Cooking for Hormone Balance with Magdalena Wszelaki

Hey, it's J.J. here. You know, I've been talking about environmental toxins forever, and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything. They just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family sheets or skin.

And.

And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze. It looks like a dryer sheet, but it's actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating, and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on your first order. Hey, JJ here. Can you believe how fast the holidays are knocking at the door this year? One minute it's pumpkin spice season, the next you're getting your guest room ready and wondering where their wrapping paper went. And that's when I turned to Wayfair. From bedding and towels to holiday decor and last minute stocking stuffers, Wayfair has everything you need to get your home and holidays together fast. And for way less. With Wayfair, I know I can refresh my guest room in no time. Maybe I'll add a soft new comforter or a few holiday throw pillows. With Wayfair, it's so easy and everything arrives super fast. Plus, there's free shipping for any order over $35 easy and total peace of mind. So whether you're hosting, gifting, or just adding those final festive touches, Wayfair has your back. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Get organized, refreshed, and ready for the holidays. For way less, head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style, every home that's W a Y f a I r.com Ray Ban.

Meta Glasses Come with open ear audio so you can listen to your favorite music without blocking out the world around you.

Hey Meta, Play Gorgeous.

Here's Gorgeous by Doja Cat.

You can also ask Meta AI questions.

Hey Meta, when's Doja Cat's next concert?

Doja Cat is playing at the Los Angeles Theater next Tuesday.

Sweet Ray Ban Meta Glasses Available at Ray Ban stores and other authorized retailers.

Welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show with celebrity nutrition expert, fitness hall of famer and four time New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin. JJ is a warrior mom whose knowledge and expertise have helped change hundreds of thousands of lives. With over 3.5 million podcast downloads and appearances on Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, the Today Show, Rachael Ray, Larry King, Love Whoa, whoa, whoa.

This show is about you, not about me. I want to help you find practical, real world ways to dial in your health and mindset so you can finally lose that weight and feel strong and energized. Stop settling for less than your personal best. It's time to find out how to look and feel better than ever. And I'll be right here with you the whole way. Hey, it's jj. Welcome to the podcast. I have got a treat for you today. It's a delicious one. I've got my pal, Magdalena, Magdalena Shaloski. And I'll give you extra bonus points and a gift if you can figure.

Out how to spell her name.

I've known Magdalena now for a couple years. She is a super cool niche. She is the author of the book Cooking for Hormone Balance and she has a company, Hormones Balance and it is a nutrition coaching practice where she helps women rebalance their hormones with food and herbs. And what's super cool is this all came. She'll tell you her story of how this came to be, but she makes the most delicious stuff. But it all has this therapeutic effect. So if you're dealing with any thyroid issues, adrenal issues, hormonal issues, anything going on with blood sugar, insulin and liver stuff, anything going on with estrogen dominance, you're probably like yes, yes and yes. You know, maybe you got hot flashes or you're cold or you're constipated. Hey, you are going to want to listen to this podcast because she's going to show you how to use foods that you would typically be eating, how to incorporate those in to really change.

The way that you look and feel. So it's really exciting stuff here and.

She also has an amazing guide for you. We'll be talking about that, but you'll be able to Grab that in all the show notes. We always have awesome show notes@jjvirgin.com HB for hormone balance.

All righty. Welcome to the show. Magdalena, I am so happy to have you with me.

Thank you. I'm super excited to be here. Jj.

I'm a little jealous because for everyone listening, Magdalena is in Italy, but I'm assuming you're doing food research there, right?

I am together with skiing and working on my book.

But yes, one of these days, that's.

What I want to do.

Park myself in foreign countries and write great recipes for everybody. So we're going to dive in because you have such an interesting angle of cooking for hormone balance, and I'd love to know how you got into this.

