441: Creatine & The Midlife Woman with JJ Virgin

If you focus on strong over skinny, if you focus on what your weight's made up of versus what your weight is, you're going to win. The other one's a losing battle, because if you truly just focus on weight and losing weight, you will make yourself worse, not better. You'll damage your metabolic health.

If you've listened to my podcast for any amount of time, you know, there's been lots of guests and lots of talks where we've chatted about what to eat, getting enough protein, eating healthy, the importance of it, why we want to eat organic. But I want to share that as we age, it's not just what we eat, it's what we digest. Even if we eat super healthy, clean, organic food, we can still not have the best digestion. You see, our natural ability to digest food declines with age. This is because your body produces fewer enzymes, which are the proteins responsible for digesting food. And when you have fewer enzymes, this means more difficulty digesting our food. So even organic, healthy, or what you think are perfect foods won't provide enough enzymes to properly digest them. So this is especially true if you cook your food, which most of us do, because cooking kills the enzymes. So if you've ever wondered why you might have digestion problems even after having a healthy meal, it's because your body just can't produce enough of the enzymes to get the job done. So this is where supplementing with high quality enzyme supplements can be a huge help. So I personally use and recommend a specific digestive stack from Bio Optimizers which includes their mass Zymes, which is a best in class supplement loaded with full spectrum enzymes for digesting proteins, starches, sugars, fibers and fats. So when you take this enzyme daily, and I personally take them with each meal, and replace the enzymes your body is no longer producing, you're able to eat all sorts of things and digest them quickly without the bloating, without the feeling, you know, puffy, without the leaky gut issues, all of that. So when you digest your food properly, you're actually getting all of the nutrients. So I've got an exclusive offer for all of my listeners if you go to bioptimizers.com Natalie Jill again, bioptimizers.com forward slash Natalie Jill. You can also use coupon Natalie Jill to save. You'll see my recommended stack which includes the mass times, the HCL and the probiotic.

Welcome to Midlife Conversations. I'm your host, Natalie Jill, and I'm passionate about having amazing conversations that matter to us midlife women on this podcast, I do what I do best, taking complicated health topics and breaking them down simply so that we can optimize aging together. I share actionable steps to help you thrive in what I believe are our best years to come. Join me as I interview the most inspiring people living their best in the world life years and dive into essential topics like hormone changes, health optimization, weight management, blood sugar, emotional well being, relationships, beauty, and so much more.

Does aging have to suck? And is it true that we lose muscle as we age and that our metabolism just falls apart and that things have to change negatively? And what supplements are actually important to be including? Is creatine just for bodybuilders or is this something that we, as midlife women need to be taking seriously? I have no better guess than who I have today. I've got my friend jj Virgin. If you don't know who she is, you've been sleeping under a rock. But I have her on specifically today because not just her expertise when it comes to nutrition and fitness and personal development and all the amazing topics that she has stepped into over the years, even business, but if you look at her at age 61 and if you're watching her on video, you can see her arms are to die for. She is not not only getting stronger by the day, leaning out in such an amazing way, she is truly aging powerfully. And I have to know all of her secrets today, so I'm bringing her on to midlife conversations. Thank you so much for being here today, jj.

Always a pleasure. I just wish we were in person.

Yes, I know. I want to start with how, like, how have you always been this fit? Were you somebody that was genetically blessed that way? How did you figure this out? Take us back. I know that now we are, you're at 61 and you are just seeming to get stronger and stronger, but was this always you? I want to kind of level that out right first. Was this always you or something you had to figure out and learn?

Well, I want to say something about that with a caveat because when I say this, there will be a tendency. So I'm just going to call it out before I say it. You listening? May have a tendency to go, oh, well, that's great for her. So what about me? Because I literally have always been obsessed with, with health, exercise, diet, nutrition, like since a little kid. And, you know, at 12 years old, I went to the, to the library and checked out Nutrition books. At 16, I started working out with the high school football team because back then we only had figure Salons, I kid you not. We had jazzercise and figure salons. And so I was fortunate to start lifting weights when I was 16, when girls did not lift weights. I mean, it's like, it's just coming to the point now where women are starting to celebrate being strong, which is mind blowing to me. However, something did happen to kind of shake that in my teens, and it made me actually double down the other way, which I feel fortunate about. I just want to say, as I tell this story, that if you forgot to start lifting weights at 16 or even last year, it doesn't matter. What we now know is that you can build muscle strength and power at any age. So this is just more to show you. This is what. What will really help you age powerfully. That our focus on weight and what that, you know, rather than what the weight's made up of, has really done all of us women a disservice. Our focus on trying to be smaller, thinner, skinnier has really hurt us. And if we don't shift that, we're going to end up being those people that age gracefully and not powerfully. And that's not what you want to do where you're, you know, you're having trouble opening jars or getting up the stairs or all the things. So.

I always wanted to be a musical theater actress. I went to UCLA on a theater scholarship. And so I saw my body as, like, the tool, right? This is what I was using. And so I was a dancer and a really bad singer, which is part of the reason I gave this up. I'm like, I can't sing. This isn't going to change. No amount of singing lessons is going to fix this problem. But when I was in high school and lifting weights with the high school football team, I also decided that I should become a model because I was six feet tall. And so I went to the modeling agency in San Francisco, and I remember standing there looking at these. These other girls, and they were pale. They were like half the size of me. Like, their shoulders were, like, half the span of my shoulders, right? And they told me back then, and I weighed the same now as I weigh then, instantly. And they said, oh, you need to lose £20 at least, maybe 30. Wow. Now I know I'm, like, going, okay, you know, and very impressionable at that age. I go home, I get a diet book from the library. I start writing down my calories, thousand calories a day. Now. I was like, dance class every day, walking up and down the hill to school miles and, you know, My dance teacher a couple of weeks in goes, are you anorexic? What's going on? Right. And thankfully, and I realized something. Here I was.

