Why Toxicity Can Keep You Fat, Sick, and Tired

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Welcome to the Virgin Diet lifestyle show with your host, celebrity nutrition and fitness expert and New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin.

It seems like every week you hear that someone's on a cleanse or someone's detoxing. So we what's the deal? Is this something that you need to be doing? Well, you know, toxins are all around us. I mean, even if we went to the like, craziest places that humans have never been, you would have toxins there because of the water flowing and the air blowing. And the challenge is, is that we've got toxins that our body was never set up to deal with. You know, if you look at our detox system is over 10,000 years old. It hasn't changed yet. We've got all this wacky chemicals that we're getting confronted with on a daily basis and we are not looking at them correctly. You know, you'll hear these studies that say, oh, these are safe, but it's not a single hit of something that causes the problem. Our body is a history book and it is the combination of these things and as they store up in our body that creates the problem. So here's the deal. You're eating, you're breathing, you're drinking, you're touching. That is how you're getting toxins in. And ideally your body, and I'm going to talk about this in a minute, will take those things and get them back out again. But if you override your detox system, then they got to store somewhere. And you know where they store, they store in your fat. And one of the things we know is that if you've got too much toxicity, your body actually slows down and holds on to fat in order to keep you safe. We also know that this toxic overload can create all sorts of neurological problems, hormonal problems. So the bottom line is we need to detoxify, but we have to detoxify correctly. The reason I get so crazy about these juice cleanses is they actually make you worse, not better. Here's a hint. If you feel worse when you're detoxifying, that's your body going, hey, stop it. Knock it off. Right? You should not feel worse going through a detox and going, oh, my gosh, I'm so tired of such headaches. That's not a healing crisis. That's a you're doing it wrong crisis. Because the deal is you've got to have specific things to help you get rid of the toxins in your body. The first thing is your body detoxes in two phases. The first phase is it's going to free things up and transform them so they can get out. Now, the second phase is the critical phase, because a lot of us can do fine on that first phase. In fact, we might even do that first phase too fast. Where we get slowed down is in the second phase, which means you have to take those transformed molecules, grab them onto amino acids so they can escort them out of the body. So if you don't have the amino acids you need to escort these toxins out of the body, you'll free them up and then they won't get out. And that's far worse than leaving them where they were in the first place. So this idea of a juice cleanse is crazy because you're not getting the amino acids that you need to escort the toxins out of your body. So the first thing that you need are some good protein sources, because that's where you're getting your amino acids. But you also need to make sure that you're digesting your protein. You know, if you're over the age of 30, 35, or under any stress, which pretty much now qualifies everybody, but just let's assume 30 plus, you should give yourself a trial of good protein digesting digestive enzymes, things like betaine proteases to see if you feel better when you do this. If you're one of those people that feels more bloated as you eat, you're probably not digesting well. So give yourself a trial of digestive enzymes. Now, next thing is, of course, taking good vitamins and minerals and good liver support. Very critical. And I find with most people, I've done tons of nutrient testing. It is rare for me to look at someone and see they've actually got all the nutrients they need. Okay, the next thing is fiber. And fiber. If you hear me do anything about weight loss, you're always hearing me talk about fiber. I feel like fiber is this forgotten superhero, because not only does it Suppress ghrelin so you're not as hungry and slow down stomach emptying. It helps move things through the small intestine, large intestine faster, which is what you want. So it's going to help slow down stomach emptying so you feel fuller, longer, but then it's going to get things moving through the intestines. It also helps pull water in, give bulk to the stools, and help get things, ride things on out of there. So this is critical. And fiber also helps feed the good bacteria in the gut. And this is critical because you want to have really good bacteria. It supports a good immune system. Now, along with fiber, the other partner to fiber, of course, is water. And we want to drink a lot of water to help us detoxify and a lot of water to help those high fiber foods keep moving along. And you should be sweating a lot. Now, of course, you can sweat with exercise, which is also important because you get great circulation and circulation is key here. Massage is another way to do that. Dry brushing is another way to do that. But you want to make sure that you're sweating. You know, as I back when I used to personal train a lot, I'd watch people that didn't sweat well or that were chronically constipated. Those were the people I knew were at a higher risk for toxicity. So besides just doing exercise to sweat, my very favorite way to sweat is to use an infrared sauna. I have one at home. I have a sunlight in infrared sauna, and it's near, far and medium infrared. And what's critical here is this is the way that you can actually get the toxins out of your fat. It is not easy to get the toxins out of your fat. And I want to give you another little piece of advice here. As you're losing weight, you are freeing up toxins. It's part of the reason why you may not feel so good as you're starting to lose weight is those toxins are getting freed up. You got to get them out of the body. So a weight loss program should also be a detox program. And one of the key things there and the reason I talked about vitamins and minerals, I also want to tack on antioxidants to that. Of course, eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, especially vegetables, is key for getting great antioxidants. But you create a lot of oxidative stress when you detoxify. You need good antioxidants.

