Small Changes, Big Results: How I Transformed My Health & Life

We all know how important sleep is to our mental, emotional, and physical health—however, many of us still aren’t regularly getting that almost-mythical good night’s rest. The cost is clear during our waking hours: chronic tiredness, and low energy and productivity. But sleep and productivity experts say there are a few manageable steps anyone can take to sleep better and wake up refreshed.

In Sleep Smarter, Shawn Stevenson asserts that high-quality sleep is the key to a healthier body, sharper mind, and overall increased quality of life. He provides a wide array of practical suggestions to help us achieve a good night’s sleep, incorporating nutrition, exercise, sleep habits, and aspects of our environment.

Stevenson is an educator, author, and professional nutritionist in the health and wellness field. He hosts the nutrition and fitness podcast “The Model Health Show” and also wrote Eat Smarter, a cookbook designed to help families eat healthier.

In this guide, we’ll explore the importance of sleep, the role of circadian rhythms, the impact of your sleep environment, and the unexpected benefits of sweet potatoes. In our commentary, we’ll explore more of the science behind why these strategies work, as well as some caveats when the research has produced mixed results.

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, you’re probably aware of all the conflicting advice about what you should eat. Should you go on a low-carb diet, a low-fat one, or a liquid one? Eat one large portion in the morning, smaller portions throughout the day, or practice fasting?

In How Not to Diet, Michael Greger, physician and best-selling author of How Not to Die, adds a much-needed voice of clarity to the world of weight loss. He draws on extensive scientific research to explore the healthiest and most efficient way to lose weight and keep it off.

This guide explores Greger’s advice, covering:

• How eating processed foods and animal products leads to weight gain
• Why eating plant-based foods and legumes reduces the calories your body stores as fat
• What dietary changes will help you shed excess pounds and keep them off

Additionally, we’ll expand on each of Greger’s ideas with research, advice, and actionable ideas from other health practitioners and weight-loss specialists.

In a slump? Take a brisk walk every other day to keep your brain, body, and mood in tip-top shape.

Imagine a world where our lifespans aren’t limited by illness or aging, where people could live for as long as they wanted to. This sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but according to Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis, and Robert Hariri, such a scenario may be more fact than fiction. In Life Force, the authors explain how ongoing development of new technologies and information in the medical field may extend our lifespans beyond what we ever thought possible. Robbins is a bestselling author and speaker, Diamandis is a bestselling author and scientist, and Hariri is a neurosurgeon and scientist.

In our guide, we’ll explore the lifestyle changes you can make now to increase your lifespan and overall health. We’ll also look at new technologies that are rapidly improving our healthcare and upcoming technologies that have the potential to bring us even closer to the ideal of immortality. We’ll supplement this with elaboration on some of the authors’ more complex ideas, and we’ll contextualize the guide’s information in the fields of science, technology, and sociology.

Discover how combining the simple act of walking with mindfulness can revolutionize your physical and mental well-being. Your path to inner peace might just start with a single step.

Nobody wants to use moisturizer or shampoo that will compromise their health. But many personal care products on your local drugstore’s shelves contain ingredients that experts say are unsafe—including some labeled “clean” and “non-toxic.”

In Estrogeneration, Dr. Anthony G. Jay argues that chemicals called estrogenics are causing a rise in health problems such as obesity, infertility, and cancer in the US. Estrogenics mimic our body’s natural hormone estrogen and disrupt our hormone system. According to Jay, we’re exposed to them every day through the food we eat, the water we drink, and the products we use. But there’s hope: You can minimize their effects on your health by following Jay’s practical tips on how to avoid estrogenics and how to detoxify your body and fortify your health with simple lifestyle changes.

In this guide, we’ll explain what estrogenics are, the common ways we encounter them, and the health risks they pose to humans and the environment. We’ll also provide some practical prevention tips to minimize your exposure. In commentary, we’ll provide scientific evidence that supports or contradicts the author’s arguments, and we’ll present additional tips for avoiding these chemicals.

Do you feel overwhelmed by assignments, meetings, and obligations? Are you constantly interrupted by email, social media, and the urge to follow every headline? Does it feel like there’s never enough time in the day, and none for what you really want to do?

In Make Time, Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky argue that we live in an information landscape designed to steal our time and attention. In order to escape from all of our modern distractions, you must be proactive to take back your time. The authors offer tips, tricks, and hacks to reclaim control of your day-to-day life and make time for the things that matter most.

This guide provides an overview of the lifestyle adjustments Knapp and Zeratsky recommend while examining their benefits and practicality. We also explore research on the effects of the modern world on the mind and body and how other experts on motivation and time management suggest you refocus your energy and your life.

In today’s fast-paced world, our lives increasingly revolve around productivity, efficiency, and work. It’s now normal for many people to answer emails during dinner and pack their days with as many tasks as possible. Yet in Do Nothing, radio journalist Celeste Headlee argues that by trying to do too much, people are working less efficiently because the human brain isn’t designed to multitask or work without rest. In addition, the culture of overworking has led to worse health outcomes and increased social isolation.

So if all this work isn’t serving us, how can we end an addiction to productivity? And if not work, what should we be doing? Headlee’s solution is to embrace true leisure—doing things just for the fun of it. In this guide, we’ll explain the historical origins of the modern work addiction, how it impacts society, and what you can do to live a healthier life. We’ll also supplement Headlee’s ideas with more context on global labor trends and tips from other wellness and productivity experts.

If you want to heal your body, you have to cultivate a healthy mind. In Mind Over Medicine, Lissa Rankin explores the mind-body connection and reveals our innate ability to promote self-healing. By proliferating positive beliefs and designing a fulfilling lifestyle, she says you can create conditions for healing relaxation and whole-body health.

Rankin is a physician, author, and speaker. Using her own chronic illnesses as a catalyst, she expanded her modern, Western healing repertoire to include holistic medicine after researching mindset and lifestyle factors on spontaneous remissions. She now teaches that optimal health involves more than just prescription medicine and physical treatments—it also depends on the quality of our beliefs, our relationships, and our jobs.

In this guide, we examine Rankin’s principles for healing and compare them to similar books like When the Body Says No and The Upside of Stress.