JJ Virgin is coming out with her new book, The Miracle Mindset on February 21st. What led her to create this book was during the time when she was in the middle of her very first book, The Virgin Diet. It was a couple of weeks out before the book was getting published and her PBS TV show was getting ready to launch.
She went all in for the book because she knew it could help a lot of people. One night in 2012, after a long day of taping videos, her 16-year-old son Grant, who has a bipolar disorder, had a bad day and threw a tantrum because they did not allow him to go to a martial arts class that night.
As Grant stomped out of the house barefoot and got hit by a car crossing the street. It was actually a hit and run. A neighbor came around to protect him but the estimate was the female driver was going 40 miles an hour. They airlifted Grant to the hospital and he was barely alive.
"They had a tube in his brain to relieve pressure, and they had him on a ventilator. He literally had a bone sticking out of his leg. The doctor said he had a torn aorta and that kills 90% of the people right on the scene," recalls JJ Virgin.
Virgin says the aorta was hanging on by an onion skin. It had to be repaired. But the challenge was, Grant had three brain bleeds. He had multiple skull fractures and he was in a deep coma. But he still had brain activity which was the key thing.
The surgery that he needed was very specialized. Very few doctors do it. His attending physician then said Grant needed to be airlifted but because of his condition, the doctor said her son would never survive it. And even if he did, the doctor was doubtful if he would survive the surgery. He would be so brain-damaged, it wouldn't be worth it.
"My other son Bryce, who's 15, was listening and asked the doctor---'So like a .25% chance he'll make it?' And the doctor affirmed it. Then Bryce said, 'We'll take those odds,'" said JJ Virgin.
The doctor was so upset with them, seeing that they were going to overrule him. And I bluntly told the doctor my son was going to die if we don't take the chance.
"Eventually, Grant was airlifted to the UCLA trauma center while the rest of us drove there. A doctor there came up to me before Grant's surgery and assured me everything will be fine," said JJ Virgin.
After his surgery, Grant was in a deep coma we met up with the neurosurgeons. The only thing I could touch was his hand. Everything else was covered with gauze, casts and all sorts of stuff.
JJ Virgin tried talking to Grant, "I looked at him and I said something but no response. Then I said his brother Bryce loves him very much. And he squeezed my hand. So at that point, I knew he was in there."
After testing Grant by rattling off names that she knew he wouldn't respond to, she tried to dig deeper by giving him a little pep talk. His recovery was bleak at that point but from that time on, JJ Virgin didn't allow anyone to say anything negative about him.
"When he got well, Grant said to me that when he was in the ICU in a coma, the gray man asked me if I wanted to live or die. He said he talked to his grandfather and it was really nice 'over there'. He said he really did not want to live but he kept hearing my voice and thinking about family so he decided to stay," said JJ Virgin.
These were what Virgin did to make sure she was in tip top shape throughout Grant's recovery. She said made sure to do the following apart from maintaining a daily gratitude journal:
Later on, she realized it all came down to our mindset. No one can take you farther than you believe you should go. We don't grow when things are easy. We grow when we're challenged.
What an amazing story, right? When we do not want to be a statistic, we have to go against the status quo. During the times we decide we're not good enough, we're not going to seek out anything that goes against that belief. I'm glad this story has a happy ending because Grant has 110% fully recovered four years later.
In addition to that, Virgin also says as the brain starts to wake up and starts to remember things, the memories we remember first are the bad ones. It turns out that's what your brain does to protect you.
"I believe you get what you expect. If every day you realize that when you lean in to fear, it's eventually not too scary anymore because our comfort zone expands," said Virgin. "It all comes down to knowing you deserve it. You're here to do big things and not here to play it safe. Reach more people, do bigger things, help more people."
JJ Virgin is a Celebrity Nutrition and Fitness Expert. She is also the four-time NY Times bestselling author of Sugar Impact Diet Cookbook: 150 Low-Sugar Recipes to Help You Lose up to 10 Pounds in Just 2 Weeks, Sugar Impact Diet: Drop 7 Hidden Sugars, Lose Up to 10 Pounds in Just 2 Weeks, The Virgin Diet: Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds, Just 7 Days, and The Virgin Diet Cookbook: 150 Easy and Delicious Recipes to Lose Weight and Feel Better Fast.
She is also the best-selling author of Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy as well as a prominent TV and print media personality.
If you want more information about JJ Virgin and her books, check out these links:
JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet Cookbook: 150 Low-Sugar Recipes to Help You Lose up to 10 Pounds in Just 2 Weeks
The Sugar Impact Diet: Drop 7 Hidden Sugars, Lose up to 10 Pounds, Just 2 Weeks
The Virgin Diet: Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds, Just 7 Days
The Virgin Diet Cookbook: 150 Easy and Delicious Recipes to Lose Weight and Feel Better Fast.
New book, Miracle Mindset comes out on February 21st
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