November 15, 2024 • 22 mins
Christine McCarroll reveals a significant personal journey in this episode as she discusses her struggles with focus and the development of a new supplement aimed at supporting a feeling a focus. After years of trial and error with various strategies and products, she has finally found a combination that works for her and her daughter, focusing on the amino acids theanine and tyrosine, as well as a unique botanical ingredient. Christine shares her experiences with the "focus graveyard," a metaphor for the many unsuccessful attempts she made to improve her concentration. Her insights shed light on the internal battles faced by many intelligent women dealing with focus issues, highlighting the disconnect between external accomplishments and internal struggles. Listeners can look forward to the official unveiling of her new product in the next episode.
Takeaways:
- Christine shares her personal journey with ADHD and the struggles of maintaining focus.
- She introduces the concept of the 'focus graveyard', representing failed attempts at enhancing concentration.
- The episode highlights the significance of amino acids, starting with theanine, in improving focus.
- The podcast discusses how external achievements often mask internal struggles with focus and anxiety.
- Listeners are encouraged to stay tuned for the official unveiling of the new product.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I have a little secret.
Actually, that's a total lie.
It's kind of a big secret.
I have been working onsomething behind the scenes for more
than the last six months, andI haven't really been telling very
many people about it.
And I'm about to share some ofthe details about it on the podcast
today.
Welcome to ADHD SmartSolutions for Holistic Women with
(00:23):
Christine McCarroll.
I'm Christine, and this is thespot to learn natural strategies
for supporting your ADHD brain.
As a woman with all thehormonal curveballs and unique challenges
that only females face, I'vemade it my mission to uncover the
root causes and little knownsupports for your ADHD brain that
your doctor doesn't know andwon't tell you.
Learn the truth and find your focus.
(00:44):
No prescription required.
So before I get into what thesecret is, I'm going to give you
a little bit of the backstory,and the backstory is a lot of my
personal struggle.
So I.
I have what I have beenlovingly calling the focus graveyard.
(01:07):
And what I mean by the focusgraveyard is that I have been essentially,
like, grabbing at straws foras long as I can remember on different
things that might be able tohelp me focus.
And this was long before I gota late diagnosis of adhd.
And it's one of the reasons Ithink everything just clicked into
(01:28):
place for me so quickly when Igot that diagnosis.
It was like all of a sudden Icompletely, completely understood
my entire life.
Looking back, it was like, oh,that's what's been going on the whole
time.
And the reason why I havebeen, you know, grabbing at straws
for so long is that I feellike I've been trying to measure
(01:51):
up to my external success internally.
So what do I mean by that?
Um, I.
I've always been a smart kidand I've always.
I'm not a kid anymore.
I'm in my mid-40s, but when Iwas a kid, I.
I was a smart kid.
I always did well in school.
I have two grandparents whoare college professors, and I feel
(02:14):
like it was kind of thisunspoken expectation that I would
do well.
I have a long history ofintellectual people in my family,
and coming from thatbackground and being smart, I felt
like this huge pressure to besuccessful academically.
So I always was.
(02:35):
I graduated, you know, topfive in my high school class.
I got special honors in myhonors program in college, I got
a master's degree.
I, you know, I have a millionadvanced certifications, and a lot
of that is me, you know, Kindof proving, you know, that I am.
That I'm smart, and that's fine.
(02:55):
But what it.
What it doesn't show on theoutside, what all that external stuff
doesn't show, is what amassive struggle it has been for
me internally.
And that's, quite frankly,been the source of a lot of shame.
And I've heard that from a lotof other women who, you know, are
smart and also have a hardtime with focus, because it seems
(03:16):
like those things should go together.
It seems like if you're.
If you're smart, if you'reaccomplished, that it should be easy
for you to just do those things.
And the truth is that it's not.
And, you know, for me, I wouldsay for majority of my adult life,
and well, before I knewanything about functional nutrition,
(03:37):
before I became a brain healthprofessional, all of that, I just
figured that I could try allof these different products that
said the word focus on them.
And actually, more than justproducts, just so many things to
help me be able to focus andto be able to live up to that mask
of this.
I got it all together.
(03:58):
Smart girl, right?
And so I have what I havelovingly called at this point a focus
graveyard.
And the focus graveyard isessentially like a whole bunch of
things that I have tried overthe years.
And it's like, I just.
I see that this is like thelitter in my history.
Like, if you look at thetimeline of my life, it's like all
this litter back there of allof the things that I have tried to
(04:19):
be able to help me to focusand to get started on tasks.
So here is.
Here's a little list.
This is not a comprehensivelist, by the way, but this is just
some of the things that I haveattempted in my lifetime.
And maybe some of thisresonates with you, too.
Maybe some of these are thingsthat you have.
You have tried.
So I relied really heavily foryears and years and years on, like,
(04:43):
ridiculous amounts of caffeine.
And I know that that is athing that a lot of people rely on,
some people more than others.
So in graduate school, Iactually drank two pots.
Yes.
Not cups, pots of coffee everysingle day.
