Discover Iceland’s Secrets to Amazing Health & Happiness with JJ Virgin

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So here we are, we're staying at this hotel spa. Everyone is just hanging out in bathrobes. Like literally you wore a swimsuit and a bathrobe all day long and your hair was up in a ponytail. It was awesome.

Here's jj virgin triple board certified nutrition and fitness expert and four time New York Times best selling author. It's time to reignite wellness.

Hey, it's JJ here and I am just back from Iceland and still have a little jet lag and I wanted to record this podcast now while it's all still fresh in my mind. Of course. I made a lot of notes too about what we can learn from Iceland. Turns out I was there. And I will tell you, the minute I stepped off the plane, well, not the minute I stepped off the plane, but I walked into the hotel and I went, oh my gosh, why do I start? Why do I feel so different? And I kept feeling better and better and better as the day went on. And we in fact decided not even to leave the hotel where we were at. Stayed there for three days. It was amazing. My focus, my energy, everything else. Turns out I started to google what was going on here. Iceland is number two in health and number four in happiness in the world. And I didn't know really what was going on. I started to kind of look at around as to what would be happening. But the way I felt, calm, focused, energized. I mean there is something to this. So I'm going to share with you. I'm going to pull it apart, deconstruct what all went on while I was there. Why I think this is because it turns out there are course things that we could do to put this into our everyday life. And so before I jump into that, I just want to do a little shout out like I do. I'm recording my podcast live. I'm doing it live on Instagram and Facebook. So for those of you on Instagram and Facebook, feel free to leave questions. I will get to them at the end but right now I want to do a shout out to Shel Buggy, who left a five star review. Apple itunes says all things sensible for better health. And she says great short symbol podcast sets that keep me learning new things about health. Love it. All right, thank you so much for that. I super appreciate it. I'd love to shout you out. So if you can jump on over to subscribetoj.com you can subscribe to the show and leave. A review would be awesome. And before we dive into my secrets I learned from Iceland, I've got another great thing to share with you, so stay with me.

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And here we are. I'm going to share with you my experience and the top takeaways that I got from being in Iceland, because I'm guessing probably most of us are not. I will tell you, the minute I got home, I was looking at my husband Going, I just want to figure out when I can go back to Iceland. And even when we were leaving Iceland and the taxi driver was driving us to the airport, I was asking him about places he'd been. He goes, yeah, but I always come back to Iceland. I would never not live in Iceland. And. Which is pretty interesting because while we were there, it's winter, it was 30 degrees and the sun rose at 10am and it set at 4:30pm so a little bit crazy. So we were staying at a hotel that was built into the Blue Lagoon. It was called the Retreat Hotel. Really amazing. And it was built into the lava rock in this place called the Blue Lagoon. And the Blue Lagoon's famous. It's this place that people go and they, they go into these geothermal spas. And there's geothermal spas all over Iceland. But this is one like the big touristy one. These waters range from 98 degrees to 107 degrees. But they're like super mineral rich. They smell sulfury, but not like a horrible, like it's rotten egg smell, but you can smell the sulfur. And they've got this. I remember feeling down on the bottom of the pools and I was like, what is that? And it was silica and it kind of felt slimy at first. I was like, ah. But then you realize what it is. And you know, I was reaching down and rubbing it on my arms and legs. People were baths with silica masks on. And these baths are known for healing skin problems like healing psoriasis and healing eczema. Now I was at this one in the Blue Lagoon, as I was saying, and at this amazing hotel that was built into the lava rock there. Like literally we were in a sauna that was surrounded by lava rock. We were in a wine cooler down below that was built into the lava rock. It was crazy how amazing it was. But these, these geothermal pools are all over Iceland. And it's just for a lot of people, their daily ritual and it's done as a group. It's kind of cool. So like we were in these pools, it would be nine, ten o' clock at night and people were out in these pools all hanging out together and then. So great for thinking about that, great for community, great for company, but also so rich in minerals and so rich in sulf. So, you know, when I started to look at why are Iceland, Icelanders so happy? Well, I'd be happy if I was hanging out in a nice hot, warm. It was much different than a Jacuzzi. It felt so soothing. Like, you know, any pain or inflammation or anything else, just gone. And I've been traveling a lot so my back had been a little bit stiff. This was like the end of a two week trip all