The Truth About Living Healthy

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Hey, it's JJ Virgin and welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show where I talk nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle with some of the coolest people in the world. And I give you tips that you can put into fast action to up level your health so that you can go out there and live that big life you were meant to live. Now today's show is all about kale and coffee. Yep, kale and coffee. And we're going to throw some wine in there too. Maybe even a little dark chocolate. In other words, all the things that you thought you'd never hear in the same sentence from your health guru. And I've got the perfect guy to talk about it. The author of Kale and Coffee himself, Kevin Gianni. So let me tell you a little bit about Kevin. And I've known Kevin now, gosh, I don't know, five years. I just, I love this guy. And I just got to tell you this book, Kale and Coffee is one of the funniest, most entertaining and interesting health books out there. Tons of great information, but told in such an amazing way that it makes a major impression. All right, so back to Kevin. Kevin started seriously researching personal and preventive natural health therapies in 2002, where he got struck with this reality that, you know, if cancer was running deep in his family and if he didn't change the way he was living, he was going to end up down that same path. Since then, he's written and self published six books on natural health, diet and fitness and produced over 900 YouTube videos with, check this out, over 10 million views and published hundreds of articles. He has been his own little science rat and that's what makes this so much fun. He's experimented with tons of different diets, medical protocols, all of this really, to differentiate myth from reality. He's traveled all over the world searching for the best foods, medicines and clinics and, and then he introduced them on a blog. He co founded renegadehealth.com, which is one of the most widely read natural health blogs in the world with hundreds of thousands of visitors a month from over 150 countries around the world. And he's still a contributor there, but now he's onto another project and he founded with his wife Ann Marie, Anne Marie Skincare, which is this natural, organic skincare and beauty company. And by the way, one of my personal faves, there's some amazing products in the line especially I'm a big fan of the cleanser and the sunscreen. Just gotta do a little shout out on that. So he does. Now this is what he's really focused on. CEO of Amarine Skincare. And I'm happy he's there because I want them to keep churning out these amazing products. He and Anne Marie's skincare products have been featured and interviewed by many media outlets, including the New York Times, Huffington Post, the Style Channel, Fox News, Tree Hugger and Organic Spa Magazine. And Kevin lives in Berkeley with Ann Marie. Two kids, two cats, and of course he's in Berkeley, a chicken. All right, so Kevin Gianni, welcome to the show. I am so excited to have you here today and to talk about like my all time, and I kid you not, I'm not just Blown Sunshine, my all time favorite health book ever. You know, first of all, the best title ever, kale and coffee. But just a super, super book where you pull back the curtain on all of us health gurus and your journey. So let's just dive in there because you have quite the story. Let's hear your story of where you were and where you are now and how you got there.

Oh, man. So my health story starts when I wasn't healthy, really in my own nutrition. So I was always into fitness. I played tennis, basketball, football. But before my tennis matches in high school, my doubles partner and I would sit down in the school cafeteria and we would buy a pack of Twinkies and a Mountain Dew before our matches. And then we'd eat those and that would be like our energy producing, energy giving snack. And then we'd actually hop in my mom's caravan, we'd pop open all the windows in the back and we'd smoke a cigarette as we were driving around the back of the high school. And then we'd play tennis. So that's where I came from.

Well, don't the cigarettes counteract the Twinkies though?

I mean, come on, there may be some science to that. After college. And I did what most responsible kids did in college, which was partied and didn't really pay attention to my academics as much as I should. And after that, I was living in a basement apartment in Brooklyn, and I was really having a hard time. I didn't like my job. I was definitely going out too much. And I woke up one morning, you know, totally hungover. And I just looked up at the ceiling and I said, man, is there anything better than this? And luckily, I asked myself a pretty good question. And so I started to think about, you know, what could I do in my own life to actually make this better? And one was, you know, recommit to fitness. Stop partying. I moved home to my mom's house. You know, this is like, tail between my legs kind of thing. And I started to get into nutrition when a friend of mine handed me a bunch of audio MP3s that he had had preloaded on an ipod. So this is back when ipods were even available, I guess. And they were David Wolf. And at the time, I was running a lot, so I would pop the buds into my ear and I would listen to David Wolff, and I was like, wow, I never really thought this much about nutrition, and I never realized that it could be so simple. And so David introduced me to the world of superfoods and all this raw food. And so I just went head on into it. And so I felt that at that time, I was pretty healthy. I was running trail marrow marathons and things like that. So I felt that this was, like the next step up. And for a short period of time, it felt really great. But then after a couple years, my health started to decline to the point where I couldn't get out of bed. I was anxious, irritated, fly off the handle, low sex drive. And we're talking like, mid to late 20s here. So this is. I should not have been.

