What if there was a pill to help you live longer, feel better, look younger, and improve almost every aspect of your life with zero bad side effects, wouldn't you want to take it? The Magic Pill will prove to you that with a little time, energy, and effort, you can have all of these benefits and much, much more.
Unveiling the most current scientific information on aging, exercise, nutrition, and supplementation, this first guidebook of its kind provides a comprehensive self-help approach to living longer, improving your health, and finding the happiness that resides within us all. Matt O'Brien takes you on an exciting journey filled with motivation, education, and inspiration. Read this book! You will take control of your health and your life will never be the same again.
Praise from Matt O'Brien's Clients:
"I know for certain that I would not have arrived at this fantastic place in my life without Matt O'Brien as my coach, motivator, and friend ... Thank you, Matt, for giving me my health, fitness and life back."
-Jill Gear
Matt O'Brien's expertise and ability to teach have transformed my attitude towards exercise and nutrition. I have a new passion for my health."
-Brandice Lardner
THE MAGIC PILL
Your Prescription for a Longer, Healthier, and Happier LifeBy MATT O'BRIENiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Matt O'Brien
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-8280-2 Contents
Introduction: The Magic Pill............................................................................................1How to use this book....................................................................................................91. The Fountain of Youth Can We Really Turn Back the Clock on Aging?...................................................132. Preventive Medicine An Ounce of Prevention is Worth More than a Pound of Cure.......................................523. Better than Prozac Improve your Mood and Alleviate Anxiety..........................................................974. Invest in Yourself The Costs of Exercise and the Costs if You Don't Exercise........................................1115. Exert Yourself Commit Yourself to Exercise..........................................................................1236. Motivate Yourself Are You Lost in Love or in Love to be Lost? A Labor of Love.......................................1667. Nourish Yourself Do you Eat to Live or Live to Eat? The Nutritional Road Map to Dietary Success.....................1858. Reduce Yourself The Time Tested Strategies of Losing Weight.........................................................2319. Supplement Yourself Live Longer and Perform Better..................................................................27310. Moderate Yourself Matt's Moderation Mantra.........................................................................29111. Assist Yourself Getting Some Help: Hire a Personal Trainer!........................................................30112. Empower Yourself The Power of the Mind.............................................................................31613. Direct Yourself Action Leads the Way to Your Destiny...............................................................340Age Defying Benefits of Exercise........................................................................................16Calculate Your Body Mass Index (BMI)....................................................................................72Exercise Recommendations for Diabetics..................................................................................81Exercise Guidelines for Adults..........................................................................................131Exercise Guidelines for Children........................................................................................134Calculate Your Target (Training) Heart Rate.............................................................................143Walking Program Chart...................................................................................................151The Menu Workout........................................................................................................156Daily Caloric Intake Worksheet..........................................................................................200The Ten Commandments of Nutrition.......................................................................................202The Five Critical Steps of Weight Loss..................................................................................254The Nutrition Traffic Light.............................................................................................264The Supplement Trilogy..................................................................................................277Goal Setting Worksheet..................................................................................................342Acknowledgements........................................................................................................357Selected References and Further Reading.................................................................................361
Chapter One
The Fountain of Youth "Exercise is the closest thing we have to the fountain of youth." Dr Linn Goldberg and Dr Diane Elliot (Authors of The Healing Power of Exercise)
Can We Really Turn Back the Clock on Aging?
Thousands of studies have illustrated the countless benefits and biological clock-reversing power of exercise. Even with all the advances in medicine, bioengineering of "superfoods," and high-tech supplements, nothing surpasses exercise in its ability to keep us young and help us live longer. Gerontologists who research and study aging have come up with dozens of theories and four schools of thought on what causes aging, but have universally concluded that exercise is the closest thing we have to an anti-aging pill. By revitalizing the biological processes involved in aging, exercise increases lifespan and dramatically improves the quality of life during our later years. We can't overlook the impact of science and medicine in giving us vaccines, antibiotics, trauma surgery, drug therapies, psychotherapies, and life saving treatments, all which have contributed to our significantly longer life spans. In spite of all the medical breakthroughs though, and the fact that the average human lifespan has increased by 50 years during the past two centuries, many health experts agree that children being born today have a shorter expected life span then their parents.
