A healthy body is not just the result of your solid strength-training in the gym or your intense session on the treadmill. To build your fit and healthy body, you also need a good dose of inspiration. In fact, sometimes all that you need to blast through a workout plateau is to curl up on the couch with a good book that enriches your understanding of fitness and kicks off a renewed commitment to a healthy lifestyle.
Is your bookshelf full of selections on the latest diet craze or the workout “to end all workouts?” It’s time to throw out the quacks. Try this reading list. No, you won’t find another exercise fad, what you will find is food for your soul. Read the following and feel that fitness inspiration.
The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size by Julia Cameron
Julia Cameron is most known for her extensive work in fiction, poetry, music, film, and her seminal books on creativity. For 25 years, Julia Cameron has taught thousands of artists how to unblock their creativity.
During this process, she noticed that as her students encounter their creative selves they also undergo a surprising physical transformation—invigorated by their work, they slim down. Cameron writes about the relationship between creativity and eating, revealing a crucial equation: Creativity can block overeating. This inspiring weight-loss program directs readers to count words instead of calories, to substitute their writing’s “food for thought” for actual food.
Her simple system promotes exercise, food journaling, and something called “morning pages” (3 pages of daily stream-of-consciousness writing accomplished as soon as you get out of bed). "A day at a time, a page at a time, we become mindful, acutely attuned to our personal feelings." There are also some exercise suggestions like “Buy five postcards glorifying the body type you've got,” and inspiring stories detailing chronic overeaters' paths to weight loss success.
“Before you eat, ask yourself: Am I hungry? Is this what I feel like eating? Is this what I feel like eating now? Is there something else that I could eat instead?” Forced to be honest, dieters understand their eating habits and establish a way out of overeating. The Writing Diet presents a brilliant plan for using one of the soul’s deepest and most abiding appetites—the desire to be creative—to lose weight and keep it off, forever.
How Not to Die: Surprising Lessons on Living Longer, Safer, and Healthier From America's Favorite Medical Examiner by Jan Garavaglia, M.D.
Prevention is better than cure, we say, but who else can best advise us than Jan Garavaglia, M.D. or “Dr. G: Medical Examiner” of Discovery Health TV fame? And she does it best in this book.
Know your numbers. Your BMI (body mass index), blood sugar level, blood pressure, and lipid profile will have a huge impact on your health. Listen to your body. Seek medical attention early when you detect something amiss. Follow medical directions from your doctor and those on any medications. Practice good hygiene. Just say no to smoking, illegal drugs, and drinking too much. Simple advice, yes, but coming from a doctor who has seen countless deaths in the morgue that could have been prevented, her insights are vital to the living.
Garavaglia notes that a death certificate offers only five choices—homicide, suicide, natural, accident, and undetermined—but to that she'd like to add one more - stupidity. "Life is a series of choices," she writes. Make the right ones.
The author loves her work and it shows. Dr. G's chatty writing style is colorful, and the case studies she tackles are fascinating. Coupled with a compassionate attitude and insights into her own life, this makes her book entertaining, educational, and lively.
What Cancer Cannot Do: Stories of Hope and Encouragement by Phyllis Ten Elshof
Cancer - the mere mention of the word is enough to send shivers down one’s spine. You wake up with an unusual lump in your breast and your life is changed forever.
Much has been written about cancer from which treatment to take and which not to, to which doctor to go to and which not to. Amid all the confusion, a book arises, written by a survivor that has not only fought her battle against breast cancer once, but twice. In this book, she shares a dose of kindness and compassion for those dealing with the disease or with a loved one who is.
Most patients would avoid the subject, but Ten Elshof tells us to do just the opposite. She writes, “Research the dickens out of it. Find out as much as you can. And lean on the professionals. Know you are not alone. Lots of people want you to get better.” Writing from experience, the author shows you how to see cancer as a gift and to live like a winner. Filled with practical advice, she tells us it’s perfectly normal to cry. “But there's a time to stop mourning, too, and get back to life.”
These books are available online and at your local bookstore.
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