From the Introduction of Keto For Life "Time flies. Here I am today at age 65, talking about longevity—a concept I hardly ever considered during the first four decades of my life. Ironically, in my youthful oblivion, I engaged in an assortment of lifestyle choices that directly opposed longevity and compromised my day-to-day health. My obsession with qualifying for the United States Olympic Trials in the marathon meant running over one hundred miles a week throughout my twenties. When I did ponder my own mortality for fleeting moments, I smiled smugly with the belief that my grueling training regimen was making me invincible to the epidemic disease patterns of modern life that appeared to be caused by gluttony and sloth. This hubris was ridiculously off base, of course. I was fit enough to place fifth in the national marathon championships and qualify for the Olympic Trials, and later place fourth in the Hawaii Ironman world triathlon championships, but these accomplishments came at an extreme cost to my health. My crazy workouts, and the nutrient-deficient, high-carb, high-insulin- producing diet that fueled them, resulted in system-wide inflammation, oxidative damage (aka free radical damage), glycation (excess glucose binding with important structural proteins and causing dysfunction throughout the body), hormonal dysfunction, musculoskeletal breakdown, and immune suppression. I caught at least six upper respiratory tract infections each year. I battled chronic fatigue, osteoarthritis in both feet, severe tendonitis in both hips, chronic gastritis, and irritable bowel syndrome. My overstress patterns and inflammatory genetic signaling were similar to the abuse generated by a hard-partying rock star—life in the fast lane of accelerated aging. While I would have scoffed at such a comparison at the time, recent advancements in longevity medicine can validate that my fifteen-year competitive endurance career aged me biologically by twenty or thirty years. BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS This commentary is not mere whining from a has-been. Today, we can measure the length of our telomeres to obtain a decent estimate of our rate of aging and prospects for longevity. Telomeres are little caps that protect the ends of chromosomes when they divide—like the plastic protector on the end of a shoelace. As your cells divide over your lifetime—at either a healthy rate, or an accelerated rate, based on your lifestyle behaviors—telomeres get worn down like a burning candle. When telomeres become too worn, a cell cannot divide anymore and it dies. Eventually, we succumb to a finite number of cell divisions; this is the essence of the aging process in the body. Adverse lifestyle practices can shorten telomeres such that you actualize the metaphor of burning the candle at both ends. Slamming junk food and blasting artificial light after dark will burn down the wicks on your cellular candles—your telomeres—more quickly. On the flip side, new research reveals that healthy lifestyle behaviors, including not just ketogenic eating, fasting, exercise, and sleep, but also activities like meditation, gratitude practices, and a thriving social life, can actually lengthen your telomeres so that your biological age will compare favorably to your chronological age. While my youthful indiscretions accelerated my aging, I’m convinced that I have repaired much of this damage over the past two decades. Most prominently, I ditched grains and sugars in favor of nutrient-dense primal foods starting in 2002. This, along with abandoning my crazy training schedule some fifteen years prior to my primal dietary transformation, took me from inflamed, immune-suppressed, and hormonally dysregulated, to healthy and vibrant. In recent years, I’ve escalated my efforts to promote longevity through the ketogenic eating strategy outlined in The Keto Reset Diet (with numerous updates and refinements in this book), in combination with some cutting-edge fitness and movement strategies, and increased attention to the psycho-emotional elements of longevity. I’m excited to package everything here into a comprehensive strategy for living long and well. We are going where no previous book has gone before to pull in the best tips, tricks, and techniques from every corner of healthy, fit living and longevity research, including: Sophisticated ketogenic strategies to avail the highest intended benefits of keto eating without the increasingly common mistakes and backslides, reducing inflammation and repairing damage in your body. Miniature high-intensity exercise bouts that boost anti-aging hormones and turbo-charge fat burning without making you sore and tired like a typical HIIT session. Disciplining your use of technology to minimize stress and maximize productivity. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude to prevent the (now medically validated) epidemic disease condition called FOMO (fear of missing out). Engaging in fasting and time restricted feeding the right way, to boost hormone and immune function without stress hormone spikes. Nurturing loving interpersonal relationships by overcoming destructive subconscious programming and opening your heart at all times. By getting out of your own way and refocusing on the most basic of health practices (Move! Sleep! Eat Real Food!), you can dramatically elevate your current quality of life and set yourself up to remain healthy for the rest of your life. The Keto for Life program will expand your scope beyond nailing the mechanics of eating cleanly and cranking out killer workouts. Resetting your biological clock will also require other lifestyle adjustments to help you achieve mental flexibility to control stress and halt the signs of aging. You will learn to respect the importance of having a smile on your face while you dutifully knock off your goals and objectives, and balancing all your healthy living rituals and accomplishments with sufficient rest and recovery." | 