over the place where I changed hotels every two days. But turns out these mineral rich sulfury pools are great for pain, arthritis, high blood pressure, amazing sleep. Like I got out of that. Every night we would take these hot mineral baths and then I would go immediately to sleep. It's great for stress, great for skin issues. And again, it tastes, smells a little sulfury. And if they you happen to, you don't drink this, but it does taste a little bit salty. I got it against, I got it some on my mouth. And what was interesting is the way they built this into the lava rocks. They also had water coming out of the lava rocks that in little pipes that you could drink. And it was the most delicious, amazing things. One of the people I was there with says, I have never ever bought any water here, ever. Never bought any water. Like we always just drink water from Iceland. It's like some of the purest water from the world in the world and super rich in minerals. So I think that's another thing when you look at like what's going to help you be healthy. Well, these detoxifying baths they do every single day that are super mineral rich. And then drinking this mineral rich, pure spring water, these two things alone are huge. Now what's super cool is that there's silica in these baths. And this silica helps with hair, skin and nails. It's a key ingredient of collagen creation. And internally, it's also one of the trace minerals that your bones need to stay strong and dense. So there's that piece of it. Now here's another thing that is really cool is beyond the pools. So here we are, we're staying at this hotel spa. Everyone is just hanging out in bathrobes. Like literally you wore a swimsuit and a bathrobe all day long and your hair was up in a ponytail. It was awesome. But beyond that, there were all sorts of other kinds of treatments. So they had this thing called the ritual where you scrubbed yourself with volcanic salts and exfoliated, which we know, again, that's great for circulation, it's great for detoxification. Then you had put on a silica mask all over your body. And again, this is great for collagen and great for detoxification. And then after that you put an algae mask on. So they did that ritual. But then also we did steams in the. The steam room had lava around it again, smelled very sulfury, but not in a, not in a gross way. And then right after this, and I can't believe I did it, but it was incredible is I did the steam and then I walked out of the steam room and I did a cold plunge. And you know, the first time I did, I will tell you, I got into out my calves and I go, I'm not doing this. And it was 30 degrees outside. So we go into the steam, gets super, super hot. And then we had to walk from the outside of this volcanic room that they built into a steam room and walk back into the hotel spa and there's this little cold plunge. And I thought, you know what? Like I'm doing. It was the most invigorating thing I've ever done. It was awesome. So I did it a couple times a day. Then there was amazing steam room or sauna that was built right into the lava rocks too. But here's the coolest thing that I did that I cannot believe I got to do. One morning we got up and it was blustery and it was raining. And we'd scheduled this spa massage outside in the pool. And I'm like, well, how is this going to work? It's like 32 degrees, it's windy, it's raining. And so what they, they did was they put us out on these mats and then they covered us with towels and they dunked us so the towels got really warm. And then they put a wrap around our head to keep our ears warm. And they literally massaged you in the water. It was the most amazing thing as. And we started at 9:30 in the morning. Well, the sun. And we had something of our eyes and then the sun was rising and we're floating. It was one of the most magical experiences I've seen ever gone through. It was just crazy how cool this was. Now here's another thing about this. You know how sometimes you'll walk into a hotel and it just smells so chemically chemical and gross, or it smells moldy. This hotel smelled clean. All the products, one of the things Iceland's known for, sustainable energy, everything in there. And all of their animals are pastured, grass fed. In fact, what's. When I got off the airplane, they had a picture of the. This of the sheep. They're known for their. Their sheep, their lamb. They had this picture and they said, sheeps have been here. Sheep have been here. I guess they're not sheeps. Their sheep have been here since 878-74-AD and they never, they've never crossbred. They always eat whatever is indigenous there, which for them is berries and algae and grass. So they eat super duper clean. And they have this amazing like they're rich in omega 3s and you don't have to worry about any. They're not getting any kind of antibiotics. They're not getting any kind of hormones, nothing else. So for a lot of. When I was reading about why is Iceland so healthy again, number two in the world next to Italy. And they talked about the diet. So let me tell you a little bit about the Icelandic diet diet. And I will tell you about some of their delicacies that I did not try because I'm not that brave. It was a little bit scary. But then some of the things that I did try that were amazing. First of all, they are the