Hi there,
As a coach and as a human being it’s important to care for yourself and learning about healthy nutrition and lifestyle is a part of that.
I’ve been reading the very cheerily titled book, ‘How Not to Die’ by Michael Gerber. Happily, Michael is a lot cheerier than the name of his book suggests and even manages to write about medical studies and research in a way that is page turning.
It’s a doorstop of a book. The first half is dedicated to the latest research about how to not die from a variety of the main medical causes of death. The second half of the book is about bringing that research into your everyday diet.
There’s even a free app called ‘Daily Dozen’ by Michael Gerber. It helps you keep track each day of the twelve items that Michael thinks have the biggest impact on health.
The book has been a wake-up call for me. I did eat very healthily before reading the book but did eat a lot of farmed salmon, organic eggs and some organic chicken. I used recipes from Deliciously Ella (vegan) but would also book from Louise Parker’s and from Clean Eating Alice both which are great clean eating books, but still have eggs, meat and fish. I ate gluten-free and refined sugar-free.
It’s important to me to eat healthily as I want to live along and healthy life, but also because I was able to balance my hormones and get rid of the evidence of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in my body.
It can get so difficult when one book tells you one thing about how to eat healthily and another book tells you something totally different.
I think the Michael Gerber book makes an extremely strong case for not eating animal produce and instead having a plant-based diet. I found it interesting that the DASH diet which is recommended for diabetics has animal produce in it so that more people would find it doable.
So now I’m using my ‘Deliciously Ella,’ cookbooks as the basis of what I cook and no longer having eggs, chicken and farmed salmon.
I also learnt from the book the importance of supplementing with Vitamin B12 if you are eating vegan food and this is also something I was not aware of. (I’m not an expert, so please do your own research on this, particularly with how much B12 is right for you, if any.)
Other things I’m enjoying at the moment:
This meditation from coach Nona Jordan on Befriending Your Demons.
This Mary Berry Series which is a cross between Downton Abbey and The Great British Bake-off – perfect!
Katherine Woodfine’s Sinclair Mysteries.
This wonderful book blog: Modern Mrs Darcy
and this Christmas book catalogue – from Mr B’s Emporium
Until next week,
Deborah