Um, I would brew a pot in themorning and I would.
And I would drink it before Ileft for the day, and then I would
(05:04):
brew a second pot and I wouldput it in this ginormous thermos
that I would cart with me to school.
So, you know, I was doing a lot.
I.
I was in graduate school.
I was teaching.
I was a TA at that time, asWell, I was working for a startup
company part time and I wasalso planning my wedding.
So I had more than a littlebit on my plate.
And as someone who wasstruggling with focus, this like
(05:27):
ridiculous amount of caffeinewas part of what I was relying on
to keep me going.
Now it really jacked up myhormones to do that.
And I continued off and ondoing that for years and years and
I know that it really messedme up.
So I'm no longer on thatroller coaster.
I do drink coffee, but now Ihave it just once in the morning
and I really don't do it afternoon because I know it messes up
(05:49):
my sleep.
So another thing I found thator I read that mint would help with
focus.
So I started chewing mint gumevery single day.
And actually I will say thisone I have kept.
I am, I am still kind of aridiculous gum chewer.
So anytime I'm going anywhere,you're going to find a pack of gum
or a little baggie because Ilike the little bags of gum in my,
(06:09):
in my purse.
But I also found this was afew years ago, I was on a little
girls retreat and I found thislittle roll on in a little mountain
shop over here in Colorado.
It was like a little kind oflike botanical store, like an apothecary.
And there was little roll oncalled Focus.
(06:29):
And of course that justimmediately got my attention and
I grabbed it and I triedputting it on religiously.
I have tried about a hundreddifferent kinds of music and not
just music, but actually likeapps that are just like beats or
different types of sounds thatare supposed to help the brain focus.
Some work better than others.
But because I've been at thisfor so long, I have like stations
(06:52):
on Pandora and Amazon Music.
I've literally just calledthem Focus.
And you can look back and Ihave like years, years and years
of music.
Anytime anything kind of likehelps my brain focus, it goes into
this.
Under these playlists I havebought special coffee that has so
called medicinal mushroomslabeled for Focus.
To help me I have takensupplements and a lot of them and
(07:16):
this is a problem I have withthem have a gazillion times the RDA
for B12.
So you know, B12 can be alittle bit energizing.
Also there can be someproblems genetically with some people's
ability to process certainforms of B vitamins.
And so manufacturers have kindof latched onto this and they super
pump up their.
Any product that's supposed tohelp with focus, you'll find it full
(07:38):
of B vitamins.
Now That's a real problem andprobably a story for another day.
But the form is often wrong.
The form actually, for peoplewho might have genetic issues with
different forms, can be wrong.
And it can actually make people.
Some people feel more jitteryinstead of feeling better.
So instead of having focus,it, like, could increase your feeling
of, like, internalrestlessness, which is a big issue
(07:59):
for a lot of people.
So certainly an issue for me.
And a lot of those supplementsreally made me feel worse.
So essentially what I wasdoing was throwing spaghetti at the
wall.
So all of that is kind of thebackstory of where I was for literally
decades.
I was just trying anything Icould get my hands on, and it was
not strategic at all.
(08:20):
There was no plan.
There was only.
I knew that anytime I neededto focus, it was a real struggle
for me.
I also had all of this pressure.
I wanted to live up to mypotential, knowing that I'm smart,
knowing that I have a lot to offer.
I was like, okay, I got tomake this happen.
And so I was just trying abunch of random stuff, and I didn't
(08:41):
really have, like, a structureto that plan.
So that is the.
That's the story of the focus graveyard.
Now, once I had.
Once I had figured out, youknow, what was happening with.
With my brain and with mykiddos brain, I decided that I needed
to figure out some strategyaround how I could.
How I could help my brain work better.
(09:03):
And so I went to a couple places.
I went to the literature, andI shared this on the last episode.
But I was trying to figureout, okay, so I know that I had done
things like taking specificamino acids before, and that had
really helped me.
So I went back, andimmediately I had picked up two different
amino acids.
They are theanine and tyrosine.
(09:24):
So I picked these two aminoacids up, and I started taking them
every single day.
And not only that, I startedgiving them to my kiddo, and I called
them her pocket vitamins.
Sentinel.
Eventually, I gave them to herin the morning.
So amino acids actually workbest on an empty stomach.
So I would wake her up in the morning.
I would give her her supplements.
(09:45):
She would go back to sleepfor, like, 15 minutes, and then she
would get up and, like, getdressed and, you know, have breakfast
and whatever.
But I wanted to give her sometime for those things to be on an
empty stomach.
I then would give her herpocket vitamins, which is exactly
those same things, and wewould put them in our pocket.
So that midday she had, like,a little, like, a recess period before
that was like 20, 30 minutesbefore lunch.
(10:05):
And I was like, perfect.
You take your pocket vitaminsbefore lunch, and then, you know,
lunch later.
You know, you've had this onan empty stomach.
So she did this, you know,these pocket vitamins for a long
time.
Now what happened was that sheand I were both taking these.
These couple of things.
There.
There's more to this stackthan just those two.