Yeah, exactly. And for anyone who doesn't like people, you're getting introduced to a lot of people here. Kevin Gianni. Who's like, the nicest? Like, you're calm, you're nice. Like, you as this irritated, cranky person is just like, really? But were you. Was this when you were the skinny raw food vegan dude? Okay, yeah.

So look at me. You've seen me. I'm six two. I have a bigger frame. My body weight was 160 pounds.

Oh, my God.

And my normal body weight, like, 185, 190. And I'm a little bit more than that right now, but. But I mean, So I was 25 pounds underweight, and I just didn't think about it. And you Know when you're in this, like, in this space where, you know, vegan raw food, when you start to have problems, the first thing that comes up isn't like, oh, you should try something different. What happens is people say to you, oh, you're not doing it exactly right.

Right. You got to do more of it. Yeah.

Got to cleanse more. You got to detox more. Like I was going to detox myself into a pile of dust.

Poof.

Yeah, I was.

I can still relate because I did the exact same thing. That's why I think anyone who's ever done any, like, who hasn't done at least one diet will read this book and go, huh? Yep. So it wasn't working, so I just did more of it. So there you were like 160 pounds, crabby, angry, the hangry person. And so what did you do?

I continued to believe that I was doing it wrong. What would any normal person do? So one day a friend of mine introduced me to a man named Dr. James Williams. And we had done some interviews after a couple months. So finally I said, maybe I should talk to you about a few things. And he's like, what? I started to go into this diatribe of all the things I was feeling. He's like, you need to get your blood tested. And at that time, I still didn't even believe in blood testing because I said, well, the samples of the people who were tested, the ranges are based on people who are unhealthy, you know, all this sort of stuff. And finally he convinced me to take a trip down to Florida, Sarasota, where he is. And, you know, we hopped in the RV and we drove down there. We kind of made it just part of our little tour that we were doing. And he sat me down in his office. I had just gotten my blood test before I had gotten there. And he looked at me and he was like, so your pregnenolone, which is like a pre hormone, is it a five? And I said, oh, okay, five. Great. You know, it's low. He's like, no, no, no. This is like 90 year old man territory. Like, so, you know, he's like, I live in Sarasota, Florida. So, you know, I see a lot of these people and your markers look like these guys. And I'm like, whoa. And so. And literally he went point by point all the problems that I had without me even saying anything. You know, he's just like, low sex drive, inability to keep muscle, you know, irritability, all the things that I had mentioned. And I was like, wow. And he's like. I was like, okay, well, this is great. You know, what do I do? And he's like, well, you can do it. You know, here's some supplements you can take, but these aren't going to be as effective as you changing your diet. And I said, all right, what am I going to do? He's like, well, you should probably start eating some animal food. And I was like, okay. I walked out of the office. And I was like, well, I'll take the supplements, but I'm not going to eat the animal food. Total denial. But what happened was, over the next three months, things just didn't get any better. And so finally I convinced myself that, you know, being a vegan for six years, at that point I was. I didn't want to eat any animal. Like flesh.

Yep.

So I was just like, look, I can. I can convince myself to eat yogurt, you know, goat yogurt, just because it's, you know, it's not as, you know, bad as, you know, maybe killing an animal or something like that. So Emory and I were in Marin at the time, and this is a funny thing, because, you know, I have a health blog at the time, Renegade Health, and, you know, I'm doing daily videos about, you know, raw food, veganism.

Tons of people tuning into all of this. Like, people are following you. Like, rabid fans.

Tons of people. And so. And I'm. And I was okay with that because I knew that if I. If I was. I was going to do an experiment with the goat yogurt, I was going to eat it for three, three weeks. And I knew that if. If it didn't work, then I can go back and it'd be fine. It would just be something I didn't need to mention. But I knew that if it did work, I would actually have to mention it. So, like, that was. I was going to give myself three weeks to kind of give an experiment with it. But, you know, flash forward to me being, you know, in the grocery store as a known person, like, a known health person. So big fish and small pond, you.

