I first met Jennifer Lopez at the ALMA Awards — one of those nights where the room is full of people you've admired from a distance, and then suddenly you're shaking their hand. She was warm, funny, and completely present. I've been a fan ever since, and honestly, I've never stopped being one.
The stubborn 8 to 10 pounds
Years later, when J.Lo talked publicly about shedding what she called a "really stubborn 8 to 10 pounds," she did what Beyoncé, Ryan Seacrest and a long list of A-listers had done before her: she went temporarily vegan. Five weeks with no meat, no dairy, no gluten. Her line about it stuck with me — "I didn't know how good you can feel when you put healthy stuff in your body."
What the magazine asked me
The magazine came to me for the sustainable version of that reset, and I gave them the plan I've taught for a quarter century: go vegan until lunch. Going fully vegan will strip weight fast, but you'll also strip muscle and energy along with it. So instead: a detoxifying plant-based breakfast in the morning, then small portions of lean animal protein at lunch and dinner — chicken breast, Greek yogurt, white fish — so you get your B12, hold your muscle, and stay satisfied all afternoon. Swap veggies for carbs where you can (zucchini noodles instead of pasta). Twelve weeks of that averaged about 24 pounds gone.
The real secret: volume
Here's the part that matters most, and it's the reason this strategy has worked for J.Lo and for thousands of my clients. It isn't about deprivation — it's about eating high-volume foods: soups, non-starchy vegetables, low-glycemic fruits. Foods that deliver the most food, the most chewing, the most fullness, for the fewest calories. Pair that volume with lean protein and healthy fats and your appetite simply turns down on its own. You don't fight hunger. You out-eat it with the right foods.
That's the same principle behind Tiny and Full, behind the #TeamJorge transformations on Steve Harvey, and behind the belly-fat work in The More Time Protocol. Volume first. Protein and fat alongside. Hunger never gets a vote.
What an honor
Seeing my strategies laid out next to Jennifer Lopez on a national cover story was the culmination of a long love affair with her work — and a reminder of something I never take for granted: this work reaches everyone, from a mom in Ohio starting over at 50 to a superstar preparing for a world tour. Same body. Same biology. Same simple truth.
Thank you, J.Lo. What an honor.
