Are you fit to live? End your toxic lifestyle

Dr. Pamela Peeke was the first doctor to introduce the term 'toxic fat' — the dangerous belly fat caused by stress — to the masses with the release of her bestselling book, "Fight Fat After Forty."

Now in her new book, "Fit to Live: The 5 Point Plan to Become Lean, Strong and Fearless for Life" the mutritional expert takes on an even more far-reaching dilemma — our toxic lifestyles — and offers a solution to the nationwide health epidemic.

Here's an excerpt:

CHAPTER 1

Are You Fit to Live?

"It is not the strongest of the species who survives, Nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." --CHARLES DARWIN

I'm here to save your life--if you let me.

First, I'd like you to answer a simple question: Are you Fit to Live?

It's a scary question, isn't it?

In years past, this question basically meant, "Do you deserve to live?" The creepy people who asked this question had usually taken it upon themselves to choose what a good and worthy life looks like.

Here's the reality--we all make that choice for ourselves, every day. There's no external judge or executioner standing around taking measure of you and proclaiming you worthy or not. Your sole judge and executioner is you. You make the decision of whether or not you are Fit to Live by how you choose to think, what you put into your mouth, what you do with your body, how you spend your money, and how you exist in the world. You are answering the question, "Am I Fit to Live?" every day, with every choice you make.

For most of us, the answer is no--and we don't even know it.

We live in a post-9/11, post-Katrina world. Be honest--do you really have what it takes to survive life in the 21st century? If you had to suddenly leave your comfort zone and run for your life, hoist your body out of a broken elevator, run after a child headed toward a busy street, or grab a tree limb to stop from falling, could you do it? Are you Fit to Live?

As a physician, my guiding mission is to help people save their own lives. I see my patients struggling, defusing their 80-hour workweeks with buckets of fried chicken, and I know they're not alone. There is a better way, an easier way, a way that will allow you not only to survive, but also to enjoy your life and to challenge yourself, to live big and be bold. My goal is to help you achieve the mind and body that will let you be Fit to Live your dreams. With the plan in this book, I want to help you become Fit to Live . . .

To survive: fit through the exit door of an airplane, lift yourself up after falling, race down four flights of stairs, get through a medical emergency, handle a divorce, survive a financial crisis, be a chronic caregiver without self-destructing.

To enjoy life: sit on the floor with your kids or grandchildren, throw them up in the air without throwing out your back, run along the beach with your dog, garden, swing dance, look and feel fantastic and wear the clothes you love, volunteer in the community, take that yoga retreat.

To challenge yourself: write that book, start your first company, go back to college, become a community activist, start a charitable foundation, walk or jog a 5-K despite a chronic medical condition, rock climb, river raft in the Grand Canyon, bike across New England.

While the plan is simple, the reality of our lives is anything but. This book is a wake-up call to the fact that our lifestyle has rapidly and fundamentally changed and, for so many of us, become dangerously toxic. We've become not only Unfit to Live to survive life once we're forced out of our comfort zone, but we are actually wearing the weight of our Toxic Lifestyle around our bellies.

Forget about your thighs and rear end. The bottom line is the waistline.

For the first time in history, the bellies of the majority of American men and women are carrying around a life-threatening load of Toxic Fat. Our Toxic Belly Fat gets in the way when we try to zip up clothes or squeeze into the airline or theater seat. This fat is obstructing our ability to run for our lives if we needed to; it's driving us toward a host of diseases and disabilities. Toxic Belly Fat, more than anything else, keeps us from being Fit to Live--to be able to survive, enjoy, and challenge ourselves. To be lean, strong, and fearless.

In 2000, I wrote Fight Fat After Forty, the first consumer book about Toxic Belly Fat. Now I'm sounding the alarm that our ever-expanding waistlines are dangerous to our collective mental, nutritional, physical, financial, and environmental health.

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