But those two things we werereally trying.
(10:28):
And so I was feeling so muchbetter now.
This wasn't the only thing Iwas doing.
I was doing some other thingsto really help my brain, but this
was kind of like foundational for.
And these two amino acids arewhat I call these.
They're the bridge orfunctional supports that I had talked
about last time.
Sorry.
Yeah, functional.
(10:48):
Functional and bridge supportsthat I was talking about on the last
episode.
So in the last episode, ifyou're curious about what I mean
by that, I was talking aboutfoundational supplements, which are
more things like vitamins andminerals, and then what I'm calling
these bridge supports, whichare things that can help you actually
literally feel better in the moment.
So that's how I got started onthis and alongside this.
(11:08):
So this was all kind of justhappening on the personal side.
Now, alongside this, I had hadthis idea in my head for a really
long time that I wanted todevelop my own product.
So as someone who had thisfocused graveyard, as someone who
had tried a whole bunch ofthings that didn't really work very
well, I really had wanted tobe able to create something on my
(11:30):
own that would work.
And so, you know, a little bitmore than six months ago, I got connected
to a supplement brand thatwould allow me to actually create
my own product.
And so it was just like asuper exciting thing that happened,
(11:51):
and it kind of just fell in my lap.
But to be able to, you know,to say, okay, I can actually leave
out the things that I thinkare a problem and put in the things
that I think are helpful wasso exciting and honest.
Honestly, it was very selfish.
So I wanted to have the thingsthat were in my stack myself, and
I wanted to be able to do thethings that were helping my daughter.
(12:12):
And I didn't want us to haveto buy a bunch of random stuff.
So it was quite selfish that Iwanted to try this.
But I also knew that I couldbe helping a lot of people who were
struggling and maybe had someof the same issues that I did.
Maybe smart and able toaccomplish things, but that feeling
of those accomplishments beinglike rolling a boulder up a hill.
(12:34):
So it just feels like so hardto be able to keep all the balls
in the air.
So hard to be able to, tomaintain focus.
And so I wanted to be able tohelp other people because I knew
I was, I was certainly not theonly one.
So around that same time, oneother thing happened, which is that
one of my clients actuallyasked me about the, the third ingredient
(12:57):
that is in the supplement thatI, I ended up developing.
I'm going to tell you morelike the official, official release
of this will be the next timethat I release a podcast episode.
So this is still just like theteaser here, but a client had asked
me about this ingredient, andit's a botanical.
And what I, what I wasinterested in is I actually had studied,
I had studied herbal medicine.
(13:19):
So that was another thing withthose gazillion certifications I
told you about, because I'mfascinated with things and I will
go down a rabbit hole.
And as soon as I'm down therabbit hole, I'm like, well, just
give me the certification.
So I had studied for herbalmedicine for women.
And so as part of that, Ireally looked at a lot of different
herbs and botanicals.
(13:40):
But this one that my clientasked me about, I had actually never
heard of.
And so I went down a rabbithole looking at this particular botanical.
And it was amazing for mood,for focus, and something that had
been used for hundreds of ofyears traditionally.
And so I had started my owntrial with that, with my other, with
(14:03):
my other amino acids already.
So this is how kind of thesethings started coming together.
And I started with trialingthese things with myself and then
started talking to thiscompany about producing my own supplement.
So producing something thatwas utilizing these three ingredients
that I was using personallyand I was having massive success
(14:23):
with.
So I was actually able tofinally, after my supplement graveyard
or my focus graveyard, I wasable to take something that was helping
me in the moment.
And it was super exciting.
And that is how this all started.
So I started with the company,started doing some formulation for
(14:45):
me, they started testing somethings, they started getting these
ingredients together.
We started putting together a plan.
We started looking at what isthe relationship of these different
things to each other.
How can we actuallyincorporate all of this into a single
product and at ratios that aregoing to be the most effective.
So, you know, trial one wasjust getting all of that stuff together.
I then went about the processof sending this out to a bunch of
(15:10):
my, a bunch of my friends thatI knew might be able to help me.
They would give me some honestfeedback on if it helped with their
sense of focus.
So I sent this out and I gotgreat feedback immediately.
So this was kind of my own.
It's certainly not like anactual large scale trial, but it
was enough evidence that itwas not just me and my kid that were
(15:33):
really feeling benefit from this.
So.
And from that point we got thegreat feedback and then decided to,
you know, to go all in on thisand creating something that I saw
was really needed.
So that's the backstory.
I will be giving you the full,like, pulling back the veil on the
(15:54):
next episode, but what I wantto do today is actually just talk
about one of the primaryingredients, and that is the amino
acid theanine.
Now, when I was talking aboutamino acids before, I've been.
I was talking about like, youknow, usually what we see is that
you get proteins.
Proteins are broken down intotheir constituent parts, and those
are amino acids.
(16:14):
And so typically we're lookingat, you know, like big protein sources
to get amino acids from.
So something like, like meat, right?
So like, you know, other aminoacids often come from.
From breaking down somethingthat's more.
