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Note From JJ

Hi %$firstname$%,

I am hanging out in the Tampa airport waiting to board a flight to New York City. I just spent the week in Florida, starting with a Virgin Family reunion in Key West. They rented this amazing Moroccan style estate with a Koi pond that was bigger than most swimming pools! Plus I could paddle board right out the back door!  I think one of my top experiences this year was paddle boarding through the canals amongst the mangroves with my son Bryce paddle boarding on one side of me, and my son Grant kayaking on the other side (and totally kicking our butts!). I am reminded every day not only to believe in miracles, but to EXPECT them and to be grateful for every moment.  

After Key West I headed over to Cape Coral to hang with my buddies John Biffar (head of HNN - Healthcare News Network) and John Lack (the guy who dreamed up MTV), and spent Sunday over in Captiva. Every time I come to Florida it gets harder to leave and I think I am getting sold on moving over to the West Coast.  I'd love to spend my evening "happy hour" on a paddle board :) and my weekends on a boat. Gets your mind off of work instantly! By the way check out the plane I took to fly from Key West to Cape Coral! 

Then I headed over to Tampa to meet with the eDiets team on some potential synergy there. They also own “As Seen On TV” so the office was one big toy store of crazy stuff - ear wax removers (a top seller), the CitiKitty and a pocket hose (you can imagine the jokes there).  I think I know where I am doing my holiday shopping :). 

And I also think I could potentially be "fished out".  I lived on Virgin Diet shakes and Virgin Diet bars during the day but every night we had fresh caught fish and lobster - we actually had more lobster than we could eat one night...I didn't think that was even possible! Hoping for a big grass fed steak in the city!  And I gotta say, my bars have saved me on this trip - I might have gone down the conch fritter black hole otherwise! 

When I am traveling I often do two shakes (love my NutriBullet), a Virgin Diet bar and then one meal.  And I carry a water bottle to crank that up.  Keeps my energy stable and no tummy issues - I have been eating clean for so long that if I don't, I feel it immediately and it just isn't worth it!  This time I wised up and shipped Virgin Diet shakes (I mixed chocolate & chai flavors, added Extra Fiber and Raw Cacao Nibs), So Delicious Coconut Milk and Virgin Diet bars ahead to each place I was going so I wouldn't run out, and I wouldn't weigh down my luggage. And I get a little package when I arrive at a hotel which is always fun :).  

Make it a great week.

Blessings!

New York Times
& USA Today
Bestseller

www.thevirgindiet.com

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Feature Article

To Snack or Not to Snack?
It All Depends…

You’re stranded with a three-hour layover. Even though you ate a substantial blood sugar-balancing meal several hours before, you’re salivating at that hot cinnamon-bun waft drifting into the coffee kiosk where you’re enjoying a sensible green tea to assuage your pre-flight anxiety levels.

Suddenly, you start rationalizing why a small cinnamon bun (or maybe just three polite bites) won’t totally blow your eating plan.

In The Virgin Diet, I tell readers to do meals correctly and they won’t need to snack throughout the day. I wrote a recent Huffington Post blog substantiating why snacking could stall fat loss. Somewhere along the way I’ve been not-so-popularly designated the “no-snacking queen.”

I never liked the title, which became especially problematic when I launched my Virgin Diet Bars. Several readers were sure they’d caught me in a quandary. After all, I’m telling people not to snack for fat loss and here I am offering these delicious bars to snack on!

Real Life Makes Snacking Sometimes Inevitable

Here’s the deal. Every meal should have a combo of lean protein, healthy fats, tons of leafy and cruciferous veggies, and slow-release high-fiber carbs to steady blood sugar levels and optimize fat-burning hormones. Do your meals correctly and you should stay full four to six hours.

I say should, because nothing in life is so linear or perfect. Some days you’ll eat a substantial lunch and then move along pleasantly through your afternoon when bam, a 3 p.m. surge of hunger hits you as you’re racing to meet year end-of-quarter deadlines.

