Clients and readers often ask if I’ll ever write a book about health and fitness. After more than 20 years, I have a lot I could write about. But then, I think about those who might read it. 



Maybe it’ll be someone looking to get back in shape after years of eating poorly and avoiding exercise. Or, perhaps it’ll be someone who’s never really been fit. Then again, it could be a personal trainer or nutrition coach looking for additional ideas to share with clients.



After so much time teaching, training, researching, and writing, I’ve realized an important point about the idea of writing a health and fitness book:



The older I get, the more I try to simplify everything because in reality, getting fit and healthy is simple. Maybe not easy, but simple.



That’s not to say that as you get more fit, you won’t do things to fine-tune your diet or tweak your strength training program. But we’re in the midst of a crisis far more alarming than COVID-19 ever was, especially in the United States. 




According to the National Center for Health Statistics, a whopping 70% of Americans are either overweight (32%) or obese (38%) compared to global averages of 39% and 13%, respectively. Put another way, the excess weight of Americans is equivalent to about 1 billion average human beings on the planet. By 2030, nearly half of the American population is projected to be obese.
Mauro F. Guillén, 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything



Rather than adding to the feeling of overwhelm so many people feel as they try to reclaim their health by writing another book on the topic, I prefer to keep things as simple as possible and as brief as possible.



After all, your efforts to improve your health and fitness should enhance your life, not become your life.



The following are seven simple principles to live by. In doing so, you’ll not only make better choices about your diet and lifestyle; you’ll also see through the nonsense portrayed by “health experts,” the government, and the advertisements trying to sell you something.



Don’t Lose Muscle



I often call this “The first rule of VIGOR Training,” my online fitness program. It’s the lens through which I consider all diet, nutrition, lifestyle, and medical choices.



Muscle is your quality of life investment account. The more you have when you reach old age, the longer you’ll be able to maintain your quality of life.



That’s no exaggeration. Muscle loss is often an avoidable consequence of:




sedentary lifestyles



low-calorie diets



inadequate sleep



excessive cardio



a lack of strength training



low-protein or plant-based diets



low testosterone and high cortisol



certain medications




Of course, the more muscle you build while you can, the better off you’ll be. But at some point in our lives, we all lose the ability to build muscle and must work to maintain it for as long as possible.



The good news is, you can keep building it well into your 50s and possibly 60s. And if you’ve never been consistent with building muscle, you can even increase muscle and bone density in your 70s and 80s.



More and more research even suggests that maintaining muscle has a greater impact on longevity than dropping body fat does, at least if you’re comparing someone with a little extra body fat compared to too little muscle.



By maintaining more muscle, you:




Increase your resting metabolic rate



Increase your capacity for storing carbohydrates



Indirectly maintain greater bone density



Support a stronger immune system



Maintain greater strength, mobility, and joint integrity




Unfortunately, most people do things every day to compromise their muscle mass. Even many who think they’re doing something healthy end up losing muscle, like when they start eating less meat or following a low-calorie diet.



Don’t lose muscle!



Eat Your Calories



I once had a client drop 15 pounds in a month, simply by cutting alcohol.