Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives


Gretchen Rubin - 2015
    Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life. It takes work to make a habit, but once that habit is set, we can harness the energy of habits to build happier, stronger, more productive lives.   So if habits are a key to change, then what we really need to know is: How do we change our habits?  Better than Before answers that question. It presents a practical, concrete framework to allow readers to understand their habits—and to change them for good. Infused with Rubin’s compelling voice, rigorous research, and easy humor, and packed with vivid stories of lives transformed, Better than Before explains the (sometimes counter-intuitive) core principles of habit formation.   Along the way, Rubin uses herself as guinea pig, tests her theories on family and friends, and answers readers’ most pressing questions—oddly, questions that other writers and researchers tend to ignore: • Why do I find it tough to create a habit for something I love to do? • Sometimes I can change a habit overnight, and sometimes I can’t change a habit, no matter how hard I try. Why? • How quickly can I change a habit? • What can I do to make sure I stick to a new habit? • How can I help someone else change a habit? • Why can I keep habits that benefit others, but can’t make habits that are just for me? Whether readers want to get more sleep, stop checking their devices, maintain a healthy weight, or finish an important project, habits make change possible. Reading just a few chapters of Better Than Before will make readers eager to start work on their own habits—even before they’ve finished the book.

The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscles, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect Weight


Tom Venuto - 2009
    But we're not always rational creatures when it comes to food. Venuto provides a sound plan that will help us put the brakes on overeating by pinpointing the mental roadblocks and emotional eating patterns that are preventing us from losing weight for good. Guiding readers to dig deeper, The Body Fat Solution explores:· Why it is so difficult to balance calorie output with input · What prevents people from eating appropriately and exercising more · The emotional and psychological factors that sabotage Success Tom Venuto reminds us that calories do count! But The Body Fat Solution is neither super low carb nor super low fat, and he steers clear of demonizing entire food groups. Instead, Venuto shows how to personalize an eating plan that takes into account your unique metabolism and calorie needs. He then presents workout programs to maximize the success of the diet plan that are fast and efficient, enabling you to quickly achieve your goal of replacing fat with lean muscle. Tapping into his years of training expertise and personal experience, Venuto helps readers change their relationship with food, empowers them to take charge of their lives, and delivers a program that promises dramatic and permanent results.

How to Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use


Randy J. Paterson - 2016
    On the other hand, if you do the opposite, you may yet join the ranks of happy people everywhere!There are stacks upon stacks of self-help books that will promise you love, happiness, and a fabulous life. But how can you pinpoint the exact behaviors that cause you to be miserable in the first place? Sometimes when we’re depressed, or just sad or unhappy, our instincts tell us to do the opposite of what we should—such as focusing on the negative, dwelling on what we can’t change, isolating ourselves from friends and loved ones, eating junk food, or overindulging in alcohol. Sound familiar?This tongue-in-cheek guide will help you identify the behaviors that make you unhappy and discover how you—and only you—are holding yourself back from a life of contentment. You’ll learn to spot the tried-and-true traps that increase feelings of dissatisfaction, foster a lack of motivation, and detract from our quality of life—as well as ways to avoid them.So, get ready to live the life you want (or not?) This fun, irreverent guide will light the way.

The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer


Elizabeth Blackburn - 2017
    Elizabeth Blackburn discovered a biological indicator called telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our genetic heritage. Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel's research shows that the length and health of one's telomeres are a biological underpinning of the long-hypothesized mind-body connection. They and other scientists have found that changes we can make to our daily habits can protect our telomeres and increase our health spans (the number of years we remain healthy, active, and disease-free).THE TELOMERE EFFECT reveals how Blackburn and Epel's findings, together with research from colleagues around the world, cumulatively show that sleep quality, exercise, aspects of diet, and even certain chemicals profoundly affect our telomeres, and that chronic stress, negative thoughts, strained relationships, and even the wrong neighborhoods can eat away at them. Drawing from this scientific body of knowledge, they share lists of foods and suggest amounts and types of exercise that are healthy for our telomeres, mind tricks you can use to protect yourself from stress, and information about how to protect your children against developing shorter telomeres, from pregnancy through adolescence. And they describe how we can improve our health spans at the community level, with neighborhoods characterized by trust, green spaces, and safe streets. THE TELOMERE EFFECT will make you reassess how you live your life on a day-to-day basis. It is the first book to explain how we age at a cellular level and how we can make simple changes to keep our chromosomes and cells healthy, allowing us to stay disease-free longer and live more vital and meaningful lives.

