JJ Virgin builds a morning routine around a 40g protein smoothie with blueberries and MCT oil, clean organic coffee before noon, and targeted supplements: creatine, magnesium, taurine, B12, iron, and NAD+ precursor. She explains why women benefit from creatine and how these nutrients recycle ATP for sustained energy and focus.
So let's talk about how to support better energy. Okay, so I mentioned my protein loaded smoothie. Now you're going to want to make sure that you get in 40 grams of protein plus a little fiber rich carb like blueberries to start your day. I love this because this is going to give you really great blood sugar stability. And if you add in a little bit of coconut butter or a little MCT oil, this is going to help boost your ketones and will help support focus. Focus as well. I just love this trifecta of protein, fat, and fiber. It's going to give you not only good blood sugar control, but it's really great for satiety too. Now, I mentioned earlier, I love coffee, but you want to make sure of a couple things. Number one, that you drink clean coffee or tea, of course, and that you're doing it at the right time. So what's clean coffee? That's organic, it's mycotoxin-free coffee, it's been tested this way. It's great because it can actually give you really good phytonutrients and it's the most known ergogenic aid to help you really crush your workouts and burn fat. Now I've been using Purity Coffee because they have this blend of caffeinated and decaf. So I like to drink a lot, so this makes sure that I don't overdo it. The other thing I want you to make sure is that you have your last cup before noon, or if you're super sensitive, maybe even 9:00 AM. Because you don't want it to impact your sleep, and coffee has a long half-life. Now, you can find out if you are a slow or fast caffeine metabolizer from a genetics test, but I'm guessing that you probably already have a pretty good idea based on how you feel. All right, next up, make sure that you have the right nutrients on board to help you make energy. Ones that really come to mind here are creatine, magnesium, taurine, B12, and iron. These are all mission critical for energy. Now, if you're a female, likely you will benefit from creatine because it's really hard to get enough of this from diet alone. Here's what you'd have to do. You would have to eat at least a pound of rare or raw meat or fish or 2 pounds of cooked meat or fish in order to get what you need. Probably not happening, right? And we women, because we have less muscle tissue, We also have less creatine stores than men because we store 95% of creatine in our muscle tissue. Next thing with creatine is that magnesium and taurine work really well with creatine to help you produce and recycle ATP. Plus, there's a little bit of creatine in your brain. It's about 5%, and that helps with mood and focus and also sleep deprivation. And that's why I recommend taking 1 to 2 doses of it daily. Now, if you're stressed, if you're working out hard, if you're sleep deprived, make sure you get the 2 doses. Now, likely if you're eating red meat regularly, you're getting B12 and iron, but it's good to get this checked when you have your annual blood test just to make absolutely sure. Quite often, if you have low thyroid function, it goes hand in hand with low iron function. I'm gonna give you one more nutrient that I love, and that is NAD+. Now, likely you've been hearing about it. I remember when I first heard about NAD+, my friends were going and getting these crazy 4-hour-long NAD IV drips. I was like, hard no. Plus they were like, I'm getting it, then I feel nauseous, and I'm like, oh, double hard no. But then I discovered a product called Qualia NAD+. It has these precursors and it's been shown clinically to raise NAD+ levels by 67%. So that has been in my supplement regimen every morning ever since. And what's cool about this is you will actually feel it, which means take it in the morning. Do not take this at night. Trust me on this.