Yeah, you know, it's a very personal story, and I think a lot of people who are really, really passionate about what they do is always starts with our own story of some kind of a disaster. And, you know, mine started off pretty much from the first diagnosis in my late 20s with Graves disease, which is an autoimmune disease that causes hyperthyroid, overactive thyroid function. And not having done anything about addressing the root causes of that autoimmune problem, I went eight years later. I was then diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease. This is, you know, this was all based on feeling incredibly fatigued, having memory losses, started putting on weight, not being able to get up in the morning, you know, from bad, terrible mood swings. And so, you know, and the diagnosis was, on one hand, really scary, but also it was very. I felt so helpless because back then, this is in 2008, back then, there was no resources like we have today about autoimmunity, about thyroid problems. I most certainly had estrogen dominance going on based on my symptoms, such as terrible PMSs and most likely adrenal deficiency or adrenal exhaustion from having a very stressful job and being on the road a lot. I used to work in a regional job and travel a lot. And so that was, you know, there was just a perfect storm that just finally created the diagnosis that led to the diagnosis. And, you know, fast forward really 10 years later, as a 45 year old woman, I feel better than I have ever felt in my life. I feel better than when I was 25 years old when I used to, you know, I used to walk around with a bloated belly and having cystic acne and horrendous headache and.

And by the way, Magdalena, so here I am, I'm 25. Like, I'm not 25 now. I'm 54 now. But when I was 25, I had.

The same stuff going on.

And I was a fitness instructor and studying nutrition, and I had cystic acne. And I remember someone actually asking me, I was walking through a department store, my workout clothes, right. And they asked me when I was due. I was like, right. So I'm hearing all this. And, you know, sadly enough, your story is pretty common, still common today. So it's super cool that you're able.

To turn it around with food.

And not just that you were able to, but now that you've been able to do this with loads of people, because I know you have lots of success stories with using just. And it's not like it's weird food either. It's like totally yummy food that you've been doing here.

Absolutely. Stuff that you can get from a grocery store on a daily basis. But also, I want to mention on this, you know, you said the healing journey. I think it's also really important to always remember that my healing journey might be different from somebody else's healing journey. Right. Because we all have different triggers. And so that was the reason why I went to nutrition school, is to really understand what triggers different people's diseases and conditions, especially when it comes to hormonal imbalances. And we all have a slightly different story, although many of them are, you know, the underlying causes can be really nailed down to probably, like, the big five issues or so.

But that's such a great point, because I think everyone's looking for the answer. And the real deal is we have to be our own personal health detective, learn to recognize symptoms, connect the dots between what we're eating and how we feel to really be able to optimize the right diet for us, which is. I know you go through in your book Cooking for Hormone Balance, so I just. I love that you're doing that now. You kind of threw out a term I just want to jump in on, which is estrogen dominance, just in case people don't know what it is. If you can just yak about that. And I also want to bring up a big myth out there about people who have this and some of the foods they should be avoiding, especially things like flaxseed. So you can just jump on both those.

Yeah, let's talk about that. I have to tell you, this is one of my favorite. This is actually my favorite hormonal imbalance because it is so common amongst women and yet so many of us do not realize that we actually have it. So estrogen Dominant basically means that you have too much of not just estrogen, but the wrong kind of estrogens. And so what happens is kind of interesting in the body is that we produce different forms of estrogens. Some of them are protective and some of them are antagonistic. And when I say antagonistic, it means that they are the aggressive form of estrogens that are causing a lot of the symptoms, such as the PMSS and growth of fibroids and the growth of fibrocystic breasts. Even estrogen receptor positive breast cancers are also fueled by the wrong kind of estrogens. You know, infertility also having first cycle miscarriages, having swollen limbs around your cycles. You can't take off your ring that moment. That could also be estrogen dominance, but also things like cellulite for that matter, or fat that accumulates around our hips and butt, so we just can't sh. Shake it off no matter what we do. That can also be estrogen dominant. So you can see a lot of symptoms. And so the wrong kind of estrogen can be fueling it. But also what can happen is that estrogen gets broken down to what's called metabolites. And that happens in the liver and in the gut. And depending on how healthy our digestion and how well functioning our liver is, that balance of those broken down metabolites can either be very protective and great for us, make us feel wonderful, or we can be producing too many of those bad metabolites, which again, are causing the symptoms that I just mentioned. Is that a good explanation?

That's a great one, yes. So what do we do with that since it is so prevalent? And again, the one that I get asked a lot on Facebook is, okay, but I've got estrogen dominance. I can't put the flaxseeds in my shape.

That's a really good. Right. And it makes sense, right? Because, you know, flaxseed is one of the highest foods. It is actually the highest food when it comes to phytoestrogen. So it's a naturally occurring estrogen that resembles our own produced estrogen in a woman's body. So you think, well, if I'm estrogen dominant, why on earth would I be putting in more estrogen? Right? Make total sense. The answer to this is that like I mentioned before, actually we do need estrogens. And so the estrogen coming from Flaxseed is the good type of. But not only that, Flaxseed skews the balance between the positive and the negative or the antagonistic estrogen the way they basically get broken down in the liver, Flaxseed can make a huge impact in skewing the balance towards the positive side. So the safer side of estrogens, you know, and that is, that is hugely important. And not to mention also the fact that is very high in flaxseed is high in omega 3s, which is anti inflammatory. And you know, for most of us women, whether it's stress or because of what we eat or what we put on our skin, we tend to be very inflamed. So that Omega 3 is always very welcome. And lastly, why I love flaxseed is the fact that it's a wonderful source of both soluble and non soluble fiber which helps us to evacuate. If you will have a really good bowel movement.

Must I call that poops we can be proud of? That's, that's my college. Don't have to tiptoe around that. We're all big poop fans over here.

You know, I have to tell you, whenever I travel and I get constipated because I tend to, a lot of women get constipated when we travel, you know, and I travel with flaxseed. And I recommend this for anyone just having a couple of tablespoons of whole flaxseed in a glass of water before you go to bed and it all bulks out during the night and it evacuates things beautifully. And the evacuation in the case of estrogen and a few other hormones as well, but estrogen even more so is really important. And the reason is that when you don't poop on a regular basis, I'm talking about once, twice a day, feeling completely emptied, having a nice banana shaped kind of a poop. None of that not running to the bathroom with Darias or obviously not being constipated either. So the constipation issue causes toxicity and of estrogen. So when you, you know, when we metabolize estrogens, right. They, we evacuate them through our poop. That's that, that's basically the journey they get created, they get into the bloodstream, they do the work, they get separated out in the liver and then through the help of the bile, they get, you know, pooped out. If you went out pooping them out, then they reenter the body and then create all that havoc with all the symptoms that I talked about.

So big takeaway here, and I think that here's an easy visual for everybody is like if you pooped and you didn't flush, what would happen? Right? I mean if you pooped and didn't flush, it does not smell good in there, right? I mean, it's bad. And so you must, you must get it out of your body. Got to get it out.

You know, it's.

Bring all the flaxseeds. So that's one of the great foods. Let's grab a couple of the other ones. Because one of the things I love is, it's not like these are bizarro things you can't find anywhere. What are some of the other key foods that people should be looking for that are great superfoods to add into their.

So let me talk about a food that I think a lot of your listeners might be interested in, you know, given your demographic as you work with more mature women. You know, one of the issues that we have is in that demographic is breast health, right? So I'm talking here about fibrocystic breasts, estrogen receptor positive cancers, you know, lumps on the breast. Right. A lot of women, when we go into our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, that is a real problem. So one of my absolute favorite foods have been really well researched is, you know, this little tiny, innocent looking broccoli sprout. And so if you go to the supermarket, you go to Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or any health store that's near, you just look at where all the green stuff is, all the salads. A lot of times you find it in little boxes. Broccoli sprouts already sitting there, ready to go. Now, what's so fantastic about them is that they contain a substance called sulforaphane. Sulforaphane has been well documented to do two amazing things for us. It's an estrogen receptor blocker. So, you know, the estrogens I was talking about, jj, that the way we separate them, they can be antagonistic and they make the lumps grow and they cause fibrocystic breasts. The reason why women with estrogen receptor positive breast cancers have the malignant growth of the tissue. So the beautiful thing about sulforaphane is that it blocks those estrogen receptors. And so that that way, not only does the breast cancer doesn't grow, but it's even studies showing that there is a shrinkage of the breast tumors. Just pretty incredible. So, you know, yeah, this set that.

