Crack The Code presents an unconventional, motivation-based approach to health for men 50 and over. Ten strategies for creating and maintaining inspiration for a healthy lifestyle are advanced from a platform of survey research, interviews and the author’s personal experiences. Primary audiences for the book are men over 50 and the people that love them; their wives, partners, children and grandchildren. Additional audiences include health care providers, insurers, policy makers, men of all ages who want to find motivation for healthy behavior and anyone who has struggled with their health. Asserting that without motivation no diet, exercise program, technology or other strategy will produce sustained results, Crack The Code describes how healthy-living men, one of the most health-challenged segments of the American population, exhibit a strong cognitive association between their life’s priorities and their behaviors; a catalytic awareness in which men often integrate their valued relationships into their health behaviors (they take walks with their wife). What the author terms Male Cognitive Behavioral Alignment. The secret sauce of male motivation outlined in the book is derived from a nationwide survey of 1,000 healthy-living men. Crack The Code translates the findings into strategies and tactics with actionable exercises. Personal stories from interviews and focus groups add practical insights and emotion that engages readers. A discussion of relevant theories from psychology, management science and the fields of decision making and behavior change anchor the model in a context of well-established thinking. Crack The Code concludes with a call to action for a new culture of men’s health, outlining a confluence of social, economic and political factors in the US and beyond that represent a tipping point where healthy behavior among 50 plus men will become the new norm. Crack The Code’s focus on motivation and the psycho-social underpinnings of behavior fills a gap in a market dominated by publications on traditional diet and exercise. By digging deeper and using everyday men as a source, Crack The Code breaks new ground for a burgeoning segment of the baby-boomer population that is in desperate need of help. The potential to influence men of other ages as well as health care providers, insurers and policy makers, creates a tremendously valuable read. "Impressively informed and informative, "Crack The Code" is exceptionally well written, organized and presented for the benefit of non-specialist general readers including men over 50, their wives, partners, children and grandchildren. Additionally "Crack The Code" will be of immense interest and value as an informational resource for health care providers, insurers, policy makers. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic library Contemporary Health & Medicine collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Crack The Code" is also available in a digital book format." - Midwest Book Review "In this book Louis Bezich argues that as a group men over fifty years old here in the United States are an especially high risk for health problems and shortened longevity. Reasons for this include inadequate exercise and under-utilization of the healthcare system (i.e., not seeing a doctor regularly or going for an annual checkup). Much of what Bezich recommends has to do with encouraging middle-aged and older men to become more physically active. To this end he presents ten suggestions that, if implemented, will improve a person's health. These ten steps are: Assess your current state; create your vision; build your strategy; create your personal lifestyle network; design a sustainability plan; leverage micromotivators; be optimistic; adjust; be a hero. Each of these suggestions, if implemented, will play a part in improving a person's health. In addition to a detailed description on how to implement these suggestions, Bezich presents the result of interviews with some of the thousand or so men who took part in his study and also ends each chapter with a series of questions to consider and answer. Much of what Bezich says is to the point. When I was nearly 71 I almost died from an aortic dissection, a condition that causes death in the majority of those who are felled by it. Although I had been physically active for my entire adult life I had ignored the advice of my wife and others to see a doctor. Even when I developed high blood pressure I tried (unsuccessfully) to control it through modifications in my diet alone. The result was seven hours of emergency open-heaert surgery, which, thankfully, I survived. I should have known better. When I was 58 an aneurysm in my iliac artery ruptured and by the time I was on the operating table I had lost half my blood. A few years later I had genetic testing and discovered that I had a gene that increased the chances of suffering from abdominal and aortic aneurysms.