Bill Phillips - The Better Man Project: 2,476 tips and techniques that will flatten your belly, sharpen your mind, and keep you healthy and happy for life!

To the loves of my life: Robin, Lindsay, and Taylor
I may never be perfect, but I will always try to be better

How to use this book to live to 100 and beyondand look and feel great on the entire thrilling journey.

Are you normal? Out of shape? At deaths door? Quick and easy self-tests to evaluate your health and fitness. No doctor. No waiting. No co-pay!

Lifestyle choices thatll make you way older than your drivers license says, plus the biggest killers of men at 20, 30, 40, 50, and beyond (so you can outrun em).

Heres how to overhaul your diet for weight loss and better health (without sacrificing your favorite foods) so you can slow the age accelerators.

Burn fat, build muscle, and create a body that looks good in swim trunks no matter how old you get.

Simple things you can do to boost your longevity without sucking all the fun out of life.

The way to Be Prepared, to borrow the Boy Scouts motto, is to recruit a first team of health experts and develop at least rudimentary relationships with these providersat 3,000-mile oil changes and suchduring good times. Then, youll be familiar with each other when you really need them.

Twenty-five strategies for getting restorative sleep that yields better fitness, health, mental acuity, and sports performance.

A mans guide to the health and maintenance of gray matter, featuring stress reduction techniques, meditation, nutrition for brainpower, anger management, and power drills to keep your synapses younger longer.

We want you to live to 100 and die having sex. Not boring sexno, sex so hot youll break a hip. Just use the tools, techniques, and advice here for improving performance, satisfaction, and the mental part of red-hot intimacy.

A smart solution for every health problem a man can fix himself, presented A-to-Z style; plus, advice on when its high time to hightail it to a doctor.

Pain-proof your back, lose the last 10 stubborn pounds, add 10 pounds of pure muscle, be a better dad, save more money, bulletproof your heart, save your knees, dodge diabetes, and more.

I hear this disturbing refrain all the timefrom the media, from health care providers, and even from guys I know: Muscle mass, testosterone, energy, strength, all start declining in our 20s and 30s. Its not my fault that Im rolling downhill faster than a Schwinn with worn brake pads.

As a guy (and doctor) who just turned 43, I say: Bullshit!

Okay, Ill admit that this isnt such good bedside manner for an E.R. doc, but Im genuinely disheartened by the excuses I hear. Come on guys! Our lives dont have to be a sad story of inevitable decline! Dont give up when the game is just beginning; this is the game of your life, and you can win it.

You see, because Ive been fortunate to learn that my health doesnt need to decline as I age, I feel like Im roaring out of the locker room after halftime in my game of life. And Im fired up! The coach has just given me a rousing pep talk, and I have great strategies for success. Exactly the kinds of motivation and information youll find in The Better Man Project, in fact. Dont worry, you dont need to run a marathon, quit drinking beer, or live solely on seaweed to stay strong and healthy. You dont have to go on some complicated regimen of supplements or join a monastery.

But you do need to start paying attention. To your activity levels. To the ways you spend your free time. To your methods of handling stress. To the foods you eat. To the ways you interact with loved ones. Sound difficult? Only if you let it be, because doing all of those things are your keys to a better, more enjoyable, more passionate way of living! Youre not going to let the downward pull of aging dictate who you are. Youre going to seize control of that process and control the action going forward, and upward.

To do that, you just need sound strategies and a willingness to stay on the field of battle. Yes, youre going to feel the changes, especially at first. But thats the point, right? Change you can feel and appreciate?

I acknowledge that I have a few more aches and pains now when I first get out of bed in the AM, but its a small price to pay for all the benefits I get for living an engaged life. I feel as vibrant and healthy as ever. Maybe even more vibrant and healthy, especially when you compare it to my early days working in the consulting industry, when I was letting my career dictate my activity levels and also using stress and time constraints as an excuse to live on the slacker dietbeer, frozen pizza, repeat. But it didnt make me feel great then, and it would be a disaster now.

Trust me, I still have plenty of stress in my grown-up life as a physician and as the host of the television show, The Doctors. Yet I can honestly say that what brings me the most sense of satisfaction has nothing to do with being on TV or having an exciting career, but rather maintaining my ability to do as many push-ups and pull-ups as when I was 20 years old.

And because I maintain my fitness level, I have been blessed in my 40s to ride the Leadville 100a mountain bike race that traverses 100 miles and begins at 11,000 feet!and to will myself and my bicycle up the classic climbs of the Tour de France as I did on a recent trip. It isnt the usual kind of R&R that Im after, but rather Im looking for Renewal and Rejuvenation. Physical activity, and the pure fuel that energizes it, gives me that. When I hop in my kayak in the mountains of Colorado and paddle the challenging whitewater of the beautiful Arkansas River, I realize: This is living. My heart pounds, my senses are alert, my muscles are pushingand suddenly age 43 feels like the best year of my life.

And Im confident that 44, 45, and beyond will be even better.

Is that the way you look at it, too? I hope so. But for many guys, the middle ages feel like the time of life when you give things up. No more backpacking trips with their buddies, no more pickup basketball, no more pounding it on the double black diamond ski runs. Its the premature end of their vision of themselves as active guys, as guys who can take on new skills, as guys who can get better every year, every day, every minute. But the only reason that would be true is if you allowed it to beif you gave up before the game was half over.

Theres plenty of time left on the clock for you to rally and win.

You just need a good coach and some proven strategies. The kind youll find in the pages of The Better Man Project. You could open this to almost any page and get to work on one thing you find there, and it will open you up to a whole new way of living and help propel you to a personal victory in the second half.

How will you do that? By making health your primary hobby. If that sounds difficult, it shouldnt. Because by investing in healthyour body, your mind, your spirityou lay the groundwork for enjoying everything in your life more. Health is the spark that ignites your personal drive to succeed in your career, your active pursuits, and your relationships. Not only will you live better and usually longer, youll become a better coworker, friend, spouse, fatheryou name it.

You also can inspire others in their own pursuit of good health. And in a world where the obesity rate has quadrupled among adolescents in the last 30 years, the nations kids are in need of some serious inspiration! So is your buddy, who let an injury derail him a decade ago. So is your boss, who might see you as a leader if you launch a self-improvement campaign. So is your wife, who wants to feel that your life together is still moving forwardin the bedroom and out of it. By setting an example as someone whos pushing hard for success, you can help those around you to personal victories as well. When you succeed, your whole team succeeds.