Why is this? Simple answer: Because of the ever-increasing prevalence of sedentary lifestyles and poor nutritional habits. Now more than ever, American adults and their children are sitting on their collective butts and eating surplus calories from highly processed, low nutrient foods. We are at the golden age of medicine as biomedical information doubles every three and half years, genes are being decoded, and scientific research unmasks the microscopic processes which make life possible. Allopathic medicine will gladly continue to research and develop more and more drugs to treat the symptoms and discomforts resulting from our poor choices. Exercise treats the underlying cause! I ask you this: Is it better to treat the symptoms or cure the disease itself? Exercise is like a vaccine to old age.
It is amazing to look back just over 100 years ago and see that the three leading causes of death were influenza, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Today's leading causes of death are heart disease, cancer, and stroke. But the tide is turning again as diabetes and downstream diseases related to obesity are working their way to the top. Medicine helps us live longer, but exercise helps us live longer and better. As I've been advocating for the past 15 years to anyone willing to listen, exercise is the best preventive medicine there is and the true fountain of youth. You can quote me on this ... An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure!
We can reform health care with prevention
According to the Budget of the US Government (Fiscal Year 2009), our government spent over 600 billion dollars on health care in 2008 and the US Department of Health and Human Services projects health care expenditures to double over the next 20 years. In his first State of the Union address to Congress, President Barack Obama declared health care is "one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget." In a 2009 public address on health care reform, President Obama said the United States spends one dollar out of every six on health care. The true cost of our poor health is close to 700 billion dollars when you factor in lost wages, impact to our gross domestic product (GDP) from lost productivity, uninsured medical expenses covered by hospitals nationwide, and all government-backed programs related to the treatment and prevention of disease.
The best impact on health care costs we can make collectively as Americans is to focus on prevention. In fact, I don't think it is appropriate to consider aging normal anymore because for 98% of the people in our country, the rate of aging and probability of developing most diseases are a choice. Scientific research has conclusively proven the ability of exercise to dramatically slow the aging process and to significantly reduce the risk of getting almost every disease. With that in mind, I want to coin the term "sedentary aging" to differentiate the rate of inactive aging from "healthy aging." The difference between the two can be profound. Over 250 thousand deaths each year are attributable to a sedentary lifestyle. With 48 million Americans currently being classified as sedentary, something must be done to get America moving again.
How we age is a choice!
It is never too late to start exercising. Granted, the benefits are more pronounced the earlier you start, but studies have proven the anti-aging benefits of exercise even in ninety-six-year-olds. Studies involving feeble, elderly nursing home residents proved that this fast-growing segment of our population could park their wheelchairs, ditch their walkers, and drop their canes with the addition of a little strength training exercise. Other studies have shown we have the ability to restore 75 percent of the muscle mass lost from decades of inactivity with just twelve weeks of training. Like I said, it is never too late to get started and you can see and feel the benefits almost immediately.
When I turn 85 later down the road of life, I want to be more than alive and kicking. I want to be able to "chuck the rock" and hit grounders with my future great grandkids in the backyard. I want to continue traveling without special accommodations or any limitations on when or where I can go. I want to be able to go for a run on the beach and dive into the cool ocean waves. I want to be able to go to the gym and knock out some reps of squats with 200 pounds on my back. Science and history says I can.
Look at Jack LaLanne, arguably the "Godfather of Fitness," who in his seventies and eighties was performing incredible feats of strength and endurance. Do you remember him at 70 years of age towing 70 boats loaded with 70 people for one and a half miles in the murky waters of San Francisco Bay while shackled and handcuffed? I sure do. I had the pleasure of meeting Jack last year and at 94 years young, he looked fantastic and still had the passion for exercise.
