Can’t Lose Weight? Get Healthy First. 6 Effective Detox Strategies

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Hey this is JJ Virgin. Thanks so much for joining me. This is Ask the Health Expert. In each episode I put the power of health in your hands and share ways to get healthy, lose weight, heal your gut, detox, and lots more so you can look and feel better fast. If you'd rather watch the video, hey, I did put on my makeup and do my hair, so check it out on my YouTube channel. Hey, it's J.J. here. Now let's be honest. The holidays are basically a financial ambush. Travel, hosting gifts, surprise holiday school things. Suddenly you're wondering how December turned into a spending spree. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. It's rated the Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface on your laptop or your phone. What really grabbed my attention is how fast those little holiday expenses pile up with Monarch. Seeing everything in one place makes it a lot harder to accidentally overspend. And honestly, I appreciate anything that keeps me from starting January with a money hangover. You'll love exploring the holiday spending category. Imagine how good it will feel to actually see what's happening before your credit card statement does that whole dramatic reveal thing. Monarch basically shows you exactly where the money is going in real time, and that level of clarity could change everything, right? Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code virgin@monarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with code Virgin.

Some people think nature is like this, but actually it's like this. Mother Nature is not all sunshine and rainbows. Nature can be hotter than a sauna and colder than an arctic skinny dip. That's why Columbia engineers everything we make for anything nature can throw at you. Columbia engineered for whatever.

Isn'T it so irritating when other people make losing weight look so easy? I mean, if it's not that way for you, there may be a reason and it's not your fault. It may not even be your diet. Hey there, I'm JJ Virgin. I'm a four times New York Times bestseller and Fitness hall of famer. And I've helped thousands of people lose weight and stop the weight regain for more than 30 years now. This is the second video in a series to take you through some of the things that could be keeping you from losing weight and more importantly, how to fix them fast. And number two is toxins. So if you want to make sure you don't miss this kind of good information, let's stay connected. All you have to do is hit like on this video and subscribe to this channel. Okay, so here's some breaking news. If you're struggling to lose weight or it keeps coming back, the problem isn't always about food. What I know. But it could be about how you're using your diet. Are you a diet lifer? Can't get off the ride or you think you'll blow up three sizes overnight if you do? Well, guess what? That's actually the opposite of what you should be doing if you want to lose weight for good. Now I'm not saying don't diet. Diets can work, but you should not be on a diet for life. Dieting is not a lifestyle, it's not a hobby. Once you make it an everyday thing, your body just clings to the crumbs you're giving. It shuts down and hold holds on to fat so it can eat. But if you can use diets once in a while as a therapeutic tool, they jump start weight loss. Why? Well, the right diet for the right amount of time helps you detox. And toxins are a major reason extra pounds may be stuck around your middle and other places that bum you out. Right? So detox is a mission critical strategy for fat loss. That's fat loss, by the way, not weight loss. You do not want to lose muscle if you're losing weight. But it's not fat from your waist, you're making yourself worse, not better. Toxins are going to keep that fat glued to your waist. So you have to reduce your toxic burden in order to get rid of that super important and trust me, you cannot even spot target it through exercise. I've seen it tried so many times. Does not work. Consistent GI issues are a neon sign pointing out that you could be carrying a heavy toxic burden all those toxins build up with constant exposure. It's like your body's a history book, that the damage they do is compounded by an illness, genetics, or poor lifestyle choices. And toxins, by the way, are stored in your fat. So when your metabolism tanks, like, what happens when you never stop dieting? Hint, hint. Your body holds onto that fat, and of course, it holds on to the toxins in it. And because somebody out there has a dark sense of humor, holding on to too many toxins also lowers your metabolic rate and impairs your thyroid function. So it's this vicious cycle, and the only way to get yourself off this merry go round is to free, free up that fat and burn it. Now, we are all hit with a ton of toxins every day, so no one is toxin free here. We all have our fair share of gunk. There are always chemicals in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and in the products we wash our face and our hair and our body with. And that's. Even if you're trying to make really clean choices. I mean, even if you decide to wear a gas mask, while that's a great look, it's not going to keep you totally in the clear.

You.

