How Your Mindset Affects Weight Loss Success with JJ Virgin

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Managing your stress, being happy, feeling gratitude, going through forgiveness. All of these things are important not only for your overall health and happiness, but but they're important for maintaining your weight as well.

Here's jj, Virgin triple board certified nutrition and fitness expert and four time New.

York Times bestselling author.

It's time to reignite wellness.

Hey, it's jj and today. You got me. We are talking today about the link to between mindset and weight loss and how you are what you think and you've heard that before. You are what you think about. And I love what Wayne Dyer says. You'll see it when you believe it. Remember, everything is created twice. First it's created in your mind and then it's created. So if you want to get super healthy, super fit, be your best self first. You have to see yourself there. In fact, I have a buddy, Dr. David Bressler, who said he had a thing that worked. He's a specialist in weight loss. And he said, I have something that works every single time and I just can't get people to do it. And I'm like, well, if it works 100% of the time, come on, what the heck is it? And what it is is that he would have people take a picture of their person who represented like the ideal body and health for them and then put their face on top of it. You know, not something unrealistic like if you're 5ft tall, picking someone who was 65 or something, but someone who was similar to you but kind of the after picture and then creating that after picture for your. And so I actually used that when I was doing TLC's Freaky Eaters. I had the gal who was addicted to ice cream bars. I had her take an ice cream stick and basically create her ice cream angel, her before picture. And it was a picture of her before she'd lost her mind with ice cream years earlier and her current face. And I put it on an ice cream stick and put it in the freezer and took out the ice cream bars and then I put it in her purse too. So these things can work really well. Why? Because we are changing the way we think. Think so we're going to dive into this. I've got notes that I've been working on here and again, feel free to ask any questions along the way. I am if you're listening to this podcast live in a while. I'm recording it live on Instagram and Facebook. This link jjvirgin.com think is not active. It will be active when the podcast goes drops and so prior to that jjvirgin.com think you will want to jump on in and just check out the website and all that stuff. But wait until the podcast drops to check out that link. If you're listening to this. It's a podcast, it's active now. Before we dive in, I want to do a shout out to Tommy who left me a five star review in itunes and said I found he was talking about a podcast episode here. He said, I found the five ways to get motivated as well as to stay motivated. Very helpful. I believe that they're simple to follow and can produce the desired results. I particularly like to keep a journal and find new fitter friends and I cannot wait to put all five points to use and see the results. Cool. And my big advice on all that, if you've been around the community, you know how I feel about this is pick one thing at a time. Nail that thing. Get that thing so much a part of you that you just don't have to think about anymore because it's a new habit and then go on to the next. One thing at a time. Just like Gary Keller's the one thing, let's apply it to our health. All right. I love this quote. When it comes to the uphill battle that is weight loss, your mindset is your greatest asset. We are going to dive in in a moment on the link between mindset and weight loss, but I want to share this with you first, so stay with me.

