SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE: Protect Yourself & Your Business from Coronavirus with JJ Virgin
I think we can probably agree that the world has gone completely mad with Coronavirus. What can you do to protect yourself from this pandemic, physically, emotionally and financially?
In this episode, we bring you the fantastically famous JJ Virgin, celebrity health and nutrition coach to explain what you MUST be doing now to protect your health and stay safe, sane, and serene. We cover everything from how to get enough sleep, managing stress and eating correctly. We also discuss the GAM mindset that is a total gam(e) changer and guaranteed to help you get through this crisis and emerge on the other side in the right frame of mind.
My Guest: JJ Virgin
JJ Virgin is a celebrity nutrition and fitness expert, who teaches the 40+ how to lose weight and master their mindset so they can lead bigger and better lives.
JJ has is a four-time NY Times bestselling author, as well as the author of her newly released Miracle Mindset that explores powerful lessons in strength and positivity garnered from her experiences after her son Grant died in a hit-and-run accident. She is also the host of the JJ Virgin Lifestyle Podcast Show, a frequent guest on TV and radio, and speaker at major events. JJ is also a business coach and founder of The Mindshare Summit, a health event for entrepreneurs.
Protect Yourself Against Coronavirus
So what is the best way to protect yourself from Coronavirus. Here is a step by step guide that will give you the best chances of staying safe, AND staying sane (read: cool, calm and collected).
Step One: Basic Precautions
Besides for the basic precautions of staying at home and washing your hands with soap and water, the best way to stay away from Coronavirus is to keep your immune system strong, so if someone does come in contact with it, their body will be strong enough to fight off the germs.
We keep our immune system strong mainly by managing sleep, stress and diet and by taking the right vitamins. And of course, if you smoke now’s is the time to quit.
Step Two: Sleeping Enough
Getting enough sleep will help keep your immune system strong! To do that, you need to make sure that you:
- Get about 8-9 hours each night.
- Sleep during the night hours.
- Sleep straight without waking up in the middle, if possible.
- Wake up by yourself so that you don’t wake up tired.
- Get up at the same time each day, though it may take time to get your body used to this routine.
What’s the biggest culprit to stopping you from managing this? Adrenaline. If there’s too much adrenaline in your system, you won’t be able to do this. The solution is preparing properly for bed by:
- Quitting all technology 1 hour before bedtime.
- Taking a hot bath.
- Cooling the bedroom to 68 degrees.
- Dimming the lights.
- Putting on red glasses to blocks out technology lights.
- Reading a book.
- You can also take some CBD or magnesium.
Preparing properly for sleep will help you sleep better, thereby strengthening your immunity.
Step Three: Managing Stress
We all know that stress is bad for immunity, because it raises cortisol and adrenaline levels, but besides for that, stress also:
- Creates inflammation.
- Can lower serotonin which makes it hard to sleep.
- Raises insulin which can make you store stomach fat and have food cravings.
So here’s some tips on how to manage your stress:
- Do tapping meditation- this is has been proven to improve the immune system by 118% per week.
- Do breathing exercises.
- Focus on GAMs (see below).
- Exercise (see below).
- And of course, absolutely NO corona discussions in bed!
GAMs
Strong emotional health is also a must in ensuring a healthy immune system. Focusing on Gratitude, Appreciation and Miracles can have a massive impact on the immune system! You can even get the family involved and do it with the kids.
- Gratitude: As soon as you get up in the morning, physically write down 3 things you’re grateful for in a journal.
- Appreciation: When you get stressed or irritable at any time during the day, text or Facetime someone, and tell them what you appreciate about them.
- Miracles: At night, write down or discuss the “wins” and mini miracles of the day.
Step 4: Exercise
Exercise is also crucial for building your immune system. When exercising, it is important to make sure to do some resistance training, burst/interval training and core work. For now, you want to stay away from big endurance cardio because it actually lowers the immune system.
Find it hard to exercise? Here’s some tips to help you get that crucial fitness into your life:
- Move more: For example, walk around while you’re on the phone, and make sure to go up the stairs throughout the day.
- Exercise 2x/day in small amounts.
- High-intensity interval training: For example, you can do jumping jacks or burpees for 60 seconds, then walk it off for a minute and then do it again. There are tons of free online exercise resources, such as yoga flow. Remind yourself how good you’ll feel afterward.
