024: Why You are So Tired with Michelle Herzog

Introduction

You're listening to Biceps after Babies radio episode number 24

Hello and welcome to Biceps after Babies radio. A podcast for moms who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds lost or prs. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke, a registered nurse, personal trainer, online fitness coach, wife, and mom of four. Every week my guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise mindset, personal development, and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel and be strong and experience transformation from the inside out, you, my friend are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in. Now let's jump into today's episode.

Amber (00:48)

Hey, welcome back to another episode of Biceps after Babies radio. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke and today my guest is Michelle Herzog. Now Michelle is going to give you a little bit of the background on the story about how we met, but I want to give Michelle an introduction first before we dive into the episode. Now this episode is a little bit different than some of them that I've done. I tend to be a very science minded, a like pro medical. I'm a nurse. My husband's a doctor like pro medical approach when it comes to health. And Michelle kind of deviates a little bit from that, from like what I typically would consider like a mainstream approach to health in general. And so today we're going to talk about some stuff that may be not like central on your radar. Um, but I think that she has some really good things to say and some points to bring up that you can consider in your own health and fitness journey because we have to remember that health and fitness is not just about the way your body looks, it's not just about how much weight you put on the bar, but it's an overall being and like sense of being and who you are and how you're feeling and how you're able to show up for your family and for your friends and for yourself. And so today we take a little bit more of a holistic approach to that and kind of dive into that world a little bit. And I think Michelle does a really good job of kind of maybe dumbing this down for some of us who are not really well versed in like naturopathic or holistic medicine and makes it something that is very actionable and something that you will likely be able to take away something from this episode and be able to apply it and hopefully feel a change in your life as well. So let's jump into the episode with Michelle Herzog.

Amber: (04:21)

I would like to welcome Michelle Herzog to the podcast. Hey Michelle.

Michelle: (04:26)

Hi Amber. How are you? Thank you so much for having me. This is such an honor. I love you're podcast

Amber: (04:30)

I’m really excited, I’m really excited. Um, Michelle and I only recently got acquainted, um, but when I met her I was like, oh, I need to have you on the podcast. You got to come on the podcast. Yeah, she was totally stoked to do it. So do you kinda want to tell everybody how we met and, and how that went.

Michelle: (04:48)

Yeah, we met at a business conference called BBD live and it was transformative and fun. And I'm so glad I met you there, but actually you and I got paired with a few other people into a little mastermind group, which was awesome. So

Amber: (05:02)

yeah. And can I tell you like what my experience with you was? So in this, in this mastermind we each had, what was it like six minutes to like ask them the question and then like refutes, receive feedback about our business from the other people that were there. And I just remember like as I was talking, Michelle has this like intense stare. Like, like she was 100% with me as I was like talking and then like the whole time, the whole like six minutes, like she was like 100% present, available, like invested in like what I was saying and helping me. So anyway, that was my experience with, with Michelle.

Michelle: (05:42)

Thank you! That warms my heart that that's how I like to come across though the fact that it was that way. It's just awesome.

Amber: (05:48)

Yeah, I loved it. And she was, and she was very helpful with like the question she asked and stuff. So anyway, we met there and as soon as I found out she was Kinda in the fitness industry, I was like, girl, you got to come on the podcast. So I'm excited to have Michelle here. So, um, can you just go to give people a little bit of backstory on you. What do you do? Where are you, where are you from? What are you working on?

Michelle: (06:10)

Yes. So I'm a certified nutritional therapist and holistic health coach. I really help women transform their mind, their health and their body. And typically it happens in that order. So the mindset then comes to health and then comes the body after that. So yeah.

Amber: (06:27)

Yeah. I want to talk a little bit about your story because I know that, oh, when we connected, you were saying that you had your own biceps after baby's story. And so I kind of want you to share that with people. What is your biceps after baby story?

