The 6 Keys: Unlock Your Genetic Potential for Ageless Strength, Health, and Beauty

The  6 Keys: Unlock Your Genetic Potential for Ageless Strength, Health, and Beauty by Jillian Michaels with Myatt Murphy      AudioBook:   7 hours, 18 mins.      Hardback Book:  304 pages    

I like the way Jillian Michaels talks.   No B.S. just straight talk and she consults neurophysists and speaks the lingo like a pro.    She breaks down a lot of heady stuff about our genetic makeup and all the myriad of things going on in our bodies at any given time, from cell structure on up.   She is a great teacher and while some of her lessons at the first of the book were straight out of a medical classroom 101, it was such engrossing information I had to play it back if I missed something or felt I didn’t quite get it.    She makes me laugh or at least smile at her seasoning of f-bombs here and there to express her point but it just keeps it real and makes the learning feel a little gangsta and very cool to know.   She talks about the 6 age inciters which is what the title – the 6 keys - is all about.   They are:  metabolism; damaged macromolecules; epigenetics; inflammation; stress adaptation and telomeres.   She gives you the background on all of those “keys,” and explains how our bodies don’t have to age if we pay close attention to where we land on the 6 keys and how well we treat our bodies with special attention and care to eat well and do preventative maintenance on ourselves to be sure our keys are in the best shape they can be.      Being mindful at all times ever vigilant  to eat right, to exercise at least 30 minutes a day 7 days a week, drink half our weight or more of water every day to stay hydrated and lubricated,  she gives the reader guidelines and helps with the caveat that yeah you don’t have to give up pizza nor birthday cake for the rest of your life, but just get back on track the next day after you binge on that stuff and get back with the program.   She takes a lot of heavy info and breaks it down into understandable chunks so the reader isn’t bombarded then left to go WTF?  Oops, that was a quote from Jillian.   She gives you tips and tricks to keep mindful of how to grow your telomeres, those little endcaps on our DNA strands very necessary and just because they shrink due to poor diet and lack of exercise once we get on the wagon and start treating our body well again, the damage can be fixed and improved in a very short time and she tells us how.    She talks about how smoke and carbon monoxcide really do a number on us and how we can repair the damage done.   She talks about how meditation can ease the mind and reduce stress she also promotes getting a pet she personally is more of a dog person and how said pet can reduce stress by just being in your home.   She also recommends giving a forever home to a shelter animal.   Doing a good thing for them and for yourself.  People with pets suffer less from stress, less from asthma and loads of other maladies.  She addresses healing the mind, the body, watching what you put into your body to keep it running at top performance no matter what your age,  she disagrees with the many diets out there and promotes eating grass fed meat rather than corn or other feed, she recommends having fun because denial of fun for yourself can lead to a sedentary life which can lead to less social interaction and finally none which can lead to depression and there are too many fun things to keep busy with so no reason to get in such a state.   Delightful explanations.   She talks about fad diets and what they play to within us and why they don’t work ie. once you stop following said fad diet – you balloon right back up to where you were  before.   Jillian’s no nonsense but fun way of coming across is entertaining but also you get what she is saying.   It is not hard it is just doing it.   Very good book.   Now I want to read her book on Metabolism.   I would recommend this book highly to anyone interesting in arresting the age process, getting your body to the point where you have elasticity instead of feeling stove u[ all the time.   Well done, Jillian Michaels.      

 - Shirley J