Play And Pleasure As The New Sugar Substitutes with Alexandra Jamieson

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Hey, it's JJ Virgin. And welcome to the JJ Virgin lifestyle show where we'll connect with some of the coolest people in the world. Plus, I give you tips that you can put into fast action to uplevel your health and your life. Now, today's show. Oh, you're gonna love this. Play and pleasure are your new sugar substitutes. Okay. I get asked all the time about sugar cravings. You know, I wrote the sugar impact diet, so you can imagine I wrote that because I was getting so many questions about sugar and they just keep continuing. And one of the big questions, of course, comes down to cravings. And, you know, why do I have cravings? What do I do about my cravings? So today's guest, Alex Jamison, my longtime pal from super me is going to talk about where cravings come from and this simple solution that not only will crush your cravings, but also help you become more creative, happier, have an amazing life.

So let me tell you a little bit about Alex.

She's the best selling author of Women, Food and Desire. She co created and co starred in the Oscar nominated documentary Super Size Me. She's a coach and speaker, and her big push out there in the world is to empower women to create epic lives by honoring their cravings and kicking body shame to the curb. She's also the host of the number one rated iTunes podcast, her rules radio, and the creator of the cravings cleanse. So I am excited to introduce you to my buddy, Alex Jameson. All right, let's do it. Alex Jamison, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here with me today.

Hi, jj. Thanks for having me.

Well, how could I not have you when you're gonna talk about, like, play and pleasure being your new sugar substitutes? I mean, come on, come on.

I know nobody's talking about this.

We have to talk about this, and everybody wants it. So let's. Before we go there, we have to talk first about sugar cravings because that's why we need sugar substitutes. So why do people have sugar cravings?

Well, first of all, it's natural so take the pressure off yourself. Humans are designed to crave sweetness. It's the first. It's actually the only taste preference we're born with as humans because mother's milk is sweet and if we didn't crave it, we would die, we wouldn't thrive, we wouldn't grow. So it's naturally built into you and it lights up all of the happy places in your brain. So when you want to feel good, your brain and your body know, oh, if I have some sugar, I will get that nice big hit of all those happy neurotransmitters that I want. So that's why we crave it. But there's one thing that most people aren't talking about and that's that we are bacterial beings, right? We're almost as much human as we are bacterial. Estimates range from like 1 to 10 times as of our body is bacterial cells. And if the bad guys are taken over, like candida yeast cell, they're outgrowing the good guys. They crave sugar. That's what they're ruthless.

They're ruthless little critters.

They are. I used to jokingly call them the beast within or the puppet master because they actually communicate with our brain via the vagus nerve. And they get us up off the couch at 10 o' clock at night to go back to the freezer to go get some chunky monkey. So there is a beast in you driving your impulses.

So that's one big cause. Would you say that's the big cause or are there some other root causes of sugar cravings?

Well, there's nutritional, right? We need sugar. We need those. Sugars are. Our brain is the largest consumer of glucose in the body, so we need it to function. The bacteria in our body want it to live. But then there's the two things that most diets never talk about, and that's that we are emotional creatures. And sugar helps us feel better in times of stress, in times of sadness, when we're angry. And you can't discount that that sugar is a tool a lot of us use when we don't feel like we have any other options.

And I love that you said it's a tool. Because you know what, you're so right. It's like it's total self medication with sugar. So you talked emotional. What, what about physical?

So the last thing is the physical cravings. And we are all physical creatures and we are built to avoid pain or move towards pleasure, right? And sadly, most of us don't have enough physical pleasure in our lives. If we don't get enough pleasure in our bodies through other means, sugar becomes our only method for getting pleasure. We only have torturous workouts, which, by the way, man, many of my women are in major adrenal fatigue, so intense workouts. Just stop it.

So CrossFit. CrossFit is not the way to go there, guys.

It just makes things worse, and it doesn't allow you to lose the weight. And when we take out dairy, sugar, alcohol, for most diet plans, we must consciously add back in dopamine, boosting pleasurable activities to replace the pleasure that food gave us. Otherwise, we're just like intense, cranky pants walking around all the time.

Oh, I don't see any women at all like that, Alex.

No, I've never been in that state myself. I don't know.

