How to Avoid the Most Common Protein Shake Mistakes with JJ Virgin

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And fitness expert and four time New.

York Times best selling authority. It's time to reignite wellness. Hey, it's JJ and today we are going to be talking about smoothies, about protein shakes and how to make amazing ones. How to make the perfect smoothie and then more importantly, what you should not be doing. What can turn a good thing into bad? I am obsessed with smoothies. If you've been around my community, you know that I kind of launched my, my own smoothie mixes when I wrote the Virgin Diet. Because I have you starting the day with a virgin diet shake. And I couldn't find any that fit my parameter, so kind of required me to do it. There's. And since then I've now formulated a couple other ones. So I love me some smoothies because when you start the day with a shake. So here's a couple things I found. Um, people who start the day with what the studies called a high quality meal replacement shake actually lost more weight and kept it off. I'm thinking about one client I had, Debbie, and all she did, she didn't listen to anything I said except, hey, I'm going to do that smoothie you talked about. That's what I'm going to do for my breakfast. Because I find for a lot of people, they blow it at breakfast. They go and have that coffee and latte and a muffin. I call that the cupcake and a milkshake. And they start the day all wrong. And there's actually something called a second meal phenomenon. And that means that when you blow that first meal, you start a hormonal response that's going to wreck you for the next meal too. So super important to start the day right. Okay. And it seems like so many of the things that we tend to do for breakfast are dessert. Like, what the heck is that? I was just in Europe. They do not eat dessert for breakfast. So I love protein shakes, AKA smoothies. They can help support a Good healthy metabolism, battle fatigue, balance blood sugar, satisfy cravings, help with weight loss and weight maintenance. But again, if you put the wrong stuff in, you can make a good thing bad. And that is not going to happen on my watch. So I'm going to be giving you recipes, all sorts of cool ideas, ingredients and everything else. You'll be able to get all of that@jj virginia.com forward/perfect smoothie. Now if you're watching me record this live on Instagram or Facebook, you can't get it live because it's not up yet. So just know that it will be live when the podcasts go live. All right, so JJ virgin.com forward/perfect Smoothie. I want to do a shout out before we dive into the content to Blondie955. She left us a five star review on Apple itunes. She says, Love your show JJ. I'm a healthy, active 64 year old young woman and I plan to stay as healthy and fit into my nine nineties. Okay, Blondie. Like why not like hundreds? Missy, I'm always reading and learning ways to improve my life and you're one of my favorite resources. I'm going to be taking an online nutrition course to keep my brain active. Super cool. Dr. Perlmutter is someone else who I follow on YouTube and I read his books. By the way, Shout out to my buddy David Perlmutter. So good we're going to have him on the podcast. We've done a couple interviews with him. First of all, he is an awesome human. Like so he's just the best guy ever and brilliant. And he's got a new book coming out with his son Austin and it is going to be really, really great called Brainwash. And it's all about what's going on with technology in your brain. So stay tuned for that. Anyway, I live in Hamilton, Canada and I'm very lucky to have a butcher shop that raises pastured raised hens and heritage pigs. So pigs. So I have access to fresh meat and eggs that are the best quality. We also have a frozen meat and fish delivery service that also carries the same quality. When I meet eggs and meats, I refuse to buy factory farmed and I try to educate people I know about the reasons why. Keep up the great work. Way to go. Way to go. Blondie955. That's awesome. Now I'm going to share one more favorite with you and then I'll be back to dive into the big five most common shake mistakes. So stay with me.