Michelle: (06:42)

I have like a real biceps after baby.It's the craziest thing! Um, well I had my, I have three kids, so they are 12 years old, 23 and 25. And I after my first two kids, it wasn't until my early thirties that I actually got into bodybuilding. And so, um, and I fell into it on an accident really because I was in, um, I was doing, I just finished my premed and I have got into veterinary medical school at the time and I was very stressed out with medical school and I started working out at the gym quite a bit. And so, um, I kind of fell into it that way where I was approached by someone who said, Hey, do you want to compete? And I was like compete, competing what? And that took me down the path of, of competitive body building in the figure division. And so I did that for a couple of years and then I got pregnant with my third who is now my 12 year old. I got pregnant with her after my first two shows and when I was preparing for to return back to stage the following year, because I had almost turned pro on stage and then I was going back to try and, and get my pro card and I got pregnant with her in that window. And it was very challenging because I had gained 50 pounds, um, when, um, borderline, um, gestational diabetes during that pregnancy. And I think it was mainly due to the huge shift that was going on cause I was biting and, and, and training really hard and then getting pregnant and not really knowing that I was pregnant at the time. Because, you know, sometimes when you train really hard, not that I'm advocating this and I would never advocate it nowadays, but 12 years ago, 13 years ago, 14 years ago, um, you know, sometimes you can mess up your um, cycles. And so I wasn't cycling regularly when I was super lean. Um, which kind of makes sense for a female, right? But when you get down to single digit body fat numbers, you don't tend to cycle grade for most women. Um, and so I got prayed with her and gained 50 pounds, like I said, struggled with that. Um, and then after I had her, I really had my Biceps after Babies real moment because, uh, eight months after having her and gaining the 50 pounds, I got back on a bodybuilding stage and took top five in New York. Um, so it was a complete turnaround from, you know, being super fit and being competitive and winning lots of shows and then having that middle section where it's like, oh my gosh, my health, um, pregnancy, can I do this kind of a thing? And then coming back and, and getting back to that level and then some after her. So yeah, I told when you, when I saw the name of your podcast, I was like, girl, yes!

Amber: (09:42)

Have you, do you know Fit to Fat to Fit? Do you know Drew Manning?

Michelle: (09:48)

I know. Yes, I do. I did.

Amber: (09:53)

You did your own Fit to Fat to Fit! That's amazing. That's so fun. So have you, did you just do the three shows? Like how did you compete after that?

Michelle: (10:03)

I competed on 2005 to 2008. Um, and so I went back and got, um, a national top two. Um, again, so I've, I've had, I don't know, on a four or five national top sides. Um, during that time frame. So yeah, that was fun. It was, I'm really glad I did. It taught me a lot. Um, and it also, you know, during that cause I, the trip, the, the evolution I had during that window of bodybuilding was really great because I started off really not knowing that much. Um, and kind of trusting in other trainers and stuff to kind of show me the way. Right. So was that old you know, old bro Mentality, that bodybuilding kind of kind of deal. And my health really took a, um, uh, turn right. I went, had extreme adrenal fatigue and a bunch of stuff that I struggled through, which is actually made me a much better coach nowadays because I could spot that stuff and I can help fix it. But, Um, and then, you know, in the middle of that, I'm sitting there looking at myself physically and saying, wow, you know, you look amazing. You look like the epitome of health. So if anybody were to look at you, they'd be like, oh my gosh, this, this chick.

Amber: (11:20)

She's so healthy. Yeah.

Michelle: (11:22)

But I wasn't on the inside, but physically I looked like it. So it, it really, you know, back then they're getting, this was a long time ago, but I said to myself intuitively, if I am, if I look so dang healthy, why don't I feel healthy and why aren't I eating like a variety of different foods? Why am I so pigeonholed into, you know, five or six different foods? Yeah. My body looks good, but it's not good. Right. And so that put me on a path to, and it was an obsession for a while saying how, what can I do? How can I possibly make it as healthy as possible and still get to that point physically where I look like that? Like, where's that, you know, combination. So I really, you know, in 2000, after my pregnancy when I started to come back to stage, I took over my own diet and I did my own stuff. And I said, I'm going to do this as absolutely healthy as possible. I'm gonna test myself, monitor my tests, you know, and eat a variety of foods and not be scared of carbs and all kinds of stuff. And then I did that with a bunch of other girls too. And I, um, took a half dozen girls, you know, to shows all over the country and, and they won a bunch of stuff. So there was, it was a really good lesson in what the balance between, you know, looking good and being good on the inside and feeling good. And I think that's one of the lessons that I, I pulled from that experience for sure.

Amber: (12:56)

That is huge. Yeah. Yeah. Health and weight are not the Same thing. And I think hearing from people who have been there, who are, like, I looked the way that everyone thinks that they want to look because it's healthy and it isn't as healthy as you think it is. And the way that you feel is not healthy, um, is helpful for people to hear because we have this rose colored glasses idea of like, oh, well if I could just look like a bodybuilder, then like the world would be awesome and I would feel amazing. And the reality is when you get that lean, it's a lot of work to get there and your body is fighting you every step of the way is it doesn't want to get that way.

