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Hey, J.J. here. Can you believe how fast the holidays are knocking at the door this year? One minute it's pumpkin spice season, the next you're getting your guest room ready and wondering where their wrapping paper went. And that's when I turned to Wayfair. From bedding and towels to holiday decor and last minute stocking stuffers, Wayfair has everything you need to get your home and holidays together fast. And for way less. With Wayfair, I know I can refresh my guest room in no time. Maybe I'll add a soft new comforter or a few holiday throw pillows. With Wayfair, it's so easy and everything arrives super fast. Plus, there's free shipping for any order over $35 easy and total peace of mind. So whether you're hosting, gifting, or just adding those final festive touches, Wayfair has your back. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Get organized, refreshed and ready for the holidays. For way less head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair Every style, every home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I R.com hey, it's JJ here. You know, I've been talking about environmental toxins forever, and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything. They just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family's sheets or skin. And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze. It looks like a dryer sheet, but it's actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on your first order at Sierra discovered joyous deals on great gifts for everyone on your list, like cozy slippers, ski gear, fishing poles, bikes, large kayaks, even larger canoes, which might lead to another discovery. Robbing gifts is the only sport you need to stay fit this season. Tis the season to discover great gifts at unexpectedly low prices. Sierra let's get moving. I'm JJ Virgin, PhD dropout, sorry mom turned four time New York Times Best selling author. I'm a Certified Nutrition Specialist, 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 podcasts 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 learning unlocking your healthiest, most energetic self. Want to listen to the 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. 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Are you thinking that losing fat and building muscle if you're 50 plus is impossible? Good news. Think again. But the secret isn't just about what you eat. It's about the foods you actually prioritize. This is important. Now, after years of testing, I have narrowed it down to five foods that you want to make sure that you are getting into your diet on a regular basis. Are you curious? I'm going to share them now. I almost feel like I'm stepping into like, I don't know, diet religions here when I start to talk about this. Because I'm going to tackle the big polarizing subject right at the start. Red meat. Now you might be in the camp that red meat is bad for your health. Dangerous. You might be coming from the camp of like all you're eating is red meat. I'm going to go right down the middle here. Now here's the reality. You are what you eat ate. There is a huge difference from eating some processed red meat burger at one of the fast food places and eating some grass fed, grass finished lean cuts of beef. Let's be clear here. And what we know about the grass fed grass finish is they actually have higher levels of some of these polyphenols that can be super important for longevity. They also are going to have better sources of omega 3s and CLA. So some really important fatty acids. But why do I love red meat so much? Well, first of all, it's got something called creatine. Turns out that we have probably 100 to 140 grams of creatine in our muscle stores, mainly in our muscle, a little bit in our brain, 5% in our brain. And we turn over some every single day. We're making some every single day. So first we're going to make some from some amino acids, arginine, glycine, methionine. So we make some from amino acids every day. But we also need to get it in from our food every day. So we make about a gram. We need to intake about a gram every single day. Where do we get that from? Biggest source, red meat. Now reality is that you'd have to eat at least a pound of pretty rare red meat or 2 pounds of cooked red meat every day. We're probably not getting all that in. So I'm going to emphasize also supplementing. That's why I made sure chiotine, my creatine for women. But I love to always start food first. Supplements are supplements. That name is there for a reason. Food for first. So again, red meat, great source of very bioavailable protein. Really good essential amino acid profile. Remember amino acids. Essential amino acids are why we're eating protein in the first place. There's nine essentials, 11 conditionally essentials that we can make from the nine essentials. And, and the balance of them matters. When you think about eating animal protein, those essential amino acids, the balance of them are made to rebuild animals, right? Protein is our function macro. When you eat plants, the balance of them, the balance of those essential amino acids is made to rebuild plants. We're not plants, we are animals. So we're going to get the creatine stores, we're going to get that CLA and Omega 3, we're going