You know, doing dance class, running track, doing all these things, and I couldn't do them. Everything was going downhill. And I went, wow. I could either pursue this thing over here, this. This modeling thing where I'm not really photogenic either, so there's that issue. Or I could be strong, but I can't be both. So which will I choose? And I decided to choose the strong. I will tell you, though, Natalie, it's taken up until recently to really fully embrace the fact that I have an athletic body. I don't have a curvy body. I'm never going to be one of those girls. I remember always trying to do that growing up, try to, you know, pull my waistband in really tight to see if I could have those curves. My waist and hips are almost the same size. Like, I can pull a pair from my waist all the way off. Right. So, you know, there's a couple lessons in there. The number one lesson is, like, celebrate your body type and make it the best you can be, Right? Yeah. And the second thing is, if you focus on strong over skinny, if you focus on what your weight's made up of versus what your weight is, you're going to win. The other one's a losing battle, because if you truly just focus on weight and losing weight, you will make yourself worse, not better. You'll damage your metabolic health, and you'll end up like. I think it's like 50% of women over 50 are going to have some kind of osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime. I mean, you don't want to be any of this.

It's so. It's so wild that we're talking about this, about not loving our body and wanting to be a different body type. Because if you think back, so I'm 53, you're 61. And I know us growing up, us being young, adult, 20, there was always, like, a body type that was in. And somebody was always not happy with the body they had. And I watch it even now with my daughter, who's 17, and there's like, a different body type that's in. So, like, I remember going to the gym, I don't know if where we would tie a sweatshirt around our waist to cover. We didn't want the big hips or butt. And now that. That's the thing that's in. It's bizarre.

I know. I know. I've Never actually had a body type that was the in body type. Like if it had been the 60s, I could not have possibly been Twiggy. But that skinniness thing kept going. Like the skinny was there for quite a while. Then it's curvy. Can't do the curvy. I'm like, when's the like athletic? But I think the real point is maybe you're a curvy person. Listening. Maybe you're someone who's just more, you know, lean and thin. Maybe you're someone who's more athletic. Like celebrate what you have and lean into really knowing your body composition and what your weight's made up of. Because that's, that's going to set you free. If you focus on trying to, you know, win it on the scale. Like that is that's like the fastest way to get frustrated ever. Yeah.

No, when, when it comes to focusing on getting stronger, what I love about that is everybody could do that. Like, no matter what your body type, no matter what your age, the idea of working towards getting stronger is doable for everyone. Help us understand.

So many women think this is, I've got to give it up after 50. It's not possible.

Yeah, where the heck did that come from? First of all, here's some crazy statistics. You know, if you are lean and under muscled, you're actually at a bigger health risk than if you are over fat and have good muscle. So we really want to focus on getting away from the scale and looking at what your weight's made up of. I think there's just some, just some prevailing idea that, you know, you're over the hill and that everything falls apart at 50 plus. I know as I was, as I was getting ready to turn 50, I was really excited about my 50th birthday. I had the most amazing, fun birthday and I had all these goals set for 50. I wish I laugh now and go, why didn't I just set those for 30? Why did so long. But then I never did a reset for 60 and I realized I was kind of approaching 60 with this kind of, ugh, like sort of this dread and denial. Yeah. Because 60 seemed old. Like 50 was like, oh, 60. I was like, huh. And that's when I realized, you know, I believe that, that our thoughts create our reality. That, you know, perception creates reality. So what if I got excited about my 60th birthday and decided to be in the best shape of my life And I believe that we truly can have this be the best time, the best shape of our Life. But the first thing that has to happen is you have to decide it. And you have to be really careful about what you're listening to, what you're paying attention to out there. Because even though I see myself as a very positive person, I was letting little. The little things come in, you know, where I felt like, oh, well, I can't do that because I'm, you know, I'm too old. They won't. They won't have me do that. I'm too old. I'm too old to speak at that event. I'm too old to be on that, you know. And then I went, where is that coming from? I'm too old to walk into a room and have, like, guys turn around. All the stuff that you're like. You're not like, look at Christie Brinkley. Yeah, I'm sure people still turn around when she walks.

They do.

So it's really deciding. And I'm sure you've seen the study that shows that people who are excited about aging, positive about aging, live seven and a half years longer than those who don't. That. And I went, you know, we can all make that decision. And I love what you just said, because we can all make that decision and we can all then do the things we need to do to get stronger and more powerful. That's available to anyone. You might not be able to, you know, put a foot on, in your height. You might not be able to, you know, whatever, you know, change your. Change your hair or your whatever, but you can totally change your power and strength.

I love that you. We'd never actually talked about this before. And I love that you brought up deciding. Because the step one in my fat loss method has always been deciding. Because I tell women I can't help people unless you've decided it's possible for you. As soon as someone shuts it down and says, I'm too old, it's too late. It's not possible. They have all their reasons. They've decided the wrong thing. They've decided it's going to be downhill, so nothing's going to work for them. What is actually going on? Do you feel with muscle where this story came from? So in my mind, if you're always active and you keep progressing, it keeps going. I think what's happened is women that feel that they've missed the boat, like they didn't do it enough or they were focused on just cardio or calorie counting, so they weren't actually strength training, and now they think, wait, it's too late for me. What's the truth around that?

Well, I think there is some intimidation factor if you've never done it to go into a gym. I mean, heck, I go into some of these gyms, I'm like, what the heck are these machines? You know, what are they like? We were at a gym the other day and all they had were tonal machines. And Tim and I are like, cannot figure out how to make these things. Yeah, this must be what it feels like. So I do think there's some of that. However, there's something real that does happen as estrogen drops. Now, I'm also a big proponent of hrt.

Yes.

As estrogen's dropping and even if you are doing hormone replacement, you're going to have those times where it's kind of going off the ledge. But that is when you start to lose muscle. Like, we know starting at around age 30, you can lose up to 1% of your muscle a year and, and 2 to 4% of your strength and 4 to 6% of your power. So strength and power being really mission critical here. But that this can accelerate after the age of 60, which is why I think we see some more issues with metabolism. So this can happen and it tends to accelerate as estrogen drops. Because estrogen, we think of testosterone as anabolic and muscle building. Well, estrogen is that for women. So if you are not doing hormone replacement therapy, you're going to have to work harder, but you can still build muscle and strength. There's other things that are also anabolic that you can throw at it. And if you're listening to this going, oh, but I'm scared to build that muscle.