Michelle: (13:36)

It's like approaching it backwards. It's actually say, Gosh, if my body could look like that, I'm going to be healthy. Yes. If you, if you get your body healthy first, if you provide the environment that your body can thrive in, the body comes naturally, right? I mean it's just been natural byproduct. Yeah.

Amber: (13:55)

Amen. Amen. Love that. Yeah.

Michelle: (13:58)

Amen, sister.

Amber: (14:00)

Amen. Can I get an Amen!? Love it.

Michelle: (14:02)

Yeah, so I've, I've developed a five pillar system over the last 13 years that I take my clients through. Um, and it really is designed to uncover their individual unique health and fitness challenges. Kind of roadblocks and so we use that to do anything from break a plateau. If they're in, in trying to get fit and lose body fat to reversing chronic health challenges with lifestyle changes. So that has been my passion for quite some time. I have a very eclectic background, which really gives me kind of a unique perspective that I bring to my clients. So it's Kinda Kinda fun. I love it. I absolutely love it.

Amber: (14:44)

Awesome. Come to you with what are like give us an example of some of the complaints or like worries or concerns or roadblocks that they're hitting.

Michelle: (14:54)

Oh Gosh. Everything. Anything from the have, you know, an autoimmunity flare up and they don't know what to do and they are not getting answers from their doctor. They're going to the doctor and they're getting tests run and they're telling the doctor, hey look, something's off. I don't feel right. But the doctor's telling them, well, everything looks normal. It's just, is what it is or are you just getting older or, you know, and I'm like, no, that intuitively feel right to me. Um, that's probably the bulk of my clients at this point. Um, and I also get people that are not getting results. Like they think they're doing all the right things. They're cleaning up their diet, they're exercising regularly, and they just say, you know, I should look and feel better than I do for all the effort that I put in, so what else is not working for me? And I need to figure that out. And so I ended up kind of becoming, you know, uh, um, I dig and research things for them as well, but I kind of become this guide and coach for them to help them figure that out and then find out where those roadblocks are and then give them tools to break through it. So mindset of course plays a big part, so

Amber: (16:07)

For sure. Yeah. You said that you, you know, you have more of like a holistic approach to this. So are you helping, you're helping women work with their doctors. Um, are you also like kind of what does that relationship between, like you, their doctor, um, and you know, the whole process with that?

Michelle: (16:25)

Yeah, I most definitely have them or help them to work with our doctor. Um, also their natural paths. I'm actually part of their whole, you know, health team, their holistic health team. Yeah. And that's really what we need nowadays. I mean, we, we need to take control of our own health. We need to take responsibility for it, kind of be the CEO of our own health. So I teach them how to do that. So, um, thinking into what I call my five pillars, right. And in one of the pillars, you know, I talk about testing and blood work and supplements and that type of thing. And so I will teach them, you know, what to order. So when they go to the doctor, for example, and say, Gosh, you know, my energies and the tank, um, I can't get rid of this body fat that I have around my middle and my hair's falling out. You know, what's going on? And the doctors says, well, let me test your thyroid and have great, great idea. Well, oftentimes the testing that you get at your regular doctor is insufficient and they either don't have a natural path yet, or they've gone to the natural path. And the natural paths wants to put them on 500 supplements that at two hour intervals throughout the day and that's overwhelming. So I educate them in what they can request from their doctor or they can order themselves and then I teach them in a very, very simple way what it means and so they can monitor it themselves and use lifestyle intervention to begin to turn that around and they communicate with our doctor. Absolutely. And they can you know can take those tests to their doctor and get help that way. But the more people you have on your team, the better off you are, the more tools you have.

Amber: (18:09)

And doctors don't have a ton of time to do a lot of that type consulting stuff. It's like in and out. Yeah. That's how like medicine works and so having someone to be able to walk you through it or sit down and talk to you or like give you suggestions can be like an added team member. I like that you like talk about it. It is like a team. It's not like you're replacing the doctor or the doctor's replacing you. You're working as a team coming from this from different angles to be able to help the client.

Michelle: (18:38)

Yeah. In your, you've, you've nailed it. I mean they don't, not only do they not have the time to spend with you, but often times they don't have the knowledge.

