Sunday, January 04, 2015

Healthy Reads – January 2015

As part of my 2015 challenge to live healthy on a budget, I plan to read several books promoting a healthy lifestyle throughout the year. During January the books I am reading are:

The Complete Beck Diet for Life: The Five-Stage Program for Permanent Weight Loss by Judith S. Beck:
This book was recommended to me by fellow blogger Joy Weese Moll who has read over 70 healthy lifestyle books. This was one of her favorites and helped her the most in figuring out how and if diet’s work. I’ve read about half the book so far and am currently mastering some of the required tasks before moving on to the final sections. I will write about what I’ve learned and if the tasks worked for me in future posts.




The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Businessby Charles Duhigg
This was a popular book discussed around the blogosphere in 2014. I don’t recall who inspired me to read it this month, but I must say I am enjoying it so far.




French Women Don't Get Facelifts: The Secret of Aging with Style & Attitudeby Mireille Guiliano
I spotted this one on a display table at my local library. The title aligns well with my Make Women Count project. I read Guiliano’s book French Women Don't Get Fat previously and recall thinking nothing new here. Unfortunately my thoughts are been pretty much the same for this book, except it does discuss healthy habits more than I anticipated.  I hope to implement a few of her tips - most notably the breathing exercises - in the future.

Healthy Reading Challenges:
I discovered a Healthy Lifestyle Reading Challenge for 2015 hosted by Joy Weiss. The challenge is to read any book that supports your healthy lifestyle. Joy defines “health” as broadly as you need to improve your life — physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually during the 2015 calendar year. I am signing at the 10K: 10-14 books level.

I am also joining Joy's New Year's Resolution Reading Challenge. This one challenges us to read one to four books that will stimulate action on our goals during the month of January. I am signing up at the Committed: 3 books level.

In other reading news:
Travel the World in Books is hosting a read-a-long of Barbara Kingsolver’s book The Poisonwood Bible. This book which I read several years ago for a real life book club generated an interesting conversation. If you’ve been meaning to read this one, I highly recommend joining TanyaBecca and I for this read-a-long.

Mark Zuckerburg starts a book club:
Thanks to Allison of The Book Wheel for informing me of Mark Zuckerburg’s new book club. According to the club's Facebook page: We will read a new book every two weeks and discuss it. The books will emphasize learning about new cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies. The first book is The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn’t What It Used to Beby Moisés Naím and sounds interesting. I placed a hold on it at the library, but doubt I will have it in time for the discussion. 

What are your reading plans for January? Are you planning on participating in reading challenges during 2015?

13 comments:

  1. I did the New Year's Resolution Reading Challenge last year and loved it! Good luck with all your reading goals!

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  2. I'm working my way through the Complete Beck Diet for Life again to get my healthy lifestyle rejuvenated. I finished reading Stage 1 -- now I'm working with the Success Skills Sheet every day until I can manage all the skills for seven days in a row. I figure on being stuck here for a month or two! But that's okay. It's already making a big difference.

    Glad to have you on board for the Healthy Lifestyle Books and New Year's Resolution reading challenges!

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    1. Some of the success skills are harder than they sound - eat only sitting down for one. I understand why they are success skills and why those who don't master them usually fail. I also found it very interesting that both this book and The Power of Habit talk about keeping a food journal. I started one on Friday and hope to write about it next week. Thanks so much for the recommendations and for creating the challenges - they are so helpful.

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  3. It's a "known fact" that people who journal eat less food. Somehow having to write down every handful of chips helps us not want to write it down... so we don't eat it. If you are not into guilt as a motivator, it also helps us realize how many empty calories we eat.

    I am very impressed at your reading list and your industry. While I have already read three books this year, they were all thrillers and whodunits, so not worthy of much discussion.

    Keep up the good work!

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    1. Ahh, but you read so many more books than I do. I'm considering joining my library's book club to force myself to read a fun book once in awhile.

      Keeping a food journal this week has really helped. I didn't eat a single lunch room treat. Not even the candy my company's owner threw on my desk. Hope I can keep it up.

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  4. The End of Power sounds very interesting!

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    1. It does. I'm looking forward to reading it.

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  5. I personally like "Eat to Live" (ETL) and "Primal Connection". ETL will give you inspiration to eat whole, nutrient dense foods. Primal Connection points out that being healthy goes beyond calorie counting to getting adequate sleep, sunshine and play time. I also like the weight loss success that is noted in "No Impact Man".

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    1. Thanks for the recommendations. I can't wait to check them out.

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  6. Ooooo the Power of Habit book looks awesome!! I love when you do book reviews....helps me weed out the baddies! I'd be interested in hearing more about the diet for life book, too....because I hate diets! Is it really a diet?

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    1. The most helpful thing I've learned from the diet for life book is to have a plan and to stick to it. It is a diet but I've used it more as a guideline than following it. I don't deal well with diets either. I may try a few of the recipes though - I'll let you know if they work out.

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  7. These look like great choices! Thanks for sharing with #SmallVictoriesSundaylinkup. Pinned and sharing!

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