We have a young lady running around our gym named Ellen. At 93, she can run through our agility ladder, balance on one foot and simultaneously lift a five pound dumbbell over her head, stand on a balance board and still crack a decent joke. She credits her health and vigor to a lifetime of physical activity. Speaking of health and vigor, Chuck is another living testimony to the benefits of daily exercise. At 94 years of age, he drives himself to the gym six days out of each week to complete his two hour routine that includes walking on the treadmill, lifting weights, and stretching. If you stop him to say hi you better be prepared to avoid his shadow-boxing hands and obligatory pat on the butt when you turn to leave. We have another member at our health club named Mildred who just celebrated her 101st birthday. Thanks to decades of her daily exercise routine, she looks like she is 70 and she still has all her faculties, competently drives her own car, plays golf, and does volunteer work. Ellen, Chuck, and Mildred are all wonderful testimonies to the benefits of exercise and for some of you I hope their example will help you believe in the anti-aging power of exercise. Seeing is believing!
Chronological age verses calendar age. How old are you?
At 40 years of age plus, I can do everything (and more) I could do when I was 18. I want to increase awareness of the anti-aging benefits of exercise and show people how to slow down the biological clock. Personally, I have reaped tremendous benefits by keeping exercise as an important part of my life since I was 13 years old. According to my doctor, I am in "excellent health" and he gave my blood work an "A+" when we met last year. It gives me tremendous piece of mind and reassurance knowing I'm proactively taking care of my health.
For my 40th birthday in 2008 I decided to celebrate what I call "The New 40" with a workout for the ages. I wanted to prove to myself and others that I could do more at the age of 40 than I could do at the age of 20. I set out with an initial goal to lift over 40 cumulative tons of weight in 40 minutes but ended up lifting over 52 tons — that's 104,000 pounds of workload volume! Because I am intensely passionate about proving my point (and was inspired by Dean Kanares in his book Ultramarathon Man), I decided to follow-up this intense weight training session with a little 8 hour, 40 mile jaunt on the treadmill. Although I was very sore the next day, I was still amazed at the God-given capabilities we possess. If you are a glutton for punishment or are crazy enough to try, I challenge you to give this combined workout (40 tons in 40 minutes and then 40 miles) a test drive.
In the book YOU, The Owner's Manual, authors Michael F. Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. discuss their RealAge® Test. They devised a system to determine our biological age, which they consider to be far more important than our chronological (calendar) age. Having experienced the benefits of exercise for over 25 years and comparing myself to those of the same age who don't workout, I completely agree. Personally following the guidelines of this book, my biological age or "RealAge®" is 29.2 years! I'm not saying I'm Dick Clark or an anti-aging phenom, but I still get regularly ID'd at bars and restaurants. Usually the waitress or bartender apologizes when they see the 1968 birthdate, but I thank them anyway for the unintentional compliment. Just the other day, my wife and I were talking to a pair of fifty-somethings and the man said "You young kids have no idea what it was like when I was your age." When I revealed to him that I was probably a lot closer to his age than he thought, he was astonished and probably a little embarrassed because of the stark differences in our appearance.
I'm sharing these stories with you not because I want you to think I'm anything special. Honestly, I want you to experience what I have for yourself. Don't bury yourself prematurely because there is so much great life to live. We really can buy more time with a little effort. I encourage you to take the "Real Age" test too at www.RealAge.com and see where your biological age is right now. If you exercise, eat a reasonably nutritious diet with the appropriate amount of calories and take the right nutritional supplements, you can expect to be ten to twenty years younger biologically than if you are sedentary, eat whatever you want (and in excess), and avoid taking your daily multivitamin. After you follow this program for a few months, go back and check again. Watch the real age clock go backwards and enjoy reaping the benefits of your newfound youth!
