How to Activate Your Satiety Switch to Stop Cravings with JJ Virgin

Hey JJ Here. Every year around this time, I get the urge to make my home feel a little extra special. A space that feels just like the holidays. And Wayfair is my go to for that. Think cozy textures, twinkly decor, warm lighting, and all those little touches that make you want to curl up with a good book and a blanket. You'll usually find my books stacked on a great little end table I got from Wayfair, proof that function and style can coexist. Now, whether you're adding last minute hosting essentials, picking out gifts for loved ones, or refreshing your decor for the season, Wayfair makes it easy with beautiful finds, great prices and fast delivery. 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. Plus, with free shipping for any order over $35, that's fast delivery and a total peace of mind. It's the perfect mix of joy and order, bringing the holiday spirit in, then storing it all with ease. If you're ready to make your home feel as good as it looks, 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 hey, it's JJ 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's sheets or skin. 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.

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

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, welcome. It's J.J. here. And in today's episode, we are going to be talking about what to do if you are hungry. If you've been feeling like you're just hungrier than you should be, Anyone out there feeling that way, I want to see some thumbs up. I am doing this live right now on Facebook and Instagram. If you're one of those people that just feels like it is not fair, why am I so hungry? Love to hear from you. I'm going to talk to you today about how to activate the satiety switch. So if you feel like, you know, I just finished a meal, it's an hour or two later I'm sniffing around the kitchen looking for something to eat. That's what I want to hear about. Or if just like cravings are ruling your life, like you're just thinking, when am I going to be able to get to the cheese or the bread or the sugar? All right, I'm going to be breaking down a couple things here. Why the heck this is happening. More importantly, what can you do about it? Now, today on the podcast, I'm flying solo. I'm going deep into this subject. I'm recording it live on Facebook and Instagram. So if you are listening to this on on my podcast reminder, jump on on to JJ Virgin on Instagram or JJ Virgin official on Facebook so you can interact with me live. When I am doing these because right now I'm seeing all sorts of things. People are telling me what they're craving on Instagram like it's going wild over there and clearly I've struck a nerve. Clearly have. So before I start in with the content, I want to do a shout out now. On my podcast I always do a shout out to a review and I want to do a shout out to try dilge from Canada 5 star review. Great podcast. I love this podcast and I'm glad I found it. JJ is so easy to listen to and has so much knowledge and experience. Her resolve and enthusiasm encourages me to do and be better. Right on. I love that she offers so many tips to navigate through all the nutrition information and weight loss info we are given. I find it so informative and often write things down to follow. Her guests are great. I forwarded a few podcasts to friends family to listen to as they are so relevant and provide such great information. Thanks for the great podcast. Oh I dig that so much. So again, every show I do a shout out to someone. Love to shout you out next. It's always one of my favorite things to do. And before we dive into the podcast, I'm going to share another favorite with you.

Hey, it's JJ 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.

This episode is brought to you by Corona. When you're on a beach with an Ice cold Corona in hand, how can you not feel centered? But did you know you can get that vibe anywhere? That's because whether after work and barbecues are at a bar with just a squeeze of lime, Corona brings you La Playa mentality. Because while we all want the beach life, paradise doesn't always have palm trees. Corona La Playa awaits. Get yours@order corona.com Relax responsibly. Corona Extra beer, imported by Crown Import, Chicago, Illinois.

