This Is Your Do-Over

This Is Your Do-Over, The 7 Secrets To Losing Weight, Living Longer, and Getting a Second Chance at the Life You Want, by Michael F. Roizen, MD, with Ted Spiker and Foreword by Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., Scribners 2015

Start at the end with this book, with the "Do-Over Quiz."  It's a shocker, shows what preconceptions and popular misunderstandings we may be operating with every day, such as:

Why is chronic stress so damaging over time?

a.  It raises my blood sugar and adds layers of dangerous belly fat

b.  It raises my blood pressure and leads to impotence, wrinkles and memory loss

c.  It makes me feel like I want to punch a woolly mammoth right in the nostrils

d.  All of the above

And the answer: 1d.  The body's stress response - cultivated over evolutionary time in response to life-threatening aggressors like grumpy wooly mammoths - causes elevated blood sugar, heart rate, and blood pressure...

Roisen's formula for a successful do-over is not just about diet and nutrition, thank goodness.  Roizen offers us his 7 simple ways using diet, exercise, sleep, stress management and SEX to revitalize your life now and for the vital years on the horizon - we hope:

    1.  Walk 10,000 (about 5 miles) steps a day, no excuses - Who needs a magic pill when you have your feet!

    2.  Arrest, ban and imprison the "5 Food Felons":  saturated fats, trans fats, simple sugars, simple carbs and added syrups

    3.  Break the Addition, Form a Habit

    4.  Attack Stress, Don't Avoid it

    5.  Get it On - more sex and better sex

    6.  Prescribe Yourself Passion

    7.  Build a buddy system, nature's way of helping your body heal.  

Dr. Roisen is Chief Wellness Officer of the Cleveland Clinic.