You rationalize that maybe your sudden hunger is thirst, so you have a glass of water. No luck. Maybe you’re stressed? Perhaps, but you’re perceptive enough to know genuine hunger when it knocks uninvited. No way will you make it till 6 p.m.
Some days you’re just going to need a snack, period.

 How Snacking Can Become a Major Fat Loss Stall

Manufacturers know we snack – and snack frequently – yet we also want to become lean and healthy. They’ve responded with copious junk food masquerading as healthy.

Witness the plethora of fat-free yogurt, low-fat popcorn, 100-calorie snack packs, and artificial sweetener-loaded protein (read, candy…) bars that populate your supermarket and even sneak into the health food stores.

Most of these snacks raise your blood sugar, triggering you to release the hormone insulin that does one heck of a job storing fat. Sweet or salty snacks also increase cravings, so you’re absent-mindedly reaching for a second snack pack when you just ate one 15 minutes ago. Snacking becomes a multiple times a day habit, and the repercussions land on your waistline.

Junk food manufacturers love this vicious cycle: you’re snacking throughout the day, never really satisfied but still reaching for more.

Convenience Foods are… Well, Convenient

Listen, I get why these convenient, delicious snacks exist. Some days, you just can’t face another raw almond. You want something convenient, chewy, lightly sweet, but without the added sugar, artificial sweeteners, and other junk 

I travel a lot. Carrying a container of hummus with some kale chips doesn’t always work at the airport. Or occasionally I’ll forget to bring my aseptic containers of So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk. Hey, we’ve all had those days.

That’s where bars come in. I developed The Virgin Diet Bars because none on the market completely satisfied my criteria. Most professional brands had excessive sugar alcohols, too little protein, or soy protein.

Commercial brands were even worse: at their best they were expensive vitamin-added candy bars; at their worst, chemical and blood sugar catastrophes.
I worked closely with our manufacturer to create the perfect bar with no highly reactive ingredients, low sugar, and optimal protein. I demanded most ingredients be organic. (“Do you have any idea how much organic cashew butter cost?” they initially asked.)

Most importantly, the bars had to taste good. Otherwise, the deal was off. I’ve eaten enough cardboard-tasting protein bars in my life to mercifully never subject my loyal customers to such catastrophes.

After months of taste testing (tough job there!), tweaking, and finalizing ingredients, we created two incredible tasting bars that perfectly fit The Virgin Diet rules. I couldn’t be happier with these bars, and I’ve heard customer feedback loud and clear: We love them!

Snack, but Snack Responsibly

The Virgin Diet Bars make perfect snacks or mini-meals. Rich in protein and healthy fats, they help stave off hunger when you won’t be eating a meal for a few hours. They also curb your sweet tooth without any guilt so you’re less prone to your coworker’s homemade baklava or those leftover turtle brownies your son brought home from school.

I’ve done my research, and I can say without bias (okay, maybe a little bias) that these are the healthiest, nutrient-dense, satisfying bars on the market.
Bottom line: some days you’ll do everything correctly and you’ll still want or need a snack. That’s why I created The Virgin Diet Bars. However you snack, snack smartly and don’t make it a habit.

JJ Recommends

The Virgin Diet Bars are Here!

Whether it’s a quick getaway before school starts, or sending the kids back to school with a portable healthy snack is sometimes a challenge, but not anymore! The introduction of The Virgin Diet Cinnamon Cashew Crunch or Dark Chocolate Cherry bars makes the search for a quick healthy snack quick and easy!

My bars have only good nutrition, no high fructose corn syrup or shellac, YUK! Only health ingredients that you can actually be proud to feed your family (and don’t forget about yourself!)

The best news is that for a limited time, ending this SATURDAY, you can buy 1 box and get the second box for 50% off. This amazing deal will go away in 48 hours, so hop on it while you can! Click HERE to take advantage of this introductory offer before it disappears.

How Does The Virgin Diet Bar Stack Up Against Other Bars?
(Click chart image below to view full size)

JJ Recommends

It's Back-to-School Time!