Amber: (18:45)

Oh yeah. Training I mean my husband's a physician. Like I know the kind of training that they get in med school and it's not on nutrition. It's not on holistic stuff. It's not the focus of that. And that's fine. It's, it's one of the pieces. Um, but having someone who can give that perspective can be really, really valuable. So you talk about in, oh. Go ahead.

Michelle: (19:08)

Well I think the rub is to that when they, they, they recognize that they need more of that holistic approach. So they'll find, you know, I'm naturopath or an alternative medicine practitioner and they'll go and they'll get a lot more inflammation, information, but it's like a fire hose of information cause they sit with that don't, you know, doctor for an hour, hour and a half, and they get this ton of stuff to do and I go home and then they're overwhelmed. So I'm like that middle person that's able to kind of bring it all together for them. And that's I think what a coach really should be. So.

Amber: (19:39)

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And these five pillars of a fitness, can you kind of go through each of them and kind of share a little bit? Yeah. What are, each of them are?

Michelle: (19:51)

Absolutely. So the first one is nutrition and digestion. Um, you know, and nutrition and, you are, you know, great – that's your wheelhouse.

Amber: (20:00)

That's my wheelhouse, ya.

Michelle: (20:00)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh, but digestion is closely tied to that because you can eat all the right foods, but if you're not digesting it properly, you're not getting the stuff right. So I put those together in pillar one. Pillar two is exercise and movement. I mean, of course we know structured exercise, but we also, there's other ways that we, um, you know, create that in ourselves. And so there's a whole other area that supports exercise. So I, that's my pillar of, two. My pillar three is sleep light and EMF and I group all these together because the light and EMF oftentimes is tied closely to sleep. Um, so there's that in pillar three. Pillar four is testing supplements, prescriptions and detox. So I grew up all of those together because they kind of play off each other, excuse me. Um, the testing where we kind of already highlighted that on the things that we can do with that. Um, but supplements of course, um, if needed, um, taking inventory of the prescription that you're taking, if any, and what those potentially might mean for you. And then paying attention to ways that we can support our body naturally to detox properly. And then my fifth and final pillar is the stress, perception, mindset and energy. So that's all group together. And that really is the core of the whole thing. So, although that's my last pillar, it's most definitely not the least of the five. It is the foundation for all of the rest because we don't, we don't have the mindset. And by that I mean like your, you know, identifying your limiting beliefs, your core belief system, what you're actually operating on this, the software in your brain that you're operating on. If we don't have that in alignment with the physical things that we're doing, then you ultimately don't potentially reach the results you want and, or maintain them. Because I'm a firm believer and I think you would kind of go along these lines too, that there is a bio, um, biophysical aspect or, or what we are physically to health, meaning the food you put in your mouth, the supplements, you know, the exercise that's the physical part. But there's also this energetic metaphysical, um, emotional side that needs to be given at least the same amount of attention, if not more so that they're in alignment with each other. And that's what really creates the results for sure.

Amber: (22:42)

Awesome. That's great. I want to go back to pillar number three because you said, and I don't know what EMF is, and I'm sure a lot of other people don't know what EMF is. So can you kind of tell us what that stands for? What is it?

Michelle: (23:00)

Yeah, it's, this stands for electromagnetic field or frequency. And so, um, that's really everything gives off our produces and electromagnetic field. Our bodies produce, you know, very low ones, but the artificial EMFs that are now just, you know, ubiquitous in our environment and just, we're bombarded with them. And you think about, you know, uh, cell phones of course like what I'm talking on right here. So cell phones, wifi, uh, smart appliances, um, iPads, you know, your car is even a smart car now, right? Uh, laptops and computers and software. So we, the influx of what we're using that produces very high intense, um, yeah, EMF fields can interfere with our natural EMF fields that we have in our bodies. Now there's more and more research being done on this, but we don't have the long term effects of this yet. But the increase in the exposure and youth has been just astronomical. So there's a lot of buzz and talk about not only how it affects us physically but what the long term effects may be. And if you think a lot of people will ask me, well what's the big deal? I mean, so it's a high frequency. I'm a low frequency, we're not the same. Well they can, or the high intensity frequencies from these, you know, exposures that we have can interfere with our bodies, uh, system in that we are electrical beings, bio electrical beings, and our cells use that electricity and that field to communicate with each other to regulate all kinds of systems in the body. And it's almost like the very, you know, super simple analogy I give is if you're talking to somebody, you know, on a, on a regular telephone and then there's static that comes in and you can't really hear that person that you might kind of get the wrong message. And that potentially is what's happening to ourselves sometimes. So I, I don't leave this aspect out when I'm looking at holistic health, especially if somebody is coming to me and they're saying, yeah, I just don't feel right. I've got, you know, headaches. I've got joint pain that's unexplained, I've got inflammation markers that I can't get down. You know, my sleep is messed up. I don't know what's going on and nobody can give me any answers. Well this is absolutely one area that I evaluate with them, you know, to see what their exposure is for sure.