Like I've heard you say this before, and I immediately texted a friend who I have, who's going through this, going, add them in, you know, who has breast cancer.

What would, like, what would you do with.

I actually don't think I've ever Eaten these. What do you do with them?

Yeah, it's a good question. So, you know, I'll be honest. I mean, they do not taste the best. I mean, they taste a little bit like grass, you know, neither are they awful. Right. But they are kind of like grass. Right. And if you keep them growing, they're basically going to grow into a broccoli. So they do taste like an intense version of broccoli. What do you do with them? You know, your community is big on smoothies and Shakespeare. Right. Add that in to your shakes because it doesn't add any sugar. So that's a wonderful.

And you won't. So you won't. You won't taste this bitter, funky thing.

Exactly. Another thing is just incorporating that into your salads on a regular basis, you know?

Yeah, that seems like it.

What about.

Could it go get thrown into stir fries?

No.

So we do not want to cook. Yeah. Sulforaphane gets very quickly diminished if we cook it. So we want to have it.

Right.

Okay, good to know.

And this is such a simple thing compared to. Women who have breast cancers are put on an estrogen blocker called tamoxifen. It's a highly toxic drug. It's only prescribed to women for about five to seven years, because after that, it does so much damage to the liver that it's not advised to continue. And here you have these little broccoli sprouts that are just so incredibly potent. And, Gigi, the reason I'm so passionate about this is because. Because there are so many women, I'm sure you've heard this in your. Heard it in your community as well, who say breast cancer runs in my family. Right. I'm so afraid I'm going to be next. And living with that fear is like one of the things that is just. Is such incredibly, you know, diminishing energy. It's such a sucking energy that sucks the life out of you to be living with that. And, you know, you can. You have absolute and total control over that just by.

I also think, if anything, the stress and anxiety of living with that could create the problem.

Absolutely. And genetic. You know, breast cancers are only about less than 10% of all breast cancers. And so most of them are due to estrogen, which is completely controllable. So that's my little favorite here thing for you. You know, do that one cup, and it's a preventive.

Broccoli sprouts.

Sprouts. Broccoli sprouts. And if you want to have some fun with it, you can. You can make your own broccoli sprouts from seeds. Just learn how to sprout them. And in my book, I also describe how to do the sprouting. It really takes five days to get it done. And you know, and it's super easy.

By the way, beautiful book for everybody listening. Like this book, Cooking for Hormone Balance. Like, absolutely gorgeous book. Like, you did an amazing job. So good. All right, so we got flax going in the smoothie, we got broccoli sprouts.

What else?

What's another cool thing? And that's amazing for breast health? I know we got a couple other things I want to make sure we address too, that are big concerns in my community.

Yeah. So did you say you still want to talk about breast health? I do have one more.

Well, no, I think we got breast health. I'm like, I know ones that I'm hoping you've got some solutions for. Things like hot flashes, you know, any of the, you know, I mean, there's nothing like a hot flash. I remember going, you know, going to sleep with my husband, getting tossed across the bed because he's like, well, you're like on fire. I'm like, and that's not good, by the way. That's not when you want to be.