More protein rich.
Theanine actually wasisolated, though, from.
From tea.
So theanine has been used forhundreds, if not thousands of years
(16:38):
in Asia, and it was because of tea.
So in East Asia, tea, youknow, tea has been like tea ceremonies.
Like, the therapeutic uses oftea have been around for hundreds
of years, maybe thousands.
I don't know.
Like, Buddhist monks are saidto have used green tea to help in
meditation because of itscalming properties.
(16:59):
So because of that longhistory, because of the history of,
you know, of tea use inparticular, green tea, it's been
known for a long time in East Asia.
So it makes sense that it wasactually first isolated in Japan.
So Japanese researchersidentified it in 1949 as this component
of tea.
And when I say tea, I'm nottalking about like herbal tea, like
(17:19):
a, you know, chamomile tea orsomething like that.
It's actually the tea plant.
So that camellia plant is theone that actually is, you know, is
that's where you get thatamino acid.
So from that point, actuallyfrom around the 60s, it started gaining
interest in Japan and otherparts of Asia because it had this
relaxing effect without being sedating.
(17:41):
So a lot of differentbotanicals can be relaxing, but at
the same time, there's asedative property to it.
And so sometimes you want tofeel calmer.
For me, I want my brain tofeel calmer.
It feels like my brain is whatI say is it feels like a disco ball.
I'm trying to make it be alaser beam.
So when I have this disco ballfeeling in my brain, I don't necessarily
(18:06):
want to just like, go to bed.
I want to be able to focus.
And so the research in the, inthe 60s was that, hey, it could relax
the brain and it could helpthe brain get into this alpha brainwave
state.
And the alpha brainwave stateis this like calm, alert mental state,
which is like the ideal that Ithink a lot of us are going for.
So, you know, when I'm lookingto focus, I want to be able to feel
(18:29):
alert, but I also want to feel calm.
I don't want to feel like Ihave that internal restlessness.
I don't want to feel like Ihave to get up out of my chair every
five minutes to go makemyself, you know, a new hot tea.
So that is the origination of it.
And then here in the US and inthe west, it was really actually
a lot more recent.
So maybe like the late 90s andearly 2000s that, you know, some
(18:51):
people here started to use itmore and it started to become more
popular.
So it's pretty widely used atthis point.
And it was the first thingthat I started, that I said started
with.
And actually I had tried it,you know, quite a long time before
to help with my feelings of anxiousness.
So when I had, when I wasdealing with kind of an anxiety and
(19:12):
panic attack feeling, and Ihave a long history of that, theanine
was one of the things that hadhelped me immediately to kind of
get into that calmer state.
So I hadn't used it for a long time.
I kind of forgotten about itbecause I had done a lot of other
things and I really justwasn't experiencing.
Experiencing anxiety very much anymore.
But once I was trying to lookat ways that I could specifically
(19:33):
be targeted and helping mybrain, one of the first things I
wanted to go back to was theanine.
So it can be paired with caffeine.
A lot of people use theaninewith caffeine, which actually is
a reason why some people liketea in general.
So there is that theanine in there.
It's not concentrated the waythat it would be in a supplement
where we've extracted that andconcentrated it.
(19:54):
But using that, there is theneed in there and then there is some
caffeine.
If you're doing something likegreen tea, a lot of people really
like green tea for that effect.
Now, me personally, I actuallyget a little bit of a stomach ache
if I have green tea on anempty stomach.
I don't know why exactly, butI have had a lot of clients who experienced
that as well.
So I love green tea.
I need to use it, I need todrink it after I've actually had
(20:16):
food.
But also there's a much moremild or moderate effect from something
like a tea than there is when,when you're doing something like
taking a supplement.
There's also not very muchcontrol that you have on the amount
when you are doing somethingthat is a food or a beverage.
So they can be really lovely adjuncts.
And I absolutely utilize a lotof different kinds of tea.
(20:36):
But you can't really controlhow much is in there, and you can't
even control, like, you know,how much is in a particular cup,
much less like, you know, whatwas in the batch of those tea leaves,
for example.
And so it's lovely, it'shelpful, it's adjunctive.
But for me, when I want toknow exactly how I'm going to feel,
I need to know exactly howmuch I'm getting.
So the first ingredient I'mgoing to share with you from my new
(20:59):
product that I'm going toactually tell you the name of and
tell you all about it andactually lift the veil next time.
But the first ingredient is theanine.
And theanine, again, thathistory is for its, you know, that
calm focus, that calm, alert feeling.
That's the history of its usefor hundreds of years in East Asia.
I have certainly experiencedthat myself.
(21:19):
And as someone with a longhistory of a focus graveyard, it
was my go to originally and Ilove it.
And it's one of my top,favorite, favorite amino acids to
be using for a feeling offocus and flow.
So that's the backstory, thatis a little bit of the history, and
that is the first of threeprimary ingredients in what I'm going
(21:41):
to be sharing with you next time.
So stay tuned and I'm soexcited to do the official unveiling.
Hey, love, thanks for makingit this far.
