Books That Have Personally Impacted Me

Books can be tedious, especially diet and health books.  I'm more of a fan of doing than reading.  I've learned a lot more about myself just through general logging of my food and thoughts than most books but that said, I don't know everything, right!?

I have a general set of guides to refer back to and learn from when I get down or I need ideas. More importantly, if I'm in a plateau or have been off track and could use the reminders, I have them on hand without much effort.   This set changes depending on my life stage so you'll see it morph over time but here is my current set and the amazon/affiliate link:

Eight Weeks to Optimal Health: Dr. Andrew Weil
This was my first "bible" into the world of health and fitness.  I still refer back to it often and I get inspired by his weekly tasks of buying flowers and experiencing forgiveness

Eat To Live/Eat For Health:  Dr. Joel Fuhrman:  His "prescription" of intense greens changed my husband's health.   They have this really neat MANDI scoring guide, a quick guide to help you understand foods and their nutrient content at a glance.  The link goes to a special PEERtrainer discount.

Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Dr. Christiane Northrup
I read this years before she went on Oprah and I experienced my early 30's in a much different way than many of my friends just based on her writings.  Highly recommend this specific book

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People Stephen R. Covey 
This book dives into discipline which I believe is the cornerstone of health and fitness.  I'm not especially passionate about his writing style but the content is a must read.

Health Magazine:
This health and diet lifestyle mags is the one that I most relate to - it isn't about how to get the body to get a guy or nicely posed pictures of fitness routines.  The editorial perspective is a bit more focused on health and diet information

Comments

[Barbara E.]

Hi, Jackie,

Another book I'm finding extremely helpful is "Mindless Eating" by Cornell Food Science researcher Brian Wansink that presents research into people's eating habits. Each chapter covers one aspect of our mindless eating behavior with suggestions for changing our habits and heightening our awareness of what we're doing that will hopefully impact our food consumption. His main tenet is that people can under-eat by 20% without detecting the change and that can have a profound effect on what we weigh in the long run.

[monahelen]

Just looking at the tapble of contents for Women's Wisdom, I wish I had this book when I was in college. It took me years and several counselors to get some of the information.

[Roxanne]

Another series of great books that really inspired me to lose weight were the Body for Life books by Bob Greene. The books contain a contract that you sign that motivates you to lose weight. Plus there are recipes to help keep you on track.

[rachel]

I hate to be negative, but I checked out Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom from the library and was surprised that you would reccomend it. I didn't read the whole thing, but a few excerpts were enough to tell me that it wasn't for me!! I was really surprised that the author would infer that ovarian cancer was a disease of women who are stuck in "golden handcuffs"--married for wealth--and that this would cause their cancer.
I am open to natural remedies/healthy prevention of disease, etc. I realize that the traditional medical community doesn't have all the (right) answers all of the time. However, I thought this book was pretty out there!
Glad you could glean some good from it. Heads up for anyone out there with my similar mindset, though!

[Jackie]

Rachel,

I"m puzzled at how you arrived at the conclusion that the author inferred that ovarian cancer was caused by golden handcuffs. The assertion that she infers this is simply not true. As an ob gyn, her approach of coupling western and eastern philosophies have helped many. I do understand if the book is not for you. Thanks for the feedback! We'll have to agree to disagree. Jackie