If you threw the book at it, you were on estrogen replacement therapy, you were doing fish oil, you were doing creatine, you were doing things that are all going to help you maybe might appear all the stuff, you'd be lucky now, you'd have some newbie gains for the first, you know, after the first month or two, for a couple months. But after that, you would be lucky to put on a pound of muscle a month. Lucky, yeah. And if you did put that pound of muscle on a month, every pound of muscle takes about 10 calories a day to survive on your body, which doesn't sound like much, but when you think about it, it is the big thing that you can do to change your resting metabolic rate. That's the big change. I mean, you make sure thyroid's working well and you've got estrogen, but resting metabolic rate that, what, 75% of that's going to be dictated by how much muscle mass you have on. So it's the biggest way. Everyone talks about boosting their metabolism. Like, get some muscle on your body. Yeah. Because you do cardio, you burn calories while you're doing cardio. You probably lost some muscle while you were doing it. And you're not doing anything after the cardio, unless it was hit training, totally.

Oxygen debt, and then also the bone loss aspect. So if we are losing muscle, we are risk for losing bone, too.

Yeah, that's the thing that you look at and go, we should really do a bone mineral test, a density test in our 20s, maybe in our teens, and then we should be doing these dexas every year since then. But when you really look at it, I look at bone mineral density as kind of the same as I look at blood sugar. By the time blood sugar's perturbed, you've been insulin resistant for a while, you've lost bone marrow density, you've had issues with muscle mass. Unless you did something, you were something else, like a, you know, anorexic gymnast or something like that. But for the majority of us, if we've got poor mineral, bone mineral density, it's because we have not been doing what we need to do to build muscle. If you build muscle, you're putting that stress on your bones. That's going to help you maintain that bone mineral density. But again, you know, here we are, we're aging, estrogen's going down. We're also becoming anabolic resistant so that we cannot use protein and exercise. We're not as effective as building muscle from that. So we actually need more of both. I always say, you know, the less you do, the less you can do. And the more you do, the more you can do. And as you age, I don't believe we need to do less, which is kind of that prevailing thought, oh, take it gentle, go do a Pilates. I'm like, go pick up the big heavyweights and walk around the gym with them. You know, farmers carry it. So I'm actually doing things harder. I'm doing them with more intent. I feel like I have less margin for error now. I have to really take it up because I'm offsetting the snowball going down the hill right now.

What I want to share, if you're watching our video, you can probably see, but I've known JJ for years and you've always been strong, but you're like extra muscular now. Like, you're, you're breaking the mold. With actually growing muscle and doing something that a lot of women typically find challenging. I want to sort of break down some of the things you're doing from protein to creatine. I want to ask about peptides and even hormone replacement, what you just mentioned, but I want to start with protein. Is your thought still, do you still go with I want about approximately as many grams of protein as I want as an ideal body weight. Do you do more than that? What's your thoughts on protein intake for you and what do you suggest in general?

So I think that, that there is a range. What the research seems to say at the moment is that you will get to like the height of the bell shaped curve at 0.7 grams per pound of target body weight.

I personally, and I'd say if you're eating animal protein, which most people are eating, a blend between animal and plant. So that's where I think we're better off doing a gram. And I go up past that.

Okay.

If you're looking to either recomp your body.

Get control of your appetite, et cetera, a little extra protein isn't gonna hurt. That's the thing. We don't really know the upper limit of protein at this point. We thought we did and then they did that study where someone did 100 grams gram ingestion and they found out that it just continued. Muscle protein synthesis just went longer because of that. So we don't really know what the upper limit is and how long this will go on for. But I tend to do at least a gram per pound of target body weight. I also take some essential amino acids with me to the gym. I would say that your bare minimum is 0.7 grams per pound of target body weight. If you are.

Plant, an animal eater, if you're omnivore, if you're a vegan or vegetarian, then I would go to one.

Okay. And I've watched you build your plate. You always lead with protein. You're always grabbing more than most people grab and then you fill it with the other things. Do you feel opinion wise that animal protein is better than plant based or.

It's not opinion, like, you know, it's like I don't really, here's the thing with opinions, I don't really care about opinions, you know, And I, it kind of bothers me because diets have become like so religious, you know. Like I remember back in the day, you know, being a trainer and there was like the yoga versus the weight training wars. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is why why does there just have to be one? You know, and it's the same thing here. I mean, there's people vilifying plants and vilifying animals. I'm like, oh my gosh, stop. So it's just really a matter of digestibility, assimilation, quality, and it comes down to why are we eating protein? We're eating protein. You do get vitamins, minerals, polyphenols from it. But we're also eating prote. You know, the number one reason is for structure and function and to get these essential amino acids that we cannot make ourselves. We have 20amino acids, nine essential, and then the other one, the other amino acids and conditionally essential you can make from these. And so we're eating protein to get those things. Yeah. And if you're eating, say, a plant, plants have been created to have the amino acid structure to rebuild a plant. Animals have been created to rebuild animals. Plants also have things that will reduce the digestibility and availability, like fiber, like lectins, et cetera. So in general, it's a little tougher because they don't have the amino acid profile you're really looking for. They tend to be deficient in one or more. And they also aren't as digestible and available. Right. So it's just the difference between those two doesn't mean that you can't do it with plants. But if you are going to do it with plants, you better be prepared to supplement. Because I don't know how to help someone get the ideal amount of essential amino acids they need along with things like B12 and Taurine. Totally. And carnitine and creatine without supplementation. If you are a vegan, that makes sense.

You know, I was not a vegan, but I was definitely. I did not have red meat for 33 years. I had chicken, fish, just because I would have had a cow as a pet. That was my only reason. Because it. I knew nutritionally, I love or you did.

Well, it's.

But I, I this year was craving it, red meat. And I went back to it and now I can't get enough of it. It's my body. And what's really wild is the amount of muscle I've added and how much I've leaned out just by doing that swap, just by adding red meat in more than I was doing other proteins. It's made a huge difference and my body craves it. So it's just, you know, it's just an interesting. It was an interesting experiment on myself to see that happen.

Yeah, it's actually kind of interesting too. It's like easier to get grass fed, grass finished beef than it is to get past your chicken most of the time.

It's true.

So you're getting like a lot of these chicken sources are just gross, not amazing.

Yeah. And I feel different. I feel different adding it in. And so, you know, that's what I.

One caveat. If someone is adding in protein and they haven't been eating a lot of animal protein, this is where I think it's a great application for using protein digestive enzymes.

Yes.