If you're hearing this, you'reone of the magical statistical few
that listened all the way tothe end.
And I so appreciate your engagement.
I hope that means the messagetoday resonated with you and you're
taking away a tool trick oraction step that will help you have
(22:03):
your best feeling brain.
If that's you, I have a favorto ask.
So many more women need tohear this Message and your 30 seconds
to leave a rating or reviewwill help them hear it.
Just go to the show in yourpodcast player and scroll down until
you see the stars to leave aquick rating.
And make my day while you'reat it.
Thank you so much.
I have a little secret.
Actually, that's a total lie.
It's kind of a big secret.
I have been working onsomething behind the scenes for more
than the last six months, andI haven't really been telling very
many people about it.
And I'm about to share some ofthe details about it on the podcast
today.
Welcome to ADHD SmartSolutions for Holistic Women with
(00:23):
Christine McCarroll.
I'm Christine, and this is thespot to learn natural strategies
for supporting your ADHD brain.
As a woman with all thehormonal curveballs and unique challenges
that only females face, I'vemade it my mission to uncover the
root causes and little knownsupports for your ADHD brain that
your doctor doesn't know andwon't tell you.
Learn the truth and find your focus.
(00:44):
No prescription required.
So before I get into what thesecret is, I'm going to give you
a little bit of the backstory,and the backstory is a lot of my
personal struggle.
So I.
I have what I have beenlovingly calling the focus graveyard.
(01:07):
And what I mean by the focusgraveyard is that I have been essentially,
like, grabbing at straws foras long as I can remember on different
things that might be able tohelp me focus.
And this was long before I gota late diagnosis of adhd.
And it's one of the reasons Ithink everything just clicked into
(01:28):
place for me so quickly when Igot that diagnosis.
It was like all of a sudden Icompletely, completely understood
my entire life.
Looking back, it was like, oh,that's what's been going on the whole
time.
And the reason why I havebeen, you know, grabbing at straws
for so long is that I feellike I've been trying to measure
(01:51):
up to my external success internally.
So what do I mean by that?
Um, I.
I've always been a smart kidand I've always.
I'm not a kid anymore.
I'm in my mid-40s, but when Iwas a kid, I.
I was a smart kid.
I always did well in school.
I have two grandparents whoare college professors, and I feel
(02:14):
like it was kind of thisunspoken expectation that I would
do well.
I have a long history ofintellectual people in my family,
and coming from thatbackground and being smart, I felt
like this huge pressure to besuccessful academically.
So I always was.
(02:35):
I graduated, you know, topfive in my high school class.
I got special honors in myhonors program in college, I got
a master's degree.
I, you know, I have a millionadvanced certifications, and a lot
of that is me, you know, Kindof proving, you know, that I am.
That I'm smart, and that's fine.
(02:55):
But what it.
What it doesn't show on theoutside, what all that external stuff
doesn't show, is what amassive struggle it has been for
me internally.
And that's, quite frankly,been the source of a lot of shame.
And I've heard that from a lotof other women who, you know, are
smart and also have a hardtime with focus, because it seems
(03:16):
like those things should go together.
It seems like if you're.
If you're smart, if you'reaccomplished, that it should be easy
for you to just do those things.
And the truth is that it's not.
And, you know, for me, I wouldsay for majority of my adult life,
and well, before I knewanything about functional nutrition,
(03:37):
before I became a brain healthprofessional, all of that, I just
figured that I could try allof these different products that
said the word focus on them.
And actually, more than justproducts, just so many things to
help me be able to focus andto be able to live up to that mask
of this.
I got it all together.
(03:58):
Smart girl, right?
And so I have what I havelovingly called at this point a focus
graveyard.
And the focus graveyard isessentially like a whole bunch of
things that I have tried overthe years.
And it's like, I just.
I see that this is like thelitter in my history.
Like, if you look at thetimeline of my life, it's like all
this litter back there of allof the things that I have tried to
(04:19):
be able to help me to focusand to get started on tasks.
So here is.
Here's a little list.
This is not a comprehensivelist, by the way, but this is just
some of the things that I haveattempted in my lifetime.
And maybe some of thisresonates with you, too.
Maybe some of these are thingsthat you have.
You have tried.
So I relied really heavily foryears and years and years on, like,
(04:43):
ridiculous amounts of caffeine.
And I know that that is athing that a lot of people rely on,
some people more than others.
So in graduate school, Iactually drank two pots.
Yes.
Not cups, pots of coffee everysingle day.
Um, I would brew a pot in themorning and I would.
And I would drink it before Ileft for the day, and then I would
(05:04):
brew a second pot and I wouldput it in this ginormous thermos
that I would cart with me to school.
So, you know, I was doing a lot.
I.
I was in graduate school.
I was teaching.
I was a TA at that time, asWell, I was working for a startup
company part time and I wasalso planning my wedding.
So I had more than a littlebit on my plate.
And as someone who wasstruggling with focus, this like
(05:27):
ridiculous amount of caffeinewas part of what I was relying on
to keep me going.