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All right, so you are what you think. So let's talk about the link between mindset and weight loss. I actually was recording a podcast yesterday with Dr. Raphael Kelman. I swear it was like the most add podcast ever. We both recorded. It's on his platform and I'll put the link to that in the show notes. But started out talking microbiome and we went all over the place talking really about mindset. In fact, you know, one of the things that is often quoted, and I was like, I said that and I'm like, wow. Someone said, hey, you know, what do we do? We've lost weight, we want to make sure we maintain it. And I said, you just find fitter friends. You know, I look at a lot of my friends and my husband and what we do when we spend time together and we eat healthy food, we work out, you know, it's just how we live. So that's one of the easy things. Now I've got some actual studies, so I have notes. So if you're watching this live, you'll see that I've got, I'm looking off a little bit to the side here at some point because I've actually got notes because I've got some great studies to talk through and share with you. But it will not be boring, I promise. All right, here we go. So we're going to talk about the different ways the mental and emotional well being can predict weight loss success. And the first one is gratitude. Now one of the things I talk about in Warrior mom and a practice that I do every day is get up in the morning and think of three things. Write them down physically, write them down. Not on your phone, pen, paper, write it. Three things that you're grateful for. And the studies show that the more gratitude you show, the more positive you feel about life. So there was a study, Lin and Ye and test of 750 participants. It was shown that the feeling of gratitude had both indirect and direct effects on their mental well being. It was shown to improve social support and coping styles within the participants. Now you might go, well, so what's that got to do with, with weight loss? You're talking mental health, but what about weight loss? Well, so here's what's kind of cool. This next study, actually two studies, one by Crum et al and one by Taylor, showed that people who feel their needs are met, they produce less ghrelin. Ghrelin is the hormone that goes up to tell you you are hungry. We do not want that one elevated all day long. That would be a nightmare. So people who feel their needs are met produce less ghrelin and less cortisol. And you know, those really ultimately are the hormones that are going to determine if you're hungry, if you're craving sugar, if you're putting down belly fat. So you're not going to be hungry and you won't be anxious. Sound bueno? It sounds good to me. So let me just pop on over here. Good. Just want to make sure I'd hit the record button. That would have been a nightmare. All right, so it was shown in participants that were studied that psychosocial resources, the beliefs and skills that people have to mitigate or handle stress were linked to less cortisol reactivity following a stressful task. So if you've got to do something stressful but you have the tools on board to help you handle it, you'll be better off. You know, I talked a lot about that in Warrior mom because I was fortunate when my son was the victim of a hit and run, left for dead in the street and in the ICU for literally months, two different hospitals, four and a half months, and had to relearn everything all over again. Massive brain bleeds, coma, torn aorta, all sorts of stuff that, that was not my first go round of stressful life threatening situations. And so I had the tools on board to be able to handle it. Didn't make it easy, but at least it wasn't, you know, completely out of left field. I knew what to do. All right, cool, then. Next one. This was a test conducted that people drink an indulgent shake of 620 calories or a sensible shake of 140 calories. Now, here's what was funny. The shakes were the same. They both were 380 calories. The perception that people had about it were different. Right. And what they found was that ghrelin levels measured at different time intervals after consuming either shake were consistent with the mindset entered into when they were drinking them. So what the heck does that mean? People felt more satiated drinking the indulgent shake than the sensible shake, despite the fact that they were the same caloric value. Like, how crazy is that? So this implies that Graylin is psychologically mediated. There you go. Okay, so mindset is key. And gratitude can be a potential factor in psychosocial resources to deal with negative emotions that impact weight as well as allow you to feel more full. By appreciating and being positive about food. And here's the cool thing. Costs nothing. Costs nothing. Right? And has great side benefits. You show more gratitude. Guess what? People around you will be happier, too. So how do you put this into place so simply? And. And while it might be simple, sometimes it's not so easy. Again, going back to my son, I've been talking a lot about that story lately. It wasn't like, you know, my 15 year old comes running into the house and says, my, you know, Grant's been hit by a car and airlifted the local hospital. I go, oh, gratitude. No, that did not happen. So, you know, first you grieve and then you go, all right, so what do we need to do to handle this situation? Have these tools on board. Look at what's positive. Every single day, I would. I would leave that hospital and go, he's alive. And that was a huge positive. You know, he was able to flutter his eyelids, he squeezed my fingers, whatever it took to make sure that he was getting better. Okay, next one. Next one. This is another one I write in my book. Love to see. Anyone got any guesses over there on social media? What. What one of these important mindset hacks could be? I call it a hack, but I think this is foundational and game changing. And I am talking about forgiveness. Forgiveness. So people who practice forgiveness are healthier physically and feel less stressed. There was a study done by Worthington Insurer and another one by Toussaint, who I quote in Miracle mindset okay, so forgiveness is known to be holding a grudge rather is known to be stressful and can lead to stress related health issues. And forgiving people or instances helps reduce the stress of those negative emotions as opposed to letting them linger and cause anguish. So here was a large study based on 332 young, middle aged and old adults. 