women have to give up if they develop this. So it's like a little bit heartbreaking, but I was like, okay, how can I,

figure out another way to move that's going to be compatible with this change in my body. Mm-hmm.

So Kyle and I bought bikes and that was so fun. We started like biking around the neighborhood at night in exchange for walking. Just regular bikes? Just regular, like beach cruisers. You know, I've kind of been dying to go on a bike ride actually. Now that you say that. Well, you do have bikes. Yeah. We have bikes. We have like the Blue Jay e-bikes. Okay. We're going to Aspen for a month soon and I want a bike there. So you just reminded me that I should do that. Yeah, do it. And that didn't affect your pelvis area too much. No, that was like totally fine for me. Around...

26 weeks, I started doing Evlo, Shannon Ritchie's program. Yeah. So she has a prenatal specific part of her Evlo program. And so I started like really getting more into strength training and I love Evlo. I like-

overnight became an Evlo girl. Like, oh my gosh, this is the best thing. It made me feel really strong, but it was like movements that felt so safe for my current season, which I started to lose that feeling about LaGree. I was like, hmm,

I got to modify so much of this. Whereas Evlo, I wasn't modifying anything. It was specifically for like that week of pregnancy that I was in. I've been weight training too. It feels really good. It does. Like, cause you can focus on different parts of your body without like targeting this area too much. You feel strong, you feel empowered. I haven't tried Evlo, I should. It's awesome. But I was, yeah, I was thinking of looking into some kind of

prenatal program because I'm doing things that feel safe but sometimes I'm like chat GPT like is it okay if I do this is it okay if I do that you know as part of Shannon's program she is currently pregnant when she's doing it and she's recording the class in the week of you know gestation that she's teaching for and she's a doctor of physical therapy so there's so much information given about like how to safely do the exercises and I feel like I learned so much about

my body, not just my pregnant body, but how to operate in like a strength training setting through her program. And you come with so much more knowledge about strength training. I mean, I'm self-taught, so, you know, whatever. Whatever you're doing is clearly working. Thank you. Yeah. It was very empowering to just be like, oh, I'm like actually getting stronger. Yes. Throughout pregnancy, which is not really the rhetoric of working out during pregnancy. You kind of feel like,

all right, I'm just going to progressively lose muscle. I'm going to progressively feel like less strong, less empowered to move my body. But that hasn't been the case for me. Yeah. It kind of flips the narrative. Like I feel like when I first got pregnant, I was so nervous of doing something wrong because my IVF clinic was like, don't lift too heavy. You know, at first they're very conservative, obviously, because they want to make sure it worked. But now that I'm in this sort of like

normal era of being pregnant, I'm just noticing how good it makes me feel. And I'm not thinking about the same things anymore. Like previously, maybe I wanted my abs to show or, you know, what I wanted muscle to show. And now I think about being strong for childbirth. I think about having a kid and being strong. I've even heard science that you're

actual fetus will be stronger if you're stronger yes which is amazing like wild crazy so like the baby's kind of weight lifting too i don't know whatever but it is kind of amazing and i think it's cool that we're talking about it because it i was a little bit nervous to post that i was weight lifting because i was worried about the feedback because people are so sensitive about everything yes there's a lot of opinions about how you should be moving or not moving yes during pregnancy and i think

This has helped me tap into intuition. It's like a balance of being informed and intuitive about the movement. Like, okay, where can I go to get good, solid resources around how to safely move? And also like what feels good for me? Yes. How do I just like listen to, oh, you know what? This one, this doesn't feel good anymore. This feels awesome. Gotta listen to your body a hundred percent. Oh,

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Did you read Expecting Better? No, but I've heard you talk about it and I'm like, is it too late to read it? Well, you're about to get bread. I've got two days. So I was curious because it's a lot about food and it's about the statistics of, so obviously at the beginning, they're like, don't eat deli meat, don't eat sushi, whatever, all the things they say. And this author, Emily Oster, I think her name is, breaks down the statistics of these actual foods, deli meat,

And why doctors tell us not to eat them and the actual likelihood of getting sick or whatever it is. And that was really interesting to read because it kind of like busted a lot of the myths that I had in my head. And it's not that I like ran and ate sushi. I still haven't eaten sushi, even though I miss it a lot, actually. But it helps you understand.

make your own decisions about what you're eating and what you feel safe eating. Have you, like with your recipes and things like that, are people like, oh, you shouldn't be eating that? Or do people say things like that? There's this morning tonic that I am obsessed with from Alchemy Juice. Oh, yes. Yeah. I love Alchemy. And it has butterfly pea powder in it.

And someone was like, that can send you into labor. Like it made me have contractions. And I'm thinking, oh gosh, maybe I shouldn't be drinking this. But it's also like the smallest amount. It's literally for color. Just to make it blue.