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Do not unwrap the fruit and turn it into juice and turn it into soda. So no fruit juice, no dried fruit, which is just turning fruit into candy. And let's see. No sweetened up butter. Look where sugar is sneaking in. Look at. And then cow's milk, of course, because this can be inflammatory. Honey, maple syrup, all of those. So we do not want to turn your smoothie into dessert. So be careful with that. Then. When you're doing this smoothie, remember we want to keep it low sugar impact. You're not adding sugar in. The only sugar that should be in there are things that are coming from the plants, so coming from the fruit. So we have, I think one gram of sweetener. It comes from our fruit and veggie complex in there. So do not do added sugars. The only added sugars should be coming from things like berries or I like to use a little green banana because of the resistance and starch. But we'll talk more about that when we talk about what to add in. And then you want to do this because you want to make sure that you're doing everything to allow your body to be a hybrid, to allow your body to use stored fat for fuel when you're doing things like sitting and low activity stuff. And then when you need to do something quick burst, you can access that sugar, but you can shift around like that. All right, so the things that you do want to use here, low sugar impact fruits. So what would that be? That would be things like berries, cherries, peaches. And I keep all of these in the freezer. So the reason I like to use frozen fruit is it's picked at the height of season, so super clean. You know, a lot of times when we get berries, if they've been sitting around, they can be a little moldy. So these are picked at the height of season. I keep them in the freezer. The other thing that I love to use is I will get bananas and I freeze them when they're green. Why? Because. Because the riper it gets, the more sugar it has. And a very ripe banana is high sugar impact. But a green banana is low because it doesn't have a lot of sugar yet. But it's rich in something called resistant starch. And resistant starch actually resists digestion. That's why it was given that name, resistant starch. And it can help raise butyric acid, which helps you burn fat. Super cool. Okay, next up. So you want to make sure that you use the right liquids in your shake. I don't use water. It doesn't taste good. So what I like to do is I use something that actually adds nutritional value. So that can be. And these all need to Be unsweetened, Super duper duper important when you're talking about what to add into your smoothie. Full fat, unsweetened coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk, oat milk, flax milk. But we're not using straight dairy products unless you know for sure you are not dairy intolerant. And even if you're not dairy intolerant, you'd want to get raw grass fed and you'd want to rotate it in so that you don't get yourself building that and becoming dairy intolerant. So I find it's just better to use things that you're highly unlikely to ever build up an intolerance to and then rotate them. So rotate your different liquids. So again, unsweetened coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk, flax milk, oat milk are all great options out there. Skip the juice, skip the dairy. Now, if you want to sweeten it a little bit, what I find vanilla extract or cinnamon are great ways to do that. But other things you could use are my sprinkle products or monk fruit or little stevia. There's plenty of things out there, but ideally, you know, just using the protein powder with a little bit of fruit should be sweet enough. Should be sweet enough. All right, cool. Next one. Next one you want to avoid. Yes. And hemp milk. Thank you. Forbidden superfoods. Next up, don't make your smoothies too small. This is super duper important because when you make this, this is a meal. These are meal replacements. So you want to make sure that when you're doing this that you just getting rid of someone on Instagram. You want to make sure that when you're doing this that you're making something that's going to be truly filling, that's going to be about 20 to 24 ounces. So that cup size that's in the little magic bullet, not the nutribullet or the ninja, usually is not going to be big enough for you. And that means that this is something you'll eat and you'll go, gosh, I'm hungry again. Remember, you should be able to go four to six hours between meals. And part of that is making sure that you're getting enough. But you want to make sure you have clean, lean protein, enough healthy fats, enough slow low carbs rich in fiber to be able to sustain you four to six hours before you need to eat. Again, super important. All right, number three, don't use inflammatory proteins. And remember, this is all about food intolerance. This is what the virgin diet was written on is that the foods, and these are the specific proteins from foods. The ones I found that people tend to react to the most are, are gluten, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, peanuts. So specifically here, if you're using a whey protein powder, a milk salts protein powder, a soy protein power powder, these are things that if you do start to eat them every single day, and this