I know what. What? I totally want to go on that dopamine pathway with you. But first, like, you're bringing this up, and as you're saying it, it's like, kind of a duh. It's obvious, but no one's talking about it. Why aren't doctors and health experts talking about the emotional part and the physical part?

Well, most doctors don't even get more than two to four hours of nutrition training in school. They're not. There's no pill that anybody makes money off of that makes us want to be more playful. There's not a lot of incentive. Right. Most doctors and nutritionists are trained to look at very specific markers and numbers, prescribe a prescription or recommend a surgery. Right. They're not emotional eating experts. They're not even psychologists. They are trained to do very specific things. So if you break your arm, great, go to a doctor. If you have been in a cycle of emotional eating, yo, yo, dieting, stress and anxiety for years, then you want to go to somebody else.

What do you do if you have. I mean, everyone's got emotional cravings. Like that is one of the key things we can know is that emotions tie in, especially for women. So what do we do? How do you address this? You don't go to your doc. We've already. Unless they specialize in this, which is rare. So who do you get help from?

So. Right. So. Well, me. Thank you for having me.

There you go. And your phone number is.

Right. So I think part of the issue is that women have been trained in a very. To look at weight loss and health in a very masculine way. Counting numbers, creating a plan, creating, like, a very specific strategy. But women, in our bodies and in our lives, we're much more complex than that. And we need to look outside of the common structures that we're used to thinking about. And that means that we need to look for teachers like myself, like you, who are incorporating things like positive psychology along with a sugar cleanse, right? We're adding in things like play and pleasure and fun along with a cleanse of those toxic foods. You can't just do one, you need to have both. But that requires someone who's actually talking about it in this way. And it requires some community. Right? Really, you need support because our culture is not set up to support an emotional deep dive while we're changing how we eat. But that's what none of us have been doing. And it's time to try something new.

Well, and it's also not supporting like the physical play part of it. And you know what's so interesting about it, Alex? I'm thinking back, I'm in a business coaching group and in this business coaching group they require you to have free days where you go have fun. And when they started this, I was like, I don't know what to do, right? I don't know what to do on that free day. I and so I would schedule a free day and work because I didn't know what else to do, right? And then they're saying, no, you just need to schedule the whole free day out so you can't work like, go schedule a spa, go. And I'm like, well, but then I just over scheduled myself, but I got that I actually had to plan fun because if not I would default back over to work. And I'm sure I'm not unusual in that, right? It's like all of a sudden you're cleaning out the house and you know.

Well, we've been taught that play is frivolous and that we just need to work more, right? And you and I are lucky. We actually love what we do, right? We have so much fun in our work and we still need play. Play is incredibly beneficial to the individual organism, to you. It helps you be more agile, it helps you deal with uncertainty in life. And you know, to get into the science of boosts, your serotonin play and pleasure actually increase that specific pleasurable neurotransmitter in your body, which helps with so many things including appetite and sleep and all those things that we need help with. Playful movement. Like if you have no idea what I'm talking about, like I don't know how to play, you're thinking, I don't know what's fun Anymore. Like JJ was saying, what do I do on a day off? Think of playful movement rather than exercise. Like on my roof deck in New York City, I actually have a mini trampoline. I have a hula hoop. Like a big one. A really big adult size hula hoop. Things that are fun. I have dance teachers who are so fun to go dance with. It's like having a party. We need to incorporate things that we know will boost those specific neurotransmitters. Like, you know, gratitude practices are popular because they actually remind us that we're valued and that we have value in life. And your brain actually boosts serotonin when you go back into a moment of gratitude. That's why we love doing those things so much. But we also need oxytocin. Oxytocin, you know, the cuddle hormone, the love and bonding hormone. We need to stop giving each other handshakes, and we need to start giving each other hugs. When you become a hugger, you actually boost your oxytocin, which reduces your stress and improves your immune system and actually relaxes your whole body. That's a great sugar technique. Become a hugger. It's way better for you, I'm thinking.

You know, I just had our buddy Summer Bach over at my house for New Year's, and she was telling me about how you guys, when you went to visit her in Chattanooga, all put on like crazy 80 outfits, stilettos, got on bikes and went like, you know, hopping around town.