Welcome back. All right, we are going to deep dive now into why are you hungry? Or why are you having the cravings? And then once we talk about that, more importantly, what can you do about it? I call it activating the satiety switch so that you can have that control. So you can literally walk by some of those things and just go, don't need it. Don't get tempted. And think about it. When you've just eaten a really big meal, like, you know, and you are really full, someone could stick your most favorite thing right in front of you and you'd almost feel a little nauseous. So that's what we want to get to, is this feeling where these foods just don't control you. So let's start with why the heck are you so hungry? Why are you so hungry? And I want to kind of dive into first because there's a difference between hunger and cravings, right? Hungry is just hungry. That feeling like your stomach's empty, that you need to eat something. Cravings are. It's like, I gotta have that specific thing. It's got to be the salty chips. It's got to be the. The ice cream, okay? And they're. They are different, as you know. I don't need to tell you that. You know that. So hungry. There's a couple different things that could be going on as to why you are hungry. And then we will talk about why you're craving and hunger. One of the biggest things that's happening there, like, if I'm going to pick the biggest culprit for hunger, number one, I'm going to go, poor sleep. Poor sleep is such a big problem. Because just one night of poor sleep. And tell me if you relate to this one poor night of sleep, and the next day you are hungrier. And it is not for salmon. Can I get an amen? It's not for salmon and Brussels sprouts. You're wanting sugar. You're wanting some, like, big coffee drink with something in there. So one poor night of sleep, you've got actually higher hunger hormones and more Insulin resistance. So not only are you hungrier, but you're also better at storing fat and worse at burning it off. Like a totally unfair situation there. So that's the first thing that's going on is hunger. Now the next one that can do it is if you didn't eat enough. Like if you're not eating enough, if you are just cutting yourself way back, yes, you'll be hungrier. Now one of the things with hunger that's really important is that hunger is a wave that comes through and then it will go away. So one of the most important things we're going to talk about is what to do when you get hungry and not to eat right away. Because being a little hungry, hunger equals younger. It's actually good for you. Okay, so we'll get to that in a bit. But one thing that can be hungry is if you're not eating enough, if you're really cutting back. And I do not believe in long term calories restriction. I like intermittent fasting or alternative day fasting, but not like just cutting your calories down every single day lower, because that actually can lower your metabolism too. That's not the way we want to do it. Now. Next one is not drinking enough. One of the key things that you want to do if you are hungry is have some water, drink more water and fluids in between your meals. Because quite often it's like we've got a really overactive apostat. We're hungry, but we never feel thirsty. By the time you're thirsty, you've really messed this up. So start with doing a lot of water and ice. Green tea is my other favorite. And no, that's not ice cream tea. It's iced green tea in between your meals. Because again, this can both, both activate and boost your metabolism, help lower stress hormones and help with satiety. Okay, next one, eating the wrong combination. You're going to hear me talk about my trifecta. That activates the satiety switch, which is protein, fat and fiber. When you eat what I call a high sugar impact diet. So lots of refined carbohydrates where there's really not much fiber, you're eating a high carb, low fat, low protein diet that's going to drive up blood sugar and insulin, lock the doors to your fat cells so you cannot access stored fat for fuel, so that you need to bring more food in so that you are not hungry. So you know, so that you have some energy because your body can't get energy from your fat cells. So if you're eating a high sugar impact diet, high refined carbs. That is what happens also if you're eating a high fructose diet. If you're going and having like say one of those big naked juice green machines in there that's high in fruit and high in sugar, especially high in fructose. Remember, the only organ that can metabolize fructose is the liver. So when you have fructose, it does not raise blood sugar, which sounds like a good idea, except it also doesn't trigger the satiety signals that happen when you do raise insulin. And so what happens is it's going straight to the liver where it's making fat, but you're still hungry and it can make you insulin resistant, so you can't get to stored fat for fuel. So either eating a high sugar impact diet or high fructose can create these problems that, well, as well as also being insulin resistance. And that means that you're more of a sugar burner than a fat burner. One of the big important things to do is to become what I call more metabolically flexible. It's what I talk about in the sugar impact diet. And that is where you first start to focus on quality of food. And you start to make sure that you're getting in clean, lean protein, healthy fats and lots of non starchy vegetables and very minimally processed carbs. You have fat, fiber and protein. What happens when you eat that way is you have much better satiety because the protein and fiber slow down stomach emptying and the fat releases some chemicals in your small intestine that tell your brain that you have eaten so that you are not hungry. So, and you'll have much more stable blood sugar. You won't have the spikes. So I call that my basically my satiety trifecta of protein, fat and fiber. Okay, next one talked about poor sleep, but right along with that is stress. And one of the things that stress does is it can lower both. First of all, it will elevate cortisol, but then it can lower serotonin and dopamine. Serotonin