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Master Your Metabolism, by Jillian Michaels - Excerpt
Master Your Metabolism, by Jillian Michaels - Excerpt
MASTER YOUR
METABOLISM
THE 3 DIET SECRETS TO NATURALLY BALANCING
YOUR HORMONES FOR A HOT AND HEALTHY BODY!
JILLIAN MICHAELS
WITH MARISKA VAN AALST
CROWN PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK
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WINNING BY LOSING
www.CrownPublishing.com
To purchase a copy of
Master Your Metabolism
visit one of these online retailers:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Borders
IndieBound
Powell’s Books
Random House
www.CrownPublishing.com
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to give special thanks to my editor and friend, Heather Jackson, for
her vision and unwavering support. Mariska van Aalst, my brilliant partner
in crime, thank you for your patience, blood, sweat, and tears. Andy Barzvi,
thanks for helping me make this book happen. Thanks to Dr. Christine
Darwin, who provided the foreword as well as consulted on the condition-
specific plans offered later in the book. To my team of Giancarlo Chersich,
Steve Blatt, Tammy Munroe, David Markman, Kevin Huvane, Jonathan
Swaden, and Lisa Shotland, without you I am nothing. My assistant, Janet
Graham, for putting up with me and indulging my neurosis. My mother, for
her unconditional love.
Everyone at Crown, NBC, Waterfront Media, Icon, Lionsgate, Ma-
jesco, Nintendo, and KFI, for helping me build a brand with integrity and
purpose. Thank you, all . . . for everything!
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CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Introduction: Take Back Your Metabolism 1
Why Hormones Matter—to All of Us
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Resources 243
Selected References 249
Index 273
viii CONTENTS
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FOREWORD
by Christine Darwin, M.D.
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against putting more hormones into your body to deal with such issues.
In fact, hormones will not help. Instead, they pose a danger of altering
your natural hormone production. Additional hormones can cause long-
term negative effects on your body that can lead to dependence for the
rest of your life.
Your body needs regular medical checkups. You have to pay close at-
tention to what is going on inside, just like you sort the mail everyday or
“declutter” your room and living spaces. We don’t accept spam or junk
mail on our computers because it is of no good use to us. The same is
true when it comes to harmful and toxic products that make their way
into our bodies. We have to throw them away. They are no good to us.
They need to be removed regularly, otherwise they will cost us space,
time, and eventually will dominate the healthy aspects of our lives.
Some products are healthy just like those documents we hold on to
and file away. Healthy nutrients and good habits such as exercising at
least thirty minutes three to four times a week are the kind of things we
want to keep. Exercise gives us a sense of reward and helps us to reap
enormous benefits even with minimal amount of weight loss. Exercise
harmonizes with your hormones to optimize your internal biochemistry
and helps you to reclaim your body once again.
Jillian’s book illustrates the environmental challenges we face daily and
how stress influences our bodies emotionally and physically. It shows us
how to avoid those challenges and get ahead of the stress so we can restore
and reclaim a healthy body. The important work within these pages also
emphasizes how vital it is to balance our psychological, hormonal, nutri-
tional, and physical exercise to achieve a long, healthy, and rewarding life.
As you read this book, you will receive the necessary tools to under-
stand how hormones work so you can begin to recognize and remove all
toxic influences that can creep into your life. Also, as you read and learn,
you will want to consult your physician to correct any hormone issues so
you can reclaim your body.
Congratulations! You are about to embark on an amazing journey that
will inspire you to eliminate toxins and rebalance your life with healthy
habits as you take charge of your body.
x FOREWORD
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INTRODUCTION:
TAKE BACK YOUR METABOLISM
Why Hormones Matter—to All of Us
I could have called this book The Evolution of a Health and Fitness Guru.
Why? Because after seventeen years of work in the fitness field—seven-
teen years of studying with the world’s top doctors in sports medicine,
nutrition, endocrinology, and antiaging—this is everything I’ve learned.
Yes, this is what it has all been leading up to: Master Your Metabolism, my
total approach to optimal weight and optimal health.
This book is the distillation of my entire journey in health, from child-
hood binge eater to weight-loss guru. I’ve been at this for almost two
decades, but what I’ve learned in the past few years completely changed
my body and my life.
My first book, Winning by Losing, centered on the psychological and
behavioral aspects of losing weight. In that book, I focused on how to get
yourself into a frame of mind so you’d be ready to lose weight. (If you’re
just getting started with an exercise program, and want an approachable
plan, you might want to check it out, too.)
My second book, Making the Cut, was my ode to fitness. It is a physi-
cal fitness regimen designed to get rid of those last ten pounds—the hard
way! It is ruthless, but very effective (insert evil laugh here). It gets you
shredded, blasts the problem areas, like muffin tops and saddlebags, and
helps you prep for that big event or party where you want to look your
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best. (If you have only a few pounds to lose and want to get fit fast, its
thirty-day plan will work for you.)
