Who doesn’t want to look, feel and be years younger? Now there is a new makeover plan that can help you achieve that goal, without drastic plastic surgery! Made popular years ago on Oprah!, the RealAge phenomenon started with the bookRealAge: Are You As Young As You Can Be? and has grown into a hugely popular website and a new book called The Real Age Makeover. This detailed plan can help shed years of aging’s effects from the body, mind and spirit, thanks to the research done by author Michael F. Roizen and his teams of scientists working hard to come up with ways to make us all a few years younger. Oh, and they highly recommend you eat real chocolate! Now that alone is a reason to buy this book!

This plan involves both minimal and major changes in diet, exercise, habits, stress management and self-care and is similar to many other “well-being” books out there. Some of the many suggestions concern the use of a daily aspirin, cutting down on saturated and trans fats, lowering caloric intake, exercising at least thirty minutes a day, and taking a good multiple vitamin. But this book has some unusual suggestions as well, such as drinking SIX CUPS OF COFEE a day, or 12 DIET SODAS a day, to improve memory and mental sharpness (I always thought the crap they put in diet sodas could kill you, but then I’m not a doctor, am I???). Also, The Real Age Makeover recommends getting back to the same weight you were when you were eighteen years of age, something most of us would find utterly impossible, if not downright dangerous!

Aside from these unusual ideas, which totally go against the grain (no pun intended) of other diet and health books on the market, there is a ton of research and information in this huge book (over 500 pages!) that can be used to improve the quality of life and shed years of aging. Dr. Roizen includes plenty of real clinical cases where patients have literally changed their lives by using the plan and these personal stories are as inspiring as the research and factual information is convincing.

Also included are several tests and charts that can help the reader determine their RealAge, their desired body fat levels, their RealAge weight, etc., although it is suggested in the book that the reader first log onto the website, www.realage.com, and take the lengthy test there to determine these numbers. There are plenty of sidebars with info on reducing cholesterol, choosing high fiber foods, getting the right vitamins and minerals and determining the Real Age effects of dental disease, smoking, air pollution, obesity, et al.

The Real Age Makeover is one of those plans that can be followed in totality, or in just small increments, for any of the suggested changes is guaranteed to improve health and the quality of life. I especially liked the information about how more and better sex makes you younger. I’ll get my hubby to read that part straightaway! Buy the book, don’t be intimidated by the sheer size and volume of information packed inside, read a chapter at a time, take it slow. Start to make even the smallest of changes in diet, exercise, sleep patterns, cholesterol reduction, stress management, and getting bad habits under control and you, too, can be ten years younger by your next birthday.

And you won’t even need to pay the plastic surgery bill afterward.