Now it really jacked up myhormones to do that.
And I continued off and ondoing that for years and years and
I know that it really messedme up.
So I'm no longer on thatroller coaster.
I do drink coffee, but now Ihave it just once in the morning
and I really don't do it afternoon because I know it messes up
(05:49):
my sleep.
So another thing I found thator I read that mint would help with
focus.
So I started chewing mint gumevery single day.
And actually I will say thisone I have kept.
I am, I am still kind of aridiculous gum chewer.
So anytime I'm going anywhere,you're going to find a pack of gum
or a little baggie because Ilike the little bags of gum in my,
(06:09):
in my purse.
But I also found this was afew years ago, I was on a little
girls retreat and I found thislittle roll on in a little mountain
shop over here in Colorado.
It was like a little kind oflike botanical store, like an apothecary.
And there was little roll oncalled Focus.
(06:29):
And of course that justimmediately got my attention and
I grabbed it and I triedputting it on religiously.
I have tried about a hundreddifferent kinds of music and not
just music, but actually likeapps that are just like beats or
different types of sounds thatare supposed to help the brain focus.
Some work better than others.
But because I've been at thisfor so long, I have like stations
(06:52):
on Pandora and Amazon Music.
I've literally just calledthem Focus.
And you can look back and Ihave like years, years and years
of music.
Anytime anything kind of likehelps my brain focus, it goes into
this.
Under these playlists I havebought special coffee that has so
called medicinal mushroomslabeled for Focus.
To help me I have takensupplements and a lot of them and
(07:16):
this is a problem I have withthem have a gazillion times the RDA
for B12.
So you know, B12 can be alittle bit energizing.
Also there can be someproblems genetically with some people's
ability to process certainforms of B vitamins.
And so manufacturers have kindof latched onto this and they super
pump up their.
Any product that's supposed tohelp with focus, you'll find it full
(07:38):
of B vitamins.
Now That's a real problem andprobably a story for another day.
But the form is often wrong.
The form actually, for peoplewho might have genetic issues with
different forms, can be wrong.
And it can actually make people.
Some people feel more jitteryinstead of feeling better.
So instead of having focus,it, like, could increase your feeling
of, like, internalrestlessness, which is a big issue
(07:59):
for a lot of people.
So certainly an issue for me.
And a lot of those supplementsreally made me feel worse.
So essentially what I wasdoing was throwing spaghetti at the
wall.
So all of that is kind of thebackstory of where I was for literally
decades.
I was just trying anything Icould get my hands on, and it was
not strategic at all.
(08:20):
There was no plan.
There was only.
I knew that anytime I neededto focus, it was a real struggle
for me.
I also had all of this pressure.
I wanted to live up to mypotential, knowing that I'm smart,
knowing that I have a lot to offer.
I was like, okay, I got tomake this happen.
And so I was just trying abunch of random stuff, and I didn't
(08:41):
really have, like, a structureto that plan.
So that is the.
That's the story of the focus graveyard.
Now, once I had.
Once I had figured out, youknow, what was happening with.
With my brain and with mykiddos brain, I decided that I needed
to figure out some strategyaround how I could.
How I could help my brain work better.
(09:03):
And so I went to a couple places.
I went to the literature, andI shared this on the last episode.
But I was trying to figureout, okay, so I know that I had done
things like taking specificamino acids before, and that had
really helped me.
So I went back, andimmediately I had picked up two different
amino acids.
They are theanine and tyrosine.
(09:24):
So I picked these two aminoacids up, and I started taking them
every single day.
And not only that, I startedgiving them to my kiddo, and I called
them her pocket vitamins.
Sentinel.
Eventually, I gave them to herin the morning.
So amino acids actually workbest on an empty stomach.
So I would wake her up in the morning.
I would give her her supplements.
(09:45):
She would go back to sleepfor, like, 15 minutes, and then she
would get up and, like, getdressed and, you know, have breakfast
and whatever.
But I wanted to give her sometime for those things to be on an
empty stomach.
I then would give her herpocket vitamins, which is exactly
those same things, and wewould put them in our pocket.
So that midday she had, like,a little, like, a recess period before
that was like 20, 30 minutesbefore lunch.
(10:05):
And I was like, perfect.
You take your pocket vitaminsbefore lunch, and then, you know,
lunch later.
You know, you've had this onan empty stomach.
So she did this, you know,these pocket vitamins for a long
time.
Now what happened was that sheand I were both taking these.
These couple of things.
There.
There's more to this stackthan just those two.
But those two things we werereally trying.
(10:28):
And so I was feeling so muchbetter now.
This wasn't the only thing Iwas doing.
I was doing some other thingsto really help my brain, but this
was kind of like foundational for.
And these two amino acids arewhat I call these.
They're the bridge orfunctional supports that I had talked
about last time.
Sorry.
Yeah, functional.
(10:48):
Functional and bridge supportsthat I was talking about on the last
episode.