Skinnygirl Solutions


Bethenny Frankel - 2013
    SKINNYGIRL SOLUTIONS is your guide to having it all without getting overwhelmed. Bethenny’s nononsense advice extends beyond the first adult steps and well into real relationships, established careers, and mommyhood, including: • Living Naturally Thin • Making fresh, healthy food for the table and on the go • Organizing your kitchen, your closet, and even your bathroom • Finding great fashion without breaking the bank • Beauty care essentials • Creating a home that’s a haven • Effortless entertaining • Career planning • Entrepreneur advice • And how to create work-life balance In SKINNYGIRL SOLUTIONS, Bethenny offers hard-won advice on how to maintain a wellbalanced life. In Skinnygirl Wellness, Bethenny updates her advice on how to be Naturally Thin with an all new Quick-Start Plan and tips for getting kids (and the whole family) to eat better without complaints! The Skinnygirl Solutions for Daily Life section reveals Bethenny’s keys to managing a hectic schedule, keeping a beautiful home, and finding time for love, family, and yourself. Lastly, in Skinnygirl on the Job, Bethenny addresses such issues as launching a career that fits with all the other important components of your life, knowing if you’re ready to have your own business, the pros and cons of working from home, the 101 on finance, and what to do when things go wrong. In SKINNYGIRL SOLUTIONS Bethenny gives her always honest take on how to make smart, everyday choices that will lead to a fabulous Skinnygirl life.

The Wild Diet: Get Back to Your Roots, Burn Fat, and Drop Up to 20 Pounds in 40 Days


Abel James - 2015
      Growing up on a farm in New Hampshire, Abel James ran wild and ate everything. Fresh zucchini in August, huckleberries by the fishing spot, kale all year round. But when he moved to the big city, he started eating a “modern diet” off the supermarket shelves and, by his early twenties, it showed. Abel's doctor recommended a low-cholesterol, calorie-restricted diet and frequent exercise, so he took to running thirty miles per week and nibbling low-fat food. But he only got sicker.   Now Abel eats like a king, never goes to the gym, and is in the best shape of his life. His plan is simple: eat plenty of whole and naturally edible foods, and be skeptical of manipulated, processed food products. Foods found in the wild will return the human body to its optimal fat-burning stage and reverse the damage done by decades of poor eating. Abel James shows that the answer to vibrant health doesn’t live in a calorie-restricted diet, a magical fat-blasting pill, or a miserable exercise program. The secret is sticking to our roots and knowing where our food comes from. The Wild Diet is the key.From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight


Valter Longo - 2016
    The culmination of 25 years of research on aging, nutrition, and disease across the globe, this unique program lays out a simple solution to living to a healthy old age through nutrition. The key is combining the healthy everyday eating plan the book outlines, with the scientifically engineered fasting-mimicking diet, or FMD; the FMD, done just 3-4 times a year, does away with the misery and starvation most of us experience while fasting, allowing you to reap all the beneficial health effects of a restrictive diet, while avoiding negative stressors, like low energy and sleeplessness. Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at USC and the Program on Longevity and Cancer at IFOM in Milan, designed the FMD after making a series of remarkable discoveries in mice, then in humans, indicating that specific diets can activate stem cells and promote regeneration and rejuvenation in multiple organs to significantly reduce risk for diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease.