You know, it's that moment when you are in a meeting, right? Or you are in a shop and it just, everything just the whole world stops because it's all about your hot flash, right? And you just, you're trying to hide it. It's so embarrassing. It's so uncomfortable. It feels so self conscious, right? Well, here's the great news about this and that is hot flashes actually can be completely reversed and very well managed. Hot flashes as well as night sweatshirts, right? And for that I want to give you an example of one of our community members. Her name is Janice. And Janice, I remember reported, she said, you know, I've noticed that every time I, after I have breakfast at 8 o' clock and then I go to work and she works as a nurse, I'm on my feet all day long, right? And 11 o', clock, it hits me like I get this biggest hot flash and I have to go to the bathroom and just wait through it because I'm too embarrassed. I just cannot work and focus when it happens. And so what she discovered is that she said, you know, but then I realized if 15 minutes before 11am If I have a bunch of nuts, right, which is all full of protein and fats, my hot flash just doesn't happen. And I said, well, that's wonderful. Well, that's. That's. That's, you know, that's a solution, too. But let's also talk about life changing. And it also opens up an opportunity to ask another question. What exactly do you eat for breakfast? And her breakfast was, you know, one of those typical American breakfasts, which is she was doing a toast with some. With some jam. Then she later, she switched to oatmeal with a lot of dried fruit. Right. And maple syrup on top. So if you really think about it, there is, you know, in my books, it's definitely way too much carbohydrates and way too much processed sugar and even fructose from the fruit itself. Way too much sugar. And I know, jj, you are big on this sugar. And so one of the things that we had done with Janice is that we've changed her breakfast. And one of the things that you will see in my cookbook, I hardly use any breakfast that have a significant amount of sugar. There are a couple of sweet ones. There's a lot of other savory breakfasts. And so, you know, this is what we did with Janice. We changed. We basically changed her breakfasts. And she. What I call a pff kind of breakfast stands for protein, fat, and fiber kind of breakfast.

I'm with you. You just said my three men.

Ah, there we go. Yeah. You and I on the same page. Yes.

Changes everything. I mean, like, worst thing you can do is big carb, like a low protein, low fat carb hit in the morning just to really set you off.

Right. Or having, you know, or having an orange juice. Right. And a croissant. I mean, I mean, that just sets you up for 12.

You know how I feel about juice.

What I will say this is vaginas, is that, you know, sugar balance when it comes to hot flashes and night sweats is the first thing that you can do. And so many women have an incredible improvement right away. So starting off with breakfast is a really great starting point. And I know. I just love the work you're doing on sugar because that is just. It's just life changing. And not only is the hot flashes, but is the energy levels change. And as one of our community members said, we have a very. I have a thriving online community and a lot of sharings, a lot of communal support and a lot of renting and venting. It's the right place to do that. And one of the women came on and she said, you know, in order to change my nights, I had to change my breakfasts. And who Would have thought, Right.

Betweetable, powerful, powerful stuff.

Right. She just changed her breakfast. And then guess what? She had such a. She stopped. Insomnia stopped. And she was able to sleep through the nights having no night sweats whatsoever. This is a woman who was in her, you know, mid-50s. Right. Amazing.

Yeah. So that's incredible. Now, since you started, brought the age card up there, what about another one that I get asked all the time, and I will tell you honestly, I've been like, I got nothing. It is that moment when you're doing a downward dog and you look at your skin and go, who is that? It's like, no. Are you a magic worker? Do you have anything there? Yeah, because you told me your age the other day. I about fell over. So clearly something's working.

Yeah. So, you know, sagging skin happens when our estrogen levels start diminishing. Right. Going down. But also low testosterone can also be causing both sagging skin as well as muscle loss. Right. And so, you know, there's. There is a couple of natural things that we can do straight away to fix that. So, you know, the first thing I would go back to that flaxseed. You know, flaxseed has the highest level of estrogen in it. So bring that on. And I'm talking here about two tablespoons a day added to your smoothies. You can sprinkle that on top of a salad, top of a soup. Do not cook it. We do not want to be killing the omega 3s by cooking it. So there you have it. So flaxseed will be the first one. The second solution I have for your audience when it comes to that sagging skin muscle loss issue is to work with significant, you know, to bring up your progesterone levels naturally. And for that, jj, I know we have a gift for your listeners that will them.