So in the last episode, ifyou're curious about what I mean
by that, I was talking aboutfoundational supplements, which are
more things like vitamins andminerals, and then what I'm calling
these bridge supports, whichare things that can help you actually
literally feel better in the moment.
So that's how I got started onthis and alongside this.
(11:08):
So this was all kind of justhappening on the personal side.
Now, alongside this, I had hadthis idea in my head for a really
long time that I wanted todevelop my own product.
So as someone who had thisfocused graveyard, as someone who
had tried a whole bunch ofthings that didn't really work very
well, I really had wanted tobe able to create something on my
(11:30):
own that would work.
And so, you know, a little bitmore than six months ago, I got connected
to a supplement brand thatwould allow me to actually create
my own product.
And so it was just like asuper exciting thing that happened,
(11:51):
and it kind of just fell in my lap.
But to be able to, you know,to say, okay, I can actually leave
out the things that I thinkare a problem and put in the things
that I think are helpful wasso exciting and honest.
Honestly, it was very selfish.
So I wanted to have the thingsthat were in my stack myself, and
I wanted to be able to do thethings that were helping my daughter.
(12:12):
And I didn't want us to haveto buy a bunch of random stuff.
So it was quite selfish that Iwanted to try this.
But I also knew that I couldbe helping a lot of people who were
struggling and maybe had someof the same issues that I did.
Maybe smart and able toaccomplish things, but that feeling
of those accomplishments beinglike rolling a boulder up a hill.
(12:34):
So it just feels like so hardto be able to keep all the balls
in the air.
So hard to be able to, tomaintain focus.
And so I wanted to be able tohelp other people because I knew
I was, I was certainly not theonly one.
So around that same time, oneother thing happened, which is that
one of my clients actuallyasked me about the, the third ingredient
(12:57):
that is in the supplement thatI, I ended up developing.
I'm going to tell you morelike the official, official release
of this will be the next timethat I release a podcast episode.
So this is still just like theteaser here, but a client had asked
me about this ingredient, andit's a botanical.
And what I, what I wasinterested in is I actually had studied,
I had studied herbal medicine.
(13:19):
So that was another thing withthose gazillion certifications I
told you about, because I'mfascinated with things and I will
go down a rabbit hole.
And as soon as I'm down therabbit hole, I'm like, well, just
give me the certification.
So I had studied for herbalmedicine for women.
And so as part of that, Ireally looked at a lot of different
herbs and botanicals.
(13:40):
But this one that my clientasked me about, I had actually never
heard of.
And so I went down a rabbithole looking at this particular botanical.
And it was amazing for mood,for focus, and something that had
been used for hundreds of ofyears traditionally.
And so I had started my owntrial with that, with my other, with
(14:03):
my other amino acids already.
So this is how kind of thesethings started coming together.
And I started with trialingthese things with myself and then
started talking to thiscompany about producing my own supplement.
So producing something thatwas utilizing these three ingredients
that I was using personallyand I was having massive success
(14:23):
with.
So I was actually able tofinally, after my supplement graveyard
or my focus graveyard, I wasable to take something that was helping
me in the moment.
And it was super exciting.
And that is how this all started.
So I started with the company,started doing some formulation for
(14:45):
me, they started testing somethings, they started getting these
ingredients together.
We started putting together a plan.
We started looking at what isthe relationship of these different
things to each other.
How can we actuallyincorporate all of this into a single
product and at ratios that aregoing to be the most effective.
So, you know, trial one wasjust getting all of that stuff together.
I then went about the processof sending this out to a bunch of
(15:10):
my, a bunch of my friends thatI knew might be able to help me.
They would give me some honestfeedback on if it helped with their
sense of focus.
So I sent this out and I gotgreat feedback immediately.
So this was kind of my own.
It's certainly not like anactual large scale trial, but it
was enough evidence that itwas not just me and my kid that were
(15:33):
really feeling benefit from this.
So.
And from that point we got thegreat feedback and then decided to,
you know, to go all in on thisand creating something that I saw
was really needed.
So that's the backstory.
I will be giving you the full,like, pulling back the veil on the
(15:54):
next episode, but what I wantto do today is actually just talk
about one of the primaryingredients, and that is the amino
acid theanine.
Now, when I was talking aboutamino acids before, I've been.
I was talking about like, youknow, usually what we see is that
you get proteins.
Proteins are broken down intotheir constituent parts, and those
are amino acids.
(16:14):
And so typically we're lookingat, you know, like big protein sources
to get amino acids from.
So something like, like meat, right?
So like, you know, other aminoacids often come from.
From breaking down somethingthat's more.
More protein rich.
Theanine actually wasisolated, though, from.
From tea.
So theanine has been used forhundreds, if not thousands of years
(16:38):
in Asia, and it was because of tea.
So in East Asia, tea, youknow, tea has been like tea ceremonies.
Like, the therapeutic uses oftea have been around for hundreds
of years, maybe thousands.
I don't know.
Like, Buddhist monks are saidto have used green tea to help in
meditation because of itscalming properties.
(16:59):
So because of that longhistory, because of the history of,
you know, of tea use inparticular, green tea, it's been
known for a long time in East Asia.