The Omni Diet: Two Weeks to Lose Weight, Reverse Illness, and Control Your Genes


Tana Amen - 2013
    Through a lifetime of chronic medical ailments, including severe digestive issues, recurrent infections and, most devastatingly, a battle with thyroid cancer, there was never a point when Tana felt consistently healthy. Doctors ascribed her poor health to genetics, bad luck, and a family history of obesity and heart disease. But even when Tana committed to a standard fitness and eating regimen, her health failed to improve.That’s when she realized that she needed to make a real change. She needed to figure out how to improve her health . . . for good.The Omni Diet is the culmination of a decade-long quest by Tana Amen to study the relationship between food and the body, and to understand how proper nutrition not only impacts weight loss, but actually holds the key to reversing chronic disease, decreasing inflammation, healing the body, and dramatically improving quality of life.So what is The Omni Diet?It’s an easy-to-follow plan based on a 70/30 plant-to-protein model. This is not a restrictive diet or another page in the high-protein vs. vegetarian diet wars, but a universal map to better health, one that Tana has distilled into a lean six-week program. It offers a simple plan that provides an abundance of illness-fighting nutrients from plant-based foods and high-quality protein to keep the brain sharp and muscles and organs functioning at peak condition. The balance of 70% plant-based foods and 30% protein restores energy, slashes risk of disease, optimizes brain and hormone functioning, produces dramatic weight loss, and promotes health from the inside out.With delicious and satisfying recipes, easy-to-follow exercises, and important advice and tips, you will see results -- in your weight and overall health – immediately. Follow this revolutionary, paradigm-shifting plan and experience its life-changing results as you unleash the healing power of food.

The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity


Norman Doidge - 2015
    His revolutionary new book shows, for the first time, how the amazing process of neuroplastic healing really works. It describes natural, non-invasive avenues into the brain provided by the forms of energy around us—light, sound, vibration, movement—which pass through our senses and our bodies to awaken the brain’s own healing capacities without producing unpleasant side effects. Doidge explores cases where patients alleviated years of chronic pain or recovered from debilitating strokes or accidents; children on the autistic spectrum or with learning disorders normalizing; symptoms of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and cerebral palsy radically improved, and other near-miracle recoveries. And we learn how to vastly reduce the risk of dementia with simple approaches anyone can use. For centuries it was believed that the brain’s complexity prevented recovery from damage or disease. The Brain’s Way of Healing shows that this very sophistication is the source of a unique kind of healing. As he did so lucidly in The Brain That Changes Itself, Doidge uses stories to present cutting-edge science with practical real-world applications, and principles that everyone can apply to improve their brain’s performance and health.

Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance


Alex Hutchinson - 2018
    But over the past decade, a wave of dramatic findings in the cutting-edge science of endurance has completely overturned our understanding of human limitation. Endure widely disseminates these findings for the first time: It’s the brain that dictates how far we can go—which means we can always push ourselves further.Hutchinson presents an overview of science’s search for understanding human fatigue, from crude experiments with electricity and frogs’ legs to sophisticated brain imaging technology. Going beyond the traditional mechanical view of human limits (like a car with a brick on its gas pedal, we go until the tank runs out of gas), he instead argues that a key element in endurance is how the brain responds to distress signals—whether heat, or cold, or muscles screaming with lactic acid—and reveals that we can train to improve brain response.An elite distance runner himself, Hutchinson takes us to the forefront of the new sports psychology—brain electrode jolts, computer-based training, subliminal messaging—and presents startling new discoveries enhancing the performance of athletes today and shows how anyone can utilize these tactics to bolster their own performance—and get the most out of their bodies.

Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness


Jon Kabat-Zinn - 1990
    (The somewhat confusing title is from a line in Zorba the Greek in which the title character refers to the ups and downs of family life as "the full catastrophe.") But this book is also a terrific introduction for anyone who has considered meditating but was afraid it would be too difficult or would include religious practices they found foreign. Kabat-Zinn focuses on "mindfulness," a concept that involves living in the moment, paying attention, and simply "being" rather than "doing." While you can practice anything "mindfully," from taking a walk to cleaning your house, Kabat-Zinn presents several meditation techniques that focus the attention most clearly, whether it's on a simple phrase, your breathing, or various parts of your body. The book goes into detail about how hospital patients have either improved their health or simply come to feel better despite their illness by using these techniques, but these meditations can help anyone deal with stress and gain a calmer outlook on life. "When we use the word healing to describe the experiences of people in the stress clinic, what we mean above all is that they are undergoing a profound transformation of view," Kabat-Zinn writes. "Out of this shift in perspective comes an ability to act with greater balance and inner security in the world." --Ben Kallenreissue 2005

Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself


Nedra Glover Tawwab - 2021
    We all know we should have them--in order to achieve work/life balance, cope with toxic people, and enjoy rewarding relationships with partners, friends, and family. But what do healthy boundaries really mean--and how can we successfully express our needs, say no, and be assertive without offending others?Licensed counselor, sought-after relationship expert, and one of the most influential therapists on Instagram Nedra Glover Tawwab demystifies this complex topic for today's world. In a relatable and inclusive tone, Set Boundaries, Find Peace presents simple-yet-powerful ways to establish healthy boundaries in all aspects of life. Rooted in the latest research and best practices used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), these techniques help us identify and express our needs clearly and without apology--and unravel a root problem behind codependency, power struggles, anxiety, depression, burnout, and more.