to get some polyphenols, but we're also going to get a very bioavailable source of essential amino acids. And that's important too. So what am I doing to eat red meat? Let me give you a couple ways that I love to consume it. Number one, I order most of our red meat from a couple different sources. One that I love is Butcherbox. And I'm getting not just grass fed because all red meat's grass fed. Let's be real on this. It's the finishing that matters. And so I tend to focus on grass fed grass finish. Am I hardcore about this? I am not. Newsflash. If I'm out to dinner and all they have is corn fed and that's what I want to order. I order it because there's actually some different benefits from the corn fed. You're not getting from the grass fed. But at home I choose to do grass fed grass finish, new slash. One other great thing about red meat is that it's a great source of very bioavailable iron. It's harder to get iron from plant sources. It's way easier to get it from your meats. So heme iron from meat, very bioavailable. So at home, what we do is we will get grass fed, grass finished ground beef. Now I personally like the leanest sources of that, so a 93.7, so 7% fat. We also do New York steaks and we also, we tend to pretty much focus on New York steaks, pecanas and grass fed grass finished ground beef. So that's what I love to do the most. I also get these little sirloin tips. I get those from something called Piedmontese, that company. And these little grass fed sirloin tips are amazing. You can literally stick them in an air fryer or saute them and then throw them in with some cauliflower, rice pilaf, maybe throw in some lentils and chop up some broccoli and some mushrooms and you're done. You just made a fully complete meal, easy in minutes. Next up thing that I get in every single week and quite often two or three times a week is wild salmon. Now where I was had a little leeway there with the grass fed grass finished beef. And again, why do I love beef rich in leucine that helps trigger muscle protein synthesis. With salmon I'm hardcore on the wild. I will not eat farm salmon. Now I'm sure that there are somewhere out there some very great salmon farms. But without knowing what's going on there, what they're feeding the salmon, how close in captivity they are, if they're getting injected with anything, I don't know what, I don't know. So I stick with wild salmon. Salmon are an amazing source of protein. But also there's a couple other key reasons I love salmon specifically, and the bright pink salmon specifically, like chinook, is that color is because they're swimming up close to the surface and the sun is hitting them and they create this astaxanthin. It's this, it's to protect them from the sun. And, and it is an incredible antioxidant. It's also one that I take and I use in skincare products. So I love salmon because it's got great omega 3 fatty acids. We know omega 3 fatty acids are also anabolic. They can help you build and hold on to muscle and they can help you reduce inflammation. Think of them like nature's Advil. They also help with bone remodeling. So I'm getting omega 3 fatty acids. I'm getting astaxanthin and crazy enough fish has creatine in it and so I'm also getting creatine. Now if you go and have sashimi, you're going to get a lot more creatine Creatine degrades with heat. So that's why I said when we were talking about meat, like eating it more rare or eating carpaccio. But with salmon, if you can go out and get some sashimi bonus, because you're going to get a lot more of that creatine from it. So that is another thing. So I'm getting great protein, I'm getting my Omega 3s, I'm getting my astaxanthin and I'm getting some creatine. We do salmon at home. We order it from Vital Choice. We tend to do it two, three times a week. But it's also one of my go to's when I'm out and I see wild salmon on the menu. That's one I love to order. All right, next up, Greek style yogurt. Now, you might be surprised to hear me talk about Greek style yogurt because in the virgin diet, I talk about pulling out gluten, dairy, eggs, corn, soy, peanuts, sugar and artificial sweeteners. In the virgin diet, I recommend pulling these things out for at least three weeks because we're trying to figure out which foods work for you and which foods don't. Quite often, if you have leaky gut, which can be caused by, by gluten, by a lot of pain meds, by ultra processed foods, by alcohol and by stress. And the big ones are gluten, stress, alcohol and fructose, your guts become more permeable than it should be. Your immune system lies just under that single layer of your gut. And foods sneak out and they hit that layer, that immune layer, and they trigger an immune response that creates inflammation, all sorts of problems. And dairy just happens to be one of those key triggers and also something that's so common in our diet. If you feel your gut, Greek style yogurt can be amazing for you. It's got casein, which is a very slow digesting protein, calcium rich and super low calories. So here's how I like to do Greek style yogurt. I'm sure I'll get some flak for this, but I have a reason. There are some benefits to dairy fat. However. I personally prefer to get my dairy fat in the form of something like ghee. And I do non fat, plain, organic Greek style yogurt. That's what I focus