When I first started dating my husband, he would lovingly comment that my nose is always in a book. It’s true that I’ve always been a bit of a book worm. As an introvert, I could sit and read all day. I truly can’t get enough. I’ve always liked non-fiction and still do, but when I became a Health Coach, naturally, I started gravitating toward books about nutrition. If you were to look at my bookshelf, these are some of the top health and wellness books you’d see crowding the shelves.
These aren’t necessarily new, but they are timeless and they cover everything from spirituality to creativity, nutrition and even finances, but they are some of my favorites that have shaped my own healthy lifestyle and ultimately, my coaching practice.
The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time
We are in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis, writes Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post. And this has profound consequences – on our health, our job performance, our relationships and our happiness. What is needed, she boldly asserts, is nothing short of a sleep revolution. Only by renewing our relationship with sleep can we take back control of our lives.
In The Sleep Revolution, Arianna shows how our cultural dismissal of sleep as time wasted compromises our health and our decision-making and undermines our work lives, our personal lives — and even our sex lives.
Marissa’s Note: This book will make you seriously re-think one of the simplest – and most inexpensive forms of self-care – sleep.
Integrative Nutrition: Feeding Your Hunger for Health and Happiness
It’s time for a reality check: there is no one-size-fits-all diet. Learn the secrets of intuitive eating and start building a new relationship with your body. Integrative Nutrition is loaded with valuable insights into nutritional theories, simple ways to nurture your body and holistic approaches to maximize health. Integrative Nutrition offers a play-by-play for proper nutrition and personal growth, and is packed with delicious, easy-to-follow recipes.
Marissa’s Note: My nutrition bible and the book that started it all for me.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results.
Marissa’s Note: This book inspired a year-long organization and de-cluttering project in my home.
Your Holistically Hot Transformation: Embrace a Healthy Lifestyle Free of Dieting, Confusion and Self-Judgment
Award-winning Health Coach and Women’s Lifestyle Expert, Marissa Vicario, wasn’t always as healthy and happy as she is today. There was a time when her diet had more macaroni and cheese and G&T’s than broccoli and green smoothies. It wasn’t until she hit rock bottom that she realized something had to change, and it was in that moment that she vowed to make her physical, mental and emotional well –being a top priority.
Your Holistically Hot Transformation follows Marissa’s wellness journey from unfulfilled corporate professional to purpose-driven women’s lifestyle aficionado committed to making healthy, fit and balanced (aka Hot), less intimidating, more approachable and totally attainable to women regardless of where they are on their own path to a healthy lifestyle.
Marissa’s Note: This is my book. Need I say more?
The Yeast Connection
An in-depth guide on how to suspect, identify, and over-come those health problems in people of all ages and sexes that can be traced to sensitivity to the yeast germ candida albicans.
Marissa’s Note: With rampant sugar addiction being such a problem, more people are living with candida than likely know it. Thorough and informative, this is a great resource for everything candida.
Body Ecology Diet
If you’re experiencing discomfort, fatigue, or other symptoms that won’t go away no matter what you do or how many doctors you see, chances are you’re one of the millions unknowingly suffering from a systemic fungal/yeast infection, “the hidden invader.” The result of an imbalance starting in your internal ecosystem, this can be a key factor in headaches, joint and muscle pain, depression, cancer, food allergies, digestive problems, autism, and other immune-related disorders. The Body Ecology Diet reveals how to restore and maintain the “inner ecology” your body needs to function properly, and eliminate or control the symptoms that rob you of the joy of living.
Marissa’s Note: As a Health Coach, I’m fascinated by the underlying imbalances behind some of the signs and symptoms our bodies experience that we’ve been programmed to accept or “live with.” If you’re like me, you’ll enjoy this eye-opening book.
Wheat Belly
A cardiologist explains how eliminating wheat from our diets can prevent fat storage, shrink unsightly bulges, and reverse myriad health problems.
Marissa’s Note: An eye-opening look at how the processed wheat in this country is causing many of our nation’s health issues. Worth a read.
In Defense of Food
With In Defense of Food, Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.
Marissa’s Note: Everything I believe about food and nutrition in one book!
