You're probably reading this because everything you've tried to this point didn't work (diets, secret ways to exercise, pills that allow you to eat as usual, not exercise and still lose weight, or the latest gadget). Just so you know, it's not your fault the previous attempts didn't stick. Over 95% fail using the most successful well-known weight loss program in the world. Unfortunately, all such programs are one-size-fits-all fixes, designed for the masses. You are unique. In YOUR BODY, every individual's experience (novice to veteran) and level of desire (just wanting to feel better to wanting to be in the best shape EVER) is taken into account. The process begins with the most important broad strokes for improving health and wellness and gets more detailed as you go through each chapter. Most people think of a diet as the foods they can't eat instead of the foods they should eat. Proper nutrition means eating the foods your body needs, in the right amount and combinations and at the right times for the right reasons. A person can be fat and fit or thin and unfit. To live a long, happy and healthy life, your body and life need balance. True health is state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. My name is Jeff Cordeiro and I now regularly consider myself the healthiest person in the room, even though I'm not always the biggest, leanest, fastest, or strongest. No one of these attributes, in my opinion, defines health. To focus on one would require giving up something in other areas. My definition of healthy is having the fewest illnesses, the greatest functional fitness, the longest life and optimal physical appeal (I'll explain why that's important for health in chapter one). I do everything I can, personally, to build such a body, using proper hydration, nutrition, exercise, stretching, sleep, relaxation and detoxification. For some, paying so much attention to health is too high a price to pay. For me, living the last 20 years of my life in a hospital bed or a nursing home, a burden to my family and spending my life savings on care is an unacceptable price. Most agree that living their lives free of injury and disease is ideal. So why is it so hard for people to give up things that make them ill, like smoking? Everyone now knows it's bad, yet about 10% of the population still smoke. Most now know that overeating is unhealthy and yet 2/3 of America are overweight, 1/3 are obese, and adult onset diabetes now affects children. Like drugs, most bad habits are addictive. They stimulate the pleasure center of the brain and alter the chemical balance of the body. For most, it takes a significant emotional event to break their addictions. We all know the saying "without your health, you have nothing". However, most don't get it until they actually lose their health. Food is probably the worst addiction of all. Everyone eats but most don't grow (or even cook) their own food. If it weren't for fast food and grocery stores, many might starve. Knowing this, companies formulate foods to be as addictive as possible, combining sugar, fat and salt in just the right amounts to overstimulate the pleasure centers and keep people coming back for more. The highs are so great it takes something like a near death experience for most to see how important health truly is. In my case, it was my father's death. Although I was born with scoliosis, had asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, severe tendonitis, was 60 lbs. over fat, had high cholesterol and bad knees, I still took my "health" for granted. I mention this so you know the healthy and fit body I have now is one I earned through proper nutrition, exercise and 20 years of research, trial and error. You will find everything I learned to restore my health in the pages of YOUR BODY. My own journey inspired me to become a personal trainer to help others improve their health and I wrote YOUR BODY to help keep as many as possible from following the path that leads