Marilu Henner - Marilu Henners Total Health Makeover

The question Ive been asked most often over the last ten years is, Marilu, why are you much thinner now and even younger-looking than you were when you did Taxi in the seventies? Well, I know that people are being kind and they ask this to make me feel good, but I also know that there is a lot of truth to it. I am much thinner than I was. I have much more energy. I really feel great. And yes, I do think I look much better. As far as younger-looking, well, I dont know about that, but I do know that Ifeel much younger than I did even in my twenties, and Im forty-five. Except for during my pregnancies, my weight has not fluctuated more than five pounds in the last eleven years. So this is not a temporary phase Im going through.

So how did all this happen? What changed my weight, my looks, my energy, and ultimately my life? A diet? Pills? Liposuction? Cosmetic surgery?No, no, no, and ABSOLUTELY not! Do I eat every day like a gerbil or a bird? Do I spend six hours a day working out? Again, no and no. After nineteen years of experimenting, a thousand mistakes, over 400 books (read, not written), at least 200 bad diets over my lifetime, five doctors, four physical therapists, three nutritionists, two personal trainers, one therapist, and a partridge in a pear tree, I have found what I believe are the best answers this planet (both hemispheres, East and West) has to offer about living a happy, healthy, and balanced life.

If I didnt take care of myself the way I do, I could never be living the life I am living now. Im a wife, a mother, an actress, and an author. While writing this book, I have been performing in the Broadway showChicago (eight performances a week), as well as being a mom to my beautiful sons, Nicky (age 3) and Joey (age 2).

My program, lifestyle, philosophy, or whatever you want to call it, has been working beautifully for my family and me for the last eleven years. I have become sort of a Pied Piper of healthy living for my friends as well. My Total Health Makeover is now working for at least a hundred of my friends, too. Most of them claim to have converted followers of their own. (Just like that old shampoo commercial, where you tell two friends and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on ) Its easy to find converts, because once they question my program, learn about it, apply it, and see the results, they know it works and continue to follow it.

From the very first page of this book, I want you to know that I love food. I am truly a girl who loves to eat. Theres something luscious and gratifying about food. Its smells, its tastes, its textures can drive me crazy. My fondest memories from my childhood as well as adulthood are all centered around some great meal. Bringing a group together and enjoying the social interaction of being with people who are laughing and smiling and feeling full of life gives me such joy. I adore going out with my family and friends, eating and drinking, and having a wonderful time. Over the years, after trying every crazy diet known to man, I realized that I could not and would not allow myself to be controlled by food and live a life of deprivation. I needed to be actively living a lifestyle that made food my friend and not my enemy. It took nineteen years of learning how to balance the relationship between healthy eating habits and my passion for food. Actually, it took me eight years to figure it out and eleven years of practice and perfecting this connection. But Ive succeeded and have lived a truly healthy life since 1987. Ive had my ups and downs over the years (and I mean in every area of my lifefrom my weight, to my career, to my personal relationships). But finding balance has made it easier for me to ride the roller coaster. Today, I have a beautiful family and many joyous blessings to celebrate, and I want to share my personal discoveries with you. Maybe youll be able to relate to the information, and I hope youll make some positive changes in your life that help you realize the life you were born to live. Our time on this planet is far too short not to be our best. Change is never easy, but it is an ever-present aspect to growth and self-improvement. It takes only one person to change your life, and that is you.

Writing this book has been a lot of fun for me. Having the opportunity to relive so many experiences and share them with you is the best way I can think of to inspire and motivate you. Ive been through a lot over the years, and my experiences and experiments with food and dieting are the inspiration for writing this book. My program described within these pages is not just about diet, though. Its a Total Health Makeover. Its an adaptation in lifestyle designed to reprogram the way you think and feel about your health and your body, whether youre fat or thin.

When my parents both died in their fifties (my father at fifty-two from a heart attack, and my mother at fifty-eight from arthritis complications), I was devastated. At the time, I didnt fully understand that changing their eating and health habits could have prevented or at least alleviated some of their health problems. But now, after nineteen years of research and personal practice, I have created the healthiest, easiest program to make yourself over and to create the best you ever. Its a program that I have developed over the years that works for me. Think of me as your personal guide and this book as your Cliffs Notes to becoming a happier, healthier you. The key is finding your balance.

I wanted to call my first book Boys and My Weight because every pivotal moment and every event of my life can be measured in some way by my relationships both with men and with food. I can tell you how much I weighed at any point in my life from the summer between eighth grade and high school (my boyfriend was Steve and I weighed 125 pounds) through college (my boyfriends were Jim, Tom, and Doug and I weighed 155160). I remember how much I weighed during every episode of Taxi (the range was 127142, and I dated, married, and divorced my first husband at the time, though there were a few cast members along the way not to mention John Travolta!). Today, I am happily married (for eight years) to my husband, Rob, and Im still totally aware of my current weight fluctuations (119124). In the past, I would mark my birthdays by whom I was dating and how much I weighed. I guess thats why you could call this a running theme in my life boys and my weight.

I grew up in a typical Midwestern family. Meals werent complete unless they had one representative from each of the major food groups, especially meat. Its funny when I look back on my childhood from my perspective today and consider the foods I liked and didnt like. I loved sugar. I was completely addicted to it, as are most children. I would put sugar on everything, my Frosted Flakes, my Sugar Pops, even my toast! After school, Id shop for my mother at the local grocery store and spend my money for going on candy As a twelve-year-old baby-sitter, I would eat the parents out of house and home. Especially cookies and chips. My deal was 50 cents an hour and all I could eat.