should be a daily habit that you're doing, your daily smoothie breakfast that you can easily build up an intolerance to. Plus, we know that whey, being dairy base, can contribute to skin breakouts and weight gain and gas and bloating, because whey can raise insulin. Now, with soy, one of the most genetically modified crops out there, but a lot of different health issues with it, too. It can impact thyroid function. Specifically, we found, there was a study done in Hawaii on Japanese men, found that if they ate soy three times a week, that they tend to shrink their brain. They also set them up for dementia. So careful with both of those. And again, we want to look at protein sources and that we can do every single day that we're not likely to build up intolerance to that are healthy. Okay, next one. Do not skip on. Do not skimp on. On fiber. No skimping on fiber. Don't do that. All right, so where are you going to get your fiber? Because here's the thing. I think they say now the Average person gets 5 to 14 grams of fiber a day. That is ridiculously wimpy, not good. And where I tell people is, to me, 35 grams is like the bare minimum. And I really go for 50 grams or more. Now, what's important here is that if you're not getting enough fiber right now, don't go from 5 to 50 overnight. You'll be mad at me. Okay? So do not do that. We want to raise our fiber over time, not overnight, so your body can adjust to it. Otherwise you could get bloated, constipated, and gassy. But the bottom line is, you know, quite often if you're hungry after your smoothie, it's because you didn't get enough fiber. I always add extra fiber. It's a product of mine. Into the shake. I add in some avocado for healthy fat, but it's also rich in fiber. I add in some green banana or some berries. So by the time I'm done doing my smoothie, I'm getting in usually 20 grams of fiber into that smoothie every morning. So it super helps. It also, of course, besides helping you feel Fuller, longer, it helps stabilize your blood sugar, it can help with detox, it can help with cholesterol support and give you a better healthy heart. So super important thing can help boost HDLs. So really important to get that fiber in there. Next up, don't neglect the healthy fats. So this is a super important part of a smoothie. A smoothie is protein, healthy fats and fiber. And again, fiber is where we can get that from. Some of our lower sugar impact carbs. So some of the healthy fats depends on what, what you're using for a liquid. But if you're using coconut milk or almond milk, you're going to get some healthy fats there. Avocado of course is great because it's fat and fiber. Same with things like, like flaxseed meal and chia seeds. You're going to get both fiber and healthy fats. Nut butters are another great one. So super important. And again, if you're doing a smoothie and you're hungry like one to two hours later, look at what you put in your smoothie. Did you get a big enough smoothie? Did you have enough protein? You strive for having about 20 grams of protein in your smoothie. Again that might shift up or down depending on your size and your activity level. And then look at having getting in at least 10 grams of fiber. More is better. But again, bring that up over time, not overnight. And then putting in some healthy fats. That's the recipe. There you go. Okay, now let's talk about how to make the perfect smoothie. Since we talked about what not to do, now let's get into what to do. Okay, first thing is you want to have a good protein source. So I just, gosh, I was just watching someone do a protein, a smoothie demo on Instagram and I'm like watching this going, it was pineapple juice, it was berries, it was greens, it was ice. I'm waiting for it. I'm like watching going, where's the healthy fat? Where's the protein? Like hello. So that was just a big sugar hit. So for protein sources there's going to be two different things depending on your like diet religion. I always like to say I'm diet agnostic. So if you are vegan or plant based, then you can look at things like pea, chia chlorella, brown rice, pumpkin, cranberry seed. So there's a variety. Now plant based proteins. I find that these tend to taste the best when you do a little bit of a mixture of them. But you want to make sure that you're getting all the nine amino acids in there. And then for paleo, if you're Paleo ish. Or if you're not strictly plant based, if you're not strictly plant based, I would recommend doing a paleo protein source. I use one from defatted beef protein and then I added in branched chain amino acids. You want to make sure here, remember you are what you eat 8. So make sure you're getting clean sources here. Super duper important. Here's what I want you to stay away from again, soy, egg or dairy, because again, these are ones that you are more easily able to build up an intolerance to so they can be more inflammatory and then cause things like weight gain. This is what we're trying to avoid, I would think. Breakouts, bloating, et cetera, Nothing that we're trying to solve with our morning smoothie. Right. And then of course, you want to avoid highly processed proteins, things that are using excess sugar, maltodextrin or any other kind of unhealthy ingredients, obviously. Any artificial sweeteners, artificial colorings? Absolutely.

