How You Do One Thing is How You Do Everything

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Welcome to the Virgin diet lifestyle show with your host, celebrity nutrition and fitness expert and New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin.

I just read this book called the one Thing. And it's the concept of when you focus in, when you zero in on one thing, put all your energy there, can create big change. It's kind of like the same idea of this idea of little hinges swing big doors. And you know, when I think about that, I wrote the Virgin diet and I wrote the Sugar impact diet, really based on that idea that you focus on one thing. You focus on one thing, and that one thing makes this massive change. But, you know, sometimes it's, we need to go even more granular. Granular. I can say that word because it's really the things that you do every day that make the biggest difference. You know, people will say to me, they'll go, oh, well, but I have to have birthday cake. I'm like, what, once a year? Once a year, a birthday cake's not gonna matter. It's those things that you do every day that matter. They can make the biggest positive or negative impact on your life. So what we're going to talk about here is picking one thing, just one thing, one little hinge at a time to shift and to make a big change from that. And as you're doing this, you're going to pick that one thing. We're going to work on how to shift it and then build in a great reward for that too. I feel like what we don't do is we say, okay, I'm going to do this thing here, but then you don't do anything on the back. And to say, you know what, you did a darn good job, like giving yourself a little trophy or something, right? So let's go through some common bad habits that I see all the time that I hear about and then let's give you some simple swaps. And this is so important because if you Just say, I'm going to stop doing that. But you don't put something in its place that is not going to work. Nature hates a vacuum. It hates a void. And quite often you might pull that bad habit out and put something even worse in its place if you don't plan ahead. So the first one, I think one of the most wonderful things in life is to get up and have a cup of coffee. Especially bulletproof coffee. Thank you, Dave. But for so many people that go J.J. okay, coffee in the morning, I gotta have my sugar. So what are you gonna put in place? Now, of course, the sugar impact diet is all about losing that sweet tooth forever. But I teach people to taper, not to stop all at once. So what you're going to do instead of that sugar, because, boy, you could add a teaspoon or two of sugar into your coffee every morning.

That adds up.

