My Rituals for More Energy as a Woman Over 50

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I'm JJ Virgin PhD dropout. Sorry mom turned four time New York Times Best Selling author. I'm a Certified Nutrition Specialist and Fitness hall of Famer and I speak at health conferences and trainings around the globe. But I'm driven most of all by my insatiable curiosity and love of science to keep asking questions, digging for answers and sharing the information that I uncover with as many people as I can. And that's where you come in. That's why I created the well Beyond 40 podcast to synthesize and simplify the science of health and into actionable strategies to help you thrive. In each episode we'll talk about what's working in the world of wellness, from personalized nutrition and healing your metabolism to powerful aging and prescriptive fitness. Join me on the journey to better health so you can love how you look and feel right now and have the energy to play full out at 100. Don't miss an episode. Subscribe now@subscribetoj.com to start unlock unlocking your healthiest, most energetic self. Want to listen to this show ad free? Head over to subscribetoj.com and start your ad free experience today. Hey JJ, virgin here. Okay, real talk. So often the holidays sneak up on me, travel, gifts, hosting, you know, all the things and suddenly it's like, wait, who spent what and where? And I know I'm not the only one who's looked at a bill in January and thought, wow, that escalated quickly. 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 on your phone. Monarch lets you link everything and gives you real time visibility so you're not shocked later. Right now, I've been checking the holiday spending category so I don't accidentally start the new year with that dreaded debt hangover. And honestly, just seeing everything laid out is already helping me stay more aware. This season, Monarch does the heavy lifting. It links your accounts in minutes gives you smart categorization and super clear visuals. Yes, that end of year reset could be a real goal. This time. Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code virginonarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with the code Virgin the Subaru Share the.

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What if the little habits that you did every single day could make the difference between you feeling like strong, energized, lean, or the opposite? They say habits create structure, which creates freedom. And I totally agree. And that's why I'm going to give you a sneak peek into my daily routine. And I'll tell you, I do this whether I'm home or on the road, since about 70% of the time I'm on the road. So I always bring my habits with me. So stay tuned. I'm going to share them all. My preference always is to wake up without an alarm clock and most of the time that's the case. Depends a little bit if I'm traveling and have an early flight, which I try to avoid. So I wake up and here's one thing that I do. Credit to Dr. Joe Dispenza for this one. Before I get up and out of bed, I sit there and I do a little gratitude. Three things I'm grateful for. And then I put myself into the state that I want to be in. So whatever things that I'm going for at the moment, I'm already there, right? So I put myself there. Then I get up, go to the bathroom and step on my bioimpedance scale. Now I have a bioimpedance scale that just reports to my phone so it can just track me and it's something something that I do. Again, whether I'm home or on the road. I travel with a bioimpedance scale and I step on it every single day. Research shows people who weigh in regularly actually do better at maintaining their weight. And note I said biompedance scale because I really want to make sure that I'm holding on to or building muscle, right? That is mission critical. I'm not paying attention to my Little weight fluctuations every single day because especially when you travel and fly, things can get wonky. But I'm looking at the trend over time. So I'm looking at the weekly average of that. After that I get back and most days I try to do a little short meditation. Sometimes with Dr. Joe, sometimes again. It just might be getting right back into that vibe of being where I already want to be. And then after that if I am home, I will go do some sauna and some cold. So at home I will go in and what I like to do is lately I've been tuning into a channel where they drop a new Dr. Joe training video. So that's what I've been listening to lately are Dr. Joe training videos at that point in the sauna. And then I will do the sauna for anywhere from 20 minutes plus. And then I will get into cold therapy. Now I do a lot of sauna, I do a little cold. And especially for women, this is important. It is not our job to adapt to getting into the cold. It's our job to shiver in the cold, which then is going to help beige our white fat and make it easier to burn off and also have a great endorphin response. So heat about two minutes in the cold. My cold is set at about 50, 52 degrees. And then if I have time, I go stand in front of a red light panel. I have a joovv red light panel. So I will stand in front of that and continue to listen to Dr. Jo. And again I'm really doing that because I want to program my mind towards positivity and success and stay there. After that I like to do some of my morning brain activities. So this is where I'm most creative. I like to write whatever I'm working on at the time, which right now is my next. And then about hour and a half after waking up two hours, I'm going to have some breakfast. Now my favorite breakfast to have is either I'll do non fat Greek style yogurt, I'll stir in some of my bone broth protein to get the collagen and boost the protein up and I'll add in something like some freshly ground flax and some berries, or I will do a loaded smoothie. And that's my smoothie powder. I like to combine my bone broth protein powder and my pea protein powder. I like the texture that it puts together. I pump that up a little bit so I make sure that I'm getting my 30 to 40 grams of protein and again adding in Something like a little avocado or a little chia or a little flax and some berries. Quite often for me though, it's half of a barely ripe banana. I like to freeze those for the texture and then putting in some chia and then putting in the the variety of protein powder. So that's breakfast if I'm on the road and I don't have access to any of that, which occasionally happens, although I instacart wherever I go. I will do an egg and egg white omelette with spinach, mushrooms and a little feta cheese. And I forgot something really important. The big mainstay of my morning routine, of course, after I wake up is that I have this amazing hot barista who brings me coffee every morning. That would be my husband. So husband walks in with coffee every morning too. And I love my coffee in the morning shout out right now to purity coffee who has been giving us some incredible coffee. So that's the morning. Then I head off to the gym. Now I head off to the gym and that could mean heading off upstairs to the gym or heading off to the gym that we go to nearby or at a hotel heading down to their gym and I'm going to do a workout. This varies every day, but I always do something every day. It is the rare day and I'll here's what I'll tell you with that. I plan to work out every single day because there are going to be the occasional days where everything blows up. But I will say that at least six days a week I'm getting in either resistance training, high intensity interval training, or both. Then I come home from the gym, I get ready for my day and when I'm getting ready for my day, I'm listening to some cool podcast about health. So that's when I'm listening to more of health focused podcasts. I also listen to that at the gym. And then I eat lunch. So that's my morning routine. And the only variation to that morning routine will be if I'm at an event and I have to start earlier, which means that I'm going to have to get up, have some coffee, take my creatine, my essential amino acids and my electrolytes. That's what I take with me to the gym. It's always my chiatine powder mixed with my amino acid power powder and my electro replenish. I take that to the gym with me. But if I'm in the morning going to the gym before I'm able to eat, which happens, you know, I Don't know, a couple times a month. The thing that I do to make sure I can get the power I want out of my workout is I'll have coffee with collagen in it. So I'll put my collagen peptide powders in the coffee and then I'll take that big jug of essential aminos, chiotine and my electrolytes to the gym. So either which way I'm getting it in and then that way I'll eat breakfast after. So that's a really easy morning routine that again is super portable. The only thing that's not so portable that we do take with us is we actually do travel with a coffee pot because we are coffee snobs and we also don't want to end up having to spend a bunch of money for bad coffee. Right. So depending on where I am, breakfast is usually between 8 and 9. My preference always is to do that mid morning workout, get ready and then have lunch after that. And lunch for me if I'm at home means that we had some leftover protein. If we didn't have any leftover protein from dinner the night before, then we usually will make some grass fed grass finished burgers or some ground turkey burgers. So that's the easy thing we do. So kind of a classic of what I always have at lunch is I will always do some berries and I always feel like when I come home from the gym it's like my body is craving some kind of a carb hit. So I always have some berries and protein and then some vegetables. So here's a very typical one. I'll give you two typical lunches for me is we had some leftover say chicken and I took that. I took a bunch of arugula, leftover vegetables, put them into a salad, used a little extra virgin olive oil and some either apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar and made a really yummy salad. I like to sprinkle in a little bit of feta cheese into that. That's an easy lunch with some berries. The other one that I'll do is a grass fed beef burger, a little bit of manchego cheese on that, sometimes you Dijon mustard. And then I especially love that when I have some leftover vegetables like maybe some broccoli or some green beans and mushrooms or some mushrooms and onions. So leftovers from the day before, it's always going to be some protein centric. That is the always my eat protein first part of the plate. Lot of non starchy vegetables and some berries. Okay. So I have a list of favorite podcasts, ones that I never miss. You know, those ones that feel like you're sitting down with a super smart friend who just gets you and always has the best inside scoop. Well, the Longevity Podcast with Natalie Niddon. It's at the top of my list. Nat is a total rock star in health and longevity and every episode is packed with real practical ways to help you stay strong, vibrant and unstoppable. She's a kindred spirit, helping you to age powerfully. Nat brings you the latest breakthroughs in biohacking, peptides and bioregulators, stem cell therapy and longevity strategies. But she does it in a way that's actually doable and super entertaining to boot. And here's what I love most. Nat doesn't just talk to the big names out there. I mean, yes, you're gonna hear from Ben Greenfield and Dr. Mindy Pelz and me by the way, but she also brings you these next level experts. She finds the ones that nobody else is talking to yet. The ones with real game changing information that can transform your life. Now, if you're a