Clearly, the baby's still in there. We're doing fine. We're doing fine. She's nice and snug. I will occasionally get comments like that. And these ones I find really helpful. I'm doing this postpartum series of this is what I'm prepping. This is what I'm filling my freezer with. Oh, love that. That's been really fun. There are certain things like parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme that you're not supposed to be introducing during breastfeeding.

And like I made this really delicious like Tuscan chicken bake and I put thyme in it. And so it is helpful every now and then when people are like, you know, maybe you don't actually want to be eating that in postpartum. And again, it's like such small. It's like a teaspoon of thyme. What is the reasoning behind that? It can reduce your milk supply. Got it. So it has there's something in those herbs that like

can possibly negatively if no i don't want to be like fear-mongering anyone like oh my gosh this is just the feedback that i'm getting in my pants i didn't know that yeah and is there certain things you can eat to increase milk supply i'm sure yes so i actually recently made some like lactation support cookies and this was another thing that people were like literally anything you post about pregnancy and i'm sure we'll find this about motherhood as well

People are like, that's ridiculous. Like, you're clearly anti-science or something. I don't know. I'm like, I just posted a lactation cookie. It's literally an excuse for me to eat cookies during postpartum. Yeah, I've heard of lactation cookies. They sell them at like Erewhon and whatever. Exactly. And it has like oats, flax, cookies.

coconut oil and brewer's yeast and all of those are supposed to help yeah like with milk production great and i'm like make it a cookie make it a cookie exactly like oh sounds delicious that is a really cool series though i love that idea like having food prepped and ready yeah because they say the best thing you could give a new mom is food that's ready to go i'm like kind of looking forward to that like definitely having some options available but recently i had a friend ask like

what's something that I can do for you in postpartum? And he has always been like a very generous gift giver. And one of the ideas from my assistant actually was, why don't you have like a chef prepare her a few days worth of meals?

So I actually reached out to Taylor, your friend. And I was like, I know that you were doing this last year. I don't know if that's still an offering of yours to do like mommy meals. Did she say yes? She did. Oh, I hope she's, by the way, she loves you. And she's a hundred percent listening to this episode right now. We love you, Taylor. I love her so much. She has been part of my cookbook recipe testing team. So cool. And I'm like, I am one of those people that falls in love with everyone that I work with. It's like,

I should probably be better. She was the best possible person for you to reach out to for that, by the way. I feel that. Because she's so thorough and she loves cooking and she like gives the best feedback, I feel like. Such good feedback. My writer and he's like helping edit some recipes too. Yeah.

He said that the two testers we have, he was like, this is the dream team of testers. Like I'm so impressed by them. He's been so, so impressed by Taylor. I'm like, oh, I love her so much. I was following along on the journey and seeing all the recipes she was making. So excited for your cookbook. Wait, when does the cookbook come out? Not until March of 27, which feels like a million years away. I know. Traditional publishing, like it is a long haul.

but I've heard, we talked about that a little bit because I've always wanted to write a book and I was kind of like asking you some questions. That's so interesting. Yeah. So not even next, you have to get through all of next year. All of next year, which I'm kind of grateful for because I will have by that point, like an almost two year old.

Wow. I know it's crazy. That's crazy to think about. So we'll have like maybe a little bit of terrible twos on the cookbook tour. Yeah. That's going to be a journey for you. And with pregnancy nutrition, was there anything that you were hyper fixated on throughout at the beginning? Cravings? Cravings are always like such a fun one to talk about. I feel like I had kind of boring cravings in the beginning. Yeah. I really craved food.

herb salads no way like so random oh my god your body probably wanted the nutrients it wanted herbs or something so bad so i there's this salad that i have on my blog it's like an herby quinoa salad i made that literally every day no way my poor assistant was probably so tired of eating this salad but i was like i'm like chelsea we're having the salad again tonight

but that's funny because i'm like kind of turned off by salads right now i am now too third trimester i don't want a vegetable it's very annoying yeah but like first trimester i wanted herb salads um berries and citrus healthy queen obsessed with oranges citrus is a big one for me oh my gosh lemon anything obsessed i was going through bags of oranges like i was so obsessed with oranges and

An orange juice. And one of my things I didn't want was like a flavored beverage, except for if it was orange juice. Yep. Like I wasn't drinking electrolytes anymore. I'm obsessed with orange juice too, actually. And I never used to drink it. It's got to be the vitamin C. Because I wasn't like a big juice drinker before. Yep.

Like maybe on vacation, Cabo would have like orange juice at brunch. You know what's funny about orange juice? I feel like it had really bad PR for a while and everyone's like, oh my God, it's full of sugar. Why are we drinking it? And now it's having a resurgence. Yes. Because people are mixing like creatine with their orange juice and it's like considered ancestral now. Oh, we love a rebrand. Orange juice got a new PR team and it's going great. I'm so happy for them. I know.