Amber: (25:45)

And how do you evaluate that?

Michelle: (25:46)

I Hope that Answer the question,

Amber: (25:48)

How would someone listening know, Oh! That's impacting me.

Michelle: (25:53)

Yeah, you take inventory and that's really the theme throughout all of the five pillars. It's taking inventory of your unique exposure and environment. So it might be your cell phone, for example. How often do you use it? Where do you keep it? Is it attached to your body? You know, that type of thing. Well, it's not on airplane mode. Your laptop, is it on your lap a lot of times? Do you have a smart meter in your home? If so, where is it located? Uh, Wifi. How close is that to the areas that you sleep or your kids? Sleep? Is it turned off at night? Um, so we can go through an entire list of things that you can basically just look around and take inventory. And the thing is if it doesn't , there's so many simple and virtually, um, cost three things that we can do to experiment because our health is nothing. The things that we do to improve our health or nothing but experiments. And you're a great example of that too, right? When you work with your, with the macros and things, it's like, well, it's an experiment. We're going to set your macros at this and let's see what's going to happen.

Amber: (26:58)

And we're going to adjust.

Michelle: (27:00)

Yeah. And we're gonna adjust. And it's the same thing when we're looking at every aspect of our health. We experiment and we say, okay, if I'm having these issues and I've done kind of my inventory, I've gone down the list and see, you know, what my potential exposures are less for adjusting and see if I notice anything or notice anything in my kids or notice anything. You know, in general so you can experiment before you spend money even to see and if it improves for you if things improve. And that's really the goal is to mitigate the potential detrimental effects that have things that are keeping us from looking and feeling great and healthy. So that's basically what I do is I go, I walk with my clients, do it and we kind of go down our list and say, okay, well what are these exposures to you? Potentially?

Amber: (27:51)

Yeah. And it's not hard to cut something out. I mean the cost is not, it does pay to like not look at your cell phone as much or like put Your cell phone across the room or whatever. Like the costs associated with it is really minimal. So if it is something that benefits you, then it's easier, it seems like an easy fix.

Michelle: (28:07)

Yeah. And in that situation, as far as the cost, it doesn't cost me thing to get used to putting your phone in airplane mode a lot of the time, especially if it's near your body. It doesn't cost anything to turn your Wifi router off at night. It doesn't cost anything to download a free app for your, um, you know, computer, um, that you know, can mitigate things as well. There's lots of things that you can do before you even spend a dollar that, that can help. So

Amber: (28:38)

yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, you lumped that in pillar three with also light and sleep. So why those three together?

Michelle: (28:48)

Cause they are inter intertwined, but the EMF, our EMF exposure can mess with your cell, your energy, which can affect your overall energy and your ability to have restful sleep. Well lights even does that, that more. Okay. So the light exposure, especially when somebody comes to me and they say, Gosh, I just have a hard time falling asleep at night. Or when they wake up in the morning, they're like, oh, I can't even function until I have coffee. I'm so, you know, so tired in the morning. Uh, I automatically go to evaluating their light exposure. And by that, what that basically means is that we as humans, physical beings on the earth, we're a part of the earth. Okay. And we function best when our circadian rhythm mean just awakened and sleep cycle is closely related to the earth natural cycle. So what that looks like outside is in the morning you have bright lights and throughout the, you know, afternoon, early afternoon, late morning, early afternoon, you've got the brightest light that there is. And by bright we need more blue light in that light. And that's very important having blue light because it wakes us up in the morning, it's uh, regulates our mood and it sets your circadian rhythm. But what happens oftentimes is that nature has it so that the blue light is the strongest, you know, mid morning and high afternoon, and then it will decrease as it gets later in the day. And you'll notice that it turns a little bit more orange, like a sunset, right? Is Orange. So orange and yellows, right? So the color changes and the blue light diminishes and decreases significantly, almost, almost down to nothing at and when the moon's out. Right? And that sets your circadian rhythm, I. E. The ability for your pineal gland to make enough Melatonin to have you have restful sleep. So what happens is we end up, when the natural circadian rhythm goes down, that that yellowish orange light comes in, the blue light disappears, right? And now our, but our brain can make a Melatonin because that's the signal as well. When blue light is, is abundant, we don't make the Melatonin that we need. So when that, when the nighttime comes, what we end up doing is opening up our laptop or turning on our led TV and turning on our bright, you know, daytime fluorescent lights in the house and that um, switch to blue light more blue lights and less of that orangey colors. Tells our Brain, oh wait a minute. It actually is daytime and our circadian rhythm gets off. You suppress melatonin production and release and it confuses our brain and it will mess up that circadian rhythm and make it so that we are not in tune with that natural rhythm. And it makes us harder, harder, it makes it harder for us to fall asleep and get restful sleep so that we wake up in the morning, well rested. So the blue lights is a, is a big, is a big piece. Now not the blue light's bad because if it's good, right? But when it's appropriate and unfortunately when the lights go out at night, we actually turned them on and often times, you know with our laptop that has an immense amount of blue light, um, and TVs and stuff like that.

