Bruce Jan - Mequilibrium: 14 days to cooler, calmer, and happier

Copyright 2015 by New Life Solution, Inc., d/b/a/ meQuilibrium

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Harmony Books is a registered trademark, and the Circle colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bruce, Jan.
Mequilibrium : 14 days to cooler, calmer, and happier / Jan Bruce, Andrew Shatt, Ph.D., and Adam Perlman, M.D.
pages cm
1. Resilience (Personality trait) 2. Adjustment (Psychology)
I. Shatt, Andrew. II. Perlman, Adam. III. Title.
BF698.35.R47B78 2014
158.1dc23
2014023052

ISBN 978-0-8041-3849-9
eBook ISBN 978-0-8041-3850-5

Jacket design: Jess Morphew
Jacket art: Shutterstock

v3.1

Id like to dedicate our book to my children, Jessica and Oliver, who first started me on my journey of balancing and made it so joyful and rewarding. And first and foremost to my husband, Richard, who showed me the meaning of having it all and made it a reality.

Jan Bruce

To my parents, Betty and Lloyd, who taught me the importance of meaning and purpose. And to my wife, Veronica, and my children, Vivien and Julian, who gave it expression.

Andrew Shatt

Id like to dedicate this book to my wife, Laurice, and children, Sarah, Ben, Matt, Rebecca, and Charlie; they keep me balanced and remind me of what is really important in life.

Adam Perlman

T o those who saw the wisdom in what we were building and gave us the backbone to stay with it: Laurie Coots, who has helped us see the disruptiveness in our brand; Richard Pine, who saw it, shaped it, stayed with us; Wright Steenrod and David Jones, who shared our belief in the power of consumers to change the course of health care and in our ability to help get consumers into the drivers seat of their personal well-being; Terri Trespicio, who shaped so many of our words and made our lessons practical not preachy; Robin Streit and Elisa Corra, who steadfastly enabled our development; and Teresa Keever for her research assistance.

Heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Debra Goldstein, our unflappable writer, whose talent and tenacity brought our book to life; to Heather Jackson, our editor, for her enthusiasm for our project and constant attention to its progress; and to our editorial director, Diana Baroni, for her support and smarts.

W elcome to the wellness revolution! Just by picking up this book, youre officially part of it.

By revolution, I mean that our culture is finally waking up to the fact that if we want to be happy and healthy, we need to think bigger. For far too long, too many people turned to quick-fix answers in their health and weight struggles. It was practically the American way: We tried fad diets to lose weight, swallowed pills to lift our mood, or self-medicated with food or alcohol to calm our worried minds. None of it worked. As a society, we just got fatter, sicker, unhappier, and more stressed.

Why? Because, as Jan Bruce, Dr. Andrew Shatt, and Dr. Adam Perlman reveal in this groundbreaking book, we were focusing on the fleeting solutions rather than the underlying problem. We didnt need to change what was going on in our lives and surroundings so much as we needed to dig deeper and change what was going on within ourselves .

For the past two decades, I have practiced Functional Medicine and written books based on its principles, which focus on the pursuit of health rather than the treatment of disease. Every ailment has a deeper cause, and I treat patients based on the whole person, to root out that cause. We look at everything; not just what their blood work says, but how they eat and, most pointedly, how they deal with stress. If I were to continue to treat just their symptoms and overlook this complex web underneath, my patients would be back in my office in less than a year. This whole-person approach challenges the core beliefs of those who still buy into the take a pill (aka quick-fix) approach. Ironically, as millions of patients and readers can attest, when you focus on building health, you automatically eradicate disease and shed excess weight. It really is that simple.

Stress is the ultimate health robber, causing or worsening 95 percent of all illness. Having a calm mind is so integral to health that it is actually one of my seven Keys to UltraWellness. Not only does stress make us sick, but it prevents us from healing. It floods our body with hormones that cause us to pack on deadly belly fat and sabotages our weight-loss efforts. We are seeing an epidemic of stress-related disorders in our society, ranging from depression to dementia, anxiety to obesity. Big Pharma and Big Food love the stress epidemic, as millions of Americans rely on pills, sugar, and caffeine to feel better. But as Ive written about extensively in my books, the answer doesnt sit on drugstore shelvesits within our minds!

Thats where this life-changing book comes in; meQuilibrium is the first program of its kind that goes way beyond the take a pill approach to stress management. No more trying to eradicate stress with fruitless and fleeting measures. Im betting youve tried that already! Just as successful weight loss and vibrant health can be yours by changing your lifestyle, successful stress management can be yours if you learn how to change your thought style. And that is precisely what this book will teach you to do. This powerful program is a radical new way of approaching how you think and react to stress. The authorsthree warriors of wellness in their respective industrieshave brought together the principles of Functional Medicine, positive psychology, and proven real-world strategies to create a systemic approach for achieving the peace of mind and health youre seeking.

You dont have to suffer needlessly from the perils of stress for one more day. You dont have to feel tired, drained, or depressed, or struggle with weight or health issues. There is a better, healthier, happier life waiting for you. Take the leap for 14 days, and its yours!

Mark Hyman, M.D.

L ife can be stressful.

You dont need us to tell you that. And you probably dont need us to tell you the reasons why. Mile-long to-do lists, demanding workloads and pressing deadlines, having to do more with less, juggling our kids complex schedules, caring for aging parents, relationship conflicts even reading this list can cause stress!