We did. We went for a heels on wheels bike ride. It was so fun. It was so fun. And everyone felt and looked great afterwards. You know, that. That excited, like, worn out look that little kids get after they've played all day, we need that too. That is actually the path. It's like the secret path to getting into the perfect metabolic state to totally transform your hormones and your metabolism. It's actually play. It's actually having fun. You know, laughter is one of the easiest ways to induce an endorphin release. Even anticipating laughter, like going to a comedy show or watching one of your favorite funny movies with a girlfriend, that actually starts to release those endorphins. So why aren't we incorporating these things? Well, because nobody's talking about them, but that is my mission in life, to get this information out there.

Well, no one's talking about them. And honestly, I still embedding people listening are first of all going, I don't have time for it. That's why I love that you're building a case like, you know, I always build the case with sleep. If you want to lose weight and be healthy, like, sleep's your number one. And this is another one of those things that if you want to be healthy, it's all we say. Your body's not a bank account. It's a chemistry lab. Well, this is directly impacting that chemistry lab so that you don't have the cravings, that you're burning the fat, and that you're happy, which at the end of the day, if you're, like, not happy, what's the point of any of it?

Yeah, I mean, if you end up losing the 20 or 30 pounds, if you get to that thinner body that you want, but you did it with deprivation and intensity and scarcity and torture, you're not going to be happy once you get there. You have to learn how to have fun again. You have to remind your body what it's like to feel good and be playful now. And you don't have time not to do this. I got to be honest, jj, you and I have been through some trauma in the last few years. We see how short life is, how precious it is. And if we don't make time for the joys in life, what's the point in getting to the end? So, what, I can retire and be miserable? No, we need to support each other in increasing our play and pleasure if we get. If we're going to be successful, by the way.

So here's the thing. I'm seeing this as that you, Alex, are telling everyone this is your play and pleasure prescription. That's what I'm taking it as. Like, this is a prescription. So someone listening right now, like, what would be the next step? Because I always want to make sure that they get off the podcast. They go, all right, I'm in. Now what?

All right, so I want you to go. Think you can do this right now? I want you to think of the one to three things that you did when you were a kid. Like, think back to when you were in fourth or fifth grade. What was fun for you? For me, it was riding my bike with my best friend down to the lake in the summer, and we would go and we just hang out by the lake for days on end, riding our bikes around. And that's what I still do today. I meet up with girlfriends in New York City and in Chattanooga, and we go ride bikes together, and we giggle and we laugh and we gossip and we ride our bikes. And it's not intense. It's not like some crazy mountain biking adventure. We're just out riding bikes together, and I feel free and young. It's so fun. So think back. What, like, jj, what did you love doing when you were a kid?

Tap dancing.

Really?

Yeah. I'm actually been debating whether I'm going to tap dance at the next mindshare summit.

Yeah, please, please do it.

Will you come then?

I'm coming. I'm bringing my ukulele. I'll play a song. There you go. That sounds like so much fun. And we. We have to support each other in and being playful and silly in a way that's not super competitive. Like, okay, so, jj, maybe you and I have a little fun being competitive sometimes, right? If you grew up, like, playing sports or doing something, it was fun, right? It's fun to, like, play a game and who wins, but in this way, we need to be reintroduced to play in a way where there's no winners, there's no losers. It's just fun. So I'm actually hosting some women to come over, and we're gonna have a bad art party. And this is something I encourage everyone to do. We all love crafting and making things, so we're all just bringing over the leftovers, the bits and pieces of craft projects that we have laying around our house or hiding in a corner, bring it together, put it in a pile, and the whole goal is to make a crappy piece of art, Just stick it. Just gluing things together, sitting around a table, having fun together, no pressure to make something perfect. So in that way, how can we explore being in our bodies, being creative, having fun without that pressure of trying to be perfect? Counting calories, working out every day. We need to reconnect with that part of ourselves.

Love it. Okay, now I'm going to throw you a curveball. But it maybe. It's probably not a curveball. And it's the one. I ask everybody on the show, and it's, what's the one thing you do every day, Alex, that makes the biggest difference in your life?

Oh, my gosh.

One.

One thing.

