Book picks similar to
Obese from the Heart by Sara L. Stein


self-help
health
non-fiction
medicine-and-science

The Relentless Courage of a Scared Child: How Persistence, Grit, and Faith Created a Reluctant Healer


Tana Amen - 2021
    Through her remarkable journey, we see more clearly the light that can shine through our own broken places and ultimately heal us: body, mind, and soul.At once tragic and heartwarming, Tana’s story integrates cutting-edge psychology and proven wellness techniques from the Amen Clinics in a moving exploration of the healing available to each one of us, no matter the pain in our past. “What a journey! With in-your-face honesty, Tana reveals how she was able to turn her pain into purpose. For anyone who has been faced with unspeakable loss, this message is so important.”  —Jay Shetty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Like a Monk, storyteller, purpose coach, and former monk

The Smarter Science of Slim: What the Actual Experts Have Proven about Weight Loss, Health, and Fitness


Jonathan Bailor - 2011
    The end result is this very straightforward, simple and easy-to-read book, where Bailor bridges the gap between the academic world and the everyday world to dispel the myths, lies, and corporate sales hype that have fueled the current obesity epidemic. More than any other author in this new century, Bailor has separated scientific fact from weight loss fiction--to deliver a proven, permanent and easy-to-implement fat loss solution. Based on clinically proven research--not trendy opinions--Bailor uses biology and common sense to bring reason to the topic of diet, exercise and weight loss. ------Endorsements------- Proven and practical. Dr. Theodoros Kelesidis Harvard & UCLA Medical Schools The latest and best scientific research. Dr. John J. Ratey Harvard Medical School An important piece of work. Dr. Anthony Accurso Johns Hopkins Smart and health promoting. Dr. JoAnn E. Manson Harvard Medical School The last diet book you will ever need to buy. Dr. Larry Dossey Medical City Dallas Hospital Revolutionary, surprising, and scientifically sound. Dr. Jan Friden University of Gothenburg Compelling, simple, and practical. Dr. Steve Yeaman Newcastle University Stimulating and provocative. Dr. Soren Toubro University of Copenhagen Amazing and important research. Dr. Wayne Westcott Quincy College Brilliant. Will end your confusion once and for all. Dr. William Davis Fellowship of the American College of Cardiology, author of Wheat Belly Bailor's work stands alone. Maik Wiedenbach World Cup and Olympic Athlete Bailor opens the black box of fat loss and makes it simple for you to explore the facts. Joel Harper Dr. Oz Show fitness expert A groundbreaking paradigm shift. It gets results and changes lives. Jade Teta, ND, CSCS

The 30 Day Abs Challenge (Workout Program)


Arnel Ricafranca - 2013
     The 30 Day Abs Challenge focuses on the fundamentals of power generation and core stability without the use of any equipment. These core based workouts strengthen your entire midline and core for an overall increase in any athletic performance. As a result this program will help you develop a nice set of abs. This book provides 30 days of abdominally focused workouts that can be performed by themselves or in conjunction to your daily workout routine for advance users.

Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain


Portia de Rossi - 2010
    It snuck up on me disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude. Being as thin as possible was a way to make the job of being an actress easier . . .” Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first leading role. This should have been the culmination of all her years of hard work—first as a child model in Australia, then as a cast member of one of the hottest shows on American television. On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying. In this searing, unflinchingly honest book, Portia de Rossi captures the complex emotional truth of what it is like when food, weight, and body image take priority over every other human impulse or action. She recounts the elaborate rituals around eating that came to dominate hours of every day, from keeping her daily calorie intake below 300 to eating precisely measured amounts of food out of specific bowls and only with certain utensils. When this wasn’t enough, she resorted to purging and compulsive physical exercise, driving her body and spirit to the breaking point. Even as she rose to fame as a cast member of the hit television shows Ally McBeal and Arrested Development, Portia alternately starved herself and binged, all the while terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids. She reveals the heartache and fear that accompany a life lived in the closet, a sense of isolation that was only magnified by her unrelenting desire to be ever thinner. With the storytelling skills of a great novelist and the eye for detail of a poet, Portia makes transparent as never before the behaviors and emotions of someone living with an eating disorder. From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb back to a life of health and honesty, falling in love with and eventually marrying Ellen DeGeneres, and emerging as an outspoken and articulate advocate for gay rights and women’s health issues. In this remarkable and beautifully written work, Portia shines a bright light on a dark subject. A crucial book for all those who might sometimes feel at war with themselves or their bodies, Unbearable Lightness is a story that inspires hope and nourishes the spirit.

