Monika Barkley

Please check here often for the latest published Ezine from JJ Virgin. JJ has helped countless people in the pursuit of a healthier and happier life. Clicking on a link will carry to posted entry on her www.theartoflosingit.com. When you subscribe to her monthly Ezine you will also get access to all her archived articles. Subscribe by visiting this link.

Top Five Recent E-Zine Postings from JJ Virgin:

1. 15 Shockers That Can Thwart Your Weight Loss Efforts - ...
2. GET OUT OF TOWN! - ...
3. Five Things to ADD to your Diet to Lose Weight! - Five Things to ADD to your Diet to Lose Weight!
   It’s the night before your first visit with the nutritionist so what do you do? If you are like most of the people I have seen, you have your last “hurrah”. You eat everything that you think you won’t be allowed to eat anymore. You will get a great awakening on The Art of Losing It! program as you will find that I believe in adding before I take away as I know nature hates a vacuum and if I just take things away you will replace them, and often with things that are even worse than those that you started with! Here are a few of my favorite things to add to help get your metabolism going and jumpstart your fat loss.
   
   Fiber! This is truly a miracle to anyone with an appetite anywhere! Fiber suppresses ghrelin, a hormone produced in your stomach when it is empty that tells your body to EAT. So more fiber = less ghrelin = less hunger. Fiber has added benefits as it is detoxifying, lowers LDL cholesterol and raises HDL cholesterol (in fact studies show if you are on a cholesterol lowering statin drug that adding fiber to your regimen is more effective than doubling your drug dose) and it helps support a healthy gastrointestinal tract.
   Xylitol! In my book, The Art of Losing It! Mastering Weight Loss in an Expanding World(LINK TO BUY HERE), I explain the dangers of artificial sweeteners. Xylitol is my favorite option as it is the only sweetener I know of that can actually help you lose weight(artificial sweeteners can actually cause weight gain through a phenomenon called calorie dys-regulation) and reduces your risk of cavities and supports healthy bones. Xylitol, similar to fiber, can suppress ghrelin. Subjects who added xylitol to their drinking water lost weight without making
4. Does My House Make These Jeans Look Fat? - DOES MY HOUSE MAKE THESE JEANS LOOK FAT?
   Your home, your sanctuary, your safe haven…or an enemy in disguise? Weight loss is a metaphor for life. In order to be successful you need to get yourself set up for success and it all starts at home! But, is your house making your fat?! Check out these five ways Home Sweet Home could be sabotaging your weight loss program!
   1. Your lighting: Don’t be afraid of the dark!
   I had a 20-year-old client with severe PMS, depression and weight loss resistance. Her doctor had put her on birth control pills and Prozac to SOLVE the problem. Her mother brought her to me so that I could figure out what was causing these problems and fix them. The problems had started a year earlier. When I asked her what had changed she told me that she had moved into a new house. Her new bedroom had a skylight over her bed. This skylight was letting light in which disrupted her sleep. Her disrupted sleep stressed her body and caused her to get mood swings, PMS, fatigue and food cravings. It also caused her to become insulin resistant which caused weight gain and made it hard for her to lose the weight after she gained it. I am happy to say that we were able to turn her around by covering the skylight above her bed. We also removed all sources of light from her room to ensure total darkness when she slept.
   Action Step 1: Check your bedroom for any natural or artificial lighting that could be affecting your sleep. You need total darkness for your pineal gland to kick in and pump up your melatonin levels.
   Action Step 2: When you wake up, open the drapes and let the natural light in. If you live in a setting with limited natural lighting or an environment that is overcast in the winter, invest in full spectrum lighting to help keep your circadian rhythm in balance and your mood sunny.
   2. Noise vs. Sawing Logs:
   I recently arrived late to my hotel destination. When I told the hotel clerk my name she cheerily congratulated me on being “guest of the day” and told me that they had upgraded me to an executive suite. When I arrived at said suite I discovered that I was actually “chump of the evening” as the suite’s bedroom backed up directly to….the ice machine.