Know, sneaking the goat yogurt so you don't get busted. Right.

I didn't even know how to do it. I went to the.

To the.

To the refrigerator where the yogurt is. And this is a little health food co op. The place where I get, you know, we used to get recognized all the time. And I'm like, okay, wait, no, no, no, this isn't going to work. So I went over to the Other refrigerator where they had the kale. And I took, like, three bunches of kale, put it in my basket, and then I walked over the dairy, looked around like, must have thought I was shoplifting or something. And I stuffed the yogurt underneath the kale, walked up to the gas, hoping that it wasn't someone who had a health blog and would out me. So I took it home. I stuck a spoon in that goat's yogurt. I took the first bite, and that thing was done. 32 ounces of goat yogurt.

Starving man in the desert.

A starving man in the desert. The next day, I went and bought another one. The next day after that, I bought two. And I literally lived on yogurt for about two months. And it was funny because Anne Marie looks at me and she's like, you are nuts. You just went from raw food, vegan to yogurtarian. That's all you freaking eat. And it's bad. You can't do this. And I'm like, look, it'll be fine. I know it'll end. And finally it did. I rarely eat yogurt now, but it was just that my body. And again, we can get into science and that sort of stuff, but there's also this, like, you know, strong intuitive sense. My body just needed that. Yeah, whatever was in there, it needed all of it.

I still remember when I went to get my blood tested because they were going to hospitalize me, and they're like, well, you can either go to the hospital or go get a chicken. Yep. And I remember getting a chicken, and it was like, I was like a, you know, barbarian with that chicken. So I. So I can so relate. Gosh, it was like the best. Best thing I've ever eaten in my life. Ripping it apart.

When I finally did eat meat, it was chicken. It was chicken soup. And I thought I was going to get, like, a stomachache or something. And I have never had a bowl of chicken soup that tasted so delicious and felt so good afterwards. Like, my stomach was so, like, totally calm, and I just. I ate chicken soup again for a week straight.

Shocking good. Well, so what happened those two months you went insane on the goat yogur, and then you knew that, like, how did you feel? And then what did you do with that whole community that was following the renegade health dude who was a raw vegan, that you'd now come out with.

Hormones and you know this. And maybe some of the listeners do, too. With hormones, they don't just change overnight. You know, you can't just Take like a, you know, a supplement and then tomorrow you just feel amazing. With hormones, they take a little time to readjust and my hormones were out of whack. And so within seven days, I was starting to get to be able to get out of bed. My sex drive started coming back. I got pretty calm. And then within that two month period, Anne Marie actually called Dr. Williams because we had a scheduled call and she was like, I can't believe it. I have my husband back. So it was really powerful. I mean, just yogurt, I mean, it was literally just yogurt. It just totally flipped my body chemistry really fast. So that was, I felt amazing.

And then you broke it to your whole audience.

Well, so the thing was this. I didn't want to do one of those alarmist, hello, everybody, look at me. I am no longer vegan. You know what I mean? Because I didn't think that that would do that much good. And not on the business side. I actually didn't. I'd come to the point where I didn't care about what effect it would have on our business. I had more of a care about what effect it would have on the people who had thought this way for so long. And then almost like losing someone that they trusted because we definitely built a lot of trust with our people. So I just started writing about it. I literally just started writing about it and I just wrote it and I slipped it in and I started talking about it. And over time, I mean, the funny thing about being in the raw food and not so much the vegan space, but in the raw food space, you realize that 90% of the people who are on your raw food, like, you know, community, they're, they're not even eating no. Any raw food. So, like, there's, you know, the fringe, like 1% me, and then there's a few other people who are in there and then everyone else is kind of eating, you know, this like, hybridized, like half paleo, half raw food, you know, half Mediterranean type diet. And so my message still resonated with a lot of people. So I didn't want to just, I didn't want to be an alarmist. I didn't want to be one of those, you know, and again, I have friends who've done it and I appreciate what they've done and I know why they did it. But for me it was just like, look, I'm just going to start talking about it and I'm just going to let the reaction kind of just, well.

