Marilu Henner - The 30 Day Total Health Makeover: Everything You Need to Do to Change Your Body, Your Health, and Your Life in 30 Amazing Days

The 30-Day
Total Health Makeover

Marilu Henner
with Laura Morton

To my family

W hat an incredible year this has been! Since the release of my last book, Marilu Henners Total Health Makeover, I have made nearly 300 appearances all over the country, which gave me the opportunity to talk to so many people. Ive met people in airports, at book signings, in talk show waiting rooms, even at the Home Shopping Network! Ive met people of all ages who want to get healthy. Older people whove been told by their doctors that they need to change their lifestyle. Baby boomers who would like to feel young and vibrant. People in their twenties who know enough about the current trends in nutrition to know that the old ways of thinking wont give them the answers. (I even met young kids who werent born when Taxi went off the air, but watch the show on Nick at Night and just wanted to meet Nardo!) There was even a fifteen-year-old ballerina who said that the information in the book was saving her from anorexia. I met her in Nashville, and she told me that she was reading the book, and was learning how to battle her eating disorder. It was incredible talking to her. Two months later, I was in Tampa, giving a lecture to a group of young performers from Ann Reinkings Broadway Theater Project, and I decided to tell her story. Imagine my surprise when after my speech that same young girl came up to me and said, Im that ballerina you were talking about. She looked so much better. You could see a vibrancy in her face that wasnt there before.

Ive met so many people who are looking for something beyond weight loss, which was really the message of Total Health Makeoverto get beyond thinking of health as losing weight in a quick temporary way.

With each and every appearance, there were so many people who were ready for the next step. I saw thousands of new faces eager to share their success stories with me and anxious to hear my answers to all of their questions. In the history of publishing, I dont think anyone has been given the opportunity to talk about a book as much as I did last year. But boy, am I glad I did, because after years of talking about it, I finally had the chance to make my dream of getting the information out there come true. And now that Ive gotten us on the road of total health and well-being, its time for us to share the next step together.

I received tens of thousands of letters, e-mails, and personal messages asking me all sorts of questions, but the number one request was for a 30-day plan that shows exactly what I do almost every day of my life. When that request kept coming up, it reminded me of my sisters and friends coming to my house and saying Im going to give myself over to your program! My family and friends always joke that staying at my house is better than going to a spa. (I have one friend who comes to my house, opens the refrigerator, and screams because she doesnt recognize anything in it, although her husband says, Ive never had a bad meal at Marilus.) By the time they all leave, however, they not only learn how to eat better and exercise more efficiently, but also how to organize their time better, use things around the house as part of their beauty routine, andsometimeshow to fake feeling better even if theyre having a bad day. When planning a 30-day program, I realized that all I had to do was treat everyone out there who wanted a specific plan as if they were a real guest in my home. It would be an open invitation to spend a month with me, Marilu. If you were to be a guest in my home for 30 days, the plan in this book is pretty much what you would take away from that experiencea total picture of healthy eating, exercising, and organization. Growing up in a large family with very little privacy taught me at a young age that life is all about organization (and boys and my weight, of course)! And it still is.

Its almost the next century, and life has become about streamlining because there just arent enough hours in the day. Time is such a precious commodityas precious as our healthand neither of them should be taken for granted. Its such a waste of time not being healthy. Who has the time, let alone the desire, to be sick? Under many circumstances, its unnecessary and its always a waste of our energy and spirit. If you cant make time for your health, you will have to make time for illness. With all the information thats out there we now know too much to ignore our health. But our health goes beyond what we put in our bodies. It is a mind-body-environment connection that cant be viewed separately.

If youre anything like me, every once in a while you have this need to start cleaning things out. You start in your closets and then move on to the drawers. You clean out your makeup bag, and then tackle that pile of mail thats been sitting forever. Before you know it, youre organized and ready for the next thing. But what Im talking about is more than just cleaning up your living space. Its also about cleaning up your mind, your body, and your soul. You see, for me, being healthy isnt just about eliminating the junk from your body or from the food that you eat. Its also about eliminating the junk that clogs up your life. Its all part of the formula that brings you to the B.E.S.T. (Balance, Energy, Stamina, Toxin-Free) version of yourselffrom the inside out, the outside in, and everywhere in between. Its not just about your weight, its about your whole life picture. Because theyre all part of the same thing. After alleverything is connected to everything.

When I was eight years old, I had a true epiphany. I was sitting in Sister Paula Maries third grade class and we were taking a math test. One of the questions was How many pencils are in a score? And I thought to myself, A score? Whats a score? Ive never even heard of a score. I panicked, because I didnt want to get a wrong answer on this test. I had to be able to figure it out. So I did all the other answers first, and I came back to this one and I thought, Come onyou can do it. And suddenly, it came to me! I figured out how to figure it out. Oh my gosh, Ive heard of a score before. Four score and seven years ago. Of course. The Gettysburg Address! Lets seethat was during the Civil War, and they were talking about the signing of the Declaration of Independenceand if I figure out how long ago that was, maybe I could figure out what a score is. And sure enough, I figured out that there were eighty-seven years between the two events. Four score and seven years ago, eighty seven minus seven equals eighty, divided by four, is TWENTY! And I remember thinkingEverything is connected to everything! I put my pencil down, and it was as if the heavens had parted and the angels were singing the Hallelujah Chorus. EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED TO EVERYTHING! The whole world opened up to me in that moment. What I learned in math was connected to historyhistory was connected to religionreligion was connected to music. The connections were endless. Nothing existed by itself.

From that day on I decided to live my life connecting everythingconnecting the dots that made the full picture. I knew I wanted to be an actress, even at that age, and I realized that every single thing I did would now connect to my becoming an actress. Every person I met, every feeling I felt, would ultimately relate back to my future. I knew there wasnt anything that lived in isolation. (Ive never heard anyone use the word score like that since, but thats not important.) The important thing was that from that day on, there wasnt anything that existed in and of itself. This was such an intense thought for an eight-year-old. I remember carrying it around with me and feeling as if I had really found the key to life. And if I could just continue to connect things, then everything would make a fuller picture for me than it already had.