Summer reading that can teach, inspire, and empower!

The other day someone asked me a question about summertime reading. “Dr. Ritamarie, what books do you suggest I read this summer that will really have an impact on my health?”

That question made me think about the many books that I have read that can teach, inspire, and empower people to continue their quest for greater health.

I have read many, many books on health. While some provide you information, they may not truly teach you how to make a positive change in your everyday health habits. Many do not inspire; and even fewer focus on actually empowering you in taking charge of your health. I often read books and wonder how people out there in the audience can implement anything at all from the book.  I often feel that many books do not provide any type of ongoing support to enable – and encourage – people to make a profound change in their health.

So that is why today I am going to tell you about several excellent books, as well as one additional online resource, that I believe CAN, in fact, teach, inspire, and empower you this summer.

First, the resource that can get you to ask the right questions (and provides many answers) about healthy food

I am a huge supporter of the Food Revolution Network, and have been an invited speaker for their wonderful summits over the past two years. The Food Revolution Network is special – primarily because it is guided by John Robbins and his son, Ocean. It is a site focused on healthy, sustainable, humane, and conscious food. My favorite topic!

The organization has a very large and active community and is supported by many of the top revolutionary food leaders of our times. The aim of the organization is to build community on the topic of healthy, sustainable food; to transform food systems to support healthy people as well as a healthy planet; to empower individuals in making healthier food choices; and in demanding more from food producers all over the world.

John Robbins actually has a fascinating back-story. He was the heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream empire, founded by his father! But he walked away from that to find a healthier path for himself and, thankfully for all of us, for many others. He wrote the excellent book (way before its time), “Diet for a New America”, that has sold millions of copies; you might want to read that this summer. He and his son, Ocean, co-manage the Food Revolution Network and organize their very informative and inspiring annual summits.

I encourage you to go to their site and register as one of their community. You will automatically get a free eBook when you do, called the “Real Food Action Guide.”  But, even more importantly, you will get ongoing information that will be of high value to you in your ongoing health journey.

If you go to the site you will find blogs, book recommendations, and incredibly useful information such as this piece on the “Ten Banned Foods that Americans Should Stop Eating”.

You might even want to consider purchasing one of their past summits, which would make good listening this summer while vegging out by the pool or the beach.

 A self-empowering approach to depression and other mental symptoms

Dr. Kelly Brogan has written a compelling New York Time Best Seller, “A Mind of Your Own,” that focuses on how drugs have become the unfortunate “go to” for every type of emotional experience, whether that be panic attacks, PMS, grief, irritability, insomnia, or depression. The book starts with the shocking statistic that 1 in 4 women start their day with some type of medication. Dr. Brogan then walks through a science-based and holistic approach to how we need to heal our bodies in order to heal our minds.

The book includes a step-by-step 30-day action plan that focuses on getting all of the body’s systems back in balance, including improving gut health, blood sugar, and thyroid function.  This book clearly is placing inflammation as the root of the mind’s problems. There are powerful dietary interventions, techniques for reducing stress and improving sleep, detoxification protocols, as well as targeted nutrient protocols provided to help you resolve your body’s inflammation and heal  the mind (all without a single prescription).

How your prescriptions are robbing your body of vital nutrition and health

Suzy Cohen, R.Ph. and Dr. Samuel Cohen have written an easy-to-read – yet incredibly powerful – book, “Drug Muggers – How to Keep Your Medication from Stealing the Life Out of You,” that focuses on how the drugs you take can rob your body of the essential nutrients it needs, often creating serious health-affecting side effects. The simple example of a drug mugger are antibiotics, which we know are drug muggers for your healthy intestinal flora. Another great example are statin cholesterol drugs, which mug your body of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), resulting in negative impacts to your cardiovascular system and brain health.

Their book discusses lifestyle changes, including eating a diet to replenish vital nutrients, that can help reduce the drug mugger’s effects. They also discuss targeted nutrient supplementation that can offset different drug mugger impacts.

Can you heal by thought alone?

Dr. Joe Dispenza has written a fascinating book about the true power of the mind. In his book, “You Are the Placebo – Making Your Mind Matter,” he shares documented cases where people have healed themselves using only the power of thought, by believing in a placebo. These cases cross many health issues, including people who have reversed crippling arthritis, heart disease, and even cancer. He also talks about how the mind can control the opposite reaction. People have become ill or even died after they believe they have been hexed or put under a voodoo curse, or after being misdiagnosed with some illness.

The book focuses on the question, “Is it possible to teach the principles of the placebo, and, without relying on any external substance, produce the same internal changes in a person’s health and ultimately in his or her life?” Dr. Dispenza believes it is, and he shares the science of amazing healings he has witnessed. The book combines the latest research in behavioral conditioning, neuroscience, psychology, biology, hypnosis, and even quantum physics to prove the power of the placebo effect.

Here’s a book on a sweet (killer) topic

Sugar!

It is so bad for you and disguised in so many foods and, if you haven’t already heard, is also important to realize the negative impact of most sweeteners!  JJ Virgin’s book, “JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet,” is a good introductory discussion on why it is important to attempt a life with minimal sugar.

Whether you end up following her 2-week diet plan faithfully or not, you can still learn a lot about how sugar causes weight gain, energy crashes, and inflammation, as well as how low sugar impact foods can fuel your body for energy and promote fat burning. She provides a lot of good “swap” strategies and low-sugar recipes, and goes through a 3-phase process to eliminate most of the sugar in your current diet.

My own book focused on your achieving Unstoppable Health!

OK, maybe you might think it is pretentious of me to include my own book as one of my recommendations, but my book, “Unstoppable Health: 7 Breakthrough Habits to Feel Younger, Grow Stronger, and Enjoy More Energy,” is an easy read that will provide you with strategies you can immediately implement that will re-balance your hormones, strengthen your body, and enable you to grow younger, stronger, and more energetic.

Feedback on my book has been very positive, in part due to the material being presented in story form. Readers follow my heroine from exhausted to energized, hopeless to successful, and despondent to joyful. The story will introduce you to the world of plant-based eating, as well as help you look at re-evaluating many things in your daily life that dramatically affect your health.

And as part of the book purchase you will be encouraged to subscribe – for free – to the Unstoppable Health Resources page on my private Vibrant Living Members (VLM) members-only website. There you will receive a valuable set of resources and gifts to help you move forward on your own breakthrough health journey.

And whether you purchase the book or not, if you haven’t already joined my Unstoppable Health Facebook group page, please do! This is a wonderful way to ask questions (and get answers!).  You can also share your own tips, recipes, and other supportive health-related information from like-minded people.

Summertime doesn’t have to be a time of negative impact to your health goals!

Take a look at the above suggestions, and commit that you’ll take advantage of at least one this summer!

In addition, consider joining my VITAL Community. Have you heard of it?

V.I.T.A.L stands for, “Vibrant Inspiration and Tools for Awesome Living”!  

You can do a two month trial to take you through the rest of the summer! You will also gain a supportive community along with tons of resources, including a library of food and exercise videos, a monthly “hot health topics” call, Live Q & A calls with me and my personally trained health coaches,  my Healing Kitchen show, and other goodies, recipes, and techniques to help educate you, inspire you, and empower you in your health journey.

Check it out!  I hope to see you there!

Be good to yourself this summer.  Take care of your health and your family’s health, even when on vacation.  If you didn’t already read it, check out my blog on how to stay healthy while traveling on that summer vacation! 

COMMENTS? I’D LOVE TO HEAR THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRE AND EMPOWER YOU!