It'S nice you took Them on the journey with you. Like this book is awesome because you just take them on the journey with you and you're just sharing what you're finding out. I'll never forget I got this email from someone saying you used to recommend. I don't even remember what the heck it was I was recommending. And now you're saying X. And I go, uh huh. I go, so if you are reading the research all the time and you're doing your own personal health exploration and you know you've got people out in the world doing theirs and talking to you and something new comes to light, should you squash it down because it's not what you've always been doing or should you take a look at it and if it makes sense and it works, share it? They're like, she's like, oh. I'm like, you know, I would hope that this were out there in the world if you realize that things that maybe seemed logical at one point or worked at one point and when you get new information don't you should share it. Like, makes sense. Yeah. You know, and that shouldn't make you lose faith in someone that you actually get you more faith in them that they're willing to take you on that ride with them.

Well, it's our responsibility as people who put ourselves in a space where people do look up to us whether we like it or not or whether we want them to. As someone who talks about health publicly, it's our responsibility to let people know what we're doing, how we're doing it and what we're learning. And if we're shifting.

Yeah. And that we're not perfect too. It's like we did this show with nine of us and the number one question they want to know is like, what do you do to cheat? I'm like, oh my gosh. So speaking of that, what about wine? Let's talk wine. Because those are, I'm sure that's a question you get asked all the time, right. Is what about alcohol? What about wine? And I know in one of your chapters in your book. Let's see, you've got something in here that was, oh, an interesting conclusion about beer, wine and spirits. So what is that?

Well, I had an opportunity to go up and meet John Williams from Frogsley. They're in Rutherford in Napa County. The guy is number one. He's a trip. He's like a comedian and a naturopath and a winemaker all in one. I mean, imagine, I don't even know what that looks like. He's an enigma, and he's super cool. Super cool. The dude is awesome. He grew up in. In upstate New York, a family of farmers. And he'd moved out here and lived, literally was just camping on someone's vineyard. And they met him and they're like, oh, I kind of like you. Let's make wine together. What a story. And so the most interesting thing about wine. So let's take all the science and let's take the alcohol out of the equation for just a little bit, but let's take all the science and just say maybe it was done wrong or maybe it was done right. But the interesting thing that I learned from John is that what they do up in Rutherford is they do something called dry farming. And this is nothing new. This is old world grape farming, where you have no irrigation and you don't feed the vines any sort of fertilizers. And essentially what that allows the grapevines to do is dig their roots very deep down into the ground, so in case there's a drought. Because where grapes are grown there tends to be wet and dry in case there's a drought or long period of drought, they can tap deeper into the soil for nutrients and for water. What this does is it also allows the vines to live. Literally. If you look at, like, conventional vines that are. That are irrigated and that are fed fertilizers, they can. They generally are turned. Their whole. Like the whole crop is turned somewhere between 12 to 20 years, whereas vines like John's, they can live 70, 80, 90, 100, 120 years. So, I mean, we're looking at a microcosm of what our population is experiencing, too. You know what I mean? So you feed the vines the way they're supposed to be fed, and they live really long and healthy, or you feed the vines, again, irrigation and fertilizers. Roots are higher at the top of the soil, and they're more susceptible to infection, looking at exactly what we're experiencing as humans. So when you get a grape from his vine, it has higher nutrients, it knows when to ripen. And he talks about the communication between the soil and the plants, and we don't need to get into that. But these grapes produce a lower alcohol content, wine, higher flavor profile, as well as higher nutrition value. So you can't compare. You can't just say wine. And it actually goes across the board. That's one of the best kind of solidifying realizations that I had when writing this book, is that you just can't look at Two foods. You can't look at two pieces of steak and say, oh, that's steak, because it's not. And so it's the same with wine. So if you can drink a lower alcohol content because there's less sugar wine, you can drink that. Or you can drink a wine on steroids, what John calls it, which is big, bold, strong California Chardonnay or something like that. It's different. Your body is actually going to react differently to the two of them. One has a boatload of sugar, the other one doesn't have so much and the other one has more flavonoids. So it's actually healthier.

Yeah. And those make you live longer. And plus, I don't know about you, but I'm happier with wine. I've just noticed. Me too. So there. And then my other favorite food group, which you've kale and coffee. So let's talk the coffee side of things too.

I know. I have this love hate relationship with coffee. I love coffee, I love everything about it, but it just doesn't agree with me. And that chapter starts off with me and my coffee seducing me again.

I so get that. It's like, come in here, you know those nice little coffee starts and you go in and breathe and you're like.

