I wanted to share with all of my followers some of my favorite books I have read that have helped me to learn more about clean eating and nutrition. I also am including one of my favorite books that I read in regards to natural living. By no means am I a nutritionist but I am teacher and that means I am good at doing my homework. When I began my journey to being healthier, I felt overwhelmed by how much I needed to change and wasn't sure where to start. Books became my teacher. It's one thing to know you shouldn't eat something, but when you start to educate yourself on the scientific reasons why you should avoid certain things it makes your new commitment a lot easier to stick to. I love the quote that say's "when you know better, you do better." It's so true. I really didn't know better before, but now that I do I find it easier to stay on track. My hope is that if you are trying to change your habits the same things will become true for you too.
One of my favorites for overall learning more about your body is ironically called "The Body Book." By Cameron Diaz. The book is broken down by really funny topics with just the right amount of science and humor. It is written for women. Nutrition, Fitness and Mindset are the different subsections of the readings. Most chapters are short and you can pick and choose which ones you want to read. There is some really great informational charts in this one but no meal plans are recipes really. I have found myself going back to this one to re-read it several times.
The Eat Clean Diet Stripped by Tosca Reno is AMAZING!!! She is such a guru when it comes to clean eating. I pray I look as good as she does someday. Super fit and healthy in her elder years. The picture of health. She has several clean eating books out there, but I only have this one. Each page is colorful and includes lots of pictures and is packed with clean eating knowledge for every topic under the sun. Most topics are only a page so it really was a great resource for learning LOTS of tips. Aside from clean eating topics, she does include different exercises to try. ( I didn't try any of them since I already have my pre-planned workouts for each day.) The second half of the book is filled with recipes and sample meal plans. Tried a few of the recipes and loved them. I have done a challenge group a few times this past year and used a lot of resources from this book as curriculum for my challengers. The results they got were great when they combined it with the programs they were doing with me.
It Starts With Food was very factual and at some times boring but helpful in giving me different approaches to some foods that I would typically consume. The authors are the founders of the Whole 30 plan. While I am not planning on doing Whole 30 since most of what I already eat is pretty similar to the suggested foods. I liked this book as a factual guide for my challengers. They had very interesting points of view. It focused a lot on how foods you eat can help eliminate disease and aliments that you might be suffering from. A common theme in this reading was encouragement for readers to eliminate dairy and grains. The appendix had helpful meal prep tips and shopping suggestions.
Superlife - The 5 forces that will make you health, fit and eternally awesome was an eye opener for me and really made me critical of foods and the chemicals in them. It certainly gave me the "scare factor" that stuck with me for a few month prior to reading it. Helped a lot with getting me to stick with foods in their most natural state. I also loved this book because it was written by Darin Olien the creator of Shakeology. He did an awesome job of describing where the superfoods come from and the benefits of them. Made me proud to say that I drink it daily. In addition he did a great job touching on detoxing your body as well as how to incorporate supplements in your daily diet.
The Honest Life - Living Naturally and True To You was really one of my favorite reads from 2015. One of my goals for the year was to remove chemicals from our lifestyle and learn to slowly change our habits and products that we were currently using. With my thyroid condition, it was strongly encouraged that I take proactive measures to eliminate this as much as possible because there are many endocrine inhibitors that can effect your thyroid in many of the daily products I was using. The book is awesome for moms, especially NEW MOMS!!!! I wish I read this BEFORE I had my son but am at least glad I have read it now. Fun topics with beautiful pictures. The book is broke down into the following sections:
Food
Cleaning
Beauty
Style
Home
Cleaning
Beauty
Style
Home
Baby
Decorating Inspirations For Your Home
It also included recipes and lots of DIY ideas for your home. After reading it I did become an active subscriber of the Honest monthly bundles. I loved them so much I also send my mom one each month. Great stuff! I did a blog post about it which you can find here. if you are looking for more info about the bundles.
Fixate Cookbook is my go to cookbook in our house. It was created by Autumn Calabrese the creator of the 21 day fix. I have yet to find a recipe that I don't like yet and I love how affordable it is. The Chicken Noodle Soup is our favorite one. I encourage all of my challengers to snag this one and I always get the same response. I LOVE THIS COOKBOOK!!! They especially love it because it breaks down all of the meals by the containers used in the program for portion control and helps with meal planning when doing the programs. Check out my blog to learn more about this one.
Hope this was helpful! Take it upon yourself to learn as much as you can! While I have used all of these books I don't recommend just one, I suggest to keep growing your knowledge base. Read, read, read! Knowledge is power my friends! Stop using the excuse that you don't know where to start. If you would like to consider being one of my challengers in my online support group, please feel free to fill out the application below. I would be glad to include you. I have found my challengers have the most success in these groups because of the accountability and the fact that they are getting to be supported not just by me, but also by my other challengers in the group going thru the same struggle.
Only you can change your lifestyle. It isn't easy. I won't come quickly but I do promise it will be worth it!
Happy New Year!!!
xoxo
Sarah
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