By Michelle Pate, MA, MBA
I now drink ViSalus NEURO in the morning – it wakes 
me up better than coffee. It comes in raspberry and lemon flavors. I am one of those people who has a very hard time getting up in the morning. And I usually feel grouchy and somewhat depressed. I often feel like I have been drugged. There is just NO WAY! I remember not even being able to get out of bed to go to HAWAII… Now, that’s when you know something is wrong!
I am naturally one of those night owls whose cortisol levels rise in the evening instead of going down as they are supposed to. And my cortisol levels are super low in the morning when they should be high. So my system is completely backward in that way and its very hard to be a morning lark who simply jumps out of bed in the wee hours of the morning. Morning larks usually don’t understand why I can’t get up. I have been accused of being lazy more times than I can count. The morning lark doesn’t understand that while they were sleeping, I was doing all sorts of projects because that was when I was wide awake.
But I am literally falling asleep when I should be getting up, and my mind is going full speed when I should be going to bed. I have been like this my entire life. My mother (a morning lark) even said I would start to move around when she went to bed at night and keep her up really late. (I guess we had issues before I was even born!)
When I was a kid, I had a very hard time getting out of bed in the morning and was often late to school. I could not fall asleep at night, and often lay in my bed staring at the ceiling until very late. Sometimes I would sneak a flashlight and read an entire book before I fell asleep. When I was 15, I discovered COFFEE. I would get it from the ladies in the cafeteria every morning for 10 cents. They told me to not tell anyone, but I was fine with that because I could actually stay awake in my first period class.
When I worked a regular 9 to 5, I painfully pulled myself out of bed at 7, took a hot shower and drank two cups of coffee to get myself going. I drank coffee mid morning, diet coke at lunch, and coffee at 3pm. By the time I got home at 6pm, I was wide awake and bustling around the house, doing homework with my daughter, cooking dinner, and doing activities. I was wide awake at 1am and could not fall asleep. It wasn’t residual with the coffee, it was simply the way my body was wired.
Psychology Today Article: Why Night Owls are More Intelligent than Morning Larks
Cortisol levels have their natural pattern – and its really tough to change an inherent natural sleep cycles. I have even taken Wellbutrin to wake up in the morning – it increases the brain’s norepinephrine neurotransmitter activity, so you have more get up and go. But I felt ridiculous taking an antidepressant when I was not depressed. But it helped, so I did it. When you are paying 100 bucks per class for your own graduate education, you do what you can do to stay awake. But I instinctively knew that even though my brain was being artificially induced to stay focused, it was not a good thing. My instincts were correct several years later when my adrenal glands were shot because I never did get the proper sleep or nutrition that my body needed.
The mind is a powerful thing. It is the most evolved part of us, but it can fool us into not taking care of ourselves. And when it starts to wig out, we medicate it to keep it going. Some people actually NEED to do this because their system is so out of whack (I am NOT anti-pharmaceutical), but when we give it a pill and it needs nutrition and sleep… That is where we are going wrong.
I also tried several sleep meds to get to sleep at night, even prescription, but my doctor was hesitant because stuff like Ambien and Sonata can be addictive. So I found the one that worked the best for me was Nyquil. It makes me drowsy a half hour after taking it. Last year, I discovered that the ingredient that made me sleepy was Doxylamine Succinate, so I switched to Unisom. Everyone is different in this regard. Like I said, I hate having to take them, but I hate even more the feeling of sleep deprivation that extreme fatigue and all over body pain from not being able to sleep.
When my daughter was older, I compensated for my issue by working swing shift and going to school in the evenings. And it worked just great for me because evenings were my happy time. I made a lot of money planning parties and hosting events, and got two masters degrees. During this time, I really enjoyed the cool mornings between midnight and 4am. Everything was so quiet, and with the cosmic air being asleep, I could really focus on what I was doing. It was comforting. But I hated the fact that I couldn’t fall asleep until the sky started getting light, and couldn’t wake up until at least 2pm. But I felt like I was out of sync with the rest of the world. I actually DO love the morning time. I have tried for years to fix it, but its nearly impossible.
In my hunt to solve this issue, I started reading more about sleep cycles and why it is so important for our bodies to sleep at night. What I learned was our body’s organs repair themselves at certain times of night, and they can only do that if we are asleep! So if the liver repairs itself normally at midnight, and I am still awake, I am not getting rejuvenation of the liver. Since I am completely committed to staying healthy as I get older, this made me more determined to fix it. Being a holistic girl, I hated being on any kind of medication, but like I said – do what you have to do in order to function. You can always figure it out and try different things – but you have to function!