Just one. Okay, so my kid has a checklist of things he has to do in the morning on the fridge, you know, so I don't have to harangue him every morning, like, okay, homework, check. Brush your teeth, check. The last thing on the checklist is dance party. And we have. We have music on every morning, having breakfast, and it doesn't happen every single day, but most days, we bust a move for even 20 seconds together. Being silly. It's my favorite thing.

And I totally can see you Doing that. Totally. I mean, no question.

And it's fun. I love it.

I love it. All right, I want to let everyone know you have this cool cravings quiz where you find out what type of cravings, what your cravings type is, and you can get that when you go to jjvirgin.com cravingsquiz made it simple there. So I want to remind you to download that, remind you even more to go out and play. That is like number one prescription. I love the play and pleasure prescription. Like, just love it. Alex. It's so awesome. So thank you.

It is. Thank you.

Yeah. It's like now that you're saying it, I'm like, oh, you know. But you really do have to prescribe it to someone otherwise it gets thrown off the list. So this, let's, let's all commit that this goes to the top of the list that we are going to focus on getting some play in. Because I got to tell you, I haven't come up with one amazing idea in my life sitting on my at my desk. They've all come out when I'm out goofing off. So it's probably the single biggest thing that you can do for your business and career. Right. Is just to get out there and play some.

Absolutely. So much of our creative thinking happens when we are in a relaxed, curious state of being. And that's exactly what play is.

Yep. So thank you so much. And again, I want to remind everybody to go grab that quiz and after, after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's questions, so stay with me.

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Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question comes from Sharon in Boston. And I pulled it off my Facebook page. You can leave a question for me there. By the way, if you go to Facebook and look up JJ virgin official with the little blue check mark, Sharon asks JJ I know you told tell everyone not to use agave and not to use artificial sweeteners. So what can I use to sweeten up my coffee a little bit while I'm lowering my sugar impact? Well, first off, Sharon, I love that you're using that word sugar impact because I really wanted people to understand how sugar is sneaking in everywhere. And it's not about eating no sugar. It's about lowering that sugar impact. Having said that, my biggest goal is to help people appreciate the natural sweetness of things like cinnamon and vanilla. These things actually help you. They're good for you. And blueberries and sweet potatoes and squash. But I do understand that some people would like to have a little something, something in their coffee. And I'd rather give you something that's going to be good for you than bad for you. So there's four things that I like to use to help sweeten things up. Now, artificial sweeteners are never, ever. And you don't want to touch things that are high in fructose, like agave that's being touted as natural. Hey, you know our signals. Natural mercury is natural. So don't be fooled by that label either. So here's the four. There's two sugar alcohols and what a sugar alcohol is, is. It's actually something called a polyol. And it's got calories, which is good because then it doesn't cause something called calorie dysregulation, where you can't correlate the degree of sweetness with the amount of calories. But it can't really be absorbed well into your intestinal tract. And so you've got either xylitol or erythritol. I like xylitol from Birch. The challenge with xylitol is it can give people some pretty stinky gas. So if you are one of those people, just be aware, or it usually is with how much you have. So in general, I've been using more erythritol because it doesn't do that. The other options are stevia and something called monk fruit. And these are both sweet herbs. And they actually have health benefits, which I love. They can actually be good for diabetes. Actually, stevia has some benefits to Lyme disease. So, I mean, there's. There's some amazing things about these. It's not like you're just looking for a sugar replacement. They actually can do good things for you, too. I use a blend. I created my own personal blend of erythritol. A fraction of stevia and glycine which is an amino acid that's sweet and it is fantastic because it's actually a sweetener that works, doesn't have a funky aftertaste and is good for you. And I call it Virgin Sprinkles. So you can go and get my JJ Virgin Sprinkles on my store or look for those other any of those other foreign. Again, a great thing to do is try to do a blend of them. I worked on a blend for, gosh, six months to nail it, but when you do it kind of gives you the best of all worlds. All right now if you'd like to submit a question again, you can go over to my Facebook page and one more thing and I just gosh, this would help so much. I so appreciate it if you could go over to Stitcher or itunes and leave a review for me. It helps a bunch. And while you're there, subscribe and share it with your friends. Thank you so much. This is JJ Virgin signing off and reminding you to live courageously. Show up, Step up. You, my friend, are stronger than you think.

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