on. I don't worry about grass fed grass finish because that's really changing the fatty acid profile of it. I really focus on organic, plain, non fat Greek style yogurt. You can make a good thing bad very quickly. With Greek style yogurt by getting one of those fruit on the bottom, which means you just turned your great thing into a sundae because that fruit is like fruit and sugar. Or by getting one of these fruit flavored yogurts where they generally use sugar to get it to that point or they artificial sweeteners. So avoid those things. Get your own. You're going to save money anyway. Get a big 32 ounce plain Greek style yogurt organic. What I do is I like to throw in either my bone broth protein or I happen to have it right here because I travel with it. My collagen. And I'll throw in one of the other bone broth protein is 80% collagen. I'm trying to get some collagen in as well because that's the most abundant protein in our body. But it's not a complete essential amino acid protein profile. I put the two of those together, that's such an easy thing to do. And now I've got that slow digesting casein added in some extra collagen. And a big protein hit very low calorie too. Another big shocker is probably going to be eggs because again, in the virgin diet, I found that when people had leaky gut, eggs and dairy tended to be the biggest culprits. But once you've healed your leaky gut, oh my gosh. Eggs to me have always been one of per nature's perfect foods. Not in the United States so much though. I'm always blown away when I go to Europe and I order eggs and I look at the egg yolk and orange, which is in Europe, it's bright orange. And then today I was at a hotel and I had eggs for breakfast. And there's that pale yellow yolk. You are what you eat ate. You want those yolks to be bright yellow. So in the United States, get yourself some pastured eggs. Bonus points if you live in a place where you can actually get one of the collectives, those community collectives or farmers collectives to deliver pastured eggs to you. But the key is in the color of the yolk. Now, the way that I like to do eggs is I will eat a combo of whole eggs and egg whites. I don't really love the yolks, but I really love what the yolks do for me. And what we do know is that you're actually going to absorb more protein if you do the combination. In nature, protein comes with fat. Think about every animal source of protein out there. So any animal source of protein is coming with fat. And so what I like to do is take two eggs and then four to six egg whites as my combination for breakfast. And then I'm getting the choline from the egg yolk, which is really important for fatty acid metabolism. It's great for your brain. So I've got that combination. How would you best prepare these? I'm going to do a shout out for a dish that's not very common, but weirdly enough, in the last two hotels I've been in, they've had this on the menu and I'm like, what a bonus. And it's something called shakshuka. And shakshuka I first learned about when I was in Istanbul. I was at the, you know, first morning waking up, doing my time zone, adjusting. So I'm up, looking at the light and I'm going to have breakfast. And I go downstairs and they have this buffet and they have this tomato thing with little floating poached eggs in it and some feta cheese over the top. And I fell in love with it. And so that is what shishuka is. It's basically poached eggs, feta cheese, and kind of a tomato stew. Super healthy. A great thing to do. And all I did this morning to pump it up a bit was have that and then add in some extra egg whites. So give that one a try. But I love the whole egg egg white combo, especially because I want to make sure that I'm also getting in that choline. Another polarizing topic on the Internet. Oh, my gosh. People can fight and have wars over just about anything out there. And boy, is nutri polarizing. Collagen. Should you or shouldn't you? Here's the deal with collagen. It is actually the most abundant protein in our body. Now, what you'll hear out there is it doesn't help you build muscle. True. However, wait for it. And it's not, you know, a complete profile of essential amino acids. Also true. However, I think bone, broth and collagen are super important to include in our daily diet. Again, because collagen is such an abundant protein throughout our body, this is how we make our connective tissue, our hair, skin and nails. And so when you think about it, when you're lifting weights, the first thing that happens as you start to lift weights for the first time is that your muscles and nerves need to learn how to communicate. So it's this whole central nervous system situation where you're learning just how to move things again. Next up, a couple Weeks of that. Your connective tissue has to strengthen up because the limiter when you lift weights, when people say, oh, I pulled a muscle or I tore a muscle, they're not tearing the muscle in the muscle belly. Very unusual to do that. What they're doing is they're tearing the muscle where the muscle and the tendon connect, or the tendon and the bone connect, or the ligament connects to the bone. But it's usually muscle tendon connection. And collagen is critical for this. So when I think about getting stronger, I always prioritize making sure that I'm