I know. They deserve better PR. We hopped on the bandwagon. We did. Also, apple juice sounds really good to me right now. Oh, yeah. Like in the fall, I wanted like crisp apple juice. Yeah, just like something tart is really, really good. Yeah. But other like food fixations. I read the book Real Food for Pregnancy. Oh, I should look at that. That was a good book. It very much...

just, um, solidified that the way that I was already eating was very healthy for pregnancy. So I didn't really feel like I had to change much. Um, you know, I've always been like very conscientious of protein intake and trying to eat variety and trying to have a lot of like micronutrients from herbs and vegetables and fruits. And so in a way it was like, Oh,

The things I have been doing are like good for building a little baby inside of you. So that was good. There were some specific things like I tried to incorporate...

some liver once a week into like a ground beef taco bowl or something like that so that you would mix it in the ground beef okay my husband's dying for me to do the liver thing and I used to swallow a chunk of frozen liver every day impressive disgusting no disgusting so disgusting and I can still picture the taste of it and I just I don't know how to go about it

I was buying Force of Nature Ancestral Blend. Yeah, that helps. And then mixing it with ground beef. Okay. So it's like, I don't really know how much liver I'm getting. It just still grosses me out though. Yeah. Just thinking about it, you know? Yeah. If I had come off of years of eating raw liver, then I would feel the same way. I had never gotten into that. Like Kyle got into it and I was like –

Babe, it's really hard for me to watch you choke this down. Like, it's clearly so unenjoyable. I really get upset when Greg does disgusting things because I'm like, you're really grossing me out and making my life really hard. Like, it's seriously disgusting. You're making me nauseous. He was eating sardines last night just out of a tin. And I was like, please, like, do something different with the sardines. Like, he was just eating them whole with the head, you know? I did that in, like, the second trimester. Suddenly, sardines sounded really good to me. Well, they're so good for you. How were you eating the sardines? Shannon Ritchie actually turned me on to...

They're like boneless, skinless sardines, which boneless was like a huge priority for me. Wait, what's the brand? I want to say it's like Crown Prince and they sell it at Costco. Okay. I think I know what you mean. I just ordered a ton of boneless whatever sardines from Europe or something. And I'm supposed to be eating those.

Well, I actually found them to be very palatable, especially if we're comparing it to liver. Okay. Yeah. Like so much better. I guess you could like mash it up and like make it. Yeah. And like kind of make it like a little tuna salad-esque vibe. Yeah.

I was just eating them straight out of the can because I was like, these are actually kind of good. Your body must have been like, I need a sardine. Yeah. You cannot trust anything that's coming out of like my taste buds during pregnancy, which has been really interesting in developing a cookbook because I'm like, okay, thank God I have like recipe testers because like this tastes really good to me. And people are like, cut down on the herbs. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

No worries. The sardines, they have such good omegas. In them, they're apparently amazing. Have you seen the videos of little babies in their high chairs just downing sardines? No, I'm inspired though. I want to give my baby sardines. I mean, someone's going to give me shit for this. I don't care. At some point when the baby can eat solids, I want to put

eating sardines because apparently it's really good for them. I know my friend Rachel has been doing like liver and I'm not sure if she's been doing sardines, but her kid eats so well. I'm like, Rachel, you're doing a great job. Like come feed my baby. I got to go check that out. Cause I actually love watching like baby nutrition. Oh, you're going to like, she has, I think a whole highlight on like what she's been feeding her baby ever since she introduced solids at six months. And I'm like, oh

Thank you for doing the Lord's work. It's so interesting. It's so interesting. Have you heard of Dr. Rhonda Patrick? Yes. Okay. Obsessed with her. She's amazing. I think she is a two-year-old, maybe a three-year-old now. And she's the one who inspired me to eat fish eggs. I've been eating fish eggs. That's right. When I can.

When I can. Some days I'm like, it's not the day. I can't. Yeah. But I think she feeds her child really well. I would love to like see that menu. Yeah. And I'm sure you're going. I mean, I can't wait to see what you feed your child. I'm really excited for that phase of...

Like starting to do solids and introduce little foods. So exciting to think about. Olivia, thank you so much for coming on the show. This was such a pleasure. I'm so glad I caught you before you gave birth and her water didn't break on the show. I know. Unfortunately, I thought we were going to have like a really fun moment. Like a really dramatic. Yeah. Like going into labor. For social. Yeah.

I was laying in bed last night. I was like, oh my God, what if Olivia gives birth on the show? Would be iconic. So honored to have you here. Can you tell everyone where they can find you online? Where can they get the eBooks, all the things, Substack? I am at Olivia.Adriance on Instagram and then just at Olivia Adriance everywhere else.

hardest to get an Instagram name. And then my Substack is called Extra Scoop. You can also just search Olivia Adrians on Substack. And it is surprisingly devoid of food content on Substack. I talk a lot about like the behind the scenes of building a content business and transitioning out of corporate America into working for myself. So a little bit of a different taste. Everything is linked in my bio on Instagram. That's where you can find me. I love that. And good luck. Thank you. Yes. So soon. Hopefully. Bye. Bye.

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