This book, however, has nothing to do with exercise.
Surprised?
I know, that’s not what you expect to hear from me. I’ve gone on and
on in the past about the benefits of exercise. And you and everyone else
know it’s good for you. So that’s not the purpose of this book.
And it’s not a calorie-counting book either.
I know what you’re thinking: that after being such a tyrant about exer-
cise and watching calories, I’ve finally gone soft, right? Wrong!
Master Your Metabolism is, first and foremost, a diet book. My very first
diet book. And let me tell you—if you practice what I’m preaching here,
it will change your life, in more ways than just being skinny. I’m talking
about adding years of quality to your life.
We all know that fad diets are a thing of the past, and that the no-carb,
no-fat crazes of the eighties and nineties are scientific laughingstocks and
pop-culture dinosaurs. Welcome to the future—this is the era of genome
mapping, stem-cell research, and nutrigenomics (the study of how food
communicates with our genes). Yes, calorie counting and exercise are
very important, but they are not the whole story. Underneath the dieting
and workout programs are the little messengers that carry information
from your body to your brain and vice versa. These “little messengers” are
your hormones.
What do hormones have to do with anything? Let me explain. If I were
to ask you what your metabolism is, what would you say? I bet you would
answer, “The way my body burns calories.”
If so, you would be wrong. That’s one of the key things your metabo-
lism does. But do you know what it is?
The answer is hormones! Your metabolism is your biochemistry.
Some hormones tell you you’re hungry, some tell you you’re full. When
you eat, hormones tell your body what to do with that food, whether to
store it or burn it as fuel. And when you exercise, hormones tell the body
how to move and consume energy stores, and how to boost or shut down
different parts of the body. Hormones control almost every aspect of how
we gain weight—and how we can lose it.
Maybe right now you’re thinking, “I’m a guy—I don’t have to worry
about hormones.” Or, “If this book is about hormones, it’s not for me—
I’m twenty years away from menopause.”
That’s what I thought, too! I’m only thirty-four—what could my weight
2 JILLIAN MICHAELS
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4 JILLIAN MICHAELS
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As you work your way through the book, you can follow this program ei-
ther as general guiding principles or as a specific, prescribed weight-loss
plan. I’ll break it down in as much detail as you need—do it all or just take
the major lessons and go on your way. It’s your call.
I want you to begin to see everything that we’re up against, and start
making choices that follow the major tenets of this plan. Do that, and
you’ll take back control of your hormones, restart your metabolism, and
get it revving faster than it ever has. Because, bottom line, this is not a book
about being thin to be healthy. It’s about being healthy to be thin.
Ready? Let’s go.
6 JILLIAN MICHAELS
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RESOURCES
I firmly believe that in a short time, everybody will come around to the organic,
natural way of eating. Given the evidence, how can they not? In the meantime,
it might be a bit tricky to find the food you need where you live. Not to mention
the personal- and home-care products that don’t have all those endocrine-
disrupting chemicals. I’ve compiled a short list of good places to go to get infor-
mation, products, and other resources to help you lead the way.
www.nrdc.org/health/foodmiles
The National Resources Defense Council has developed a minisite to
help you find organic foods in your area. You can look up your state and
the time of year to find out what foods are in season locally.
www.earthlab.com
Calculate your carbon footprint and find tons of interesting ways to re-
duce it by 15 percent this year. I partner with these guys because I think
they do great work.
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www.panna.org
www.pesticideinfo.org
Pesticide Action Network is at the forefront of the organic food move-
ment and helps you find out how you can minimize your exposure to
highly hazardous pesticides.
www.ewg.org
www.ewg.org/sites/tapwater
(The National Tap Water Quality Database)
These guys are so bad-ass. The Environmental Working Group is at the
forefront of many amazing initiatives to inform the public about just how
bad greedy corporations are screwing the environment and our health.
(These guys were the ones who did the big study that helped teach con-
sumers about “The Dirty Dozen,” the most pesticide-laden fruits and veg-
etables, for example.) They recently developed a lobbying arm that’s
definitely on our side of the toxic equation. Keep an eye out for them in
the media—they are everywhere, and they are definitely the good guys.
www.ourstolenfuture.org
This site takes its name from the book Our Stolen Future, an extremely
influential analysis of endocrine disruption that was first published in
1996. Since its publication, the authors (two environmental scientists
and an award-winning investigative journalist) have continued to collect
damning research about endocrine disruptors in the environment. This
site will make your hair turn white. Seriously, take a look—you’ll under-
stand much better why I’m so passionate about this topic.
www.theorganicpages.com
The Organic Trade Association (OTA) created the Organic Pages Online
to make it easier for you to find certified organic products, producers, in-
gredients, supplies, and services in your area. It’s expanding constantly—
take a look.
www.eatlocalamerica.coop
Eat Local America is a challenge set up by the National Cooperative
Grocers Association (NCGA) to help boost local food co-op participa-
tion by asking people to consume 80 percent of their diets (or 4 out of
every 5 meals) from local foods during the summer months. Fun! Check
out their interactive map, or visit the NCGA Web site for more re-
sources: www.ncga.coop.