Rules for the Unruly: Living an Unconventional Life


Marion Winik - 2001
    Winik's amusing tales of outrageous mistakes, haunting uncertainty, and the never-ending struggle to stay true to her heart strike a powerful chord with creative, impassioned, independent-minded free spirits who know they're different -- and want to stay that way. Winik's seven Rules for the Unruly are: THE PATH IS NOT STRAIGHT · MISTAKES NEED NOT BE FATAL PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ACHIEVEMENTS OR POSSESSIONS BE GENTLE WITH YOUR PARENTS · NEVER STOP DOING WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT MOST LEARN TO USE A SEMICOLON · YOU WILL FIND LOVE Rules for the Unruly shows us how taking risks, living creatively, and cherishing our inner weirdness can become the secret of our happiness and success, not our downfall.

Lift Like a Girl: Be More, Not Less.


Nia Shanks - 2017
    If you’re like most women, you’ve been through this vicious cycle more times than you can count. But what if fitness wasn’t about fixing flaws and shrinking sizes? What if your workout could be uncomplicated, energizing, and even fun? Fitness coach Nia Shanks has helped countless clients reinvent their mindset around exercise, nutrition, and body image. Based on her wildly popular blog, Lift Like a Girl is so much more than a workout program. It’s an empowering lifestyle built around discovering the strength you never knew you had. Along with her practical, step-by-step approach for getting proven results in the gym, Nia breaks through the weight-loss clichés that keep too many women dissatisfied, depressed, and constantly on a diet. Find out how good it feels to lift like a girl, and leave the gym feeling more awesome than ever.

[Don't] Call Me Crazy


Kelly JensenStephanie Kuehn - 2018
    Because there’s no single definition of crazy, there’s no single experience that embodies it, and the word itself means different things—wild? extreme? disturbed? passionate?—to different people. (Don’t) Call Me Crazy is a conversation starter and guide to better understanding how our mental health affects us every day. Thirty-three writers, athletes, and artists offer essays, lists, comics, and illustrations that explore their personal experiences with mental illness, how we do and do not talk about mental health, help for better understanding how every person’s brain is wired differently, and what, exactly, might make someone crazy. If you’ve ever struggled with your mental health, or know someone who has, come on in, turn the pages, and let’s get talking.

Journeys with the Black Dog: Inspirational Stories of Bringing Depression to Heel


Tessa Wigney - 2008
    Revealing the hardships of grappling with a depressive disorder, it emphasizes unique methods of control through regular diet and exercise. Oscillating between humor and gut-wrenching poignancy, these compelling life stories entrust readers with a key message—while depression may not be curable, it can be managed.

Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction


Judith Grisel - 2019
    With more than one in every five people over the age of fourteen addicted, drug abuse has been called the most formidable health problem worldwide. If we are not victims ourselves, we all know someone struggling with the merciless compulsion to alter their experience by changing how their brain functions.Drawing on years of research--as well as personal experience as a recovered addict--researcher and professor Judy Grisel has reached a fundamental conclusion: for the addict, there will never be enough drugs. The brain's capacity to learn and adapt is seemingly infinite, allowing it to counteract any regular disruption, including that caused by drugs. What begins as a normal state punctuated by periods of being high transforms over time into a state of desperate craving that is only temporarily subdued by a fix, explaining why addicts are unable to live either with or without their drug. One by one, Grisel shows how different drugs act on the brain, the kind of experiential effects they generate, and the specific reasons why each is so hard to kick.Grisel's insights lead to a better understanding of the brain's critical contributions to addictive behavior, and will help inform a more rational, coherent, and compassionate response to the epidemic in our homes and communities.

Sober Is My New Drunk


Paul Bradley Carr - 2012
    The letter was both a confession and an invitation for public scrutiny. “No matter where I was,” he recalls, “there was always a chance that someone had read my post and was waiting to catch me with a drink in my hand.” To help keep himself on the straight and narrow, Carr still has a counter at the top of his site, ticking off the number of days he’s gone without a drink.In this bracing (but zero-proof) tale of recovery, Carr delivers his own twelve steps to building a life without booze. His hard-earned advice, punctuated with anecdotes that are both cautionary and comic (a bender once took him to Iceland, where he drunkenly believed he’d get better Wi-Fi) is given with humility and goodwill. Along the way, Carr celebrates the simple yet overlooked pleasures of sobriety—weight loss, a renewed love life, the ability to buy a phone or laptop without promptly losing it in a bar. As he slowly discovers, a sober life actually CAN be fun. What’s more, he’ll remember it.

Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep


David K. Randall - 2012
    Randall never gave sleep much thought. That is, until he began sleepwalking. One midnight crash into a hallway wall sent him on an investigation into the strange science of sleep.In Dreamland, Randall explores the research that is investigating those dark hours that make up nearly a third of our lives. Taking readers from military battlefields to children’s bedrooms, Dreamland shows that sleep isn't as simple as it seems. Why did the results of one sleep study change the bookmakers’ odds for certain Monday Night Football games? Do women sleep differently than men? And if you happen to kill someone while you are sleepwalking, does that count as murder?This book is a tour of the often odd, sometimes disturbing, and always fascinating things that go on in the peculiar world of sleep. You’ll never look at your pillow the same way again.

The Pcos Workbook: Your Guide to Complete Physical and Emotional Health


Angela Grassi - 2009
    What does that mean?" "Will I ever be able to have a baby?" "I try to lose the weight, but I'm hungry all the time." "Why can't I just stop eating sugary, fattening foods?" "Why do I have hair growing everywhere and will it ever get better?" "I am so depressed and moody. Is this related to my PCOS?" If any of these statements sound familiar, this workbook can help you! The PCOS Workbook, a practical and comprehensive guide, helps you understand not just the physiology of PCOS, but what you can do about it. Step-by-step guidelines, questionnaires and exercises will help you learn skills and empower you to make positive changes in your life that might not get rid of PCOS, but will help you live with it harmoniously: Lose weight, take control over your eating and improve your health Understand your medical treatment Improve your fertility Manage the stress in your life Be mindful with your eating and in life Challenge body image myths and insecurities Overcome obstacles to becoming more physically active Cope with the challenges of infertility ...and get closer to living the life you want to live!

Hwpo: Hard Work Pays Off Transform Your Body and Mind with Crossfit's Five-Time Fittest Man on Earth


Mat Fraser - 2022
    A student of engineering, Fraser optimized his body like a machine, and his absolute dedication to the training program he designed for himself is now legendary. For years, every single decision he made was weighed against the question: Will this help me win? If the answer was no, he didn't do it. If it would give him even the slightest edge or advantage, he would--no matter the cost. Fraser became a master of identifying his weaknesses and then seeking out training methods to improve them, and he's idolized in the fitness community for his relentless pursuit of peak performance. It's not hard to see why he achieved so much success--but how is a different question.Throughout his career, Fraser has been highly guarded about his specific training techniques (after all, sharing them would not help him win the CrossFit Games). But with his recent retirement from competition, Fraser is finally ready to open up about his path to the podium. HWPO reveals the workouts, training hacks, eating plans, and mental strategies that have helped make him a champion. It's an incredible resource of elite training strategies, illustrated workouts, and motivational stories, and it's a glimpse into the mind of one of the world's greatest athletes. No matter your level of fitness, no matter if you've never attempted CrossFit before, this book is your total training manual.

Coming Clean


Kimberly Rae Miller - 2013
    Kim Miller is an immaculately put-together woman with a great career, a loving boyfriend, and a beautifully tidy apartment in Brooklyn. You would never guess that she spent her childhood hiding behind the closed doors of her family’s idyllic Long Island house, navigating between teetering stacks of aging newspaper, broken computers, and boxes upon boxes of unused junk festering in every room—the product of her father’s painful and unending struggle with hoarding. In this coming-of-age story, Kim brings to life her experience of growing up in a rat-infested home, concealing her father’s shameful secret from friends for years, and of the emotional burden that ultimately led to an attempt to take her own life. And in beautiful prose, Miller sheds light on her complicated yet loving relationship with her parents that has thrived in spite of the odds. Coming Clean is a story about recognizing where we come from and the relationships that define us—and about finding peace in the homes we make for ourselves.

Why Do People Get Ill


David Corfield - 2007
    With case studies and advice for a fitter life, this is an intriguing and thought-provoking book, one which should be read by anyone who cares about their wellbeing.