So first thing I want you to do is pull that sugar out and don't go thinking you're doing better by squeezing the bear. Okay? Like the honey. No, honey is sugar. Okay? It doesn't matter. That's natural. So is the sugar. They're all natural. And just because it's in a little bear doesn't make it okay. Just saying. So what we're going to replace it with, Here are a couple options. Monk fruit or L Hango, Erythritol, stevia or xylitol. Even better. I made something called virgin sprinkles. I blended erythritol, a sugar alcohol with stevia, Sweet herb with a little glycine, a sweet amino acid that helps your body tolerate sugar better. And the reason I did that is because all of these things kind of have something funky about them like some kind of weird aftertaste. But when I put them all together, it kind of smoothed it on out. And it's also great for diabetics, so that's an option. Another thing you can throw in that coffee that's fantastic is put some cinnamon in there or some vanilla. Cinnamon is amazing because it actually lowers the blood sugar response to a meal and it's naturally sweet. And vanilla is awesome because it's naturally sweet and it boosts serotonin, that feel good brain chemical that helps you stop craving sugar. Okay, now the next one up, the creamer in the coffee. Now if you're doing bulletproof coffee and you're using the MCT oils and the ghee or grass fed butter, well, we've got problems solved. But I've got a couple other things you can do instead first of all, so delicious culinary milks. The coconut cream works great, but another one that works great is just to use my all in one protein powder. What you can do is take a little bit of so delicious almond, coconut or cashew milk and, and then whisk in a little bit of protein powder. You can either do chocolate and make it a mocha or a vanilla and make it a latte or chai and make it a cappuccino and whisk that up and then put that in your coffee and you just turned your coffee into a power protein mocha. How do you like that one? All right, so what about in the afternoon when you feel like you've been really good all day or you just like totally relating to this? I've been good all day, I think I deserve a little something something. I'll just have a little biscotti. It's fat free after all. Remember, fat free or low fat means high sugar and high sugar means high fat packing on the pounds on your body. So do not be fooled by that stuff. First off, I want you to think, I want you to do a check on this reality check. Because if you're eating by the virgin diet sugar impact plate, you're getting in your clean eating protein, your healthy fat, your slow low carbs, loads of non starchy vegetables, you should be able to go four to six hours before you need to eat again. Do you really need that afternoon cookie or is it Pavlov's dog? Have you trained yourself that every afternoon? You've worked hard and you deserve a little treat. I'm betting it's number two. Why don't you try something like having a little hit of green tea or doing that little power cappuccino that I just talked about. Or if you do need something because you're really hungry. And the way you find out if you're really hungry is first try having just some water. Water, some ice water. And what's cool about ice water is that's going to boost your metabolism as much as 30% for an hour. So the other way you're eating, this way you're boosting your metabolism. Wait a little bit, you can throw in some chia seeds into that water too because the fiber is going to help keep you full and see if you're really hungry. And if you are, then you know, have a handful of nuts. But stay away from the cookie. Okay, what about the muffin at the coffee shop? So you're in line, you're getting your Americano. There's that Muffin and it says it's the healthy morning muffin and it's smiling at you and it's saying I've got high fiber. Get me? You know, I was looking at the sugar grams, the sugar impact of those healthy morning muffins, the blueberry muffins, the bran muffins. Turns out I remember doing this little show, a breakfast show for tv and two Hostess cupcakes actually had the same amount of sugar as one of those muffins. So do not be fooled by those very innocent looking, very, you know, they look very whole grain muffins. They are cupcakes. They simply don't have the frosting on top. Look at what they're packed in. So forget the muffin at the coffee shop. First of all, a lot of cash. What are they, like three bucks? You can take that same amount of money and have an awesome protein shake using my all in one protein powder. So delicious. Dairy free unsweetened milk. Throw in a little avocado, maybe some berries or chia seeds, that is going to keep you full for hours. The studies show people who start the day with the shake eat less throughout the day, especially when you're eating because you're eating that protein rich breakfast, wham. So save the money, save your metabolism and start the day with a virgin diet or sugar impact shake. All right, so it's nighttime. Let me paint this picture for you. It's nighttime, you've had a long day, you're sitting the couch, you're watching TV and you think, you know, I just need a little sweet. I'm going to have some ice cream. Now, first thing I'd say is the most important thing you can do to really help yourself is to shut the kitchen between dinner and breakfast and give yourself a 12 to 14 hour overnight fast. Makes such a difference with losing weight. So that's number one. Number two, if you have that little sweet at night, I really like you to retrain your taste buds so you don't want to. That and the Sugar impact diet takes you through that process. First thing I tell you do is go get in the bathtub and just stay there until you're ready for bedtime. Because you can't get ice cream if you're in the bath. I mean, I guess you could eat ice cream in the bathtub. And if you're doing that, really double shame on you. That's just weird. But if you feel like you have to have something so delicious, dairy free makes 1 gram of sweetener ice cream. Don't eat the Pint that's not a serving size. Or you can use my all in one protein powder, some culinary coconut milk, you know, the full fat and low avocado and make mousse. Right. But ideally, you're getting off that sweet treat need at night because you've trained yourself to do that. I know, I was raised that way. I was raised on Pop Tarts in the morning and dessert every night after dinner. And you get out of that habit, it takes a little bit of time. Again, if you are one of those people, I just, I'm going to say three words to you. Sugar impact diet. That's the plan for you to help you break free of your sweet tooth forever. But that is a learned response and you don't need to do it. Okay, now I've talked food, food, food, food, food. But maybe it isn't a food activity. Maybe it's a bad behavior. Because I see with a lot of people at night, you know, if I was going to pick one thing that could really change your life, it'd be getting a good night's sleep. And for a lot of people, they don't set themselves up well to go to sleep. They're at night, they're buzzing around doing all sorts of stuff. Brain is busy and. And then they're looking at technology which is lighting up their brain, and they're reading email. And you know what I found at night is that like the email you're reading at night is not the email that helps you sleep. It's the email that all of a sudden you're going, oh, my gosh, I should have done that. I didn't do it. Or there's something unsolvable till the morning. So all night long you're going to stew and ruminate over it. So turn off, go take the tech off at night hour, power down hour. I got that from Dr. Michael Bruce, my buddy the slide doctor is that hour before bed is your power down hour. No technology. Get in again. I'm going to tell you, get in the bathtub because don't do technology in the bathtub, please. Oh, my gosh. And get a book and read a book. And I always tell people, read a good book, but don't read a great book, right? Because then you'll be up all night. Now, you get up in the morning and let's talk about your morning routine. Because your morning is going to set the frame for the whole day and what I do in the morning, every morning, without fail. Well, I'll say 99% of the time, because you know, there's, every once in a while you have to run to a plane or something is I get up and I intention and I start with what I want. I start with my big goals, like what am I working on? And so every morning I pull out my journal and I intention. And that helps me frame the whole day in a very positive way of what am I doing, what are my goals, what am I trying to achieve today, in the next 90 days and in life. Right. And, and this is a nice positive frame. So instead of starting out the day looking at your email, do your intentioning first. Don't let your inbox govern your life. You make the decision and then you can go to your email. All right? Now one other one is parking right by the store, taking the elevator. You know, first thing that I have people do in trying to get fitter is I have move more. And the best way to move more is just to wear a tracking device so that you actually will take the stairs and park farther away. Right. So let's talk about some ways to make all of this stick, because I just talked about a lot of different things. What I want you to do here is just pick that thing that you go, oh, yeah, that's. That. That one's really one I need to focus on. I'm sure I've said a whole lot of them or I've made you think about one. That's your issue. Let's pick one, just one. Now, whether it's swapping in a different activity or food, make sure you put a replacement placement thing in place because again, nature hates a vacuum. And then I want you to pull out that journal I talked about, intention journals and work on this one thing, because here's the deal. People who journal on a weight loss program are twice as successful as people who don't. So people are writing down what they eat on a weight loss program twice as successful. Let's use that strategy. And then I'm going to show you some more cool stats. Goal setting. People who write down their goals are 40% more likely to achieve them than people who don't. And even cooler if they share it with a friend, they're 80% more likely to be successful. 80% more likely to be successful just by sharing it. And so, you know, I heard this recently. It's like what you record, what you measure, you can improve on. And what you record, you can improve exponentially. So we're going to pick that one thing and I want you to think about this. You know, the way you do the one thing is really the way you do everything. So as you take that one thing and you replace that not so good habit with an amazing habit that will support you being better in your life, use that one thing as a catalyst. Because once you do this thing, it's going to show you. Okay, I got that one. What's the next one? And keep going and keep going and keep going. All of a sudden you're going to turn around, you're going to go, God, I did this series of little things and they had a massive shift in my life. And it'll help you really see what's possible for you, that you won't let these little things hold you back, that you can really have everything you were put here to have and way more than you realize is even possible.

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