Yes.

On something really fascinating but really simple. It's called the seed rotation method. So you're basically using the idea behind it. I'm just going to give you the idea. You guys can learn that the exact method from. From JJ's gift. The seed rotation basically uses a different kind of seeds to bring up for two weeks to bring up your estrogen levels. And then after two weeks, you switch for another two weeks to boosting your progesterone levels by. But just by using seeds such as sunflower and sesame seeds to boost your progesterone levels. Why? Because they're high in zinc and vitamin E, which are the precursors for your corpus lithium to be producing progesterone so having the progesterone estrogen balance helps tremendously with skin conditions with better quality sleep with, you know, just feeling much calmer, not having any mood swings. So huge benefits of using the seed rotation method. I actually, I'll be honest with you, when I learned about it from a naturopath many years ago and she told me about it and she said, try it with your clients. And I was like, what? Simple seats like that? Seriously? And she said, yeah, I've never heard of it.

I mean, I feel like, like, where the heck have I been? Honestly, like, when you said it, I was like, how did I not hear about it? And you know, the cool thing is this is simple, easy, easy things to get. Doesn't cost much and you're getting it free, everybody. Oh, and you're going to get it at. Okay, we're sitting here teasing everybody and not telling where they're getting it. So in the show notes, JJvirgin.com forward/hormone balance, all our cool stuff. And you will get the link to the seed rotation guide, which I just, it's like, this is so good. And I know this is just little highlight of what all is in your book that I was lucky enough to get an early copy of. So that is one everyone's going to want to get as well. Again, these are like easy, yummy recipes that are game changers and that's what's so exciting about it.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for saying that. And so let me ask you this, is your audience suffering from things like that stubborn belly fat that starts happening after.

Oh, no, they, they have got no issues at all with that. Never complaining about that at all. Just, I don't know, once a day. Yeah, that's every time I do Instagram or Facebook lives, that one comes up. I mean, what is it my mother used to call it? And I'm like, I'm not becoming my mother. I'm not becoming my mother. You know, she used to call it shifting sands, where like all of a sudden you have no, no button. It all went to your stomach. And I'm like, I'm not succumbing to shifting sands.

Forget it.

Yeah, yeah. So, so here's an interesting thing. So belly fat is a lot of times connected to, you know, remember how I was talking earlier about that estrogen dominance is causing the fat to be deposited around the hips and, and the thighs. Right. So when it comes to belly fat is actually is the sugar and insulin resistance and just generally high blood sugar levels that are causing the belly fat to be, you know, the storage, the preferred storage facility, if you will, for that hormonal imbalance. And so what the first thing I would say, you know, for your audience is really to follow JJ's recommendations on all the sugar balance stuff, because that stuff is really solid, like, doing it 100%. Not trying, you know, not dabbling, just like, committing and getting off sugar and really.

Yes.

It's not a hobby.

It's not a baby. You want to get that belly off. You know, the second thing that I see with belly fat with women, and I think that has a lot to do with just bringing the overall inflammation down, and that is reducing food sensitivities. So I know that's your other message, right, about your seven foods. And so I actually work with not all exactly seven same sevens, but very similar ones. And so, you know, it's exactly the same thing. I cannot tell you how many women have told us on our boards that every time they get off a food sensitivity, they've just discovered. And the really, the big ones, I mean, the glutens, the dairies, right? The corn, the soys, and the belly just immediately starts going down. The third one I have for you when it comes to belly fat is our liver health, right? And the more we. The older we get, the harder the liver would have been working by then. And what you want to really do is support your liver as much as you can. And, yes, sure, there's a lot of different detoxes that people do and to support the liver, yada, yada. But then, you know, I think the best way to really support your body is to commit to doing something on a regular basis, developing a routine, and then every time you look at your plate, you look at it and go, that is like a medicinal bowl. That's like a bowl of supplements I'm taking right here in front of me. Every one of these ingredients has a reason why it's not my plate. And that's really how I structured my cookbook. Jj, you know, it's like every food item has a story, has a reason to be there on your plate. And, you know, when it comes to liver function, just to resolve that belly fat, which is not just going to help the belly fat, but a lot of other things, including mental clarity, your energy levels, your quality of sleep, sleep, the quality of skin. I mean, all your hormones actually are metabolized in the liver as well. So your body's just going to be so thankful. Can I give you a couple of foods that I love for liver support super, super quick.

