Promaulayko Michele - 20 pounds younger : the life-transforming plan for a fitter, sexier you!

For every woman who wants to grow younger
and stronger in mind, body, and spirit.

Learn more about books that will inspire and
enable you to improve your life and the world around you.

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WELCOME TO 20 POUNDS YOUNGER! Just by seeking out this book, youve taken the super important step of prioritizing your health and happiness. And every action you take from this point on will reward that brave choiceI cant wait for you to see (and feel!) all of the positive changes that are to come.

Best of all, you arent going to be on this journey alone, because although were all unique individuals, as women we all belong to a big sisterhood whose members are facing many of the same challenges: to stay fit, healthy, energetic, strong, and, yes, sexywhich to me is way more about vibrancy and confidence than it is about a certain chest-to-waist-to-hip ratio.

This book is a powerful tool to help you look and feel 20 pounds younger, but I promise Im not going to overload your day with unrealistic tasks. Ill respect your time because chances are, youre already pressed to do enough! Youll learn lots of effective strategies to lose weight, increase your fitness, reduce stress, eat healthier, and look radiant and beautiful.

Ive spent a lot of time factoring efficiency into this plan because I know you are crazy busy, like me. But I also know it takes commitment to accomplish worthwhile goals. So the program weve set out for you is challenging but adaptable. Ill tell you what to do, with step-by-step instructions, but wont dictate or preach. Itll be up to you to figure out how to fit these tips and techniques into your day, because everybodys life is different.

Heres an overview of what 20 Pounds Younger is all about.

5 GOALS OF YOUR 20 POUNDS YOUNGER PROGRAM

1. Eating mindfully, because thats the big secret to lasting weight loss. And this book has tons of cool tricks to help you get into a mindful mode.

2. Following a more healthful, antiaging diet that will eliminate the taxing, outdated need to count calories. And dont worry, its a delicious way to eatpromise!

3. Reducing stress and successfully combating the inherently female response of addressing anxiety with fooda clich that needs to meet its demise.

4. Exercising specifically to preserve your biggest 24-7 calorie burner: your skeletal muscle (more on that later).

5. Preserving and enhancing your attractiveness.

Each piece of the program will give you practical tools and techniques that you can start using right away. Youll get Instant Age Erasers, and our top health experts will give you frank answers to frequently asked questions. Itll be challenging, but also fun.

Sound doable? It should be, if Ive done my job of channeling your needs, which are probably pretty similar to my own and a lot of other womens. For example: There are few things I love more than eating a delicious mealone that doesnt make me feel bad at the end of it. You, too? Most days Im stressed out from burning the candle at both ends. You can relate, Im sure. I long for the luxury of an hour of free time to exercise or to squeeze in a mani-pedi. Do you feel me?

Heres another universal truth: We cant instinctively always know what the right food and fitness choices arewe need someone in the know to show us the way... and to keep showing us the way, because health advice is always evolving. For example: In my twenties, long before I became the editor-in-chief of Yahoo Health and before that, the editor-in-chief of Womens Health, I followed the early-90s approach to eating: If foods were fat-free, they had to be healthy, no matter how processed they were. I ate bagels the size of softballs because those carb bombs were fat-free, baby! Pasta, too. God, did I eat pasta. Id guiltlessly make a meal out of fat-free foods thinking I was doing the right thing. (Nobody told me that the fat was replaced with sugar and other garbage.) I even refused to eat healthy fatslike coconut oil and almond butter, for examplebecause to me, all fat was equal (in other words, evil).

I just didnt know better. Growing up in a single-parent household meant that my mom was often too busy working to roast vegetables with rosemary. We were a meat-and-potatoes household; we ate precious few fresh greens (at least ones that werent boiled to death). There was always ice cream in the freezer, soda in the fridge, and crackers and cookies in the pantry. My early years probably looked a lot like yours, and maybe your current diet still harbors some remnants from those days of eating out of boxes, cartons and cans.

Even in my late twenties and early thirties, when I was on my ownand expanded my palate beyond fat-free packaged foodsI still didnt know what healthy eating really meant. In fact, it wasnt until I started working as an editor at womens magazines that my perspective on food began to truly transform. I learned that healthy doesnt mean fat free or low calorie. My jaw dropped when I started to recognize the hidden sugars in my foods and understand just how the sweet stuff affects your metabolism and weight, your arteries and brain, and even your skin and hair. Today, I cant look at a can of soda without imagining the 12-teaspoon pile of white sugar lurking inside.

I feel so grateful for the food education I received as editor-in-chief of Womens Health and getting to know the top minds in nutrition science. What Ive learned has not only prepared me for my new role as editor-in-chief of Yahoo Health but has nudged me to improve my life in so many ways. Thanks to these healthy-eating pros, Ive become more of a foodie than ever before. Im what food journalist Mark Bittman calls a less meatatarian: I eat more greens, fish, and colorful vegetables than I used to, though I still eat meat, and I love fresh herbs and supernutritious raw food, too. I am and always have been a hungry girl, and Im not shy about it. Im not willing to give up avocadosmy desert island food choicejust because theyre high in calories (thanks to a generous dose of good-for-you fats!). Nor will I totally cut out fruit just because it contains sugar. And yes, I even indulge in ice cream from time to time.

As Ive mentioned, I didnt figure all of this out on my own. During my incredible six years at