The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!


John A. McDougall - 2012
    McDougall, MD, and his kitchen-savvy wife, Mary, turn the notion that starch is bad for you on its head. The Starch Solution is based on a simple swap: fueling your body primarily with carbohydrates rather than proteins and fats. This will help you lose weight and prevent a variety of ills.Fad diets come and go, but Dr. McDougall has been a proponent of the plant-based diet for decades, and his medical credibility is unassailable. He is one of the mainstay experts cited in the bestselling and now seminal China Study—called the “Grand Prix of epidemiology” by the New York Times. But what The China Study lacks is a plan.Dr. McDougall grounds The Starch Solution in rigorous scientific fact and research, giving readers easy tools to implement these changes into their lifestyle with a 7-Day Quick Start Plan and 100 delicious recipes. This book includes testimonials from among the hundreds Dr. McDougall has received, including people who have lost more than 125 pounds in mere months as well as patients who have conquered lifethreatening illnesses such as diabetes and cardiac ailments.

Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body


Jo Marchant - 2016
    Recently, however, serious scientists from a range of fields have been uncovering evidence that our thoughts, emotions and beliefs can ease pain, heal wounds, fend off infection and heart disease and even slow the progression of AIDS and some cancers.In Cure, award-winning science writer Jo Marchant travels the world to meet the physicians, patients and researchers on the cutting edge of this new world of medicine. We learn how meditation protects against depression and dementia, how social connections increase life expectancy and how patients who feel cared for recover from surgery faster. We meet Iraq war veterans who are using a virtual arctic world to treat their burns and children whose ADHD is kept under control with half the normal dose of medication. We watch as a transplant patient uses the smell of lavender to calm his hostile immune system and an Olympic runner shaves vital seconds off his time through mind-power alone.Drawing on the very latest research, Marchant explores the vast potential of the mind's ability to heal, lays out its limitations and explains how we can make use of the findings in our own lives. With clarity and compassion, Cure points the way towards a system of medicine that treats us not simply as bodies but as human beings.

Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat after Forty


Suzanne Somers - 2010
    One that doesn’t make you give up too many of your favorite foods, have you working out like a maniac, and won’t fail you in the long run. But long-term success is awfully hard if you don’t address the hidden culprit behind the excess fat we carry: the toxic burden our bodies have accumulated.               Whether you have just a few pounds to lose or are battling more, this new plan from health pioneer Suzanne Somers will give you the knowledge you need to easily combat these toxins and become slim, vibrant, healthy, and sexy . . . forever.   Within the pages of Sexy Forever you will discover:   Thousands of FDA-approved chemicals and toxins surrounding us every day that sabotage our health and weight—and how to conquer these enemies.   A simple-to-follow three-phase weight loss program, filled with rich, delicious foods. Plus, a special Detox Phase that has been designed to release your toxic burden and blast off those first—or last few—pounds.   All-new delicious recipes, with menus for fabulous eating every day.   A moderate (hint: fast and easy!) exercise program to keep you fit and healthy.   Ways to jump-start your success: cutting-edge, natural tools and products to make every step of the plan faster, easier, and more convenient. Includes amazing supplements and weight loss products to help catapult your success.   A simple test that could unlock the hidden secret to your personal food demons—food sensitivities or intolerances that could silently be keeping you overweight or even chronically ill.   How to achieve natural hormonal balance: the missing ingredient for every person over forty that must be added to make any plan successful.   An all-access pass to revered doctors, experts, and nutritionists who helped Suzanne craft the plan.     YOU CAN WIN THIS BATTLE.   YOUR GOALS ARE ACHIEVABLE.   Stay the course and you’ll be on the path to regaining the vibrant health you were born to have.  Sexy Forever is your ticket there.