Foreword

R eality shows are very popular these days, from caveman survival takes where you eat bugs and carcasses of dead animals for survival to celebrity fathers and children takes on country homestays! In the former, I don't know how this show can survive! Why would anyone who is normal want to live like a caveman! The show may be real, but it's too far away from your life or mine! However, in the latter case it is understandable, because it's a great way to advertise, and because it is an advertisement, it is sensationalized and acted; therefore, not so real!

Like everyone else, after I turned fifty, I started to recount what I've done and what I'd like to accomplish for the next half of my life (bucket lists)! Thus, by the time you read this, I will have accomplished the running of a full marathon and checked it off my bucket list. Luckily, I've done many things in my life, so my bucket lists are not too long; but one thing is for sure: everything in my bucket list will be something I enjoy doing because I don't believe in doing anything dangerous or that I'm not comfortable with, like skydiving or jumping off a mountain in a squirrel suit. My point is, everything I do is because I want to do it, and because I enjoy doing it!

This year I'll be fifty-four and intend to run a full marathon (and check that off my bucket list). It's something I wanted to do all my life, but I was afraid to do it because I'm told that a bodybuilder cannot run a marathon! In fact, most my friends think I'm crazy or say I should start with a half-marathon first, and some even think I'm going through a mid-life crisis!

On the former opinion, I will prove them wrong because not only do I have the will, I also have the strength and the "Smart" training to finish it-and most of all, I will enjoy the training up to the day I finish the marathon. However, I can understand why they're concerned, for you know the story: the first marathon was run by a Greek soldier who ran back to his Capital to report the news that they'd won the battle against their enemy, and the story goes that he died afterward. It is also true that the 42-km (26 miles) run is hard enough for a regular runner so it will definitely be harder for a body like mine; but no worries, this is why I'm doing it, because I have my secret weapon (SMART SERIES), which will provide me with the nutrition required for extreme physical demand. As for the latter opinion, I'm already way past my mid-life crisis. I'm doing the marathon because I want to and I like it, and I get the highest rush knowing an ice-cold beer is waiting for me after each training run.

At the end of the day, everything I do, I do because I enjoy it, and this is my definition of a good life.

I will show you how you too can prepare for a full marathon in five months and go through the training without compromising on your good wine, gourmet food and good lifestyle (a lifestyle I've been preaching for the past thirty-five years!).

In this book, I want to share the good life I've lived for over half a century (and as realistically as possible, because it all happened!). I will show you how I've kicked off the second half of my life with even more exciting things that you can all do too to get the most joy out of life. I'll reveal how I stay healthy and fit so I can travel all over the world enjoying good food, good wines and a good life. Of course, to achieve this lifestyle you must be financially sound, so I will tell you how I make money, as well as what to do as entrepreneurs when you go through down times. I've gone through it all, and I will share it all with you. The most important issue in this book is too not let the cliché "don't wait till it is too late to take care of your health" turn into reality.

All the events in this book are real and have occurred, and nothing has been sensationalized. If anything, it's been under-sensationalized