Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat After Forty

Illnesses do not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against nature. When enough sins have accumulated, illnesses will suddenly appear.

—
Hippocrates

There are three women, so valuable to the completion of this book, it’s difficult to know in what order to give them their due praise: Caroline Somers, Heather Jackson, and Marsha Yanchuck.

Caroline Somers is my daughter-in-law, my business partner, protector of the brand, and mother of my granddaughters. When Caroline takes on an assignment, she approaches it with an excellence and tenacity that boggles the mind. She labored over the program sections, testing recipes in her personal kitchen, and was sending me e-mails after completion often at three a.m. She cares, she does her job perfectly, and without her I would not have made my deadline. I love her and am extremely grateful to have her in my life for every reason I can think of.

Heather Jackson, editor extraordinaire; this is our third book together and each project becomes easier and silkier under her steady but firm guidance. She has a wonderful soul, a kind heart, and a great brain. Her organizational skills are extraordinary, and I depend on her to pull each book out of me.

Marsha Yanchuck, who I have worked with for over three decades … to whom I literally turn over the resource section of my books, as I did with this one. Because of Marsha, the reader can access information, whether it be from the back of the book or from references on my website. Marsha has set it up so that doctors in many cities, states, and countries are easily found, a service I know is appreciated by not only myself but my readers. And that she is my grammar and spelling police is no small thing. Thank you.

Brenda Watson, the foremost authority on gut health in America and possibly the world, was invaluable in teaching me and coaching me on
the complexities of the gut as it pertains to weight loss. Spending so much time learning with her was akin to getting my master’s. In the process, she uncovered food intolerances and allergies plaguing not only myself but members of my family.

Dr. Jonathan Wright, the father of bioidentical hormone treatment in America, who once again so generously gave me his time and knowledge to connect the dots regarding hormonal imbalance and weight gain. His downhome way of explaining and breaking down the hormonal system and its effects is endlessly fascinating to me. He is a national treasure and deeply appreciated.

Dr. Nick Gonzalez, who is always there on the other end of the telephone or on e-mail with his profound command and knowledge of what makes the body sick and how to bring it back to balance.

Bill Faloon, editor of
Life Extension
magazine, along with Dr. Scott Fogle and Peter Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., all part of the extraordinary LE scientific advisory board, who once again took on the tedious task of going over this book, page by page, to correct it for accuracy and integrity. When readers take learning so seriously from my books, knowing that I am scientifically and factually correct, due to obtaining the stamp of approval from these informed men, gives me great peace of mind.

T. S. Wiley, another of my teachers, the creator of the rhythmic method of taking bioidentical hormones, a method that has worked so well for me for more than a decade.

A big thank-you to my nutritionist, Cristiana Paul, M.S., who always brings so much to my books.

The girls in my office, my dear and valuable assistants Julie Turkel and Jordyn Goodman; they keep my life running and make it possible by taking care of everything, allowing for room in my head to put out these books. They are joyous girls and totally professional. I love working with both of them and appreciate them deeply.

Thank you to Linda Chae for her expertise on toxicity and the skin, and thank you to all the authors listed at the back of this book for the information I garnered while doing research for this book.

My team at Crown; I have lost count of how many books we have done
together, all I know is this is my twentieth book, most of them done with Crown and most of them bestsellers. What an incredible ride we’ve been on together. Thanks to dear Tina Constable, Maya Mavjee, Philip Patrick, Jill Flaxman, Annsley Rosner, and Patty Berg. Thanks to the production team: production editor Christine Tanigawa, production manager Luisa Francavilla, in-house designer Songhee Kim, and freelance designer Diane Hobbing of Snap-Haus Graphics.

And big thanks to my new friends at Everyday Health: Mike Keriakos who has been after me to use the word
sexy
in combination with weight loss in a book for the past five years; darling Steven Petrow; Vince Errico, Sarah Hutter, Debbie Strong, Hilary Hayward, Maureen MacDonald, and Alice Calista Cronin.

Many thanks to the design team for the beautiful jacket. Under the creative direction of Caroline Somers, Danielle Shapero has been the graphic designer for my brand for the past decade. Danielle, I can always count on you to keep it fresh, clean, and beautiful. And special thanks to Mark Wilkinson for the ominous back jacket panel of toxins. And to Laura Duffy, the designer at Crown, for helping us stay in the margins and get it all just right! Special thanks to my amazing photographer, Cindy Gold, and her ace team, Paul Craig, John Guarente, and Bonnie Holland, for another great cover shot.

Thank you to my friend and doctor Michael Galitzer, for his beautiful foreword and for always reminding me it’s mind, body, and spirit.

Thank you to my attorney Marc Chamlin for another book together.

Thank you to Shirani and Farook, who make my life so comfortable, for Shirani’s great soup every afternoon giving me sustenance followed by the bowl of fresh fruit cut into bite-size pieces.

And last but not least, my husband, Alan Hamel, whom I love deeply and who makes it all happen.

God bless Suzanne Somers. I have had the honor of knowing and working with her for the past six years. Suzanne is a health guru. She is a health hero who has single-handedly had an enormous impact on improving the health of our society. In her books, she has presented scientifically based, cutting-edge information through her interviews with esteemed physicians.
The Sexy Years
showed women that they did not have to suffer with the symptoms of menopause and could improve their health by taking bioidentical hormones. In
Ageless
, Suzanne led us into the world of antiaging medicine, where anyone can optimize their health through the proper use of optimal nutrition, dietary supplements, exercise, bioidentical hormones, and stress reduction.
Breakthrough
continued the antiaging theme and showed us how future technologies such as stem cells and nanotechnology will lead to even greater levels of health. And then there was
Knockout
, a wonderful book that empowers and gives hope to all of us who either seek to prevent cancer or are looking for new strategies to defeat it. These four outstanding books provided us with the tools needed to prevent serious illness, and optimize health and longevity.

In this book,
Sexy Forever
, Suzanne states that the best way to lose weight is to get healthy. She perfectly describes the environmental threats to our health while giving us a road map of what to do and what not to do. So how does one get healthy? Here are some of Suzanne’s necessary steps for healthy weight loss: