My Top Needle Mover for Fast, Lasting Fat Loss

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Virgin Diet Lifestyle show with your host, celebrity nutrition and fitness expert and New York Times bestselling author JJ Virgin.

Have you turned your morning smoothie into an adult milkshake? Replacing a meal a day with the Virgin Diet Shake is my top needle mover for weight loss. And today I'm going to share with you why that is, what you should be putting in it, and most importantly, what not to use so that meal replacement shake doesn't become an adult milkshake. So why should you start the day with a meal replacement shake? Or like I like to say is why should you start the day with a Virgin Diet Shake? Well, there's two studies that really make a big impact here. The first one had people replace a meal a day with with a meal replacement shake and they found that those people lost more weight, but more importantly, they kept it off. Second study looked at people who ate a substantial protein rich breakfast every morning and they found that those people ate less throughout the day and therefore they lost more weight. So why is this? You know, one of the things I like to say is food is information. So think about how most people, not us, but most people start the day. They start the day with what usually a latte and a muffin. Can we call that like it is? That is really a milkshake and a cupcake. Or even worse, they skip it altogether. So let's talk about what happens when you do either of those two wrong things. Number one, when you start the day with dessert, what's the message you're telling to your body? Because remember, food is information. So when you start the day with dessert, the message to your body is hey, store fat and crash my blood sugar a couple hours later so I'm going to go running for that little sweet snack. Is that the message you really want to send? Or worse, you skip it altogether and your body needs fuel. So if you're not giving your body fuel and it can't access stored fat, it's going to reach for muscle and break it down. So I hope you're committed to starting the day with a shake. But now it's really important to know exactly what you should be looking for and again, what you should avoid. So the first place you have to start is with a really good, clean, lean, quality protein. And there's two options here. You can go plant or you can go animal. In the plant based world, I'm going to emphasize using things like pea protein, rice protein, chia chlorella, hemp as good options. And I want you to avoid soy. Why? Because soy can lower thyroid function and it's estrogenic. So again, food is information. What does that say? Crash my metabolism, slow it down. Okay, not the message we want to send. Now, if you want to go clean lean animal protein, I have great news for you. First, the bad news. Don't touch weigh. No way to weigh. Here's why. Whey can actually raise insulin more than white bread. Okay, so the other one, besides whey, we're not doing any dairy or eggs. So what the heck is left? Well, here's a really interesting one. I was looking for a good, clean, lean animal protein option because some people just do better with that. Or it's nice to rotate off that animal protein or the plant protein over to animal protein. Okay. I found one that tastes like a milkshake, that has the best bioavailability out there and it isn't going to create any those food intolerances or reactivity. You ready for what it is? Defatted grass fed beef protein. Remember I said it tastes like a milkshake. You're going to be blown away. All right, so we're getting that clean lean protein source and you want to get somewhere in the 18 to 25 grams in that serving size in the shake. You can up it or down it based on your needs. You also want to look at sugar. Okay, 5 grams per serving is max, but ideally you're getting it as close to zero as possible. I'm bringing out new shakes that are around 1 gram, but my rule of thumb has always been 5 grams or less. And then look where that sugar is coming from. If it's fructose, run. Because remember, food is information. Fructose, what does it tell your body to do? It says, hey, body, I'm not going to raise blood sugar, so you'll never know you ate. I'm just going to go straight to the liver and make fat. So guess what fructose does? Tells you you, you are. Tells your body to make fat and stay hungry. So that high fructose corn syrup or agave on the little ingredient panel, or if it says crystalline fructose, toss that Dump it. Now. Don't go the artificial sweetener route either. Don't be thinking that artificial sweeteners are going to solve the problem, because we now know that artificial sweeteners can raise blood sugar and insulin, too. Feed the bad bacteria in your gut, all of those things make you store more calories as fat. And also avoid maltodextrin. All right, so on to fiber. Now, big important things. Good, clean, quality protein, low in sugar impact if your shake can have any of these other things. Bonus fiber, if you've got five or six grams of fiber in there. Awesome sauce. Plant nutrients especially, because we're really lowering sugar impact. If you can get some nutrients from greens and reds, you know, fruits and veggies, cool vitamins and minerals, probiotics and enzymes, any of those added in, that makes it all the better. But here's the most important thing of all, because this is something now that's gonna become your new habit. Right? Right. It's gotta taste good. I've had people say, oh, I'm drinking my protein shake each day. I hate it, but I'm doing it like there's some getting some badge of honor for being a hero. No, no, no. You do not have to struggle and suffer through this. You should love this, because again, this is gonna become your habit. And ideally, if you're cooking for your family, you're blending it up for everybody. So if it doesn't taste good, you're not going to use it for long, are you? So taste is every.

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Greeting here. Okay, so now that we've got down what to look for in a shake, what the heck should we put in there to make it taste fabulous? So you start with your protein powder, right? Then you need to have some liquid and I want you to go advanced here. Don't limit yourself to water. We're going to amplify it by putting in something amazing. And that most amazing liquid you could use coconut milk. Coconut milk actually helps you burn more fat. It's antiviral and antibacterial. It's incredible. But make sure you don't make a good thing bad by getting it sweetened. Okay, so unsweetened coconut milk, Unsweetened almond milk is another great option. Almond milk's got more calcium and it's more available than that in milk. And then cashew milk is another new one. That's great. Okay, so there's your great options there. Throw in extra fiber. You know, I tell people to get their fiber up to 50 grams or more a day because it slows down stomach emptying, helps it move fast throughout the rest of your body, and feeds the good bacteria in your gut. So fiber is one of those secret weapons for weight loss because it's going to help you feel fuller longer, help stabilize your blood sugar, and help keep your gut bacteria on the good side. Now what can we do here? I use something called extra fiber. I throw in my shake from the virgin diet, but I also love chia seeds, freshly ground flaxseeds, hemp seeds. Those are all great options to add into your shake. If you've been one of those low fiber people, I don't want you to try to be too ambitious here. Let's bring this up over time, not overnight. And make sure you're also upping the fluids along with it. Another great thing to put in your shake are some greens. And here's the cool thing. You can throw kale or spinach into your shake and you will not even know it's there. I mean, you'll know because it's going to be green, but you won't taste it. So it's a great way to sneak in more veggies because I'd love to know that you're having 10 servings of veggies a day. So we got to get that in where we can. If you want to add a little fruit in, make sure you're getting things that are low sugar impact. So your best option, there are some berries, but monitor that because I've seen people, like, just go off on the fruit, right? And too much fruit is too much sugar. We're going to talk about that in a minute. And what about some other fun extras? Okay, Avocado. I'm going to give my special shout out for. Not only is this a great fat, and remember, fat is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Making that oil change, because fat's going to help you feel fuller, longer, gives you great hair, skin, and nails. But avocado makes your shake turn into a smoothie. It gives you this amazing texture. In fact, you can even down the liquid and turn this into a mousse using avocado. I love almond butter, throwing that on in there. And I also love using raw cacao nibs. Oh, my gosh, these are loaded with fiber. Gives you that great chocolate kick. But again, you're not using straight chocolate with all the sugar in it. So raw cacao nibs, you can use raw cacao powder if you want to give it a little hit. Espresso powder. Or check this one out. Let's say you're doing the chocolate shake and you threw in a little bit of extra raw cacao nibs. Try a little cayenne pepper. Incredible. All right, so there's some great ideas. And as you can see, the sky's the limit. So don't ever be telling me now that you're doing this shake. But, gosh, you're so bored. Don't bother with that. There's endless variations you can do, even down to having a hot shake. I kind of call it like a shake soup, where you heat up your fruit and your almond milk or coconut milk and then add in your chia seeds and your fiber, your shake mix. I like chocolate in there. And it's like a warm, chocolatey, soupy pudding. Yum. Okay, so here's what you shouldn't do. Here's how to turn a good thing bad. Take your protein powder and then throw some juice in. No, juice is unwrapped fruit. You took all the good stuff out and just hit yourself with a big dose of sugar. And sugar that's got a lot of fructose in it. Remember what fructose tells your body to make fat. Also, overloading on fruit or overloading on some of the higher sugar impact fruits like pineapple or mango or banana, or using liquids like juice is a bad one. But also milk or taking coconut milk or almond milk and doing the sweetened versions of them. The reason all of those are bad is because we took a great thing and then added a load of sugar to it. And because it's liquid, that sugar just goes voomp straight into your body. Raises blood sugar, raises insulin by doing the glucose and then the fructose is going beeline and straight to the liver. The whole message there is hey, store fat, crash and burn my energy. Which is not the message we're sending when we start the day with a high quality meal replacement. When you do a high quality meal replacement shake like the Virgin Diet Shake, it's going to ensure that you start the day right. You're going to have great energy and focus and you won't be craving that sweet little pick me up mid morning. It's a great habit that's going to help you lose weight and keep it off and stay healthy for the long haul. Plus, it's fast, affordable and your whole family is going to love it. If you'd like a free transcript of today's show, text 58885 and enter Shake Space, your first name Space Space and your email address. Again to get a free transcript of today's show. That number to text is 58885 and then you enter Shake Space, your first name space and your email address. In the Virgin Diet I have you swap seven foods for three weeks to uncover your hidden food intolerances so that you can finally lose that weight and feel better fast. Why wait? Start that three weeks today. Hey everyone, did you like this episode?

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Cutting edge information, visit thevirgindiet.com.

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