Well it’s that time again. Summer is coming to a close and we’ve got some amazing things coming up and a really interesting story…check it out here:

Virgin Diet Success Story

Bob & Kathy

Before my husband and I started this "lifestyle" change, we were both overweight, tired, in our 50's and my husband had been denied health insurance in our new
home state of NC. I had joint and limb pain and experienced daily headaches. We both thought this was part of the normal aging process. Every year I would tell the Dr. and they had no answers for me. We really didn't realize how good we could feel until we became healthy. The Virgin Diet really isn't a diet to us, we now see what caused all our problems - the way we were eating. I have no more headaches (unless I cheat and eat sugar) the energy level is off the charts which was great timing because instead of exercising we bought a totally gutted house and made it livable in 21/2 months. Less aches and pains so we are able to go hiking, biking, and gardening without spending the next 2 days on the couch.

We reapplied for health insurance and a policy was issued in 3 days, this time we were rated, but not how we expected, we got a healthy living discount and now pay half of what we were paying before every month.

Food has never tasted so good! I am so thankful for the day I turned on TV and saw JJ Virgin on PBS helping them with fundraising. She had me at "you don't have to live with joint pain". The first week was the hardest, giving up my red wine and dark chocolate! But we did and what an amazing journey we embarked on. We just followed what she said in her book and the rest is history and present!

How has it impacted the lives of your family and the people around you?

I have to say when your life is totally turned around so much, so fast and so easily everyone notices! Even though we were new to NC, we were dealing with contractors, new dentists, Realtor, post office  workers, new neighbors etc. so were probably had a bigger group of people observe the changes then if we were still back in Fl. and we did go back there also. Everyone was amazed!

Of course they all wanted to know how did you do it, sales probably went up on your books because I carried it in my car but would not give it up. I have to say that everyone that followed your book, lost weight and became healthy. Bob told all the ladies at the Dentist office about how his amazing change took place, and the entire office went on it, one of the ladies lost her goal weight of 15 pounds but her husband was still on it after losing 25 pounds, the funny thing is she never told him he was on a diet. Poor guy, hope he doesn't think he's dying!

Bob went from a tight 42 waist to a 33, I went from a tight 14 to an 8. We have been together since 1988 and have never seen each other this healthy, we are hooked for life and we want everyone to feel this good!

Thank you JJ Virgin!

Bob & Kathy
N.C.

JJ Recommends

Virgin Diet Meals Shipped to Your Door

Less Than $10 a Meal
From Artisan Bistro PRO

These are phenomenal! I received my first order on Friday and ate the Chicken Creole last night. They absolutely DO NOT taste like frozen meals! There was so much chicken and very large pieces, I was very impressed. These are great to have in a pinch when you just don't feel like cooking and could easily grab a no-no food! JJ I really appreciated the No Nut filter on the website. I have IgE reactions to all nuts, not just peanuts, and felt really comfortable ordering these meals online.
- Jennifer Stewart

 

Shopping for and preparing a healthy meal for your family day in and day out can take up a lot of time and frankly, be exhausting.

I get it, and that’s why I wanted to let you in on a little secret…

You don’t have to do it every day.

I’ve found a wonderful resource that will help you put a delicious, healthy, Virgin Diet friendly meal on the table on those nights when you just need a break.

This will save you time and money because the meals cost less than $10 a serving for high quality, mostly organic ingredients.

You’ll love this.

Click here to learn more and check it out.

© 2013 JJ Virgin & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of JJ Virgin & Associates, Inc.

Celebrity Nutrition & Fitness Expert JJ Virgin helps you lose weight fast by breaking free from food intolerances. She is a Huffington Post blogger, creator of the 4X4 Burst Training Workout, co-star of TLC's Freaky Eaters and New York Times Bestselling Author of The Virgin Diet: Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds, Just 7 Days.
Visit http://www.jjvirgin.com to take get her 3 free training videos on how to lose fat fast and forever.