Because your body is going to adapt to whatever you do. Like if you eat a higher protein diet, your body adapts to eating more protein. If you eat lower protein, your body will adapt to that, won't need as much stomach acid. Now all of a sudden you're gonna go, okay, now I'm gonna eat steak. And you'll go, oh, I don't feel good. Well, you don't feel good because your body's not used to digesting that. So just use some.

Totally. And it also has less enzymes than we had at age 35. So we.

It's important if you're under stress, I mean, all those things compile. So I think, you know, for most of us, if you are 40 plus protein, digestive enzymes can help a ton. And if they. Protein, digestive, fat, digestive are a really good thing to put on board if you're feeling, you know, bloated, gassy, any breakout issues, rosacea, you know, oily, poopy things. Yeah.

When you look at protein powders as a supplement, I know you do have your own and you suggest them and you've changed over the years on what you recommend there. What are your thoughts on whey versus beef protein versus, like, what's your guidance there? Hey there, Natalie. Jill here interrupting the show for just a moment to tell you about one of my favorite show sponsors, Just Thrive. Did you know that 99.9 of probiotics are actually dead before they even reach our gut? I didn't know this before, but it's true. If a probiotic needs refrigeration to stay alive, how the heck is it going to survive in our 98.6 degree body and stomach acid? This is why I personally just love the Just Thrive probiotic. In my experience, they are different because their probiotics are designed to arrive alive in your gut, making them incredibly effective compared to other brands that I've tried. Since I started taking Just Thrive, I've noticed my digestion feels more comfortable, my energy levels are better and Maintaining my weight goals has become even easier. Who doesn't love that? Of course, individual results can vary, but this has been my personal experience. They come in an easy to take capsule. If you can swallow or if you're not a pill swallower, you can open it up and mix it into your coffee or your smoothie or you can do what I've been doing. And that's their delicious gummy option that's perfect for everyone in the family. And I appreciate that it's gluten free, non GMO and completely vegan. Just Thrive stands behind their products with satisfaction guarantee. You can actually try it for 90 days in 2025. And if you don't love how you feel, they offer a full refund. And as a listener of midlife conversations, you can visit justthrivehealth.com and save 20% on your first order of a 90 day bottle by using my code Natalie Jill. That's justthrivehealth.com promo code Natalie Jill. Thanks to Just Thrive for sponsoring our show and supporting our midlife conversations community. Visit justthrivehealth.com and save 20 on your first 90 day bottle of Just Thrive probiotics with promo code Natalie Gel.

All right, I am working. I'm actually. I'll pull back the kimono a little bit on what's going on over here because I have been reformulating. I went through every single product in my line and went keep, kill or upgrade. And really with this mind of what are the most important things that we need for aging powerfully. And if I don't have them, there's someone else making them amazing because they are. I don't need to do it right. And then if not, what's needed. And when I looked at protein powder, I love protein powder. First of all, I know there's all this hoo ha about protein powder and processed food. I think we've gotten confused between what I know they call it ultra processed food, but I think we need to think of it as dirty processed food or clean processed food.

I love that reframe because I mean.

Think about it like, okay, I don't know, black beans in a can. Right?

My wild salmon. Something had to happen. It did not swim into my. Something happened. Yeah.

Even if you're getting a natural snack, there's like natural snacks that are technically processed. But we would say they're okay because it's like a beef jerky or whatever it is.

Right? I know because I was reading somewhere and they were like going, oh, beef jerky. Is ultra processed. Well, there's really nice ones that are grass fed. Grass finished with no garbage. Or you could eat the one that's got all the sugar wrap in it. So, you know, we're not picking those, we're picking the ones we like that are healthy. So that's what I look at is you want to pick one that obviously isn't adding artificial stuff. That's really important and that is got. So I tend to use three different types of protein. I use either a pea plant blend because I still have a group of people that that's what they want to do. And I don't want to step into the religious wars of diet. To me I'm like, I don't care you do you. But let's make sure you're doing the healthiest that you can do. Do I think you'd be better off being omnivore? Yes. But sometimes it's a religious reason or whatever and they can't do it. I'm not gonna die.

Sure.

So I have a plant protein powder and what I've done with this plant protein powder is I've actually optimized it so that by boosting it with some essential amino acids to make it resemble the whey essential amino acid profile. Wow. I don't know why no one has done this before. That's brilliant. Actually Obvious. It was so obvious. I was like, I woke up in the middle of night and reformulated these things. Similar with what I love about bone broth protein powder is that it's rich in collagen. It's 80% collagen. And as you know, that's the most abundant protein in our body. I take collagen every day whether it's my bone broth protein powder or extra of my collagen peptides. Because I think this is just makes a ton of sense for our connective tissue. You're not building muscle with collagen collagen. But you also will not build muscle if your connective tissue isn't strong because it's your limiter.

Sure. And if your gut's not healthy to.

Process everything, it's so good for leaky gut. Oh my gosh. It's like the best. So there's where I use collagen, but with collagen, that's the other one that I'm working on right now because it's also low in essential aminos. So I'm boosting those up in that one as well. So my two protein powders are put together that way so that they Will have essential amino acid profile. Plus you'll have the good protein blends. Now, whey protein. I'm actually working on a pretty interesting whey protein right now. But whey protein, for years, because of the virgin diet and seeing so many people react to eggs and dairy like. But I found that people have been able to heal their gut and where. I don't think gluten probably has a place in our diet living in the United States because it's, it's just destroyed. Basically it's a glyphosate cocktail. So. But I do think that if you've healed your gut, something like a, you know, a grass fed dairy Greek style yogurt. Amazing, right? Or some pastured eggs and egg whites are fantastic. So with whey, I love whey. I honestly don't think you need to have a grass fed whey. I think it's kind of ridiculous, really. Look at grass fed, where it's important is in the fat. Like if you think about what's happening with these animals, we store our toxins in our fat. So if you're eating grass fed grass finish, the big thing that happens with meat is when you're eating more corn fed or grass finished, grass fed, but grain finished, you're getting a fatty, higher fatty acid profile. And then the bad stuff gets sequestered into the fat.

Sure.

So when you're doing a protein powder, you're not eating fat, you're eating it nicely.

Makes sense.

I can't make sense of why this is important, but I think it's such great marketing. Yeah.

It's psychological too, for people. And I also think just, just energetically I'm one of those weird people that like energetically, I think like I'm transferring the energy of the animal or whatever. So I think if people want it. Amazing. What do you think of beef protein that's gotten popular?