So I’ve been really committed to my ViSalus 90 day challenge. And I doubt I will even work out unless I completely feel like it. For me, this is about NUTRITION, HAVING ENERGY, and FEELING GOOD PHYSICALLY. I have had my fair share of fatigue issues, so I’m going to relax with it, let myself FEEL GOOD, and see what dreams may be fulfilled by this approach.
I drank the NEURO yesterday morning and set my stopwatch for when it would kick in. I felt completely awake 12 minutes later. And it lasted until my own body woke up later in the day. That’s pretty amazing. Coffee doesn’t even do that, and I get a jittery feeling.
I feel good and feel awake – I can focus and communicate. I’m not tired at all. Anywhere. Just this product alone is amazing. It’s even better than 5 hour energy. Its so good for the brain. I hear stories about Neuro helping people’s migraines and seizures go away. Of course, that is anecdotal evidence, but its still happening! There is a reason those things are happening to people. Consider that a lot of it is nutritional. If you get the proper nutrition (impossible with our current food supply), you will feel good. End of story.
Do you know how to tell if something is good for your system or not? Eat something and listen to your digestive system. So many of us do not do that. We eat crap and then take a Rolaids to make it digest. Or we take pain killers just so we don’t have to listen to our tummy grumble and complain about what is going through it. Or we take a Gas-X to eliminate the gas from products we should not be putting into our bodies.
I know this issue intimately. I have had to be on a very strict anti-inflammatory diet because my insides were all torn up over wheat gluten. It takes a while to heal after you stop eating the things that don’t like your body. A lot of people want to eliminate everything, add in vegetables and lean meats, and then beat themselves up because they can’t do it more than a few days. I say – just cut out the wheat and flour products! That is the biggest culprit in most of our diets! You can still have a very full life if you don’t eat gluten. Heck, I even eat pumpkin pie without the crust!
For several months I could only eat meats, vegetables, and olive oil. I was forced to, because my body would feel like it hit a bus if I didn’t. And it was very hard. But now I can eat a lot more things – and even more now that I have Body by Vi. You can bake with the shake mix. I am looking forward to making gluten free pancakes with strawberries on top. YUM.
This morning, I couldn’t decide between my morning coffee and a Vi Shake with blueberry juice. So I simply mixed in the shake mix wth my coffee. I didn’t know I could use it for creamer too! It was an amazingly sweet cup of creamy coffee. I’m still amazed.
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Michelle Pate is a wellness intuitive/coach who works with people’s mind, body and spirit. She graduated at the top of her class at John F. Kennedy University with a Masters in Holistic Counseling Psychology. She also has an MBA from University of Phoenix.
Michelle specializes in nutrition, holistic exercise and stress reduction to help you be healthy and happy in your life. To schedule an appointment – call Michelle’s office at 408 438 8153 or contact her through email at michellepate99 at yahoo dot com.
Michelle is also a promoter of the Body by Vi challenge and will give you unparalleled support and powerful encouragement for your weight loss, work out, and energetic needs.
By Michelle Pate, MA, MBA
I started Bikram Yoga to heal completely from a carjacking and attempted kidnapping two years prior. The attack damaged my body, especially my neck which I could not move fully for well over a year, and set my adrenaline in high gear at the slightest provokation. I experienced full out panic attacks where I thought I was going to die. I was easily startled and then would become sleepy after my adrenaline did it’s thing. It was a horrible way to live. I had to go on different sorts of medications just to function. That was a hard blow for a holistic, alternative care person such as myself. During this time, I also dealt with an impossible, but high chemistry relationship, a lackluster job at a medical office, all while going through an MBA program. By the time I graduated, I was ready to collapse. Just to survive what I was going through, I had to consciously sit up in the left side of my brain. I had ignored my body for two years. But I knew what I needed to do and got to work.
Just by eliminating the gluten, my abdomen got flat in a couple months. I didn’t lose weight while I did Bikram Yoga, but I did lose a few inches. Most importantly, I created lasting change in my body structure (bones, tendons and muscles) and all my organs. I will return to Bikram Yoga sometime soon, and right now my body is desiring proper nutrition and weight training.