woman in your 40s, 50s, 60s or beyond, or hey, if you're in your 30s looking to get ahead of the curve, this podcast is your gps. And by that I mean growth, power and strength to creating your best life without the guesswork. So head over to the longevity podcast@natnitum.com that's n a t n I d d a m dot com and join 200,000 other listeners who are already in on the secret and integrating easy, effective longevity practices that can transform your everyday routine and make for a better, longer life. I'll be listening with you. And by the way, at lunch this is where I tend to take my supplements. There's two times I'll do most of my supplements along with I take some evening ones specifically I wake up in the morning. I take thyroid immediately. Of course I generally will do a big jug of chiotine electrolytes, my electrolyte replenish and my essential amino acid powder that goes to the gym with me. If I'm eating before the gym, I wait and take my supplements to at lunch. If I'm eating after the gym, then I'll take my supplements with breakfast. Probably wouldn't have any impact, but I always have this kind of about this idea of eating, eating breakfast, taking a bunch of supplements and going to the gym just doesn't feel like it would be a great thing. I put all of my supplements in a baggie and Then I just try to make sure they're all done by noon. And the reason I try to make sure they're all done by noon maybe one o' clock is one of the things in that baggie is qualia nad. And you know, in my perfect world I probably should take that out and hit it before I go to the gym because you it's so energizing. It feels amazing. The other things in there like my key nutrients that I love, I talked about the things I put into my gym bottle. But qualia nad plus is definitely a key one. The other one is timelines might appear those like when I think of energy and being able to work out harder, creatine NAD plus by qualia and timeline might appear like my trifecta. The other things that I take, I take my vitamin D3 with K2. I take omega 3 fatty acids. I take magnesium, but I generally take the bulk of my magnesium at night so not so much during the day. I travel with my protein digestive enzymes. I don't bother if I'm doing like some grease style yogurt or a spoon smoothie. But I'll do them at lunch and I'll do them at dinner. Let me think if there's any other super important ones I've been taking. I do take black ginseng that I got from Korea and I have to import it in from South Korea. So I've. But I've seen such amazing results with it. I keep doing it, people keep asking how they can get it. I don't know, you have to go to Seoul. That's all I can tell you on that. So those are really my big ones. I will actually tell you that I've been taking less supplements over the years, not more. Mainly because I know I'm getting in my all in one protein powder. I've got a lot of my vitamins and minerals so I just kind of reduced it down to the ones I feel really make the difference. So those are the ones once a month I do take Qualia senolytic. That's a two day hit. But the rest of it are those. And then occasionally if I'm really focused on writing or something, I use qualia mind throughout the day. Now here's what's important and I've talked about this in other videos, the importance of habits of stacking in the morning I start right away. I very quickly charge my Oura ring. But I want to make sure I'm getting all my activity and all my steps because I love to have at Least half my steps for the day. 5,000 done by noon. That's a pretty aggressive thing, which means every step's got to count. But fortunately I live in a house that's got an upstairs. So I'm going up and down the stairs a lot. I go to the gym. I always take the stairs at the gym. I always laugh about the people that take elevators to the second floor of a gym. You're at a gym, people. I'm trying to get as many steps in as possible. That's my goal. And I talked about, I've talked about vilpa and exercise snacks in other videos. And one of the things that we know is that doing things like air squats, jumping jacks, etcetera are really good for good blood sugar control. Now I eat the trifecta, protein, fat and fiber. So I've got great blood sugar control. But every little bit helps, right? And it gives you a great metabolic boost too. So what I love to do after my lunch meal because after breakfast I'm going to the gym, but after lunch what I love to do is throw in something. So that could be air squats, it could be a walk outside, it could be my walking treadmill inside, it could be using my exciser with dumbbells. So I like to do some movement after each meal. That's one of the key things that I put into place is move after you eat, move after those meals. And then throughout the afternoon I'm staying really well hydrated and I've learned my lesson on this. Like I love fluids. I always have since I was a little kid. I've always been a big drinker. In the morning it's coffee. In the afternoon I will drop the caffeine to do more iced green tea. That's what I like to take to the gym with me too. I'll take my ice cream tea mixed with chiatine and amino acids and electrolytes. In the afternoon I might be doing a spin drift, a zevia. Kind of have a little addiction problem with those. But I found that if I do too much fluids without enough electrolytes and I get leg cramps at night, so I generally will do another hit of electrolytes in the afternoon. I also find it's like kind of energizing as well. So that's the other thing that I love to do. And then I start to get prepared for dinner. Now if we're home, we generally start to make dinner around 5:36. Our goal is always to eat by 6:30. We like to actually Even start eating earlier. But that's what when it seems to happen. And I will start with the veggies and Tim makes the protein. And so what that