3 Must-Read Books to Make This Your Healthiest Year Yet

The new year is here which means it's the season where many of us pull out our dusty goals notebook and start planning out how we are going to make ourselves look and feel better over the next 365 days. I love this time of year, I love my dusty goals notebook, and I love thinking about how to improve my life, my character, and my health. But it's hard work keeping on track to improved health for an entire year. There are so many distractions and temptations. Chocolate tastes so good that in the moment I am sure it’s worth it to overeat, sleeping in is so easy to do and my bed is so warm, and apple pie and ice cream… need I say more? But here’s the thing. To be the best entrepreneur, leader, thinker, parent, friend, spouse, human that I can be I need to prioritize my health. And so do you. “Exercise used to be the last thing on my mind. Now it’s a regular part of my life, and I can’t imagine missing the benefits—especially as an entrepreneur.” - Michael Hyatt Here are the three books that I'd recommend to anyone looking to optimize their health this year. Food: Perfect Health Diet by Paul Jaminet and Shou-Ching Jaminet. This book just blows my mind. Although it is long, it is so thorough, easy to read (some may even call it digestible), and every single person on earth can benefit from the information and influence it’s attempting. I can’t recommend this book highly enough to anyone who has questions about the effect food has on your body. I learned about it from the workshop Fat Burning with Abel James. Thanks Abel- you delivered a life changer. The Perfect Health Diet is not about starving yourself. It's about consciously choosing which foods, in which proportions, you should eat to thrive. Exercise: Body by Science by John R. Little. Call me a health nerd, but I like books backed by scientific data. This book, much like Perfect Health Diet, is packed full of exercise data. Through experiments and personal experience the book boasts the best ways to optimize your physical health with the minimal effective time spent exercising. That’s right- you don’t have to spend all day every day in the gym. It offers a plan for one 12 minute workout per week. It isn’t an easy exercise program- it’s really hard every single workout. But it’s effective. Whether you are a gym rat or not, this book has exercise information that you can benefit from. Combine it with the Perfect Health Diet, and I’ll tell you what, you are going to have one helluva sexy 2016. Tim Ferriss uses some of this book’s techniques in The 4 Hour Life class right here on CreativeLive. Motivation: Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins. It’s great to collect information and gain knowledge. After reading Perfect Health Diet and Body by Science, you’ll have all the knowhow you need to perform at your peak. But knowhow alone isn’t worth much if you don’t put it to use. Tony Robbins is a phenomenal motivator. Awaken the Giant Within stirs up my potential for greatness every time I read or listen to it. This book offers a fantastic system for clarifying your goals and making them actionable. Just make sure you do the exercises in the book or it won’t do you any good. Getting healthier this year is going to be hard work. You're going to have to find reasons big enough and convincing enough to keep yourself on track (Awaken the Giant Within). You're going to have to move your body and push your limits physically (Body by Science). And you're going to have to change the way you think about the fuel that you are feeding yourself (Perfect Health Diet). But think about how thrilled you'll be at the end of the next year after tackling your biggest and most rewarding obstacle. You, and only you can make this happen. Check out Fat Burning with Abel James and The 4 Hour Life with Tim Ferriss to get more tips on how to make this your healthiest year yet.