16 to 79 years old. I don't know, I think old's like 100 plus now. That's my take. They were followed over five weeks as they practiced and reported on their stress levels and forgiveness. And it was found that this is no shocker here. Greater forgiveness, reduced stress. Now we know what stress can do. It can cause so many different health problems. I was just reading one about just the difference in heart attack rates with stressed and non stressed environments. But you know, in the weight loss world, chronic stress makes your gut more permeable so that you tend to have food intolerances, it lowers serotonin, makes you crave sugar, it interrupts your sleep, which makes you more insulin, insulin resistance. So it's just all of that can be just super duper challenging. So anything we can do to help reduce stress can help reduce both a lot of health problems but also helps with weight loss indirectly, which I just love that. Okay, so all of this stuff can make it you more likely to follow maintain long term weight loss program. And what I think when I think of that, I just think long term healthy eating. Right. It was shown that while keeping track of those on their weight loss journey over the span of several years that a aside from an adherence to a good diet and exercise routine, low levels of depression and inhibition are a part of maintaining successful weight loss. So stress is connected to depression and inhibition. So here's the thing. Managing your stress, being happy, feeling gratitude, going through forgiveness, all of these things are important not only for your overall health and happiness, but they're important for maintaining your weight as well. So I love this quote. It's from Jonathan Lockwood Houle. Is it who he. It's who he rather forgive others not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace. And this is really, really important because when we think of forgiveness quite often we think oh well, you know, I don't want to talk to that person again, I don't want to forgive them. But you're actually, it's got nothing to do with the other person because that anger is not hurting them, it's only hurting you. So this is not you calling someone and saying hey, I forgive you. This is you going through a process that I outline in Warrior mom that I actually learned from my buddy Dave Asprey through his 40 years of Zen process. And so you go through this process. It's a very active process of forgiving, but you are doing it alone in a kind of meditative state that's really freeing you because forgiveness ideally sets you free. Right? Okay. Community. Oh, my gosh. You know, it is so interesting. Like, again, when people ask me, how do you. How do you get and stay fit? I go, you just find fitter friends. And if you're. If you look at just the research around community now, weight loss being contagious, even if your best friend lives across the country, if your best friend's obese, likelihood is you will be too. And so part of this is getting into a healthy community and then hopefully bring in some of your friends, if they aren't healthy, who are up for it, along with you. You know, you can't. Can't make them, but it would be great if they joined in, too. Of course, I always look at it, how can you be an ambassador, the CEO of your own health, and then support others on their journey? Because once you become a leader, you're less likely to falter, too. So the research shows that those who are a part of a community are more likely to succeed at efforts to get healthy. And that was a study by Kim and another study by Singh and Misra. So they did an examination of a human social network of several thousand people, and it was found that individuals with higher degrees of social connectivity of friendships and family showed lower concentrations of fibrinogen, which is a biomarker for cardiovascular risk and inflammation, and sticky blood. Loneliness and depression were also measured in the elderly. And the elderly are more successful to loneliness due their age and separation from their loved ones, friends, and family. The study conducted on a sample of 55 elderly people using the UCLA Loneliness and Sociability Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory revealed a significant positive correlation between loneliness and depression. So those who are part of a community have more social interaction with friends, family at a lower risk for depression and other health risks, which, of course impacts the weight loss journey. And I've been working on a TEDx talk, and part of what I'm looking at in there is the importance of community. Something kind of I've really focused on as an adopted kid is really kind of building this family around me, this tribe around me. And it is. They're linking, so they're, they're correlating social isolation. People who do not have that many friends and apparently now 50% of Americans feel lonely. And I just. That's just heartbreaking to me. I keep. I was talking to my husband yesterday. I go, has social media, have phones, have all this just really kind of. Are they just destroying us? I say that as I'm recording this live on social media. But, you know, I just want to emphasize that it's great to use these tools for learning, for education, but, boy, make sure you have that actual physical connection. Like, I'm having a big New Year's Eve and New Year's Day party with friends from all over the country flying in. And we just. We are a group that get together all throughout the year. We are deeply connected. And I know that if something came up, I could call them in a second. We have to have those connections. They're so key, critical. A couple programs that I'll point out, when I think about this, I think about Dean Ornish and the studies he was doing in San Francisco where he had these support groups, and I think about Weight Watchers and its success and the support groups. I would look at both of those and go, probably the most significant thing in that wasn't the diet, because especially with Weight Watchers from the old days, yikes. You know, super restricted calories, super low fat, a lot of those packaged foods, not the diet per se, but the support group of people is so key, critical. So make sure you're building that in. I know in our. In our world, in the Reignite Wellness, JJ Virgin world, we have put together a membership, and we are very, very focused. We have health coaches in there, and we're all in there dialed in, supporting each other because it's so critical. All right, and the last one. So we have talked now about forgiveness, about community, about gratitude. And the final one is resilience, which is the ability to bounce back from hardship. And there was this marshmallow study where kids. And I always wonder, what would. What would I do? So they had a study where they had children who could either eat a marshmallow now or save it and get double the Candy later after 15 minutes. So they put them all in a room, and it's like, you could have the marshmallow now, or if you can wait 15 minutes, you get two. And those kids that could hold out and got double the candy, they tracked them in life, and they were more successful in life. Lower obesity rates, better test scores, less substance abuse. It's that ability to delay gratification, to be resilient and handle pressure and be patient that can translate to a healthier life. So I'm going to come back after the break and I'm going to give you just my key takeaways from all of this stuff. So stay with me.

