Steven Masley - Ten Years Younger: The Amazing Ten-Week Plan to Look Better, Feel Better, and Turn Back the Clock

CONTENTS

To
my wife, Nicole,
and my boys, Lucas and Marcos,
for their love and support.

INTRODUCTION

W hat if I promised you that in only ten short weeks, you could give yourself a total body makeover, inside and out? What if you could get a fresh start without relying on plastic surgery, liposuction, fad diets, overpriced products, or weeks at an expensive spa?

What if I told you that typical aging is not inevitable and that I know the secret to looking and feeling healthier, sexier, and stronger than you have in a decade? That you can reclaim the energy you had ten years ago? That you can achieve younger bones and skin, a trimmer physique, a prettier figure, and an all-around fitter body? That you can restore sexual vitality and mental quickness? That you can not only lose pounds and inches and keep them off but also avoid the double bugaboos of agingType 2 (adult-onset) diabetes and heart disease?

What if I promised you that you could actually reverse the aging process and be ten years younger in just ten weeks time?

Too good to be true?

Maybe. Until now.

Youre about to discover my comprehensive, breakthrough, scientifically proven Ten Years Younger Program, which Ive developed through decades of training, research, and clinical experience. I am a board-certified family physician, certified nutritionist, acupuncturist, health researcher, speaker, author, trained chef, and award-winning patient educator. I became active in longevity and cardiovascular disease research years ago as a clinical researcher for diabetic and cardiac rehabilitation. Since 1990, Ive spoken before more than 600 groups of people young and old, including guests at the famed Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona, about my anti-aging program, preventing heart disease and diabetes, promoting bone health, weight loss, supplements, and healthy cooking. I have helped thousands of patients in my clinical practice, as the medical director at the Pritikin Longevity Center and in my current position as medical director for Carillon Executive Health in St. Petersburg, Florida, to slim down, get fit, and tap into unsuspected energy levels. In fact, my Executive Health Program there has been voted Best New Medical Idea for the 3-million-strong Tampa Bay metropolitan area in 2005. My work even made it to the television screen in 2003 in a multipart series for Discovery Channel called Ten Years Younger. Ive also won acclaim for helping hundreds of patients reverse Type 2 diabetes and eliminate the symptoms of cardiovascular disease through lifestyle changes. If all of these people can be ten years younger, so can you!

It has given me joy to help so many people reclaim their lives with a program that has restored their physique, their health, and their zest for life. Although my lifes work in anti-aging began with my desire to help my patients reverse the conditions that were holding them back, I quickly discovered that what works for cardiac and diabetes patients can also do wonders for healthy adults, young and old, who want even more out of life. Today Im passionate about introducing everyoneincluding youto the Ten Years Younger lifestyle. In my current research, Ive taken great pleasure in watching the transformation of average, relatively healthy people from merely well to truly wonderful as they show off their new sexier shapes, their glowing faces, and their newly energetic presence.

Whether youre 30 or 70, whether youre healthy or not so healthy, the program in the pages that follow will help you turn back the clock so that you too can become more vibrantyounger, trimmer, and fitterthan you ever dreamed possible.

This is not a fantasy. Most of us believe that growing old is inevitable, that its normal to lose function and good health as the years go by, that were supposed to ache, get flabby, and gain weight. Even your doctor might comment, What do you expect at your age? But these are all myths. You dont have to succumb to love handles and wrinkles as the years go by. You can grow older and still feel terrific. Your choices today can make a big difference in how you live out your tomorrow. This book will show you how to make the right choices, and change the way you think about aging.

The Accelerated Aging Syndrome

How can I make these promises? Its easy. Your body is capable of turning back the clock because these days, most of us are becoming old before nature intended us to. Americans on the whole are falling victim to what I call Accelerated Aging Syndromewere aging more rapidly than were supposed to. In fact, our bodies from our skin to our bones are designed to last much longer than they generally do. Almost all of us, for a multitude of reasons, are victims of this Syndrome. Chances are you already know what it feels like:

You follow the latest fad diet, but even though you might lose weight at first, the numbers on the scale are still creeping up over time.

You find yourself dragging through your day. You just dont have the stamina you used to.

Your cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, and/or blood sugar levels are on the rise. Your doctor warns you that youre pre-diabetic, but youre not sure what that means.

Your thighs have become flabby, your belly paunchy, and your muscles saggy.

Your skin looks dry, rough, and blotchy.

You dont enjoy sex the way you once did.

You frequently need to retrace your steps because you cant remember why you walked into a room.

You feel as if youre getting old, even if youre only in your 30s!

Maybe youve even thrown up your hands in frustration and said, What can I do about it? My mother had high cholesterol; my father had diabetes. Its in my genes! But thats not necessarily true. In this book, Ill present you with other options. You can eat fast food three meals a day, lie on the couch watching TV, gain 50 or even 100 pounds over five to ten years, acquire diabetes and heart disease, and become disabled with arthritis. This is one expression of your genetic potential. Another possibility? You exercise or play sports for an hour daily; you eat healthy seafood, veggies, fruits, and whole grains; you form intimate relationships in your personal and professional life. You feel fabulous, full of vitality, and mentally sharp. Youre sexy, trim, and fit to boot! A bonus, of course, is that youre unlikely to have many medical problems. This, too, is your genetic potential.

Ive treated patients who are in their early 40s but act and feel more like 60. Their joints ache, their blood pressure is elevated, and they dont have the stamina to keep up with their kids. But Ive also treated hundreds of others in their 60s who act and feel years younger than their peers. Age is not just chronological. Its also a matter of lifestyle, health, activity, energy, weight, and the steps we take to further our own mental well-being.

Well discuss the phenomenon of accelerated aging much more in Chapter 1. But for now, lets just establish that its another way of saying were all growing old before our time. The effects of accelerated aging are readily apparent every single day. We are a nation thats growing soft, smooth, and round. Go anywhere in Americagrocery stores, airports, malls, amusement parksand youll see people with ballooning waistlines and shrinking muscles instead of the shapely and muscular bodies they could have. And thats just on the outside. While you cant observe it, these same people may not think as sharply as they used to. Chronic low-grade inflammation may be setting them up for clogged arteries and perpetual weight gain. Toxins and a poor diet may be working to cause premature wrinkling and the deterioration of brain cells.