Step 5: Manage Your Diet
Your diet will impact your immune system tremendously. Below are some suggestions to help improve your diet and your immunity:
Intermittent Fasting
This one might sound strange, but if you try it, you’ll see that it works. Just be warned that if you are uninitiated, you need to take it easy and crawl into it.
- Have a 12-hour fast overnight. Therefore, stop eating 3-4 hours before bedtime. If you’re hungry, a cup of water will shut down those evening hunger pangs. Don’t have more than that because it’ll make you get up in the middle of the night.
- Try for an 8-hour eating window and it is better to have 2 meals instead of 3. For example, you can have a late breakfast of a healthy smoothie at 11 and dinner at 5 or 6. In between, have a snack with some veggies, turkey, cheese or a bar.
- An example schedule would be to do some positive focus and exercise when you wake up, before having your late breakfast. Then, do some more intermittent fasting and don’t eat your snack till a few hours later.
- If you can, once a week, have only 1 meal that day.
- Eating balanced and maintaining your blood sugar will help you go longer between meals. It’s not good to snack every 2-3 hours because that raises blood sugar and insulin, which lead to fat storage, inflammation and a lower immune system.
Eating a Balanced Diet
You want to eat more balanced, high-quality foods whenever you are eating so that you’ll have better blood sugar levels. This includes:
- Clean, high-proteins
- Healthy fats
- Loads of non-starchy vegetables
- Whole foods or minimally processed foods are best
- Less carbs
- No high-sugar, impact foods, like white flour or fruit juice
Natural foods that are good for the immune system include:
- Garlic
- Mushrooms
- Coconuts
So, is a smoothie a day the answer to Coronavirus? Not quite, but they can help you avoid the Quarantine 15 and support your immune system. Here's JJ's smoothie recipe:
- JJ's paleo fiber (bonebrothprotein with collagen)
- 1/4 avocado
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
- 10 ounces of coconut milk
Blend with ice to desired thickness.
Also on smoothies, it's good to keep in mind the following:
- Fruit juice hijacks the blood sugar because the natural protein is eliminated in the juicing process. Therefore, either do a smoothie with straight greens and no fruit, or juice your fruit but add some fiber.
- Contrary to popular belief, fruit smoothies are not a ‘cleanse’ because a cleanse requires bi-amino acids from animal protein, peas or lentils, in addition to the antioxidants from fruit juice.
- If you want to juice your fruit, you can add the healthy fat and protein by putting in some freshly ground flax seeds or chia. This will also help your blood sugar.
- In your breakfast smoothie, put in coconut milk because it’s great for the immune system and strawberries because they are rich in vitamin C.
Step 6: Vitamin Guidelines
The last thing you can do to boost your immune system, is make sure that you’re body is not lacking any vitamins that it so badly needs to make sure everything works in tandem.
- Vitamin D: 5-10,000 IU’s/day; one who is sick should take 50,000 IU’s/day. Vitamin D must always be taken with Vitamin K because of how it handles calcium in the body. It’s also good to get some sunlight in the morning!
- Vitamin C: 2-5 grams/day; one who is sick should take 10-20 grams/day- ideally on an IV for 3 days in a row to help avoid the runs and for better absorption, though technically this can be done at home too. It must be in divided doses. This is the most important natural anti-viral.
- Vitamin A: 5,000 IU’s/day; if you are sick take 150,000 IU’s/day.
- Zinc: 25-50 mg/day; one who is sick should take 50-100 mg/day.
- Quercetin: This is a natural bioflavonoid that helps transport zinc into the cells and is anti-inflammatory. Take 1000 mg once a day, or if sick take 1000 mg three times a day
- Andrographis: Or take the formula version calledImmunitone Plus. Designs for Health make a great formula that also has elderberry, astragalus, beta glucan and medicinal mushrooms in it. You can find it on Amazon (if they are sold out, check back in a week or so.)
Resources & Links
- Find JJ Virgin: jjvirgin.com
- JJ's Saturday night Fever(less) Dance Party: Ticket Page
- Find Miracle Mindset: jjvirgin.com/miraclemindset (Free using code MINDSET)*
- Find JJ's Fitness Program: jjvirgin.com.fastfitness (Free using code FITNESS)*
- Find JJ on social: Instagram, Facebook
- Work with Estie: www.strandconsulting.net
- Join us on the Show: www.estierand.com/breakthrough
*Free access is available for one product at a time.
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