   Ticking clocks, ice machines, loud neighbors, snoring husbands, noisy pets….any one of these elements can lead to poor sleep which can make you weight loss resistant, age faster, hungrier and downright cranky and no fun to be around.
   Action Step 3: Identify any sources of noise that you can hear from your bedroom. Eliminate anything you possibly can and if necessary, use earplugs, a noise cancelling headset and/or a white noise machine to help you tune everything out.
   Still can’t sleep? Check out the Sleep! Chapter in The Art of Losing It! Mastering Weight Loss in an Expanding World (LINK TO BUY NOW, HERE) and get some zzzz’s!
   3. Convenience & Clutter: Time to bust a move!
   I have clients wear pedometers so that they will actually move more. It works! Unfortunately, we set up our home for convenience and to ensure as little extraneous movement as possible. Self propelled vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers, remote controls for everything from televisions, to lights to music and laundry chutes all ensure economy of movement, the last thing you want when you are looking to win the battle of the bulge. Couple that with exercise equipment that doubles for a second closet or packed away behind a wall of clutter and a dining room table covered with paperwork and you have an environment that fosters inactivity.
   Action Step 4: Clear out an area of your house as your designated exercise area and make it inviting and then set a goal to use it starting with at least 5 minutes a day and build up over time.
   Action Step 5: Wear a pedometer. Look for reasons to move more in daily life; sweep instead of vacuuming, carry the groceries in by yourself, park farther away, get rid of the remote (better yet, get rid of the TV!). Jot down your daily total steps for a week and then divide by 7 for your daily average. Look to increase this by 10% each week by looking for opportunities move more.
   Action Step 6: Create a designated eating area where you and your family can enjoy your meals together. Your house isn’t a movie theatre so don’t make this space in front of the television.
   4. Your Kitchen: Friend or Foe?
   If it isn’t in your house, you can’t eat it. This is good and bad. This means if you get the enemies out of the house, (refined foods, fast foods, sweets, chips, etc. see my Lose ‘Ems list in The Art of Losing It! book ) it will be much harder for your evil twin to seduce you into temptation at 11 pm. Conversely, you must restock with the Choose ‘Ems (veggies, fruit, clean lean protein, raw nuts and seeds, etc.) because if you don’t have anything good to eat in the house you will end up dashboard dining in your jammies at the closest drive-through.
   Action Step 7: Clean Out: This means everywhere! Leave no stone unturned. Go through your refrigerator, your pantry, your nightstand drawers, the glove box in your car, you know where the goods are stashed, so get rid of them now.
   Action Step 8: Restock to Rock: Grab the Choose ‘Ems list from The Art of Losing It! and stock your kitchen and pantry with healthy choices so that it will be easy to eat balanced meals and avoid succumbing to the enemy late at night when your resistance is low.
   5. Toxicity: Clean up your act!
   Emerging research shows that environmental toxicity can play a key role in obesity. It turns out that toxins can disrupt our hormone messenger systems which can impact our bodies’ ability to burn off fat and build muscle. Toxic overload can also slow down metabolism (the rate at which we burn calories) as much as 30%. And, toxins are often stored in our fat cells which makes our bodies tend to want to hold on tighter to the fat to protect us from the toxins. Unfortunately, we are being bombarded by toxins on a daily basis through the environment. We need to avoid additional exposure however we can and we can start with our homes. Buy “green” environmentally friendly, organic cleaning products, keep green plants around the house, use air and water purifiers. Move electric devices away from the beds. Buy organic food whenever possible. Use safe pesticides.
   Action Step 9: Detoxify daily and “green” up your house.
   Forward to a friend! Feel free to use this article in its entirety as long as you include my resource information below.
   Celebrity nutritionist and fitness expert JJ Virgin is the author of the Art of Losing It! Mastering Weight Loss in an Expanding World! book, DVD, audiobook and ezine series. Visit her website www.theartoflisingit.com to get her latest special report and to subscribe to her monthly ezine.
   