Amber: (32:36)

And so how would someone know that that's something impacting them? Would they see that in like their level of alertness or like exhaustion? Like you're saying like, like if someone's like, oh well I feel great, I feel fine. Do I need to like go down this path of like trying to like control the amount of blue light and yellow or orange light that I see. Is that the case? Or is it like if you feel fine, like it's fine to keep doing what you're doing, but if you are having problems then maybe this is something you should look into.

Michelle: (33:05)

Yeah, I put some stock in how you feel. Absolutely. There's, there's that at the forefront, but there can always be things that are underneath the surface that you don't actually feel anecdotally yet. Right. Because the body has an amazing way of compensating for a period of time until all of a sudden it feels like, oh my gosh, this just came on. No, not really. The body has a great way of, you know, adapting, uh, until it can't. So I typically do a reverse experiment where I say, okay, if you, and I think your question too was, you know, how do they know if it might be affecting them? Well, one of the things, if they have any disruption in sleep at all, then it can't be ignored as a potential driver of that. That's one thing. If they also have eye fatigue or they've noticed their vision declining significantly, that can be a red flag as well. I always go to light when that's the case. I mean, people say, well, I'm getting older, so my eyes, well I think eyesight should last longer than it typically does for the average person. Especially when we have kids, you know, walking around at five, six years old glasses, right? It's like, oh, that's, it just doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem like that should be the case. So if they have, you know, they complain of headaches, if they complain of um, you know, uh, eye strain, if they have sleep disruption. Absolutely. I say do an experiment and see, and the experiments can be as simple as getting outside first thing in the morning and getting your, um, eyes exposed to that natural light that spend, they'll photons of light go into your eyeballs back and into your brain and tell your pineal gland, oh, it's morning time. And it basically syncs and aligns with the natural circadian rhythm. So if you can get outside, even if it's cold, put a jacket on, just stand out on your porch. Are there, are your front, you know, outside your front door. Kind of looking up at the sky for as long as you can. Five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever you can, you can spare. Right. So that's one, one piece. Another piece would be, um, downloading, um, uh, app to your laptop that you can adjust the amount of blue light in your computer screen.

Amber: (35:38)

I have that Michelle!

Michelle: (35:40)

oh yeah. The F.lux?

Amber: (35:43)

I do have that! My husband installed it for me.

Michelle: (35:45)

You are a rockstar. I love it.Yeah.

Amber: (35:50)

It's like the one thing I've done that You've talked about

Michelle: (35:52)

awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I love it. That's great. So there's that of course. And that APP is amazing, right?

Amber: (36:01)

Ya, you don't have to do anything, it just happens. that's my kind of app.