And then we're wrapping up. We're already like seven minutes over. But we're just, there's so much gold here.

And I want to remind everybody because.

I know people are probably like, I'm driving. I can't write this.

Don't worry.

Really amazing show notes from today's show. You're going to be getting@jjvirgin.com hormone balance. So yes, hit us with a couple of liver loving foods.

Super simple. The first one, bring on the cruciferous vegetables. And what I mean by those is the brassica family of veggies, which are your arugula, broccoli, of course, the broccoli sprouts we talked about. Kale, collard greens, bok choy. Did I mention cauliflower? Those are the ones you're talking about bringing in. Four to five cups a day, you know, in your diet. Oh my God, your body's going to love it. It contains a substance called dylmethane, also known as dim, which helps us with detoxification pathways in the liver, including estrogen. So really wonderful addition. The second one is a little bit more rare, but also I think it's fascinating. It easily can be purchased in many health stores and online. And that's dandelion roots or dandelion leaves. Not very common in our culture. But you know what, using dandelion, roasted dandelion root and making a coffee out of that or a latte which doesn't have any caffeine in it is an absolute golden food for the liver. And I've got a recipe, I've got a couple of recipes actually using dandelion roots in my cookbook.

Very cool. All right, so big takeaways here. Get this cookbook. Eating deliciously that gets your hormones balanced is way easier than you think. It doesn't involve like going off to some like crazy land and finding weird medicinal foods you've never heard of. This is stuff you can get in the grocery store. So that's really cool.

There's a couple simple ones you can.

Add in to your morning smoothies that make a big difference, which I love. So again, go to the show notes JJ virginia.com hormone balance we will have all of that info there. And Magdalena, thank you so so much for joining us today. Just amazing stuff. Obviously you will have to come back. I think we're going to do a really cool Facebook live cooking show with you, which I'm really excited.

Yeah, let's bring some of those, live those foods to life.

And so people absolutely like I'm going to have some fun with broccoli sprouts. That's what I want to do. So thank you again for joining me. Now, after the break, I'll be answering a listener's questions, so stay with me.

When you make a small change to something you do every day, the impact over time can be huge. And when it comes to breakfast, you don't want to blow it because your breakfast sets the pace for your entire day. That's why JJ created the all in one plant based breakfast shake to start your day right. Whether you are vegan, vegetarian, or just looking to consume more plant based foods, this breakfast shake is for you. It comes in three delicious flavors, vanilla, chocolate, and chai, and helps give you sustained energy, cuts cravings, and can melt pounds from your waistline. Visit jjvirgin.comproducts to shift your fat loss and energy into high gear today.

Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question comes from Fran in Ocean park, and she says, okay, jj, you've convinced me. I'm gonna start cooking, but I'm short on time, so I need some easy shortcuts to be able to do this well. All right, So I don't know about you, but the last thing I need to do is spend more time in in the kitchen. I am totally busy too, so I completely get that. So I've figured out how to do healthy meals literally in minutes. And it all comes down to being prepared. So what I've done is I actually got an extra freezer, and my extra freezer is stocked with great clean protein from my buddies over at Butcherbox. We'll be sure to put the info for Butcherbox and vital choice in the show notes. So I have all of that stocked in there. So I've got pastured chicken and pastured pork. I've got grass fed beef. I get amazing lamb from my buddy Jeff Moore. And then I have salmon and scallops and crab claws and halibut. So I have my freezer stocked. I also stock it with bone broth from my buddy Chef Lance. So that's all done. Then I make sure that I have the things I need in my pantry. So that would be lentil noodles, garbanzo beans. Sorry, Dave. Asprey Dave and I have a running joke about garbanzo beans and wild rice and some different kinds of soup. So I have a bunch of stuff in my pantry, so I'm well stocked in there too. At some point, I'll do a pantry tour. So you can see what I got in there then. Oh, and lots of coconut milk is stashed in my pantry as well. And then in my fridge every week I get fresh vegetables. So I'll get zucchini noodles. I'll get romaine, lettuce, spinach, carrots, cherry tomatoes usually I'll get some butternut squash and some butternut squash noodles, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower. I'm in love with cauliflower rice. I have that in the freezer as well from Trader Joe's. Cauliflower rice and fire roasted vegetables in the pantry. I also have chunky tomatoes. So I have all of this stuff stashed. Oh, ghee. Eat good fat ghee. And we'll put a link to my Amazon influencer page with all this good stuff in there too. So I have great stuff stocked in there from Butcherbox Thrive Market Vital Choice. And so I'm well stocked and of course I have really good oils and really good spices. I was like, what are those things called in the bottle that you shake, you know, spices so that it's really easy for me to go to the freezer, pull out the protein we're going to have for dinner, then figure out which type of a low slow carb I'm going to have. Is it going to be maybe some lentil noodles? Is it going to be wild rice? Is going to be butternut squash. Grab, grab those things out, maybe some sweet potato and then I always grab out a vegetable. So broccoli, cauliflower, rice, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, something simple. And that is literally what I do. So I might steam up some wild rice in some bone broth, add some ghee, saute up some wild salmon, and then do some broccoli with a little grass fed butter and I'm done. And literally that takes 15 minutes. So here's where it really, you really win. You've got to have a great shopping list of your staples and you just make sure that you keep your staples in your freezer and your pantry well stocked and that you get the groceries the. And you can order these off Instacart or Amazon Fresh, but you get your vegetables in every week and you have a couple things stashed in the freezer like cauliflower rice and the, the onions and peppers and you're totally dialed and set and you can literally make dinner in 15 minutes or less. And now you've heard from Magdalena and I'm going to say get her cookbook so that you can also just learn how to throw a couple different things in there. Like, you know, like she talked about doing the seed rotation. I was like, I have never heard this before, but I could totally do that with my smoothies in the morning. So it's super simple to do. You actually end up saving time because when you look at what it really takes to say go out to eat, first of all, it's going to cost a lot more. You can't really count getting what you want. You don't really know what you put they put in there. And it took time to go to the restaurant. So this is the easiest way that I know to do this. And then you can always win even bigger by making extra protein that night and throwing it on your salad the next day. Double win. And I always love those two for ones. So that's the simple thing. Thanks so much for asking that one. Now, if you'd like to submit a question, head on over to my Facebook page at JJ Virgin official or at Instagram @JJ Virgin, we scour those to grab questions so I can answer them on the podcast. The other thing that we scour to bring onto the podcast are our reviews from itunes. And I super appreciate these, first of all, because I know when people are looking trying to decide which podcast they should listen to that reviews mean a ton. They really, really matter.

So love that.

And plus, it means a ton to me and the team. You know, we read these and we.

Really appreciate you doing that.

So I'm going to feature today. Love my JJ 5 stars from Pukey's mom who says, thank goodness the wait for a JJ Virgin podcast is over. Ah. So I super appreciate if you feel so inclined to jump on over to itunes. Leave a review means a ton. While you're there, subscribe and share it with your pals. Because good friends help other friends get healthy with them. Alrighty, I'll see you next week. Bye.

That's all for this episode of the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show, which marks another step towards a healthier body and mind. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the show and we'll talk to you next week.

Hello, listeners, this is Anne Boeckle, 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 whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more.