No.

No. Okay, that's it. And by the way, we will in the show notes@jjvirgin.com Perfect smoothie. I will put in my favorite smoothie shake mixes and fiber and also be giving you a bunch of recipes as well. So next up, we are going to make sure that you add fiber. So I talked about a problem with protein shakes is not having enough fiber. It's super important. So here's a little list of them and we'll put it in the show notes. Cacao nibs, one I forgot from before or avocado fruits, apples, cherries, peaches, chia seeds, flax seeds, leafy greens. All of these contribute into the fiber. And I also use extra fiber. I use literally a product that I named extra fiber. That's 11 different types of fibers. So I got a blend. One other reason that fiber is so key critical, besides the satiety effect keeping you fuller longer, is that it feeds the good bacteria in your gut. And this is important for your immune system, for your mood and for weight loss. So really important. All right. Now smoothies are also a great one in here. If you're a mom and you're sending your kids out the door in the morning, this is a great way to sneak in some, some veggies and fruit without them really even knowing. Like you can add in a little bit of spinach or kale into a shake and they won't even taste it. They'll notice it looks swampy. So you got to like say you got to recognize that but you won't really taste it. So other things you may not thought about putting into a smoothie that are amazing. Pumpkin squash. I know sounds weird. It's really good chard, so just play around with these things. I keep all this stuff in the freezer and little bitty chunks so I can just throw it into my nutribullet. Makes it really easy to do. All right. But we're using all those low sugar impact foods. So again, Sugar impact diet. We have the list of the low sugar impact diet. Fruits and veggies. Focus in on them. So let's talk about a smoothie in general. You're going to have your good healthy fats. We talked about those. You're going to have a good clean protein source. And again, choose based on whether you're paleo or plant based. I'll tell you what I like to do is I take my paleo shake mix and my plant based shake mix and I mix them together because I love the texture of that and then add in some good liquid that you like, no sweetener added and some kind of good mix of fruits and veggies. That's it. It's that simple. And again, if you go to jjvirgin.com perfectsmoothie when the podcast airs, if you're watching this live right now on Instagram and Facebook, it won't be up. This will come out when the podcast comes out. It's Reignite Wellness podcasts on itunes. You can go in to subscribe to JJ.com and get right into all of my podcasts. Now. I'm gonna do a little shout out here. So we're gonna take a little break and then when I come back I'm gonna give you a summary just so I exactly how to put this information into immediate action. So stay with me.

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And we are back. I want to give you a summary now of what you can do to put this into immediate action. So the deal is I love smoothies. I've been doing them for 25, actually. I think it's even longer than that. Reality is 30 years. I started making my own, gosh, about seven years ago because I just could not find the ingredients that I wanted. And so that took a while. I say seven years ago, but I think that process started nine years ago. I started out with plant based ones, then I added paleo ones. And so really find a smoothie mix that you love. This should be part of your daily routine. We've got a bunch of different recipes we'll give you in the show notes, even things that you can do. So if it's during the winter and it's cold, you can put them into warm things. Like you can do a protein coffee, you can do a protein oatmeal. But again, this is a great, great way to avoid having dessert for breakfast and getting into a really solid, good routine. So make sure that what you're using is clean, that you like the way it tastes, and then don't add any garbage into your shake. You want to make sure that you're making a, you're making a smoothie that is a meal replacement. So it needs to be adequate. It's got in clean lean protein, healthy fats. So clean lean protein powder, adding in some healthy fats, getting in that fiber. And that way you'll have that blood sugar trifecta that will keep your blood sugar stable. You should be able to go four to six hours before you eat again, right? That's a big key. Important thing is that smoothie should keep you going for four to six hours. I hear that all the time. In my community, people have smoothies like, oh my gosh, I wasn't hungry for hours. That's because they made it correctly. So we will give you the smoothie guide and the show notes again. Go to jjvirgin.com perfect smoothie. You can get that. And one last big request before I go. If you've not left a review or you haven't left a review in the last week, I would love to give you a shout out. So go on over to subscribe to JJ. You can subscribe to the show right there, subscribetojay.com and then you can leave a review and make sure you put your name in there so I can shout you out. That makes me super happy, makes the whole team happy. So make sure that you do that and I super appreciate it and I'll see you next time. Bye.

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 reading. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.