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www.slowfoodusa.org
www.slowfood.com
Slow Food is a group dedicated to helping people reconnect with their
food. They advocate food produced in environmentally sustainable, clean
practices that protect animal welfare and people’s health. You’ll find lots
of great resources about how to make fresh, whole, locally and sustain-
ably grown food a mainstay of your diet.
www.eatwild.com
This site has a tremendous amount of info about grass-fed beef, lamb,
goats, bison, poultry, pork, dairy, and other similar foods. You’ll also find
tons of links to local suppliers of all-natural, grass-fed products.
www.psr.org
Physicians for Social Responsibility started with a mission of ridding the
world of nuclear dangers. They’ve expanded to include all environmental
degradation as well. These guys are lobbying government on our side—
check out their site and do what you can to support them.
www.organicvalley.com
This is a favorite site of Chef Stuart O’Keeffe, an organic chef whom I
work with quite often. This company is one of his favorite organic food
producers, and the site contains lots of great information regarding rea-
sons to buy organic.
www.wellnessgrocer.com
This is an online grocer devoted to organic foods and natural personal-
care products.
www.foodandwaterwatch.org
Another watchdog/lobbying group that helps protect our food and water.
This site has tons of helpful fact sheets, information, and reports on food
and water safety.
www.sustainabletable.org
www.eatwellguide.org
These sites have recipes, shopping guides, maps to hormone-free
dairies, farmers markets, food co-ops, and tons of other stuff. The Eat
Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry,
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www.checnet.org/healtheHouse/pdf/plasticchart.pdf
This fantastic chart spells out the best and worst plastic products on the
market for home use.
www.truefoodnow.org/genetically-engineered-foods/shoppers-guide/
This site provides an extremely helpful, huge list of nongenetically engi-
neered foods.
www.organic-center.org
This site is an incredible trove of interesting resources about organics.
The organization is funded by many natural-food producers in an effort to
further knowledge of organic agricultural methods.
www.organicconsumers.org
Buyer’s guides for everything from food to clothing to cleaning products.
You will find Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs), organic home
delivery, building materials, and resources. The Organic Consumers As-
sociation and GreenPeople.org have compiled one of the world’s largest
directories of green and organic businesses.
www.newdream.org
This amazing organization has been working to try to convince Americans
to live simply for more than a decade. They provide many great resources
and really smart, creative thinking to individuals, institutions, communi-
ties, and businesses about how to “consume responsibly to protect the
environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice.” (They
even have a wallet card you can print out with this smart personal credo:
“Every dollar I spend is a statement about the kind of world I want and
the quality of life I value.”)
apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets
This is a great searchable database of farmers markets throughout the
United States that’s maintained and updated regularly by the government.
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www.organicexchange.org
This is a great resource for those interested in organic cotton, including
buyer’s guides for organic cotton clothing.
www.localharvest.org
This site has a clickable interactive map that helps you locate your nearest
farmers market. They also have a ton of info about CSAs, family farms,
and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area.
NONTOXIC-PRODUCT RESOURCES
www.amazon.com/tag/bpa-free/products
Amazon.com has compiled a list of hundreds of BPA-free products for
one-stop shopping.
www.healthychild.org
The Healthy Child, Healthy World program offers information and re-
sources for parents who want to create a healthy, nontoxic environment
for their kids—and for themselves, too.
www.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov
This government site has a complete database of household products
with safety and handling suggestions.
www.calorieking.com
I recommend this site (as well as the companion book, The Calorie King
Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter by Allan Borushek) to everyone on
Biggest Loser. You can find great nutrient information about thousands of
foods. Use the site at home; buy the book for when you’re out on the
town. Even if you’re not watching calories, having a general gauge of nu-
trients is very useful.
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PERSONAL PROGRAM
www.JillianMichaels.com
You can get tons of up-to-date information, tools, and trackers, and cus-
tomized meal plans on my site. You can even add a personal coach, if
you’d like!
248 RESOURCES
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www.CrownPublishing.com
To purchase a copy of
Master Your Metabolism
visit one of these online retailers:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Borders
IndieBound
Powell’s Books
Random House
www.CrownPublishing.com