Michelle: (36:03)

Yeah, you can set it for however you want. Right. And you can adjust it, you know, on the fly or just have it be automatic and it's just a great thing. So that APP as, um, flux app, I think it's f. Dot. Lux. I believe. , but that's a great app to install. Um, and the other piece that I've, um, is part of my pieces that I have somebody that try is blue blocking glasses. So with that, it's pretty, pretty easy to implement. And like, we walk around, our whole family walks around, you know, at night with these glasses on. We watch a DVD with these, either one, but they are blue blocking glasses, not just any, but there's a couple of different types that are, that are higher quality. You can have ones that are like twilight glasses that you can use during the day, like after, after two o'clock, three o'clock in the afternoon. If you're in an office situation where you can't download an app to your work computer, you can wear twilight glasses that cut down that blue light, um, and then be nighttime glasses, which really bring in a lot of yellow and red. And it filters all of that light coming in through your eyes. And so you're basically mirroring the natural circadian rhythm of outside through glasses wearing inside. But you can still work on your computer. You can still watch TVs and still do all these things to a certain degree, um, but not mess up that, um, Melatonin production and release and the circadian rhythm itself. So those are three things you know, that you could do to experiment. And, and here's the thing, if you do those three things, let's say, and that's where you start and you notice a huge shift where maybe you were someone that said, Gosh, you know, I don't get tired until midnight or 11 o'clock at night is at least, well after you do these things, what if you started to get a little more drowsy at 9:30? Right? And it bought you an hour and a half extra asleep or you started sleeping a little more sound or for the first time in a long time you woke up in the morning and you're like, Gosh, I, I kinda feel like I can get started. Let's, what's this all about? You know, and that's your, that's your um, you know, litmus test again, an experiment, right?

Amber: (38:26)

Yeah. And just know, I will have links to all of these things that Michelle is talking about in the show notes. So it's www.bicepsafterbabies.com/ 25 and I'll get, if you could send me like the glasses that you like, I'll link those. All the show notes, flux, like all of those things that she's talking about. So if you're interested in looking at them, you can do that.

Michelle: (38:47)

Yeah, absolutely. Plus I have a link for a company that does the shielding, shielding your laptop, shooting your cell phone and all that. Yeah, that'll all be not affiliate link. So not an affiliate link. I'm just sharing good stuff.

Amber: (39:01)

Just to share good things. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. So a couple more questions for you, Michelle. Um, yeah, I kind of want to know what you would go back and tell the 10 year younger you if you could,

Michelle: (39:17)

mm. What I would tell just 10 years,

Amber: (39:20)

just 10 years

Michelle: (39:22)

say, I would say to not be afraid to stand in your own truth. I think that absolutely is one of the lessons that I've learned, especially in not to be afraid of, you know, if it doesn't resonate with you, don't go along with something just because you think you should. I think, um, I think that's a huge lesson and the earlier that we get that lesson, the happier life that we have. For sure.

Amber: (39:53)

That's good. That's awesome. That's definitely one of the things I tell myself for sure. All right, well Michelle, someone wants to find you and follow you on social media. Where can they go?

Michelle: (40:03)

Absolutely. I have a hub online and you didn't, you'd get there just by going to Michelle herzog.com that's m I, C h e l l e Herzog, h e r z o g.com and that's a whole bunch of list of freebies and stuff like that. Now we talked about my five pillars. I have a mini course that I walk you through, the condensed version of each of these five pillars and it's a five video mini course and I created a link just for your people so they don't have to, you know hunt around and find it so it's bit.ly forward slash B a B gift, Biceps after Babies gifts yep. BAB Gift and that will take you right to the landing page of that free course if you'd like to get in there and just kind of poke around and see what your roadblocks might be and also get a few tools to tear him down and break thru them. For sure.

Amber: (41:01)

Awesome. Thanks for coming and sharing your knowledge.

Michelle: (41:06)

Well, I'm so honored to be part of your tribe here and you're what you're doing. I just love it and you are an amazing person. I, I was drawn to you when I met you at BBD and I think it's going to be a good relationship going forward so I'm very, very happy to, to be part.

Amber: (41:22)

I hope you enjoyed that episode with Michelle. I'm really glad that we were able to meet at our conference and that she was able to come on the podcast and kind of give us a little bit different view of something that um, I don't necessarily talk a whole lot about a more holistic point of view of healthcare or of medicine or of health in general. And I think it's good to have like differing perspectives and I hope to bring that in the podcast obviously. Like I have a perspective and I share that a lot here, but I'm also very open to bringing on guests that are well versed in things that I'm not really great at and I hope to be able to bring people on to be able to share different point of views and different ideas and different strengths. I think there's a lot of learning to be done in the world and I for sure do not believe that I know it all and so I'm grateful when we can have other people come in and share their perspective and their knowledge and I'm grateful that Michelle was able to come on. That wraps up this episode of Biceps after Babies radio. I'm amber now go out and be strong because remember my friend, you can do anything.

Outro

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