   
   I hate to rub it in, but the weather has been gorgeous out here in Palm Desert, California! But on the weekends we like to go up to the mountains where the nights get a little chilly which makes us all want something yummy to help warm us up. I created this soup out of leftovers one day and I have been making it ever since. It is fast, easy and delicious!
   JJ’s Easy Lentil Soup
   1 pound of steamed lentils
   ½ pound uncured nitrate free ham cut into small cubes
   2 cups organic chicken broth
   2 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
   2 cloves garlic, minced
   ½ cup chopped celery
   ½ cup diced onion
   ½-1 tsp sea salt
   Combine lentils, ham and chicken broth and start simmering.  Sauté garlic in olive oil until just golden, add celery and onion and cook until soft.  Add ½-1 tsp sea salt.  Add entire mixture to soup and let simmer for 20 minutes.   (excerpt from The Art of Losing It! Mastering Weight Loss in an Expanding World - LINK HERE TO BUY)
   
   
   You’ve heard it a million times. Park farther away, take the stairs, walk instead of ride…but judging from the cars in the parking lots this just isn’t happening. But here’s what does work; Pedometers are a great way to get you to move more by providing immediate biofeedback on your progress. You can purchase a pedometer for $10-20 at your local sporting goods shop. Wear it for a week and record your daily steps. At the end of the week add your steps up and divide by 7 for your daily average. The next week strive to increase this by 10%. You will find that just by wearing a pedometer you start to move more. Get some friends involved a make a contest out of it. Loser buys the salads!
   
   
   I am excited to announce that I have been elected to the board of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals (www.nanp.org). If you are a health care professional, join this group! If you are a layperson, this is a great place to find a nutritionist to support you on your program.
   I have to report on the great time we all had at the Parker Las Vegas annual convention (www.parkercc.edu). There were over 8000 chiropractors, chiropractic assistants and allied health care professionals at this 3 day event. I launched The Art of Losing It! Mastering Weight Loss in an Expanding World program at the event to a lively crowd of 2000 and was excited by the tremendous response.
   JJ Virgin walks her talk by engaging her audience through a wonderful experience of self discovery. Nutrition just makes more sense with JJ's explanations. "Three polite bites", "there is no joy in soy" and so on and so forth! JJ is a beautiful representation of health and fitness.
   Dianna Smith
   Marketing Director
   Natural Partners, Inc
   
   Parker College puts on these amazing events take place every January/February in Las Vegas and every September in Dallas, check it out! To find out where I am speaking next go to www.theartoflosingit.com/media.
   I will be in Wichita, Kansas April 5th speaking on “Are You Hazardous to Your Health?” for more information contact A Wellness Movement 316-264-2225.
   I will be in Palm Desert, California April 19 at the Eisenhower Hospital’s Day of Hope. I will be speaking in the Annenberg Auditorium at 3 pm on Seven Easy and Effective Strategies to Combat Diabetes.
   
   Ask JJ
   Q: How bad is diet soda? I am really addicted to it!
   I am afraid I have some very bad news for you. Diet soda wreaks havoc on your metabolism in a variety of ways. First of all, it is very acidifying. Your body needs to maintain a tight acid alkaline balance, so if you consume foods and drinks that acidify your body it has to buffer the pH back to normal. One of the ways it does this is by leaching calcium from your bones(think osteoporosis). Second, diet sodas are dehydrating. You need water for basic metabolic processes like BURNING FAT! And dehydration raises stress hormones which makes you a better fat storer as well. Third, most of these sodas also contain caffeine which can raise stress hormones and over time exhaust your adrenal(stress) system and lower your overall metabolism. And finally, the artificial sweeteners in these sodas affect your brain chemistry by competing with serotonin’s (the feel good neurotransmitter) entry into the brain and raising the excitatory catecholamines. They also keep your taste buds craving sweet and they can cause a phenomenon known as ‘calorie dysregulation’ where you no longer can correlate the amount of calories to the degree of sweetness in the food which can cause you to overeat.
   ACTION STEP: Trade your diet soda for sparkling mineral water. Add 1 oz of pomegranate, purple grape or Monavie juice or a teaspoon of naturally flavored vitamin C powder for a splash of flavor and a nutrient boost!
   
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