Some anti-aging experts have gone as far as saying exercise equals immortality because you can live free of mental and physical disease and degeneration for 20 additional years. In their very comprehensive 500+ page book The New Anti-Aging Revolution, authors Dr Ronald Klatz and Dr Robert Goldman thoroughly reviewed all of the current anti-aging science and medicine and concluded: "Exercise at least 30 minutes daily. It is your number-one defense against the infirmities of old age." Age-related declines in metabolism, muscular strength and physical capacity have been proven reversible with strength training exercise and can no longer be blamed as the inevitable consequence of aging.
The American Cancer Society conducted a twenty year study on over one million men and women and concluded: "Physical exercise lengthens life and wards off heart disease and stroke."
How do we age?
Let's take a brief look at how we age and what we can do about it. I'll try to keep the techno-jargon and scientific mumbo jumbo to a minimum, but it's important to have a basic understanding of the science of aging so I can properly illustrate the relevance, benefits and importance of exercise. There are four schools of thoughts on the aging process:
1. Programmed Aging: We have an internal biological clock which is programmed or set at birth for various changes like bone loss, hearing loss, muscle loss, and vision loss. As we pass 40 years of age, the body starts breaking down to get rid of us on earth and make way for the next generation. (Exercise has been proven to prevent, reverse, or delay all of these processes.)
2. Accidental Aging: We get older from a series of random events during our lifetimes – free radical damage of our DNA, wear and tear of body parts, exposure to chemical toxins and our environmental conditions. (Exercise mitigates these random events by enabling the body to deal with stressors, improve immune function, and improve circulation and removal of toxic waste products of our metabolism and environmental exposure.)
3. Developmental Aging: Aging is developed from the choices we make in life and is not chronological. The rate of aging can be controlled with lifestyle intervention, dietary choices, and stress management. (This explains why a 65-year-old who exercises, eats right, and keeps stress to a minimum can be physiologically younger than a sedentary, stressed out 50-year-old with a donut addiction.)
4. Pathological aging: Aging is caused by diseases that ravage the body's tissues, attack our immune system, harden our arteries, destroy our livers, and mutate our genes causing cancer, diabetes, and other complications which shorten our lives. (Almost every disease we can experience is preventable before it happens with an exercising lifestyle and some are even reversible with the addition of exercise.)
Why do we age?
Scientific research has led to dozens of theories on how and why the body ages. Following are some of the most common theories on the specific ways we age and ultimately die:
Wear and tear theory: Postulated by Dr August Weismann in 1882, our cells, tissues and organs become damaged by overuse and abuse. Repetitious use of our joints; excess consumption of sugar, fat, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and prescription and non-prescription drugs; as well as exposure to environmental toxins all speed aging according to this theory. (Exercise has been proven to extend the body's ability to repair and maintain its organs, tissues and cells. By speeding removal of aging cells, exercise keeps a newer body of cells at the ready and decreases the likelihood older cells will be around to mutate.)
Neuroendocrine theory: Credited to Dr Vladimir Dilman, our youth hormones of testosterone, growth hormone, thyroid hormones, and IGF-1 all decline with sedentary aging. According to this theory, these biochemical messengers are regulated by our hypothalamus and after we have passed our productive and reproductive age, they are programmed to decline. (Resistance exercise has been proven to elevate all of these youth hormones as we age, extending our productive life span and vigor.)
Genetic control theory: This is also called the planned-obsolescence theory; our DNA is programmed like a biological time bomb to go off when our time is up. Essentially, the body self-destructs, ages, and dies. (Studies on identical twins growing up in different environments have largely countered this thinking by showing how lifestyle choices like exercise can dramatically affect appearance, weight and the rate of aging. The MacArthur Study of Aging in America found that lifestyle trumps genetics when it comes to getting old and the quality of life.)
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE MAGIC PILL by MATT O'BRIEN Copyright © 2011 by Matt O'Brien. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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