Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat After Forty (3 page)

Look at our children’s diet. Our kids eat pizza for breakfast in elementary school! Worse yet, for lunch it’s macaroni and cheese, a white-flour roll, and apple juice. Let’s examine the foods offered to these children:

This is not food! This is a nutrient-zero meal loaded with chemicals! How can we expect meals like these to build strong bodies and brains in our children? And the double jeopardy is setting them up for a lifetime of poor dietary choices. So much for a healthy diet! This is a disastrous diet, and these poor eating habits continue into adulthood, because these are the foods you grew up eating and they now have become your comfort foods.

Tragically, this is normal eating for Americans. As a people, we are fatter than any other country, and as my friend Dr. Burton Goldberg says:

You aren’t getting nutrition because of your toxic burden, and toxins are everywhere: in our food, water, household cleaners, and skin and hair care products. Ever wonder why you have chronic headaches, asthma, allergies, brain fog, fatigue, memory problems, depression, chronic pain, infections, and gut problems? I’m going to say this over and over in these pages. We are unknowingly filling our bodies with toxins that have burdened us, and sometimes these conditions are the body’s way of screaming for help. It’s not normal to have headaches or pain, or allergies or sinus or gut problems. These are signals to do something—and fast—because we are slowly killing ourselves. It’s that important and that drastic. I am not shaking my finger at anyone here. It’s not your fault. This situation has evolved, but the consequences are severe. And this book provides a clear alternative.
Stay with me
. Don’t get overwhelmed. The solutions are coming.

The Iroquois Indians made decisions based on what impact they would have seven generations later. Ask yourself these questions: What do you think our country’s present habits of eating poor-quality chemical-laden
food will mean to our families in seven generations? Do you foresee perfect health? Do you see trim, toned bodies? Or do you see a lot of cancer, wheelchairs, obesity, mental disorders, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, heart attacks, and chronic unrelenting diabetes? Perhaps you also see a loss of creativity and a dampening of the human spirit.

Some doctors are saying that the next generation will be sterile. Now whether or not you believe this will come to pass, you can at least see the possibilities from the effects of toxicity. It’s no joke. It’s serious and your weight is a language; a wake-up call from your body saying, “Do something
now
!”

It feels overwhelming: eliminate all the chemicals, eat real food. You wonder what is left for you to eat. How are you going to do this? Some people get very depressed when they learn of the toxic soup in which we live.
Stay with me
. Don’t let it bring you down! Use this knowledge to make the changes where you can. Every little bit helps. I am extreme in attempting to remove toxins from my life and I know I am still surrounded. Do your best, but don’t become overwhelmed and put on blinders to this reality you are about to discover. It’s never been more important to educate yourself in order to rectify these environmental and age-related issues. If you don’t start making changes now, the deterioration will begin. The longer you wait, the more difficult the job … but it’s never impossible.

I am going to take you step-by-step through this process and show you the way. I have access to incredible doctors and experts who have shared their knowledge with me and I will now share it with you. You create your own course—and you would not have picked up this book unless you see yourself successful, healthy, and thin. When did it all change?

Food used to be more nutritious than it is today. The environment was cleaner. People exercised more each day just living their everyday lives. They didn’t sit at their computers all day long. When it came to food, organic wasn’t even a term. All food was organic. It wasn’t until around the late 1950s when we began to liberally use poison sprays on our food that it became necessary to label food organic. Think how differently we’d react if they called food what it really has become: poisoned or not poisoned!
Which would you choose? Think about the craziness of the concept … who decided it was a good idea to put poison on our food or spray chemicals around our homes?

Our food supply used to be loaded with essential nutrients that are being depleted by modern-day agricultural methods. Nutrients that used to be in our natural food supply now need to be taken as supplements. Previously, we ate grass-fed beef with naturally occurring omega-3 fats. Today’s corn-fed beef, on the other hand, is loaded with hormones, antibiotics, and of course excess omega-6 fats from the corn feed.

In
Sexy Forever
you will learn that detoxing (cleaning out the body of chemicals and toxins) will speed-dial in weight loss. The pounds are going to fall off while you sit back and enjoy eating healthy, delicious food. Losing weight is truly not so much about portion control (although once you’ve “cleaned house” and your body is receiving its nutritional requirements, you really won’t crave as much food anymore). You will be fully satisfied with the right amounts of food when the food you are taking in is nutritious. A toxic body is not only extremely unhealthy, but also has a slowed metabolism. A toxic body will cause you to get fatter and fatter, while a cleansed one stays slim and, best of all, healthy.

In this book I will be interviewing Brenda Watson, who is one of the foremost authorities on digestive health. Her specialties are healing the digestive system and saying goodbye to bloating and stomach discomfort. Understanding gut health is crucial to your well-being. Gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances are a primary cause of weight gain, and healing the gut removes yet another obstacle to your goal. You will learn the importance of probiotics and fiber as key secret weapons in weight loss. Fiber increases
the feeling of fullness, dampens hunger, and reduces caloric intake. You will also say goodbye to constipation, which plagues many adults and is an impediment to losing weight. Plus, you will learn about undetected food allergies or intolerances that may be keeping you bloated, puffy, overweight, or even chronically ill … and how a simple blood test can unravel these secrets and provide the easiest solution you could ever imagine to looking and feeling great.

Another key component to regaining your optimal weight and quality of life is to rebalance your hormones with natural bioidentical hormone replacement. You will hear from Dr. Jonathan Wright, the father of bioidentical hormones, and from Bill Faloon of Life Extension. They teach us that the balance of these important and vital hormones plays a significant role in determining not only our health, but also our weight. Why is it that when you were young and making a full complement of hormones you didn’t battle weight as you do now?