will make you crave sugar and dopamine will make you hungrier when these things are lowered, Right? So if you've got these things lowered, you can be hungrier and crave more sugar. So that's super duper important. Now next one, and this probably isn't one that you've thought about that can actually make you hungrier, is too much exercise, especially endurance exercise, if you're doing a lot of Endurance style, exercise, yes, you will be hungrier. Right now, granted you've burned more calories, but you know, a lot of times people are doing more endurance exercise to burn more calories. But then if you go and eat the same amount that didn't do what you needed it to do. This is why I'm real pro doing high intensity interval training and resistance training to change your body's chemistry lab. Because these change your body by making you more insulin sensitive and also by putting on more muscle that makes you have a better metabolic rate. And remember, muscle's super critical because it's the first place that we can start to become insulin sensitive easily. All right, so under sleeping over, exercising, stress, eating the wrong combination of foods instead of getting your protein, fat and fiber, eating higher sugar impact or eating more fructose, especially doing like big fructose laden drinks. And that would be like the green drinks that have say apple and beet in them. You think you're doing something great, but you're getting a lot of sugar in there. Those can create a big problem, not drinking enough fluids, especially in between those meals when you want to do it. And when I say fluids, I really don't want you drinking with these drinks in between your meals, drinking your calories. I want you doing water and ice, green tea. Those are super important. Now what about because I talked that hunger and cravings can be different. When I think of hunger, it's just like, wow, I'm hungry. Cravings are different because cravings are cravings for a specific thing. And this is where I find that food and tolerance has really come into play. And sugar, sugar, gluten, dairy, actually all have a drug like effect on your brain. And so, you know, like I have never had anyone ever in my 30 plus years of doing this tell me they craved brussels sprouts, broccoli, you know, any of that stuff. They generally crave carbohydrates. They especially something sugary, crunchy, carby, cheesy. Right. And that is because of this drug like effect on your brain. And what I found of course is the foods that we tend to become intolerant to the most, which are gluten and dairy. And because of sugar those happen are when we're intolerant to a food, we tend to crave the very food that hurts us. So if you're listening this going, I cannot give up my cheese. Go grab the virgin diet book. Or you can go to jjvirgin.com forward/challenge. Now if you're listening to the podcast, I will make sure that's the right link. And in the podcast, the podcast link for this will be jj vi.comsatiety switch that will be the podcast link for those of you watching this live that is not active yet, but we will put in there a bunch of cool stuff for you so you'll know exactly what you need to do, including my satiety, smoothies, etc. So you'll know exactly how to put this into action. But for you listening, watching right now live, if you have food intolerances, and the most common food intolerances are gluten, dairy, eggs, corn, peanuts, soy, and then of course sugar and artificial sweeteners. If you have those, you'll start to crave these foods. It's kind of a classic response because the antibodies and when you stop eating the food, want that food and you'll trigger a response. The other thing that can obviously trigger a response is, you know, you look at these things, gluten, dairy and sugar, they have an opiate like effect on the brain. And this is why you'll see commercials for these things. This is why right when you go to checkout, they'll put these things right at the checkout. I've noticed Whole foods has like always got like, you know, some cookies or cake or something right at the checkout because our resistance is low, right? So you got to really watch these things because they're triggers. And once you know that something's a trigger for you, and this is super important, too much healthy foods unhealthy. So even though, hey, we might say, you know, hey, little, little almond butter is really healthy. Well, a little bit is, but a jar isn't. So it used to be that I could never have a little bit of almond butter. I would have a jar of almond butter. So I just stopped the almond butter because, you know, a jar of almond butter at one seating is not healthy. So be honest with yourself. If you have something that's a trigger for you, get the enemy out of the house. Do not make this hard on yourself, right? I mean it may be that so delicious dairy free coconut ice cream with one gram of sugar is totally healthy and fine, but the pint isn't, you know, it would be a half a cup as a serving. So be honest with yourself. There things are trigger foods or something like that that has some kind of a sweetener in it, like monk fruit starts to like fire up your sweet tooth and you can't control yourself. These are the things that need to leave, right? And that is, that is where you need to get control of these things. And don't bring trigger foods into the house. All right, cool. Now let's talk about we've and we've already done a little bit how to trigger the satiety switch. First of all, sleep, please. This is the number one thing so critical to make sure. And you notice that like if you're watching me live, I've got an aura ring on that you. And we will put the oura ring information into the podcast notes again. Those will be@jjvirgin.com satiety switch. Really important. What you measure and mantra you can improve. That's why I'm so big on diet journals. Because if you are hungry, you can look back and go, was I, did I eat wrong at my last meal? Did I get my protein and fat and fiber in for my satiety trifecta? Or did I blow it and eat too much processed food or too much fructose? Not enough fiber, not enough healthy fats