Suggested Reading
Here is some suggested reading that can improve your quality of life and help you along your wellness journey. Although some may seem unrelated, they all contribute in some way to supporting your healthy lifestyle. As a personal trainer and wellness coach, I have bought these specific books. I am suggesting them, because they have helped me personally. If you want to know my reasoning behind each suggestion, you can click the link to the blog entry review I wrote for each of them.
Fitness Fundamentals, vol. I: 8 Essential Patterns
This book represents a single layer of an immersive experience I designed, a group movement workshop for chakra alignment therapy. Participants wanted to have ongoing access to the haiku from the soundscore. Although the poems seem “simple,” they were not easy to write. Some blurted themselves in 15 minutes, others labored for 15 hours. I took entire weeks off from composing them at all, because the process is so exhausting. It took nine months to gestate all 49 haiku — it was like giving birth to a cube. Learn more about this suggestion.
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Fitness Fundamentals, vol. I: 8 Essential Patterns
You don’t need another exercise manual. You need a guide. A friend. Someone who’s been where you are and wants to help you get where you’re going. That’d be me! I’m Jack Kirven, and I wrote “Fitness: Fundamentals: 8 Essential Patterns” to give you intimidation-free steps on how you can incorporate better eating, moving and thinking into your everyday life. Draw from my 20+ years of experience so you can look better, feel better, be better. Oh, and #TakeHotterSelfies, too! Learn more about this suggestion.
Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook: 1400 Best Slow Cooker Recipes!
I bought this cookbook, because I began to run out of ideas after I used my 3-headed crockpot. Obviously I haven’t tested every suggestion in this encyclopedia, but those I have tried are excellent. I’m particularly fond of the Prairie Fire Dip. You will have to make lots of substitutions to keep the recipes clean, but it’s also great that the author includes nutritional information at the end of each recipe. Learn more about this suggestion.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
When the new property managers bought my apartment complex they immediately began raising the damn rent. I realized at some point I’d have to move. Then I realized that although I’d been purging about once a year, I still had waaaaaay too much stuff. Learn more about this suggestion.
The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss
I bought this book, because I ran across several articles written by Dr. Jason Fung that caught my eye. Here was a medical professional saying what I’d be sensing for a long time: Counting calories and macros is a waste of time. Dr. Fung explains in simple language why insulin response is far more important than calories themselves. I implemented his teaching during my 2018 Birthday Fitness Challenge, and I was able to shed the most stubborn fat by applying his principle for minimizing insulin spikes. Learn more about this suggestion.
Square Foot Gardening
The style of gardening that fascinates me most is Square Foot Gardening. The ease, simplicity, versatility, economy, and variety of this process impresses me. It minimizes the money, equipment, soil, water, physical work, and time required to successfully grow food. Learn more about this suggestion.
True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself
Janet Jackson has made more of lasting impact on me than any other person outside my family. When she shares herself in her music and writing, it’s often like opening a window into my own heart, mind, and soul. Janet has suffered from many of the same type of depression and body shame issues I have, so reading about the ways she contends with her demons was very inspiring to me. This isn’t a memoir of a celebrity life. It’s a journal with many entries about learning to accept oneself. Learn more about this suggestion.