highest fish consumption in the world, four times that of most of the other countries. And grains are something that they have to import. They're really expensive. So they don't really eat much of those. They do eat this one type of rye bread that they bake underground in the geothermal like heat somehow. And it's this really dense, thick rye bread. I didn't try because I don't like rye. But the big thing that they do there is a lot of fish. The meat that they eat is mainly sheep and lamb and again that has been pastured and it's higher in omega threes. Big fish that they like to eat there are cod, salmon, char, langoustines, haddock and herring. Now here's one of their delicacies and this is one that I, I did not try and just sounds disgusting. Was fermented rotten shark. And apparently it's quite fragrant. And another one I didn't try is boiled sheephead. I saw a lot of pictures of it. I didn't see it in the real thing there. Ick. And they also do do ram testicles. Didn't try those either. And they do their own form of haggis. Now I tried haggis when I was. And so I could check that off the list. I don't need to do that again. That's intestines. And it was icky poo. Didn't, didn't like it. But again, everything is grass fed. They eat berries and seaweed and grass and angelica and remember the grass. The ground is very mineral rich too. And then they also serve this amazing sea salt that is blackened by activated charcoal. So you're also getting the detox from that now one of the things that they're known for too is black licorice. It's the candy that they do the most of. They even do dark chocolate covered black licorice. But they love their black licorice. I used to love that. Really good for your adrenal glands and good for your gut and. But I did not have any black licorice. But what I did have was something called Skyr butter. Now they do something called Skyr and it's the way that they make yogurt from grass fed cows. And so it's this fermented kind of their version of a Greek style yogurt. But then they take that and they mix it with butter to make this Skyr butter. And I gotta tell you, it's the best thing I've ever, ever eaten. Like, I think it's their version of olive oil. And it's amazing, they do do olive oil as well. And then here's the other thing that they do. So they have super clean water, they have super clean animal and fish. And then their produce, because of the weather, their produce is grown in local greenhouses. So they don't use pesticides. So they do rhubarb and cauliflower and kale and sweet potato and berries and herbs, a lot of different herbs, but again no pesticides. So I think they've got like natural detoxification going on all the time. Loads of mineral rich foods, lots of omega threes and then super clean produce too. And you know, you know how you walk into a city and it smells and there's pollution. The air was clean and clear. The water was. I've never tasted water like this, ever. I came home, I'm like, where do I buy Icelandic water? You know, it was just incredible. And I got to tell you, you number four in the world in happiness. People were happy. The people at the hotel, everyone was like, I almost thought I was watching a Saturday Night Live skit of one of the people. I'm like, is he really that happy? Like they were happy. They were happy to be there. And the people I talked to were like, yeah, we would never live anywhere else. I kept thinking, they're going to want to get the heck out of here. Like it's dark most of the time and they were in cold. Also, I did not see overweight people. They were fit, they were healthy and they were happy. So it turns out that as an area, it's very underpopulated. There are 320,000 people there and there's a lot of trust Amongst them, they feel very safe. Everyone has a role. And they also do a lot of different jobs. They're what's called multi vocational. Now here's what else is cool. They are the first. They have the smallest gender gap in the world. They have the best gender equality in the world. They're the first country to ever democratically elect a female president. Here was what else I thought was crazy is 1 in 10 Icelanders is an author and books are held in high esteem there. And again, because it's so sparsely populated and so clean, there's very, very low pollution. Also all the energy is done sustainably and there's very crime. And they have this theory, this cultural theory there of resilience that it will, it will all work itself out. All right, so after the break, I am going to go through, like, since we're probably not moving to Iceland. Although I will tell you, I already have my next, my next trip planned to go back to the retreat hotel. Like the minute I left, I'm like, I don't want to. Like, I just want to come here for a week and park it here and write and hang out. And we got up in the morning, we did yoga as the sun was rising with. Which is much easier to do when the sun rises at 10. I slept, I slept in. Oh, by the way, coffee is a big deal for them. They actually have, instead of tea in the afternoon, they have coffee in the afternoon. So coffee is another big deal there. But I'm going to give you some of my top takeaways of things that we can take from what I learned in Iceland and put into our daily lives wherever we're living in the world. So stay with me.