Declining hormones create a cascade of bodily problems. Add to that the fact that stress further blunts hormone production and you get the picture.

The chemical exposure I have mentioned also blunts hormone production. And these factors lead to weight gain, accelerated aging, and poor health. Excess chemicals may also be the reason that hormones are
declining at younger and younger ages with imbalances starting in our late thirties and early forties becoming much more common. This has never happened before.

Imbalanced hormones are a perfect setup not only for weight gain, but also disease. It is unfortunate that our medical schools do such a poor job educating our future physicians in hormone replacement. So often what are simply signs of hormonal decline are treated as a new “condition” for which a pharmaceutical appears to be the only answer. This is how more and more drugs creep into our lives. It’s the middle-age dilemma affecting women
and
men. I have been replacing my declining hormones for fifteen years and every day is a good one. I am healthy, balanced, happy, and thin. My husband does it, too. It’s not difficult, and I will explain how to do it. Once you connect the dots and absorb all of this new information, losing weight will become a breeze and, best of all, permanent.

Being Sexy Forever requires new knowledge, a shift in your thinking, plus a commitment to making some permanent changes in your lifestyle and dietary habits. You have to approach this next passage in life differently.

Let’s sum up what’s true about fighting fat after forty:

• The reason you are having difficulty is environmental toxicity, which creates a toxic burden on your body and a change in your personal chemical makeup.
  
• Toxicity causes nutritional deprivation. Your body craves more and more food, trying to get what it needs to thrive.
  
• Hormonal disturbances cause accelerated aging, poor health, physical deterioration, and weight gain.
  

This lethal triad makes traditional dieting useless. It’s no longer about eating less, it’s about being smart about all the things that go in—and on—your body. In fact, once you discover the solution offered by
Sexy Forever
and hear what doctors and professionals have to say, you will understand how to decrease your toxic burden, you will master your cravings, and you will learn to fuel your body in a way that eliminates addictive eating. Once you understand the devastating effects of chemicals on your health, you will minimize where you can, live green, and choose foods that satisfy. You won’t be left feeling hungry, and you will be thin and energetic.

Balancing your hormones will put you in a good mood, you will feel sexual once more, your brain will be sharp, your bones will be strong, and you can expect a blissful, deep sleep each night. I know this because after I made the simple changes I recommend in this book I was able to resolve a weight stall that had puzzled me. You, too, can discover which foods are causing problems and are an obstacle to weight loss and which foods will help instead of hurt. You will learn the benefits of herbs and spices that have antioxidant effects and help in eliminating the buildup of toxins that are causing the food cravings. Your meals will be absolutely scrumptious, and once you adapt to these changes you will be amazed that while you are on your way to being thin, sexy, and fabulous you will also be eating the greatest-tasting food of your life.

With the concepts of
Sexy Forever
you are going to make your insides young; and your healthy organs and glands will be operating at optimal levels. The effects created by these changes will make you youthful, healthy, and energetic naturally without any drugs.

The assault on our bodies from stress, aging, and toxicity is rectifiable. Hormonal imbalance raises insulin (the fat-storing hormone) levels and you get fatter. Toxins accumulate in the fat, requiring more and more fat to store them, depending on your particular personal makeup. Put the two elements together and you realize why, when you are eating only salads, you are getting fatter and fatter.

No more. You are about to begin a journey that will change your life.

Sexy Forever
is
not
a diet. It’s a new program for lifelong health and
slimness. Diets don’t work. Food is not the enemy.
Sexy Forever
offers a plan that clearly explains what you need to do and all you need to know.

This section explains toxic buildup. Chemicals here, there, and everywhere are slowly causing more and more damage to you and it’s insidious. It happens slowly, often without any of us really noticing. Little by little, it eats away at our once perfect health. It gets stored in the fat and is ready and waiting to attack when free-radical damage overwhelms your healthy cells and the immune system is compromised from an outside assault. Now you’re in trouble.

When you ask yourself, Why are we so sick and why are we all so fat? I can only answer with another question: Why
wouldn’t
we be sick and fat? Look at what we are doing to ourselves. What are we thinking? It took me some time to connect the dots, to really understand the devastating effects of toxins in our environment and poisons on our food.
Stay with me
. I will show you solutions to these problems so you can live a clean, healthy, long life with a slim body.

This section provides an all-access pass to revered doctors, experts, and nutritionists who uncover obstacles that could be in your way.

You’ll learn

• How to lessen toxic levels in your food and home; the importance of organic food, household cleaners, and skin care products (plus, how to manage if you can’t afford organic).
  
• Balancing your hormones for health, wellness, sleep, sexuality, and weight loss.
  
• Digestive health—how you must heal your gut and uncover hidden allergies to have success losing weight.
  
• Exercise—you know me, I like it fast and easy. You can do this!
  
• Supplements—expert recommendations on what to take for health and weight loss.
  

In this section we put the Sexy Forever weight loss plan into action. When it comes to food, the array you’ll have available is vast and delicious. Real food is exciting. I don’t eat boring food. My cooking is founded in Tuscan and country French, so I love a good wine reduction sauce or slow-cooked protein. The food choices and recipes I give you will be the best of your life. You can win this battle. It requires commitment, but it does not mean you are going to have to eat boring, portion-controlled meals. Ask any of my friends and they will tell you my food is fabulous (she says modestly). A few simple changes starting today will allow you to achieve your ideal body composition and stay that way.… deliciously.