Oh, I smell good, tastes good.

Yes, just sip me, sip me, go ahead.

And what was interesting too is that again, when I was in high school or even college, I would drink two Dunkin Donuts monster sized coffees. And I'm not saying Dunkin Donuts coffee is bad directly.

But.

I'm not throwing anyone under the bus here. But I wondered, living here in Berkeley, California where we have amazingly sourced coffee is Blue Bottle and all these other places, I'm like, well again, using the same thing. Two foods that look the same may not be the same. Could I react less to this type of coffee? And the answer for me was no. And after doing some 23andMe genetic testing and then running it through the MTF.

HR, you're a slow caffeine metabolizer, aren't you?

Extremely slow.

There you go.

So for me, I learned that coffee just didn't work for me, unfortunately because again, I love it, but I can't sleep at night, I get really anxious again, I process it really slow, I metabolize it slow. But for some other people it can work just as long as you get the right source. So again, shade grown, if it's wet processed, single crop, you can get a great coffee. And it actually can be beneficial because if you look at, say you look at the blue zones. I don't know if anyone who's listening is familiar with Dan Buettner's work in the blue zones. The Nicoyans from Costa Rica, they drink coffee all the time and they're some of the longest lived people in the world. So you can't just look at coffee and just say, the logic would be, is coffee is deadly or whatever. If someone said coffee's bad for you, well, then straight up those people would die. You know what I mean? Let's kind of take an extreme example. It's not true, but, but you would see them dropping dead early, but they don't. And there's other variables. Yeah, I get it. But you can't just, we can't look at any like, specific food and say, with the exception of a very few, and just say, hey, you know what? That's like, that's bad. You know, just don't, you just shouldn't do it.

Well, and the nice thing is too, like, when you look at you, you have a tendency to go all in on something. Would you say? Yeah, right. So, I mean, it's always good because, like, if you're gonna drink coffee, you're drinking coffee. And if you're gonna be vegan, you're vegan. It's, you know, and so for me now I've gotten to a point where I might have a little bit of regular coffee. I can actually only do bulletproof, the mycotoxin free or espresso. And then other than that, I'm decaf. And so, you know, you figure it out based on, again, where your alpha brain waves are, what's going on with your adrenal glands, how do you, how well are you detoxifying things? And I love, I love the genetic testing for all of that. So, so this book, you wrote this book, your personality comes out in this book. It's awesome. And going through the process of doing this, what was your big learning from writing this book, your big takeaway? Just one. Just one.

I love the work from the blue zones because if you look at all the blue zones in the world, if you look at Loma Linda and you look at Okinawa and Nicoyan Peninsula, Sardinia, the, the one in Greece, they all eat different foods. They all have their vices, like Sardinia, they drink wine. In Okinawa, they drink sake infused with mugwort. So, I mean, they're all doing things that even the women in Sardinia, they stress, they stress out. That was one point that Dan Buettner writes about. They get stressed. It's not just like, they're just living the dream. But for me, that was such a. What a relief. That, like, hey, if you eat a sweet potato or if you eat rice or if you eat steak or if you eat fish, it's not one food. One food isn't your savior, and it's a collection of everything that you do. And again, that's so cliche. And I even write in the book. I'm like, so freaking boring. Are you kidding me? I spend all this time writing this book, and I get this. I'm like, I can't believe it. But this is.

Let me say the book is not boring.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

Because you have so much. All your fun experiences with the research. It's like, the book is so much fun and there's great learning in it, too. Okay, back to that. Because you said something about being boring. I'm like, kevin, look.