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Okay, Now, I talked about dry brushing, okay. Which people go, what's dry brushing? Oh, you take a brush, it's dry, and then you dry brush your body. Massage is another good one, especially lymphatic drainage. Not my favorite because I'm sort of like, come on, rub me. But that also works. Well, there's another key part to this. Oh, Epsom salts bath. And by the way, I've got to do a shout out to tru rest the flow pods because you can actually go and float in. I think it's some crazy amount, like 10,000 pounds of Epsom salts or something, but you're going to get that magnesium sulfate in there that helps you detoxify. Now, there's one other key thing here that's never really talked about in a detox program. Probably it is the most important thing that you can do to detoxify, and that is to start with your thoughts. You got to detoxify your thoughts, because you know what? If you're having negative thoughts, if you're having undermining thoughts, you're not going to be able to be successful. On a detox program or any kind of program, or in your life. So the first place to start is you decide to take on detoxification, which should be a daily process, by the way. We're getting hit by toxins every single day. You got to get rid of rid of the toxins every single day. But let's start with your thoughts, and let's start every day with some gratitude. You know, I've been doing what I call intentioning or journaling every day for, gosh, I don't know, 20, 30 years, forever. And it is how I got through the really bad accident my son had, where I spent a lot of time in the ICU and four and a half months in the hospital with him, not knowing if he was going to live or die. It's how I've gotten through some really challenging parts of my life, but it's also how I've gotten to be better in my health and better in my business and better out in life. Is starting every day with gratitude, looking at the things that are so great going on. Because sometimes it can be so easy to focus on what's not working and then focusing on those big aspirational goals, the whys, because that will take you and go, okay, now, you know it's going to be hard to do some of this detox. I'm going to have to have more green drinks. I'm going to have to eat my vegetables. I'm going to have to exercise some. I'm going to have to drink more water. But you'll have a bigger why, a bigger aspiration that will drive you through that. And along with detoxing your thoughts, you may just have to detoxify your friends, too. I have really noticed in my life now that I don't have any negative people around me. I have so managed my thought life and my friend life. And that's a key thing that you can manage. Now. I will tell you, I love you, mom, but my mom's a little negative, so I manage that one, too. So even if you have, say, negative family members, you can manage this stuff. But you pick your friends. So pick positive people who inspire you to aspire to better greatness. Okay, that might feel like I got a little off the track of detox, but I don't think so. You detox your diet, you detox all around. You detox your home life, right? More green plants, better air filters, water filters. Detox your thinking and detox your friends. And all of a sudden you're going to turn around and go. Wow. I feel great. I have great energy. I have great friends. I have a great life Ready to.

Lose fat fast and keep it off forever. Discover the number one resource for fast and lasting fat loss by visiting JJVirgin.com, access exclusive videos, content, rich blog posts and lots of free resources to help you lose weight and feel better fast and be part of a community. Get ready to transform your life one simple shift at a time by visiting www.jjvirgin.com hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle.

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