Well, that's my bone broth protein powder. That is. That is what. Anytime you see beef protein, it's a bone broth protein.

Okay. So it's not, they're not different. It's the same thing.

When you say just the labeling of how they, how they were. Like when we first started doing beef protein, there wasn't anything out there calling it bone broth protein. I remember at the time going, how am I going to explain to people what this is without them being completely grossed out? You know, think about it. I'm like, yeah, what mama stuck a cow in a blender? I mean, yuck, right? And so bone broth protein powder just sounds A lot better than, you know.

Yeah. I didn't actually know that they were different until you just said that. I mean, that they were the same. I thought they were different things, and I couldn't figure out that either. I was like, how are they understand. I didn't understand where the protein was coming from. That makes sense because I was thinking, is it dehydrated meat? I didn't really understand.

Yeah, what they do is they take the carcasses and they boil them down and so they have some of the meat still in there and then, you know, the bones and all the stuff. So all that stuff comes off the carcass and then they dry it and they blend it.

Got it. Okay. That makes sense. Makes total sense.

I'm glad I haven't actually seen it because I don't know.

Yeah, no, I like to pretend it grows on trees. That's just what I do. I don't want to think about it that way. I'll just pretend it grows on trees for now. Talk to us about creatine, specifically, because that has always been. Women tend to think about as the bodybuilding. Bodybuilding supplement. They say that it bloats them. There's different types of creatine. And I know this is something you've really stepped into, redeveloping and going, wait a minute, there's a different way to look at this. And it's a very essential nutrient to you now. And you're actually, you personally are the one that actually got me to start doing creatine daily. I was not before. So I'd love your guidance here. Like, where. Why is this so important? How. Why have we been looking at it wrong? And why is this so critical for women?

So I was the same as you, you know, when I used to work out at Goldsteam in venice in the 80s. Right. Train people there and it like, steroid world there. But I was like, oh, that's what happens when you take steroids. That's what happens when you take creatine. Like, I lumped all of it together, like, no, thank you. And a couple years ago, it resurfaced. And I'm looking at this and I'm like, why the heck am I not taking this? Why isn't every woman taking it? Here's the reality with it. Our body, we have about anywhere from, you know, we should 120 to 140 grams of creatine in our muscle stores. A little bit in our blood, a little bit in our brain. Most of it's in our muscle at Any time we make about a gram a day from a couple amino acids, and then we should get about a gram a day from food. Now, where would we get it from? Well, it turns out that, you know, the best sources would be fairly rare or raw seafood or beef. Because when you cook.

Degrades a lot of it. So the kind of what they say in the world, the bodybuilding world, is it's either a pound of red or two pounds of white. Like, you have to either eat it really rare or you have to eat two pounds. And I'm thinking to myself, I don't know any woman out there who's eating a pound of meat a day. Where, like I said, now with Carnivore, there's someone out there, but, yeah, it's not me. I mean, just when you look at the RDA for protein, most women aren't even getting the recommended daily allowance or intake, and that's half of what it should be. I think the average woman, maybe they're getting 40 to 65 grams. Totally stupid low, right? And especially when you look at, okay, risk of sarcopenia, risk of, you know, osteoporosis, I mean, frightening. So, first of all, we likely aren't getting what we need from our food, right? And we have less tissue stores because we have less muscle stores than men. Now you look at, what does creatine do? And I always like to look at the things first that are more orthomolecular. Like, before we start to look at, oh, which herbs should we add? To me, herbs are like drugs. What are the things we're missing? What are the macros that we're missing in terms of protein, fat, you know, fluids, fiber? Creatine would fall into that. Fish oil would fall into that. So with creatine, creatine does a couple different things. The biggest thing that creatine does is help your body create energy. It is part of something called the creatine phosphate system. This is this quick energy. So it helps with skin energy, it actually helps with skin wrinkling, it helps with body energy, it helps you work out harder at the gym and recover. It helps with bone turnover, it helps with brain function, like everything from.

Dementia to depression.

Which is so interesting because when we talk about, like, mitochondrial health and things like mito pure, which I know you're a fan of, too, that's all targeted to that. But I guess what I'm hearing you say is creatine's been doing that all along. And we've kind of skipped over this, right?

And it's like, well, you know, it's not just one. I'm never going to throw just one thing at the side to get ready and just put foundation on. Say I'm going to skip. That's true. Lip liner and mascara today. So, you know, it's like, what's the targeted approach? But I always look at what are the core foundational things. Protein. You know, protein and plants to me are foundation. And then what's the next thing? This is where things like vitamin D with K. Creatine. So creatine, you're going to have more energy. By the way, like the most amazing hack ever is creatine for jet lag and sleep deprivation.

You were telling me that. That's wild.

I never saved it saved me. I did. I did. I went to a. I went to a shiatsu foot thing, okay, with a girlfriend. And I don't know what this guy did, but I literally, the next day I couldn't walk.

Okay?

I couldn't walk again. I have an old broken foot from like when I was 20 and literally, I mean, I couldn't walk in two nights in a row. I couldn't sleep because the pain would get so bad. I finally went today and got it handled, but I just slammed myself with extra. I tripled my creatine dose and was fine. And so it's for time zone adjusting. There's a foundational dose and then there's the time adjusting dose. But here's the reality.

I do not have the study yet. However, there is a study that got done that showed that 76% of people who take creatine experience bloating or GI issues. Something like that. I will tell you that as I started to look at this kind of my way that I do things, my progression is I try it myself and I'm one of those people that goes all in on something. So I did the loading doses and yes, that hurt my stomach. And we now know you don't need to do that. But I did creatine monohydrate because that was the most researched. And all the talk tracking, this is the one you should use. It's the most researched. Everything else is just expensive marketing. It's totally absorbed, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, okay, cool. So I start using it. I go through that GI issue, pain in the butt time. But then I taper it down and I'm using it and I start telling other people to use it. I don't tell them to do the loading dose, I tell them just to use it. I get so much backlash on social media from people telling me that they got bloated from it, they gained weight from it, blah, blah, blah. And I go, well, if you're lucky enough, maybe a little, you know, you gained a little weight in your muscles. No, that's not it. And I'm like, okay, wow. I was lecturing last year right around this time at a conference, and one of the things I was talking about, I was talking about how muscle heals your metabolism, and then I was talking about creatine. And afterwards this guy came up to me who had spent a decade formulating a better creatine because he'd worked as a toxicology lab in the professional athlete drug doping testing world. And when he took away, you know, he was like basically testing them, saying, hey, you know, can't use these things. And they all told him about creatine, but told him it made them bloated, et cetera. So he's like, huh. What he discovered was the research on creatine monohydrate, because it is the most researched. When you look at the benefits of creatine, it's not the carrier monohydrate, it's the creatine that's giving you the benefits. Right. That's what we always have to look for.