But that's just one small part of it. There's much more interesting. So, I mean, that was a big thing for me because then I can start to think about what are the. The things that actually work, right? So if that's something that we're just like, okay on, then what are the things that can actually work? And that's why I go into wine and salt. Well, for one thing, I went down to Mexico to visit the salt flats, and I didn't even know there were salt flats. Anne Marie was so worried because she's like, wear life vests when you go on the boat. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm going to go on a boat. I'm going to go see salt. There's no boats. There's no traveling on boats. You just go out into these flats that are just sand and they dig down into the water table and they pump the salt water water up. But that's why I went into. Because again, my whole story was I got tired of the health stuff. And so then I decided to eat whatever I wanted as long as it was organic. And then I blew through my 185 ideal weight, 185 pound ideal weight, and then ended up at 223 pounds. So totally on the other end of the spectrum, unable to button my pants in the strangest place I've ever been in, and finally able to empathize with all the people I had either done personal training with or I had worked with or talked to online through our videos and everything like that. And then I wanted to really get into, like, look, so neither of these things worked it's very clear that neither of these things work. What are the things that actually mean something? How can you actually exercise to not stress your body out too much and to get weight loss, but also not injure yourself? How could you do that? And so in the exercise chapter, I've really worked and honed in on what the answer to that is with salt. Like how much salt can you, can you really eat? Can you eat six tablespoons? Do you have to go, no salt? What's the best way to do that? Gluten. Can you eat a little bit of gluten or not? Can you have sugar or not? So that's where I really tried to dive in and get some real data. Because again, there's so much misinformation about health and a lot of times a health expert is just saying exactly what worked for them and it may not work for someone else.

Well, right, and that's the important thing. What I love here is that you're putting people on their own personal path with the information, but also making, you know, letting us all see that it's not like all or nothing, you know, you know that you can have a little bit here and there of some of these things. Not, not everything. But you mentioned a person just a minute ago, Ann Marie, who I adore and you know, I'm a big fan. I'm kind of addicted to your skincare company. So I mean, here's the interesting thing is you've got this health book. You had Renegade Health, you were known as this big health group, all these videos. Now you've made this transition and you have this kick ass skincare company. So how, how does that, like, how'd that happen?

Well, we, again, this came out of Renegade Health and we got a lot of questions, particularly Anne Marie got a lot. They weren't asking me what did I know? What do you put on Anne Marie? What do you put on your skin? And so after we got enough of them, we learned that you have to listen to, you know, what people are asking because, you know, that's like that build straws. And so we went into the cabinet in the bathroom and looked at all our stuff. And I wasn't wearing skincare at the time, but Emory was. And we had shampoos and conditioners and all that sort of stuff. And we said, wow, this is definitely not up to our crazy raw vegan kind of standards. So we went out to try to find a product that we could recommend. And because we're pretty stingy and pretty specific about what we wanted. We really couldn't find anything. There was really nothing out there. So we're like, all right, cool. We'll do the formulation route. We'll go find some. We'll make it ourselves.

That'll be easy.

That'll be really easy. Turns out that that's a scary world in itself because there's a lot of. It's not necessarily straight up deception, but to the consumer it is. But I'll call it deception, where you don't have to put things on the label. And whether or not your formulator tells you those labels, it doesn't even need to tell you if those things are in it. They can tell you it's the cleanest thing on the planet. And then you can go out and sell it. And then maybe one day in conversation, you go back to the formula and say, hey, maybe I was thinking about adding this. And you're like, okay, yeah, we'll add that. But we actually recently we took out this sodium benzoate and we added this other thing like, wait a minute, that wasn't in it at all. And they're just like, oh, well, yeah, you don't have to put that on the label. It's just like, what is going on here? So the industry is totally unregulated. It's wild, wild west. And. And for us, we kind of shelved it for a little bit until Anne Marie found a line that she really, really loved. And it was in a spa in Arizona, in Southern Arizona. And so we contacted the owner and said, hey, we want to sell your product online. And she said, no, can't do it. I only sell to spas. We're like, oh, man. We're like, okay, I guess that's it. We did a video of their products, and we're just like, all right, well, we'll just spread the good word. The next day, I was just like, you know what? I wonder if she'll formulate something with us. So she's this real earth mama chemist type person, and it was a total fit for us. And so she said, yeah, I know who you guys are, and I'd love to work with you. And so fast forward to now. She's now part owner of the company, so she does our formulation with us. So we now suggest what we want and how to do it and that sort of thing. And we've just been able to have a really strong consciousness about what we're doing in terms of what the product is and how it works for our people. That's one of the. I Kind of liken it to. It's weird. I'm a guy, so kind of can only think in guy terms when it comes to the skincare thing. But I liken it to almost like a craft brew, like a really well done craft brew brewery. Because we take really, really deep care in finding the herbs, making sure that they're steeped in oil for a certain period of time and really extracting the nutrients at low temperature. So we have this element of. For me, it's craft proof or skincare, but that's not really the best way.