looks like for me is I rotate between the following things. I either make broccoli, steamed broccoli with some grass fed ghee. I will make a cauliflower pilaf, throw in a little bit of lentils and whatever leftover stuff I can find in there. I always keep cauliflower rice in the freezer, but if I made mushrooms and onions the night before, I can throw those in. So I'm throwing stuff in. I'll make mushrooms and onions. We always have those if we're having steak or grass fed ground beef patties. And I make oven roasted brussels sprouts with a little bit of balsamic and Dijon. Amazing. So that's kind of our rotation. Oh, and asparagus. And I'll do asparagus. I have a recipe for this, I think in the Sugar Impact diet cookbook with lemon zest and olive oil. That's fabulous. And I sprinkle a little bit of sliced almonds on it as well. So I always make one of those. That's easy. Sometimes we'll have a salad, but that's generally something I do for lunch. And then Tim makes some kind of protein. And then depending on what we had, if we had like sometimes I'll do a little bit of a purple sweet potato. I don't really love a lot of this stuff so might have a little bit of black beans or a little bit of wild rice. But if not, then I have some more berries. So it's protein first. Loads of non starchy vegetables. Try to get in. I generally we'll get in like 5 servings at lunch and dinner each and then a little bit of some kind of slow low carb. Our goal after dinner is to walk. Sometimes it's not walking, we just get into the hot sauna. But we like to do a thing after dinner, a self care thing after dinner. In the perfect world it is walking and doing the sauna. Quite often it's walking and then I'll go do a hot Epsom salts bath. But the big thing that we're starting to do in the evening now is we are preparing for sleep. So what does that mean? That means all the lights in the house have turned down. We've started to cool the air down in the house. We make sure we do this an hour before bed. I've taken my sleep candy. I take that an hour before bed. So That I can start to get this melatonin going and working. And as we age, you know, we have less melatonin. So I know there's this stuff out there about you should cycle it, but when you're 50 plus, melatonin now is not where it used to be. This is an anti aging longevity hormone, so. So I'm making sure that I'm getting it before bed. I take about an hour before bed. I take my magnesium, I take my sleep candy. And again, we've lowered all the lights, we've lowered the temperature, and we've turned the red lights on in the bedroom so that we're really helping do that shift. And while we're off of our tech, we take our doggies outside, we go out. That's kind of a fun thing because you go out at night, you're taking your doggies out, Literally. It's usually a little cool. And we're on the grass, so we're doing a little grounding. So it's actually a really nice ritual for the morning and the evening. But that's the evening ritual is all of that. And then, of course, we have our bedroom really dialed in for sleep. And I travel with this as well. We travel with a little red light. I travel, of course, with all of our supplements and our powders and my big gym bottle and my workout clothes. I'm always amazed when people don't travel with their workout clothes. I'm like, come on, set yourself up for success. And I travel with my eye masks, earplugs, omnia pillow. So I've got everything that I need to keep this routine going. Now, you might think that is crazy, jj, that you travel with all this stuff, but here's the reality. If I traveled, like, you know, I don't know, twice a year, I wouldn't bother, But I travel all the time. And what I found with having these habits in place is I know these habits help me stay on track, right? They help me have great energy, sleep well, and, you know, travel is a stress. Oh, and there's one other thing that I do travel with. I travel with my food scale, too. So whenever we're getting to a new location, we have instacart waiting for us when we arrive. And we always have a fridge. We travel with bowls and spoons. Sometimes we'll travel with the nutribullet blender as well. We travel with our coffee and coffee pot, my pillow, so. And our gym bottles and our powder. So we travel with all the stuff. I know it sounds like a pain it's an extra suitcase, but it's well worth it. And by the way, it also saves us money, let's be honest, because we're not spending a bunch of money on like expensive hotel breakfasts that probably are crappy anyway and bad coffee. Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you look and feel great and are built to last. Check me out on Instagram, Facebook and my website jjvirgin.com and make sure to follow my podcast@subscribetoj.com so you don't miss a single episode. And hey, if you're loving what you hear, don't forget to leave a review. Your reviews make a big difference in helping me reach more incredible women just like you to spread the word about aging powerfully after 40. Thanks for tuning in and I'll catch you on the next episode. Want to listen to the show ad free? Head over to subscribetoj.com and start your ad free experience today. Hey JJ here. And just a reminder that the well Beyond 40 podcast offers health, wellness, fitness and nutritional information that's designed for educational and entertainment purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Make sure that you do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your healthcare professional because of something you may have heard on the show or read in our show notes. The use of any information provided on the show is solely at your own risk.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Boeckle, 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 check 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.