Sure.

Like, you know, magnesium, is it the glycinate, the oxygen, that's the citrate, the threonate, or is it the magnesium? So what is it about this? So it wasn't the monohydrates, the creatine creating all these benefits. And then you look at what's the best way to get them. Monohydrate turns out is only about 15% absorbed. So all of those side effects that you hear about are actually caused because of the rest of it not being absorbed. Well, when they did the studies, because you'll hear, oh, it's 100% absorbed. Which you know is incorrect because nothing's 100% absorbed anyway. But when they did the studies, they did it on a very small amount and then extrapolated out that the absorption rate would continue. But that's not the way solubility generally works. Sure. It goes slows down as you have more of it, which is what happened when they did the actual studies. And so he went about to create a better form, tried all these different things, and there's a lot of different forms out there that you will see. But what he discovered was one that now is 99% absorbed, which doesn't have the side effects and really easily crosses the blood brain barrier. I have a couple doctors now using it in their dementia studies, which is kind of fun. But what's great about it is you can use, you know, a fifth of the dose. I think it's the same. And what's this called?

What is this kind? So it's not monohydrate. What is it called?

Creatine hcl. So it's creatine bound to hcl, so it can help with digestion, too.

Okay, so it's actually this. It is. Okay. I was going to ask you that. So it is the hydrochloric acid that I was thinking it's the same HCL that we take for after you eat a meal. It's bound with that.

So I went to his plant. I actually went to Nebraska. Went to his plant. Because creatine, pretty much all of it's made in China, which people will tell you is horrible. And it might be. It just depends if your company using the creatine's testing it or not. Right. If it's being tested and evaluated and you've got assays on it, you know that it doesn't have anything. Any impurities and that it is what they say it is. And then there's another form that's done in Germany, so they try to purport that that's better because it's in Germany. I'm like, well, it really depends on the testing, you know? Yeah. Bad product in Germany and an amazing product in China. You don't know the challenge is the oversight. Right? Like, you can't just fly into China and go look at a lab and have the oversight. So that's the problem.

And did you go do that?

Did you.

Did you go to China?

I did not go to China. I went to Nebraska. Okay, okay, okay. I went to Nebraska and walked through the plan. I actually did a podcast on this where I walked through the whole. Looked at everything, how he does it, how they make it huge. I mean, it's a huge thing. And then.

I know. Okay, so. So JJ has. And this is. This is not a sponsored episode, by the way. I asked her to be on. I really wanted to dig into this and understand, but she's created a product called she Attend, which I love. She a teen, which I love that name. That's so creative.

Tim made it up. Yeah. Oh, he did?

Your husband.

I want him to get over the fear of this, because once I really got it, I was like, oh, my gosh. This is. This is like every woman. Yeah. To me, I was like, every woman over 40. I'm like, really every woman. Like, like. Because the sooner you can help your body and it. Creatine does not build muscle. Creatine helps you work out harder and recover better so that you can build muscle, helps you have more energy.

So here. Okay, so when I use creatine, which you got me started on this and I wasn't doing it before, I think I'd use it like a few times in my life. But when, when you. When I first started talking about it, before I even tried your product.

Product.

I just started using the powders that I had in my pantry because I have lots of them. So what I did is I noticed I would do it like it during my workout. So pre workout I usually would mix branched chain amino acids and creatine and I would drink it before and during my workout. And what I would notice is I could get like a bigger pump or I could pump it, just meaning I could have more strength in my workout, more power in it. But then you sent me the ones that are yours, which are the HCL type and it's a pill form. Does that make a difference?

I have powder too.

Okay, you do have powder, so what's the difference? Does it matter? Powder or pill? And are we supposed to take it during workout or does it matter?

Okay, so powder or pill does not matter. It's preference. I go to the gym with essential aminos, by the way, get rid of your BCAAs, remind me about where you live, and I'll send you my aas. No one does bcaas anymore. Everyone does essentials because you still have. Even though those are the anabolic trio for the branch chains, you still have conditionally. You have essential aminos that need to be operating. And so if you just do BCAAs, you're limited. But I go to the gym with electrolytes and EAs and creatine just to cover my bases. Here's the reality. With creatine, if you have not got tissue saturation right, you've been not using it. Well, you didn't eat red meat. You know, you were like, you likely were a little low in your creatine and then you took some and got your stores saturated before you go to the gym. Yeah, you'll notice that it. Yeah. Once you. The goal is to get your tissue saturated, but it's a good noticeable.

I like that notice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, who wouldn't notice? Yeah, Love that. The goal is to get them there and keep them there. Right. And then what you might find, I always say is you know, 750 milligrams for me is like a basic dose of this. And then if you're working out, if you're sleep deprived, if you're working out under any kind of stress, do two doses a day. But does it.

You do it during and pre gym or can you just do it in the morning?

You have to, once your tissues are saturated, I personally like to do it.

Okay. Because like part of your routine now, you just, it's like you're, I'm gonna work. But if you're not, if you're skipping a workout day, you're still taking it. I'm assuming I'm still taking it.

I kick it in the afternoon, you.

Take it in the afternoon. Okay.

Sparkling water with the powder. And then.

If you are sleep deprived, if you know you're gonna be sleep deprived, like if you know you're going on a jet lag thing, I start taking it up. Like, I'd probably do two to three doses.

Okay.

And I'd start it the day before and then take it for a couple days, you know, And I just, like when we were in Spain and we were whack, jet lagged, I was like, okay, we're going out to dinner, hit another dose. I just took three doses. Yeah. One when I woke up one midday, one before I went out to dinner.