To say for the women out there, it's like getting amazing. All those amazing herbs that you'll go buy to make some great sauces and buying the best quality oils. And I will, I'll tell you, you know, I just was in the desert and I was in a massive sandstorm and I literally, my skin was pitted with scabs. I'm like looking at this, going, oh my gosh, like, what am I gonna do? And so I used your repair serum and it's like three days later, it's gone. Gone. Amazing. So it's like I, it's. And it smells delicious. That's what I love. I remember the first time I tried something, I'm like, gosh, I feel like I can, could probably cook with this. It was like, I think your ayurvedic scrub or something or mask. I'm like, I feel like I could make a sauce out of this. So incredible stuff. I love the coconut oil. It's just, it's just fantastic. So I had to, I had to bring that in too, because I think it's so fun that you guys have kind of come full circle because your skin is a sieve. You know, it's, it's when you, you want to, you should be able to eat the things you put on your skin. And I'm not saying, hey, let's like go eat your lotion, but you could. So that's the cool thing. You could eat these.

The one that tastes good is the coconut honey mask. That's like, that's a dessert.

So there you can make pudding from it or you can put it on your face. So, yeah, I just, I love your stuff. And so someone wanting to learn more about you. Where's the best place to send them?

The best place to go is, is kevngiani.com that's kevin G-I-A n n I.com There you can see, you know, you can, can go off and check out some things from there and you can get a copy of the first chapter of the book, too. So in case you wanted that.

Yeah, but you'll want more than the first chapter once you dive in. Now, this is just one of those fun. It's one of those books that you read it and you're having so much fun, but you're getting all of this information, too. And that's really how we learn things, not with some dry, boring research. It's having fun and then hearing the stories of where you were and then going, oh, yeah, now I remember, you know what he was talking about. Like, I'm looking at these how a horny hog could be the key to your longevity. I mean, come on. It's like so awesome. So, Kevin, thank you so much for being with me today. And I want to remind everyone listening that you can visit Kevin Gianni.com and by the way, that's spelled G-I a N-N-I.com to get more cool stuff from Kevin and grab the that book, kale and coffee. Great health book. Amazing. Also a great one to gift. So after the break, I'm going to be answering listeners questions, so be sure to stay with me.