It's literally a constant siege, and we're really not equipped to handle it. Evolution didn't give us an immune system to deal with all these chemicals that are new. Our ancestors didn't have to worry about what was in their apricot facial scrub, Right? But, you know, they had their own issues back then. So it may suck that we have to worry about toxins, but we can do something about them. And here's the great news. You get hit by toxins every single day. So let's connect the dots on weight loss here. That means that you have to detox every single day. And that can be just some really simple changes. But you'll also want to stay on top of your toxic burden by doing deep detoxes at least once a year. And more is better, and that's super important. All right, so here are some killer detox strategies to get you started. And number one, of course, you're going to change what's at the end of your fork diet. Now, you've heard this before, but you may not know why that you're supposed to eat this rainbow of colorful vegetables and especially deep green leafies. Turns out that there's specific compounds in them that can help chelate out, pull out the heavy metals out of your body. So that's step one. And all those colors are Antioxidants that also can help too. Now the other thing that's in them is fiber. So fiber acts like a sponge to help absorb and get those toxins out of your body. So you want to make sure that you're getting fiber every single meal on the virgin anti diet. And next thing is, add in those digestive enzymes and you just took your detoxing up to an 11. All right, next one, dry brushing. What the heck is that? You take a dry brush and rough and you run it across your skin and you're going to exfoliate. But more importantly, you're stimulating lymphatic drainage. Number three, after you do that, get in an Epsom salts bath. Put in a little lavender essential oil too. That's going to help you sleep well. But the Epsom salts with the magnesium is great for detoxification. Okay, number four, my favorite trifecta of bodily functions. You're going to pee, you're going to poop, and you're going to sweat. This is so important. So in order to pee, poop and sweat, well, of course you need the fiber, but you also got to have lots of water and you're going to want to move some to sweat it out, get your body moving. And if you can, bonus points for spending some time in a sauna. Shout out to my friends over at Sunlight and Sauna. Amazing. Okay, number five, intermittent fasting. So intermittent fasting activates something called autophagy. And this autophagy is amazing. It's basically helping you take out the cellular trash. So all the waste product that your body gets out in the cells, old cells, et cetera, autophagy is getting rid of them through intermittent fasting. That means you're eating through a restricted eating window of maybe one meal a day or eating over eight to 10 hours a day. All right, the obvious number six, don't let the enemy in the house. Don't add more toxins in. So one of the first things you're going to want to do is swap out high five foods. Those are gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs, peanuts, sugar, artificial sweeteners. Eliminate those for at least three weeks to see which foods work for you and which foods don't. And then also we're getting rid of GMOs and mycotoxins as well. You'll also be swapping out damaged fats. Those are especially those vegetable oils that have been processed for brain fueling, healthy anti inflammatory omega 3s. And of course, you're going to lower your sugar impact. You're going to trade high sugar impact garbage foods for subtle sweet treats that are loaded with fiber like berries and my loaded smoothies. And of course you're getting rid of the artificial colors and flavors. I mean, come on. Artificial, not food. Okay, now you also got to make sure you keep them out of your skin care products. You know that some of the cosmetics out there have formaldehyde. I mean, come on, I don't have to explain that, right? So you want to make sure it's parabens sulfate free. Do your homework. There's a lot of great stuff out there and you got to look at things like your sudsy shampoo, right? But you never thought that, like, what you're washing your hair with could be the key to your weight loss. So detoxing is going to help you get off that dieting hamster wheel for good. And trust me, you're going to feel amazing too. And don't worry, you can still rock your great hair with a clean shampoo. There's some great ones out there. I know you were thinking about that, right? So I hope you found this helpful and I hope more importantly that it makes a big difference for you. Don't forget to like and subscribe so you get more healthy lifestyle intel tips and tricks. Now in this next video, I'll cover the next big reason that's not your diet, that you might not be losing weight. I'll see you there.

For more info on this and other health topics I cover or to rate and review, find me on Instagram, Facebook and my website, jjvirgin.com and don't forget to subscribe to my show so you won't miss a single episode. Go to subscribetojay.com thanks again for being with me this week.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I tag all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately. And I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment, whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything you'll learn something about yourself as a reader, and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I Read Next? Podcast. Com to find out more.