Healthy Body > My List of Life-Changing Books to Help You Feel Good
My List of Life-Changing Books to Help You Feel Good
If there is one positive thing that this past year has taught us, it’s the importance of prioritizing our own health and taking care of our minds, bodies, and spirits with meaning and intention.
Because I’m such a believer in being proactive when it comes to our health and happiness, I’ve rounded up some of my favorite new wellness books that can help you dive even deeper into supporting your overall mental and physical well-being. These are incredible (dare I say life-changing) reads that you won’t just leave sitting in a pile on your nightstand!
As Dr. Amy Shah points out in this guide to conquering burnout and increasing your energy: Exhaustion doesn't have to be your new normal. If you feel like your life is too busy and you’re constantly overwhelmed and overtired, this book explains why so many of us are suffering from an epidemic of fatigue and burnout.
Inspired by her personal wellness journey, integrative medical doctor Amy Shah has created a program so that you can regain your energy and reclaim your life by tapping into a powerful energy trifecta: what you eat, when you eat, and how you manage stress. Dr. Shah’s formula will help you regain the energy you’ve lost, so you can get back to the life you want to live.
Dr. Drew Ramsey is a pioneer in the field of Nutritional Psychiatry, literally using food as medicine to feed your brain and improve your mood. I received an advance copy of this book, and I highly recommend it to learn how to use food as support for your overall mental well-being.
The book distills the most cutting-edge research on nutrition and the brain into actionable tips you can start using right away to enhance brain-cell health and growth, reduce inflammation, and cultivate a healthy microbiome to improve your mental wellness. It also includes a six-week plan designed to mitigate depression and anxiety, incorporating key food categories like leafy greens and seafood, along with simple, delicious, brain nutrient–rich recipes.
Dr. Hyman has done it again with another bestselling book. While there is so much confusion about what to eat and not eat (low-carb, high-fat, exclusively plant-based and everything in between), it’s no wonder we feel frustrated about food!
In this book, Dr. Hyman combined the best aspects of the paleo diet (good fats, limited refined carbs, limited sugar) with the vegan diet (lots and lots of fresh, healthy veggies) and from there, the Pegan Diet was born. Packed with practical tips and advice, it shows you how to eat in a way that is not only good for your brain and your body, but also good for the planet too.
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
This book is truly life-changing! According to James Nestor, no matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.
I have experienced firsthand the difference when you start becoming more conscious of your breath. Afterall, there is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing. This book explains how we as a species have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.
Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. I can attest: You will never breathe the same again.
Bestselling author Dr. Josh Axe explains how to treat more than seventy diseases, lose weight, and increase vitality with traditional healing practices passed down through the ages. I had an opportunity to review this book before it was released, and I continue to refer to it often. Dr. Axe explains time-tested practices that explore the foundational concepts of ancient healing—eating right for your type and living in sync with your circadian clock.
You learn how traditional practitioners identified the root cause of each patient's illness, then treated it with medicinal herbs, mushrooms, CBD, essential oils, and restorative mind-body practices. There is also an entire recipe section with some simple and delicious dishes so that you can tap into ancient ingredients to use “meals as medicine.”
Essential Oils to Boost the Brain and Heal the Body: 5 Steps to Calm Anxiety, Sleep Better, and Reduce Inflammation to Regain Control of Your Health by Jodi Cohen
This hot-off-the-press book answers your most burning questions about on how to effectively use essential oils. As Jodi Cohen explains, just as your cell phone or laptop slows down and drains the battery when too many tabs are left open, your brain fatigues when poorly functioning systems or ailments drain its energy. Here's the good news: Plant-based essential oils are a powerful self-care tool for transforming your life and healing on many levels, even when prescription drugs have failed.
With Jodi’s five-step protocol, you’ll be able to start your own essential oils regimen to alleviate stress, improve sleep, calm pain and inflammation, increase energy, improve memory, strengthen immunity, enhance weight loss, and more.
Eat Better, Feel Better: My Recipes for Wellness and Healing, Inside and Out
Inspired by her personal journey, Giada shares how to select food that can actually make you feel better and curate an individualized wellness routine to support a healthy mind and body. You’ll learn how Giada changed her diet to control inflammation and turned her life around by using complementary wellness tactics like meditation and other self-care routines to optimize your well-being.
Of course, there are over 100 mouthwatering recipes to boost gut health and immunity, an entire chapter outlining her 3-day reboot (that she follows several times a year), and a 21-day menu outline that makes cooking easy and stress-free.