The other thing I interestingly notice about you, and I've, I've totally noticed this about you. I don't know if I've told you this before because I have a lot of friends that are the same age as you and, and I noticed something happens with a lot of my friends and if they're listening. Yes, I'm calling you out there where they, they start getting like more foggy headed or forgetful and it's like a joke. I'm like, are you getting what's going on with your, with your, your memory? I don't feel like you have that. You don't, you, you don't miss a beat there. Like you, every time I talk to you, you don't lose track of thoughts. You're like, you're on it. You don't get scattered.

So.

And it's interesting that you mentioned that, that there's a lot of research with creatine and that. So I'm wondering if that's a connection there with you.

I think that it's a couple things. Number one, hormones are hugely important with that, right? Yep. Number two, sleep is hugely important on that. I'm like a sleep crazy human. I know you Are too.

You're gonna probably say sugar too, which you've been very strict about.

Lactate.

Okay?

So, you know, when we think of exercise, we always think of exercise to either burn calories or build muscle. I really look at exercise, especially the high intensity interval training. I want to build up lactate. So what I look at is like, every time your muscles contract when you're lifting weights, you're releasing these myokines, right? These chemical messengers. I like to say that muscles, your metabolic Spanx, that holds everything in tighter and boosts that resting metabolic rate. It's also your sugar sponge that gives carbohydrates a place to land so that it's not landing on your visceral adipose tissue. And it's improving insulin sensitivity. So your body is better at using those carbs and burning off fat. And then the other thing it is is a multitasking messenger. And you look at the different things that happens that our muscles contract, everything from dropping inflammation to improving fat burning. But one of the things they do is produce lactate. And lactate is a great little mitochondrial rehabber, right? It helps with building new mitochondria, and it crosses the blood brain barrier and triggers BDNF alpha. So it stimulates the making of new neurons. So when you really look at it, and the reason I started looking at this was rehabbing my son from a traumatic brain injury. It was so clear so quickly that the single biggest thing that I could do for his brain was exercise. And especially exercise that was more complex. So not sitting, you know, sitting, doing a seated lat pull down. No, it's like doing a snatch with a kettlebell. Doing, you know, doing things that require.

You do, like compounded movements. You' combining things you're thinking through.

Yeah. And when I do hit, I like to do hiit in a high intensity, functional training way where I'll do things like box jumps. I will do skaters and mountain climbers and up downs and snatches and kettlebells. So it requires shifting directions, different planes of movement, right. So that it is bringing in, pulling in coordination.

And for those of you listening, they're like, but I can't do that. I have injuries or whatever. I just want to share as I'm listening to her, I have, like, JJ know, have like, I've had a million of the injuries. I still find ways. I may not do the exercises that she said, but I do still take what she's saying and combine the way that I can. So it's not about that you can't do A burpee or you can't do this thing. You. You from where you are, you take what she's saying and you combine your own things to do that.

No. Anyone? Like, I blew out my knee at 17, so I've had the knee replacement from it, the hip replacement from it, and I broke my foot at 20, you know, and. And it's like, yeah, those have been the reason. More of a reason for me to do. Right.

Yeah, it makes sense.

Able to put off a knee replacement for 30 years.

So you. Okay, so you mentioned. So protein's huge for you. Obviously. Working out's huge. Creatine. Totally educator. And we're gonna. I'm gonna link up. By the way, below. You can find her. She a tin. Shiatin. Am I saying it right? She a tin or she a teen? She had. Okay. Love it. Love the branding on that, which is something I started adding in, which is really fun to experiment with. So I. I'm not going to be doing my old creatine powder anymore. The monohydrate. I've switched over to what JJ is suggesting.

Plus, it's got taurine and magnesium, so.

Which is great. We need that, too. Yeah. That's amazing.

Trifecta.

So also hormone replacement. So I'm also a huge fan of hrt. Are you doing all three? And do you have an opinion or a preference on do you recommend especially, like, when it comes to testosterone or estrogen? Do you, like, recommend the patch or whatever? What's your feeling on it? Or do you think it's very customized towards whoever's listening? What's your opinion?

I think everyone's an n of 1. And what I've seen is most people tend to do better with this. First of all, make sure your thyroid's working well, because if your thyroid's not working well, you will not be able to balance your hormones. Next up is. I just found estradiol patches were the easiest.

That's what I use.

Love it. Creams, to me, are just a nightmare. Yeah.

And they get on your husband.

Yeah, I know. It's like all of a sudden, your husband's weeping. Like, what's going on? He's got man boobs and he's weeping. Yeah.

The knockout.

I was using testosterone cream when I first started, and I had a brief little time in there where I knew what a man felt like.

Oh, I did that, too. I did that with the injections. I went too high, and I was like, whoa.

You're like, wait a minute. Oh. Oh, I'm. I get you now.

Yeah, like well my sex drive went like. I was like something's not right. This is.

I know I was like, like you know, like a predator. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway I just found that doing a low dose injection I do it every other week. I should probably even low dose every week. But I'm kind of. I just hate doing them.

Yeah, I do every, every week too. I was going to ask you about that. Is it do so why you do every other week? Does it completely run down them better.

To do it every week.

Okay.

And then I do I cycle in progesterone oral and the reason I cycle it in and don't take it like some people I can think probably feel fine taking it every day. I don't, I do not like the way I feel on progesterone. I never have it was it.

Does it make you groggy or what is it doing to you?

If I take, if I do progesterone ongoing I get cystic acne.

Really? Oh interesting. For me it makes me fall asleep really easy. I just know it's like a drug then so it's not. Do you do 14 day cycle? Like 14 days on 14.

I only, I only do do five to seven days.

Oh okay. So you and it. So she's post menopause so she doesn't.

Matter which I'm post menopausal but I don't have a uterus. So you know with the uterus maybe seven days might be 14 days. You've got to work with the doc and have them make sure they're checking your lining and your sickness to make sure you're cool there. You know again all these things I think that I'm one of those people who never was a big progesterone person because the right pregnant both times I like gained weight overnight. I was weeping, I was a mess. My skin was cystic acne. It was how I put it together later I'm like why is my face breaking out? Yeah. So I'm on progesterone and it's causing cystic acne.

So you do low seven seven days or so. When you look at. This is a personal question because I've had so many doctors on talking about hormones and no matter who I have on it's a different take a different opinion And I take tell everyone do your own research and what works for you. I'm just curious your thoughts. There's a lot of trains of thoughts around the patches and how the levels of our estrogen. Some people I'll say like Me, I like to get it to a level where I'm not having hot flashes and I feel good, I feel strong. But there's another train of thought to get it, like a lot higher to optimal levels to how we were maybe 20 years ago. Where do you fall on that camp?