So it makes sense that it wasactually first isolated in Japan.
So Japanese researchersidentified it in 1949 as this component
of tea.
And when I say tea, I'm nottalking about like herbal tea, like
(17:19):
a, you know, chamomile tea orsomething like that.
It's actually the tea plant.
So that camellia plant is theone that actually is, you know, is
that's where you get thatamino acid.
So from that point, actuallyfrom around the 60s, it started gaining
interest in Japan and otherparts of Asia because it had this
relaxing effect without being sedating.
(17:41):
So a lot of differentbotanicals can be relaxing, but at
the same time, there's asedative property to it.
And so sometimes you want tofeel calmer.
For me, I want my brain tofeel calmer.
It feels like my brain is whatI say is it feels like a disco ball.
I'm trying to make it be alaser beam.
So when I have this disco ballfeeling in my brain, I don't necessarily
(18:06):
want to just like, go to bed.
I want to be able to focus.
And so the research in the, inthe 60s was that, hey, it could relax
the brain and it could helpthe brain get into this alpha brainwave
state.
And the alpha brainwave stateis this like calm, alert mental state,
which is like the ideal that Ithink a lot of us are going for.
So, you know, when I'm lookingto focus, I want to be able to feel
(18:29):
alert, but I also want to feel calm.
I don't want to feel like Ihave that internal restlessness.
I don't want to feel like Ihave to get up out of my chair every
five minutes to go makemyself, you know, a new hot tea.
So that is the origination of it.
And then here in the US and inthe west, it was really actually
a lot more recent.
So maybe like the late 90s andearly 2000s that, you know, some
(18:51):
people here started to use itmore and it started to become more
popular.
So it's pretty widely used atthis point.
And it was the first thingthat I started, that I said started
with.
And actually I had tried it,you know, quite a long time before
to help with my feelings of anxiousness.
So when I had, when I wasdealing with kind of an anxiety and
(19:12):
panic attack feeling, and Ihave a long history of that, theanine
was one of the things that hadhelped me immediately to kind of
get into that calmer state.
So I hadn't used it for a long time.
I kind of forgotten about itbecause I had done a lot of other
things and I really justwasn't experiencing.
Experiencing anxiety very much anymore.
But once I was trying to lookat ways that I could specifically
(19:33):
be targeted and helping mybrain, one of the first things I
wanted to go back to was theanine.
So it can be paired with caffeine.
A lot of people use theaninewith caffeine, which actually is
a reason why some people liketea in general.
So there is that theanine in there.
It's not concentrated the waythat it would be in a supplement
where we've extracted that andconcentrated it.
(19:54):
But using that, there is theneed in there and then there is some
caffeine.
If you're doing something likegreen tea, a lot of people really
like green tea for that effect.
Now, me personally, I actuallyget a little bit of a stomach ache
if I have green tea on anempty stomach.
I don't know why exactly, butI have had a lot of clients who experienced
that as well.
So I love green tea.
I need to use it, I need todrink it after I've actually had
(20:16):
food.
But also there's a much moremild or moderate effect from something
like a tea than there is when,when you're doing something like
taking a supplement.
There's also not very muchcontrol that you have on the amount
when you are doing somethingthat is a food or a beverage.
So they can be really lovely adjuncts.
And I absolutely utilize a lotof different kinds of tea.
(20:36):
But you can't really controlhow much is in there, and you can't
even control, like, you know,how much is in a particular cup,
much less like, you know, whatwas in the batch of those tea leaves,
for example.
And so it's lovely, it'shelpful, it's adjunctive.
But for me, when I want toknow exactly how I'm going to feel,
I need to know exactly howmuch I'm getting.
So the first ingredient I'mgoing to share with you from my new
(20:59):
product that I'm going toactually tell you the name of and
tell you all about it andactually lift the veil next time.
But the first ingredient is theanine.
And theanine, again, thathistory is for its, you know, that
calm focus, that calm, alert feeling.
That's the history of its usefor hundreds of years in East Asia.
I have certainly experiencedthat myself.
(21:19):
And as someone with a longhistory of a focus graveyard, it
was my go to originally and Ilove it.
And it's one of my top,favorite, favorite amino acids to
be using for a feeling offocus and flow.
So that's the backstory, thatis a little bit of the history, and
that is the first of threeprimary ingredients in what I'm going
(21:41):
to be sharing with you next time.
So stay tuned and I'm soexcited to do the official unveiling.
Hey, love, thanks for makingit this far.
If you're hearing this, you'reone of the magical statistical few
that listened all the way tothe end.
And I so appreciate your engagement.
I hope that means the messagetoday resonated with you and you're
taking away a tool trick oraction step that will help you have
(22:03):
your best feeling brain.
If that's you, I have a favorto ask.
So many more women need tohear this Message and your 30 seconds
to leave a rating or reviewwill help them hear it.
Just go to the show in yourpodcast player and scroll down until
you see the stars to leave aquick rating.
And make my day while you'reat it.
Thank you so much.
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