and protein. But the other one is sleep. And again, one poor night of sleep. The other thing is to watch your alcohol. Now, I find I do fine. Shout out to my buddies over there at dry farm wines. I do fine. When I do dry farm wines, I go to anything else. I'm a train wreck. And alcohol can create some rebound hunger the next day. So be aware of that. Watch that and see if that is true for you. And again, I find them fine if I stick with my dry form. So dry farm wines, I know you sent me some to my new home in Tampa, but I'm almost out help. All right, so sleep. Become metabolically flexible again. I talk about that in the sugar impact diet. What you need to do to move from being a sugar burner to a fat burner. The first thing starts by eating from that trifecta. Protein, fat and fiber and improving your food quality. Quality. And figure out your food intolerances so you don't have those triggers that you have. And once you know your triggers, like here's a, here's another trigger for me. I like true confessions here, salted popcorn. Now, it's a high food intolerance food. Anyway. Corn's a rotten food. Let's be honest. One of the most genetically modified crops out there, massively starchy, hijacks your blood sugar. But beyond that, it is the worst trigger food for me. Like crazy. I used to pop it in coconut oil and put some grass fed ghee and salt on it. No, I cannot have it anywhere near me. That is just like I can't I can't. I can't. So know your trigger foods. And then one of the other important things is to again become more insulin sensitive and watch if some of the things you're doing on a regular basis are making you hungrier, like skipping sleep, being more stressed or doing loads of endurance training, high intensity interval training, resistance training, they're going to be better for you there for getting your metabolism boosted all throughout the day by having more muscle, getting you more insulin sensitive and not making you hungrier because you've been doing loads and loads and loads of exercise. All right, now, after the break, I'm going to be answering some of the questions that have shown up here on Facebook. And, and I'm also, more importantly, I'm going to jump in and I'm going to go back over and share my top takeaways of what I want you to do right now. All right, so going on a break and then we will come in and go through your top takeaways. Welcome back. So what I would love to do to talk about, because I missed it in the last part, was the statement that my buddy Dr. Joel Kahn said I was actually standing an event with him and Dr. Jeff Bland and Joel whips out this hunger equals younger. And I'm like, that is so good. And it is because we know that when you add in intermittent fasting and fasting, not, not long term, do not long term, do calorie deprivation, it just slows down your metabolism. It's been proven and proven improvement. But what you want to do is cycling calories. So you get yourself like, you do the sugar impact diet, you do the virgin diet, you figure out where you should fall in terms of how many carbs you should eat. And you really figure out the quality of food and like, how to unprocess your diet of carbohydrates. Then with virgin diet, you figure out your food intolerances and you get yourself into your steady state of eating. And then you rotate in some intermittent fasting and ideally rotate in some, you know, 24 hour fasting. So, and within that, what you've got to reframe is how it feels to be hungry. This is why we want to make sure you first got food quality. Then you've got that protein, fat and fiber trifecta. You're increasing your fluid intake. You start that intermittent fasting of, you know, getting your first, you've got a good 12 hour overnight fast. This is just how we should eat. Then you extend it to 14 hours. Then you start doing your 16 hour overnight fast, ideally two days a week on that. And then you start throwing in a 24 hour fast. And remember, that could be a 24 hour fast, could be from lunch one day to lunch the next day. Right? It's 24 hours. Okay, but part of what you got to reframe in there is you will feel hungry and it will pass. And hunger equals younger. Because when you are going through that fasting stage, your body is doing something called autophagy. Autophagy means eating up the bad stuff. It's, it's like little, it's all the debris, all the cellular debris, all the gunk is getting washed out. So that's what we want to have happen. So it's very anti aging. It's good for longevity. So hunger equals younger. All right, that's one of the things I want you to think of. So the key takeaways here is hunger equals younger. Increase your fluid in between meals. Start first with that, that eating the higher quality food and the protein, fat and fiber trifecta. Then increase. Get your 12 hour overnight fast, start extending it to 14 hours. Then throw in your 16 hour fast and make sure, make sure, promise me, promise me that you will get your sleep because again, if you're not sleeping well, this is going to be your biggest hunger issue. That's it. Super duper hungry. Okay? I would love nothing more than to do a shout out of your fabulous review. And here's the thing. 1 star 2 star 3 star 4 star 5 star. I am very sensitive, but I will, but I still want them all. So whatever, whatever you have to say, whatever your view is, jump on over to JJ Virgin Lifestyle show on itunes. Leave a review while you're there. Be sure you subscribe and I'd love it if you shared it too. Jump on over there. I'd love to do a shout out for you too. I super appreciate these reviews. The whole team does. Someone just sent out one today and was commenting about how the Betty Rocker had sent her over to my podcast and then of course it got back to me and got back to bre and it was like super fun. So we love, love, love these. So again, I would really appreciate that and I will see you next time. Thanks for tuning in.

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. Subscribe to the show and we'll talk to you next 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 take 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.