Here's what I think. I think first, you do all the lifestyle stuff. You optimize your diet. I'd say this. Whether you're going to go on hormones, you're going on peptides, whatever you're doing, your baseline should be, how far can you go with good diet, exercise and sleep studies and all of that?

So you're sleep styled in, you're doing something for stress, you're eating correctly, you're exercising. Core supplements. Supplements, Creatine D with k optimizing omega 3 index, fish oil if needed, magnesium. Right. Then let's start to look at what else you need. If your thyroid's not working well, and obviously we've dealt with what would make you autoimmune, but thyroid and then estrogen, testosterone, progesterone. I personally think you use the least amount to optimize everything. Why are we doing these hormones? To get rid of the symptoms of menopause and to make sure that our bones and our brain and our heart are great. When I used to see people one on one, I was working out of an office.

In Beverly Hills where people would come in, the doctor said, just, would you just help my people with their diet and supplements? And literally they'd walk in and I'd have their labs ahead of them, but I wouldn't have their health history, so I wouldn't know anything but their labs. And I could tell with women 50 plus if they were on hormones or not. Because what would start to happen the minute that their estrogen declined is all of a sudden their HSCRP went up, their fasting insulin went up. You know, all these markers indicative of, like, I've got now, blood sugar problems, insulin resistance, inflammation. Right? So to me, you're doing the things that you can build muscle so that you can be insulin sensitive, so that you can think straight. So, right. Estrogen's like nature's, you know, So I.

Just think, I love it. And I've had some doctors on and some guests on that. They talk about getting, like, higher levels of it. But I personally, I don't feel good when I do that. When I start going too high, you.

Feel great and you're like, I look at this and go, I feel better now than I've ever felt in My life. Yeah. I think back to the times. Here's the thing. When you, you never had steady state hormones before.

That's right.

They cycled all month long. Now there was one gal who used to take people through every single day was different in their hormone profile. And I'm like, yeah, but 28 day cycle. Some people have 32 day cycles. Some people like. Some people are like, how would you do this? So while we're mimicking normal physiology, in a way, I think we're more mimicking what we would look like if we were living like in Okinawa.

What it would look like if we didn't have all of these toxins and we didn't have a stressed lifestyle. Like all the different stuff. Stuff. And I think we use you. You go low and slow and use.

That's where I am. That's where I think I land on this too. Okay, I have one more question for you and I know I don't want to. I could, I could talk to you all day. But I'm gonna. One more thing because I want to make sure I cover this and I know this is a big topic, so we'll stay kind of general and broad here. But where do you fall on the peptide trend? Because I, I love peptides, but I just want to know. There's so many. It gets confusing. Like one staple in mine is BPC157. I'm a huge fan of that. I just started adding in sarcotrop. I'm just curious where you fall on the conversation around peptides.

I think they get added in like in that little hierarchy of first I would do like diet, lifestyle, exercise, then I do like the orthomolecular types of supplements, hormones, peptides, I think they make a ton of sense. What I don't like.

I want to be careful that I like helped optimization versus biohacking. What I don't like is someone going, you know what, I don't want to go to the gym. So I'm just going to take a myostatin blocker.

Right.

You know, like to me they should. Where you have a deficiency. I'm having trouble sleeping. I'm not really able to build muscle like my testosterone to be more optimized. Like that's where you use these things. You don't use them. Instead of. You use them to help with.

Yes.

So you know, like I think they make a ton of sense. Then I take an oral BPC157 with pea.

Okay.

Because I was dealing with this foot situation, so. And I also take an Oral one that's got this thing called Pepti Strong. Like, I'm convinced I've been able to put on more muscle and do this at 60. Yeah. Because of the. Making sure my protein was totally optimized. Tracking it to make sure. Yep. Doing creatine, adding in might appear, adding in senolytics, you know, so all of that.

Yep. I do those, too.

And then. And then doing this health Jevity has this product that's called Longevity that's got this thing called peptistrong in it. Okay. And I am convinced that has helped, too. And, like, what I normally do is only add one thing at a time. So I.

Because if we do too much at once, we don't know what the heck is doing.

And also, like, what are you really working? What's the top priority right now? Because a lot of times with hormones or peptides, you're cycling them anyway. So, you know, if you're cycling, then, you know, you're stacking and cycling to see what you need to do. Like, I'm doing BPC157 with the PEA right now because I, like, had the foot situation. Yeah. So I'm trying to get that to calm down, but I'm not going to take it, you know, now I don't need to go off of it again. Yeah.

And then they're more effective when you're doing it that way, too, because you. You're using it when you need it.

Yeah. You use. But yeah, I think they're. I'm. It's a very exciting time. Yeah.

I love.

I mean, like, all this stuff used to be. And I think that's part of it. I think that our messaging in midlife hasn't caught up with the reality. Like, I still think back to when I was younger and people who were 50 and 60. I mean, even look at the Golden Girls on TV and how they portrayed someone in their 50s and 60s. Yeah. Now that's someone you'd think about in their 80s.

It's so true.

Like, I think of people that I know in their 70s and 80s. Have you seen Lynn Twist lately?

I haven't.

Like.

Like most beautiful, gorgeous women who are literally what you would think of as timeless, ageless. You're like, you couldn't really say. I'm like, I don't know how old you are. Yeah.

It's so true.

And not in a way that looks like that person got, like, stretched and plumped and everything else. They just look fabulous and healthy. And I think that's what all of these things do is they just let us be the best version of ourself. So good. The ultimate goal right?

Well jj, this is so good I'll have to have you back on. She is truly aging powerfully. I'm going to link up the things that we mentioned in the show. Notes Notes. Make sure to do that. You can also find JJ on what jj, what's your podcast? Where can they find you and your YouTube and Instagram and all the things.

So podcast is well beyond 40.

Double entendre. Of course everything else is is either JJ Virgin or JJ Virgin official. It's all they all have the name.

In there and she shares so much good information on not just her podcast but on YouTube. So check that out and I'll link everything we mentioned in the show. Notes Notes. Thank you so much jj. Thank you.

You are so welcome.

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