The Artist’s Way
The Artist’s Way is the seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist’s life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published one decade ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work.
Marissa’s Note: Before you can do good work in the world, you must heal that which is unhealed and this book put me on the path to doing just that. It will challenge and change you.
The Whole Foods Guide to Strong Bones
With this complete program for stronger bones created by health educator Annemarie Colbin, you’ll learn the best foods to eat to build bone mass and find out which foods actually weaken bones. In The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones, you’ll also discover how exercise and finding personal balance can improve your health and prevent fragility fractures, menopause-related bone loss, and osteoporosis.
Marissa’s Note: This is another one I devoured in an effort to study and understand a multitude of women’s issues. If you’re nearing menopause or just want to prepare yourself to age gracefully, pick up this book. It’s a great read for women of any age.
The 3-Season Diet
The beauty of fitness and diet expert John Douillard’s system is that now, for the first time, the body’s cravings actually support both a weight-loss diet and a way-of-life diet. Given the opportunity provided by The 3-Season Diet, our desires readily align with foods that nature has provided for thousands of years at the time when they are naturally harvested. In winter we crave soups, nuts, warm grains, and other high-fat and protein foods such as fish and meat. In spring we want salads, berries, and leafy greens, a naturally low-fat diet. And in summer, when long days and outdoor activities require high energy, we desire fruits, vegetables, starches, and other high-carbohydrate foods.
Marissa’s Note: A beautiful guide to eating with the seasons based on the Eastern philosophy of Ayurveda.
I Quit Sugar
I Quit Sugar makes it easy to kick the habit for good, lose weight, and feel better than ever before. When you are nourished with delicious meals and treats, you won’t miss the sugar for an instant.
Marissa’s Note: The only cookbook on the lost. The recipes in this book are my go-to’s for all things sugar-free.
Clean
Clean is an M.D.’s program designed to be easily incorporated into our busy schedule while providing all the practical tools necessary to support and rejuvenate our bodies. The effect is transformative: nagging health problems will suddenly disappear, extra weight will drop away, and for the first time in our lives, we will experience what it truly means to feel healthy.
Marissa’s Note: I’m obsessed with comparing and contrasting different takes on some of the same common health issues. This is yet another approach from a renowned doctor.
Super Immunity
A nutritional guide to help you live longer, stronger, and disease free. Dr. Fuhrman doesn’t believe the secret to staying healthy lies in medical care—rather, the solution is to change the way we eat. With more than 85 plant-based recipes, a two-week menu plan, and lists of super foods that boost immunity, Dr. Fuhrman’s proven strategies combine the latest data from clinical tests, nutritional research, and results from thousands of patients.
Marissa’s Note: Dr. Fuhrman reinforces the power of plants with his own enlightening approach to treating disease.
You Can Heal Your Life
Louise Hay, bestselling author, is an internationally known leader in the self-help field. Her key message is: “If we are willing to do the mental work, almost anything can be healed.” The author has a great deal of experience and firsthand information to share about healing, including how she cured herself after being diagnosed with cancer.
Marissa’s Note: This is an interesting spiritual approach to healing that looks beyond food. As a holistic practitioner, always consider all angles when working with clients.
The Power of Now
To make the journey into the Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the very first page of Eckhart Tolle’s extraordinary book, we move rapidly into a significantly higher altitude where we breathe a lighter air. We become connected to the indestructible essence of our Being, “The eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.” Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle uses simple language and an easy question and answer format to guide us.
Marissa’s Note: When read with an open mind, this book will move you into a new realm of consciousness.
Financially Fearless
It’s time to throw away all your old notions of what financial advice should look like. Because if you’re looking for a book to put you on an austerity savings plan that has you giving up vacations and lattes, you’re out of luck. But if you’re looking to get your finances in rock-hard shape – in less time than it takes to finish a workout – then Alexa von Tobel, Founder and CEO of LearnVest, has your back.
Marissa’s Note: A fresh approach to financial planning for anyone looking to take more control of their finances.
Which of these books speak to you based on what you want to learn and where you are on your wellness path right now?
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