I Need Encouragement and Motivation With My Overall Health Plan. Can You Help?

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I Need Encouragement and Motivation. This is JJ Virgin, four time New.

York Times best selling author, author, celebrity.

Nutrition expert and fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. So Christy from Instagram writes. She says I'm not getting enough good sleep, I've trouble winding down and I've been off my walking. I need encouragement and motivation. All right, I'm going to come back and be a cheerleader. Here we go. I'll be right back. Stay with us.

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Welcome to Walgreens. What can I help you with today?

Hi, I need a last minute gift.

For a Secret Santa. Something thoughtful, impressive. Not a fruitcake.

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Wow, this guy's great at giving gifts.

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Well, happy holidays gifts, holiday decor, and more. The holiday road is long.

We're with you all the way, Walgreens.

Yeah, I'm not really known for my cheerleading, by the way. However, here's the deal. You know, when you really look at who's successful in a program for the long term, which is really the whole point, right? I mean, you know, doing something for seven days does not change your life. It's the things that you do over and over and over again that make all of the difference. And so let me give you a couple things that can help to get you to get successful and stay successful for the long haul. And the first one is really getting into a community. I always say, when people say, how do I make sure that I maintain my weight loss and stay healthy and fit? And I go, you find fitter friends. You find fitter friends and you hang out with them because they're not going to let you fall. They're not going to let you slide back. So you really want to find a community that will support you, who will support you. Okay? So find fitter friends, get into that community. Because here's the deal, and I know you probably have heard this, that weight loss or weight gain is contagious. That when they looked at obesity, they found that best friends, even if they lived across the country from each other, tended to weigh around the same. And so this doesn't mean, like, drop your friends if they're overweight. It means bring them on the program with you, you know, and get everybody in this community to support each other. That's number one. Number two, do a journal. And in this journal, I want you to really future cast. Now, I talk about this in my book Warrior mom, where my son was the victim of a hit and run left for dead in the street at age 16. And the doctors didn't think he'd lived through the night, much less ever wake up, walk again, all of that. And I just decided, I thought, you know, shoot, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to go. And in my mind, and I kept telling this every day to him when he was in coma, you're going to be 110%. And I just saw him there, like, I Saw him So clearly at 110%, I saw his life, what he was doing, how he was feeling, every bit of it. And, you know, every time I've ever hit a dream, a goal that I wanted, it was because I could so clearly get a mental picture of myself there. So I have a friend, Dr. David Bressler, and he told me, you know, I have a way for people. He's a weight loss doc. And he said, you know, when. When my patients do this one thing, they have 100% results. But, you know, very few of them do it. And I'm like, well, what the heck is it? Must be really hard. And no, it wasn't. All you did was take a picture of yourself where you wanted to be. So you put your face on the body of the person you wanted your body to look like, and you picked something that was right for your body type, right? And it's because it future paces you. You can now see it. You know, Wayne Dyer says you have to believe it to see it. Remember, everything is created twice versus in your mind's eye. So really get that clear picture and wrap in the emotion and the why behind what it means for you to be living that healthy life, what it will do for you, how it impacts your career, you know, your finances, your friends, your family, your relationship, your kids, every single thing. And get so clear on that. And journal that, journal that, and the other thing to put in your journal, whatever you're working on. So it's, you know, writing down that you walked every morning, writing down what you ate, getting so clear. And then third thing is, get on that scale. And I know that's a controversial one. And believe me, way back when, 30 years ago, I used to walk into people's houses and take their scales away from them and put them in my car and. Because I thought it could lead to disordered eating and all sorts of stuff. But what I really realized is what we need to do is take the emotion out of the scale, because the scale is not what's telling you. Oh, you're you. You know, you suck. You're bad. You blew it again. That's you and your self talk. What you've got to realize is the scale is sharing with you metabolic information. Oh, when I eat gluten, I gain three pounds because I've just become inflamed, right? So it's giving you the information that you need to see so that you can connect the dots between what you're eating and how you're feeling and what you weigh. Because guess what? You're not gaining three pounds overnight. So if something happened, you got inflamed and you need that information, and that's what's super important. So there you go. Those are the things to help you stay inspired. And the other thing I will tell you is I every morning I have, I take out, I have a journal and I have the book that I'm reading. So right now it is the autobiography of a yogi. But every and it was just stillness is the key, the obstacle is the way. And ego is the enemy from Ryan Holiday. So I always have something that I'm reading and then I always do some journaling. So just get into those habits and start with one, nail it, get to the next one, keep them and get that circle of support around you. All right? And report back in.

This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert.

I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetoj.com. Foreign.

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