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All right, welcome back. Now this is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question is from a little outside of where Kevin lives. It's from Oakland, California, just down the road. And it's from Karen. And Karen's question is, let me read this. So I get this perfect. How do I find the right carb balance? So I keep losing weight without tanking my energy. Man, this is the question that everybody wants to know, isn't it? And I'll tell you what, it's super important one, because if you eat too little carbs, and there's such a big focus right now on ketogenic diets and very low carb diets. But you know, if you do that, you can actually crash your adrenals and raise your blood sugar. Of course, if you eat too many carbs, you'll do just the opposite. You'll raise your insulin, which causes you to store fat and turns you into a sugar burner. So if you're doing that, you know, eating carbs all the time, which raises blood sugar, then raises insulin, it drives your blood sugar back down, tells your body to store fat and makes you hungry every two to three hours. And then every two to three hours, you have to eat more carbs. So, so you don't want to be crashing your adrenals, but you also don't want to be jacking up the carbs too high either, right? So if you're finding right now that you have to eat every two to three hours and if you don't eat anything, you're crashing. You've trained your body to rely on carbs for fuel. In reality, you want to train your body to use stored body fat for fuel. I mean, right, you want to be burning off your belly fat, I'm sure, not the muffin you just ate. So here's how you do this. First of all, you're going to eat by the clock. You're going to eat every four to six hours rather than every two to three. Now if you are a two to three hour eater right now, because you've fallen prey to that urban legend that you should be snacking, I want you to start increasing your water intake because so often we're not hungry, we're thirsty. And then stretching those hours in between your meals out. You want to eat within an hour or so of waking up. And then you want to eat every four to six hours again, putting water in between. Drink more water. Water boosts your metabolism throughout the day as much as 30%. And then you want stop eating three hours before bed. This is critical. But I want you to know that this does not mean going to bed later. Okay? So don't say, oh, I had dinner at 11pm, I'm going to bed at 2. No, that's not how that works. No. So what it comes down to is making sure that what you're eating on your plate helps give you steady, sustained energy, helps you use stored fat for fuel, and helps you get rid of your cravings. That means that you're going to want to make sure that you're getting some clean, lean protein at each meal, some healthy fats and some slow, low carbs. Now the way I start this out is I start with a protein shake for breakfast. And that can either be defatted beef protein or plant based protein like pea Protein or you know, if you're not doing a protein shake, you can have clean lean protein like wild fish, grass fed beef, pastured chicken or pork. And if you're not sensitive to them, eggs. But you want to make sure that you're getting in some clean lean protein at each meal. It's thermic and it helps you feel full. Now the next thing you want to make sure you're getting at each meal are healthy fats. And I know that everyone's still fat phobic, which is amazing because you need fat to burn fat, eat more fat, lose more weight. So critical. And one of the things fat does is helps tell your brain that you're full. So improves satiety. I mean, protein does that too, as I just said, and it's thermic. And fat actually triggers the release of some brain, some neuropeptides in your small intestine to go to your brain and say, hey, we just ate, we're to going cool. All right, so this is a great combo. So we've got the fat. And remember one of the cool things, one of the best things you possibly can do is make an oil change, right? Switch over from vegetable oils to olive oil to macadamia nut oil. Make an oil change here. But if we're talking about lowering carbs down, we got to put something in their place. Protein stays consistent, fats are going to come up and carbohydrates are going to come down. So for most women, 4 to 6 ounces of protein at each meal, 25 grams of a protein powder, 2 to 4 servings of healthy fat, with each serving being about like 10 nuts, a tablespoon of oil or a tablespoon of nut butter, half of a small avocado, and then you're going to be getting some slow, low carbs, some high fiber carbs, things like berries, lentils, sweet potato, pumpkin, little bits of these just to keep your blood sugar stable, right? And slowly release. That's what the fiber is. So important for the perfect trifecta is protein, fat and fiber to keep you satiated, keep your blood sugar balanced and stable so it's not going up and triggering a big insulin response. And you'll play around with this a bit. But the most important thing is to get your carbs down to a lower sugar impact. Choice of carbs, that's what I, I call them from my sugar impact diet. Now when you eat carbohydrates with the lower sugar impact, they're going to naturally be more whole foods based carbs. And they're going to have higher fiber, which again means a slow release of blood sugar and a lower insulin response so that you'll feel fuller, longer because of the fiber. You won't have that blood sugar crash with the insulin rise. It's going to make you go rushing for the cookie, right? And again, just to remind you, wild rice, squash, pumpkin, these are all examples of slow, low carbs and some of the most amazing, yummy foods that you can eat. And of course, legumes and loads and loads of non starchy vegetables. These are all some of my favorites. So in the morning I want you to little lower amounts of carbohydrates, one serving at the most. And this is easy enough to do by just making a breakfast shake every morning. I start the day with a shake and I throw in a little bit of avocado, I throw in my protein shake mix, I throw in some extra fiber, I'll throw in some kale or spinach and some raw cacao nibs and I'm covered. So I'll get my carbs in through that. But that's pretty low carb. If you throw in a little bit of berries, that'll bring it up a little bit. But let's keep your overall carbs in the morning at lunch, around 25 grams. So lighter in the morning, a little heavier in the evening, about 50 grams which could be, you know, you can look at doing like a cup of, of lentils or a cup of a mix of wild rice and lentils or a sweet potato. And one of the things we found with people when they do a little bit more carbohydrates in the evening, helps you sleep better and also helps with your testosterone levels. So this is a critical one. You want to make sure that you're getting good hormone balance. So you want to make sure at each meal that you're getting in your protein, your healthy fats and high fiber carbs because that's the trifecta for keeping your energy stable and not raising your insulin too much. And that's all about again, more a better carb balance by being carb light in the morning, a little more carb heavy but not heavy heavy, you know, but more in the evening and following low sugar impact. Now if you'd like to submit a question, and I love these questions, just go to jjvirgin.com ask and you can leave a voicemail for me. I cannot wait to hear from you again. This is like I love this seeing these questions and ones we can't get to on the podcast. We tend to do blogs on or post on social media, so just keep them coming. Now one more way I'd love to hear from you. I would hugely appreciate it if you could jump on Stitcher or itunes and leave a review for me. It helps a bunch. And while you're there, be sure to subscribe and share the show with your friends. This is JJ Virgin signing off and reminding you that you are worth worthy Dare to live a life that matters.

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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 tag 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 what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.