getting collagen in every single day to support that. The other thing that collagen is important for besides hair, skin and nails, is great skin. Super important for great skin. So how do I do this? If I can I have some bone broth and I will say that. Nope, I would love to say I make it at home. My son makes it for me at home. But a lot of times I'll be out at a restaurant. If they have homemade bone broth, I'm having it. So homemade bone broth at a restaurant, it's one of my favorite things to do. But I don't generally do that that often. So what I make sure so that I get collagen in every single day is that I either add it into my morning smoothie, I'll either do my bone broth protein powder, or I'll add in collagen into what I'm doing. So either a morning smoothie, you can load it into oatmeal, you can put it into Greek style yogurt. That's my favorite way to use it. Or you can just dump it in your coffee. So I make sure that I get it in in some form at least once a day, quite often twice a day because of all the amazing benefits that it has. I know I said five, but I want to give you a couple bonus points for the win. Number one. One of the things that I eat every single day is a variety of different berries. I tend to focus on blackberries and blueberries, but I add in a couple raspberries here and there too. Why do I love berries so much? All that bright color has great fiber that feeds your gut microbiome, but it also is rich in polyphenols and antioxidants. And antioxidants are super important. We're working out hard, we're breathing a lot and we want to neutralize those, any those free radicals and reduce inflammation. So berries can be super important there. They're Also a great carbohydrate that you can then store into your muscles to have energy for when you work out. Next, alongside that, I really love lentils. Of all of the legumes, I think lentils are the superstar. They're higher in protein than the other ones and they're really easy to use juice. Whereas with beans you have to soak them and then you have to boil them forever. Lentils are easy to throw into things. They, they cook quick and they give you a great source of fiber and slow, low carbs. So it's great for getting that those glycogen stores back up and having some great, slow, steady, sustained energy. All right, you probably noticed those five foods were all protein sources. Why is that? A couple different things. Number one, because protein has the essential amino acids that are going to help you start muscle protein synthesis. That's that leucine trigger. The work of Dr. Donald Layman. Thank you, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, for letting me know about that. So you get that you also need all of those amino acids to help you rebuild. And they remember their function macros. They're helping you rebuild, restructure. Next thing is, it's super satiating. So when you eat protein, I like to say eat protein first first it's going to help you eat less overall. It's going to help you make better food choices at your next meal. It reduces your cravings. In fact, they just did a study where they gave people a protein rich meal and then gave them yummy things like, you know, banana pancakes with Nutella or candy. And those people who ate the protein rich meal didn't eat or ate less of those little treats after the fact. So it reduces your cravings. So that's super duper important. And we know it has a bigger thermic effect. So not only does help you feel fuller, longer, it also has a bigger thermic effect. It takes like 25% of the calories from protein to go through that digestion assimilation. Probably a lot of that is in that expensive muscle protein synthesis, that muscle protein turnover process. So these are all the reasons that protein are my top five foods and that I say eat protein first to make sure that you get in the amount that you need every day, which is somewhere between 0.7 and 1 gram per pound of target body weight. If you are struggling with this, by the way, I do have my eat protein first seven day challenge. It is free, my favorite word. And you can check that out. I will make sure that I include all of that in the notes below. And in the show notes. But that's a simple way to ensure that you are getting all of these in and you will start to notice right away as you're doing the things I talk about in this video, what's going to happen for you? Well, you will feel like you're debloating. You're going to feel like you have more energy, you're not going to feel as hungry, you're not going to have the cravings. And that literally happens in a matter of days. So I'm going to challenge you to take this to heart and put it in to your daily routine. 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.

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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. Toyota THON is on, so stop by your local Toyota dealer and test drive a stylish new Camry or sleek and capable Corolla with great financing and lease options available to qualify customers. Visit buyatoyota.com for more Toyota let's go places.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, 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 take 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 whatshould I read next podcast.com to find out more.