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All right, welcome back. I'm going to post all of this too. I'll post someone on Facebook was asking about the hotel. So I'll put this all@jjvirgin.com Iceland if you're watching me live right now, I'm recording a podcast so that link will not be live for a while till we put the podcast out at the Reignite Wellness Show. If you are not subscribed yet to the podcast reminder subscribe to JJ.com it's that easy. And again, the show notes will be@jjvirgin.com Iceland I'm going to include the retreat hotel information in there. Amazing stuff. And let's go through now all of the different takeaways, what you can learn from those happy, healthy Icelanders. Again, second healthiest in the world. That was the Bloomberg World Wellness World index, second to Italy and the happiest place in the world, fourth in the world in happiness. I guess it's been as high as number one. But shoot, being in the top 10 on either of those things is fantastic. So here's my takeaways and I was roaming the Internet to see what, what are they saying and I really think they missed the boat. I think that the number one thing here is that this is a super duper clean city, which is probably challenging for most of us where we live. But what they do also because of those geothermal baths and the pure water is they're detoxifying on a regular basis. So first thing I'm going to tell you is you want to be detoxifying on a regular basis. Now I have a sunlight and sauna at home. I'll put a link to that in the show notes. I do Epsom salts baths and after going to Iceland I was like, what else can I put in my bath here? I really love to turn it into a geothermal spa, but I was like, what else could I put in here to do that? So what can you do to help with aiding detoxification on a regular basis? High fiber diet and geo and the big Epsom salts bath and sauna are all ones that you can do. And then the hot and cold exposure, that was another one. I will tell you that I have never done that before. I've been a wimpy baby about it and boy, it's like one of the most fabulous things. Who knew? There's something to it? So, you know, now you can go take a sauna or go take a hot bath and then jump in a cold shower or jump into a cold pool or whatever you have access to. I was trying to figure out how to do it to the temperature they had it, which was really, really cold, especially sitting outside at 30 degrees. But figure out how you can do some hot and cold exposure. One of the things that the Icelanders are, are regular gym goers. So look at what you can do on a regular basis. Today I did yoga. I'm going to do some hiit training after this. Yesterday I did weight training. So I'm just looking at something I can do every single day and mix that on up. Eat as clean as possible. And again, they have, not only do they have sustainable energy, having all their food grown in greenhouses without pesticides. Oh my gosh. And having those wild fish and the pasturing lamb, well, that's incredible. What can we do to choose the cleanest sources of food possible and drink clean as well? And one of the things that I do is buy mineral rich water here in glass, not plastic mineral itch water. So drink as much pure mineral itch water as you can. And I do that. And I do my ice cream tea, of course. Good for your gut microbiome. And then create as clean an environment as you can. So we all need to do our part to lower our carbon footprint. And so here at the house we are putting in solar panels. We just moved into a new house here in Tampa. We're putting in solar panels. And we drive electric cars. I do not a regular car. I only have electrics. So we have two electric cars at home. And then we are doing our part with keeping lights off as much as possible and everything we can to just lower our amount of waste. One of the big things I noticed just in Europe in general is they have small trash cans. They, they don't use the packaging that we do. So what can you do to lower your carbon footprint? And then the most important one I really think, and one of the things that was clear there is that they have strong social ties, they have a great community. So look at what you can to spend time with other people on a regular basis, to have those great social ties. I think that's such a key, critical thing. All right, again, I'm gonna put all the show notes, links to sunlighten, links to retreat hotel, links to some of my favorite icelandic products@jjvirgin.com Iceland and if you have not yet left a review, I would love to shout you out. Or if you have left one, but it was a while ago, leave a review. I'll shout you out. I super duper appreciate it and I will see you next time.

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