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Welcome back. I want to remind you that I've got show notes for all of this@jjvirgin.com think and I will put in there my jam, my gratitude, appreciation, my and miracles challenge. It's something that helped me get through the hospital situation with granted and handle it and not blow up in the meanwhile. And also link you to how that forgiveness protocol, so all of that too is written in Warrior Mom. I go through how to do all of that stuff and how to build resilience and how to just be able to handle these things. Because one of the things I know for sure is that we're all going to go through some challenging times. It's kind of one of those things, you know, and I love what Wayne Dyer says is when you squeeze an orange, what do you get? See, there's no excuse. Oh, I was going through a tough time, so I was acting like a jerk. Oh, I was going through a tough time and I might have done something illegal, blah, blah, blah. Nope. It's when you get squeezed that who you really are shows up. So you want to make sure that you're training for those events because they're going to happen and you are stronger than you think. And this is all very trainable stuff. So it's all in that book. But I just want to remind you it's resilient, gratitude, community and forgiveness. These are essential not just for your overall mental health, but also for your physical health and for maintaining healthy weight. Plus, they're going to make life so much nicer too. And that's super important. And remember, like, I had a great doc early on who taught me this phrase, you don't lose weight to get healthy. You get healthy to lose weight. You get healthy emotionally, you get healthy physically. You might be holding on to weight because you're holding on to toxic thoughts and toxic people. So you've got to consider every single part of this in order to get healthy. Right? We want to be healthy physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. Alrighty. So big ask. If you've not yet left a review, jump on over to itunes now. If you haven't subscribed, oh my gosh, subscribe to JJ.com, it's that simple. But if you haven't left a review yet at Reignite Wellness Podcast, jump on over, leave a review, put your name in there. Because I love, love, love to shout you out. Every single podcast I shout out someone. I'd love it to be you. I super appreciate that our podcasts come out three times a week. We have my solo episode that if you've been on Instagram and Facebook, you've just watched me tape. We have my expert interview and I have some of the most amazing pals that I interview. And then I do Friday Q A and that's where I take questions that you guys leave in the chat. So I love all these questions in the chat. So keep putting them in the chat. The team picks them up and I put them into my Friday Q A.

I leave.

I answer the questions there. Okie dokie. See you next time. Bye.

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