"Eat, Move, Sleep" by Tom Rath

The latest  New York Times bestseller from the author of StrengthsFinder 2.0, How Full Is Your Bucket?, Strengths Based Leadership, and Wellbeing. Tom Rath delivers a "well written and scrupulously researched...approach to improving one's lifestyle" (Kirkus) accompanied by an online application for readers to create a personalized 30 day plan. While Tom's books have inspired more than 5 million people in the last decade, Eat Move Sleep reveals his greatest passion and expertise.

Quietly managing a serious illness for more than 20 years, Tom has assembled a wide range of information on the impact of eating, moving, and sleeping. Written in his classic conversational style, Eat Move Sleep features the most proven and practical ideas from his research. This remarkably quick read offers advice that is comprehensive yet simple and often counterintuitive but always credible.

Eat Move Sleep will help you make good decisions automatic -- in all three of these interconnected areas. With every bite you take, you will make better choices. You will move a lot more than you do today. And you will sleep better than you have in years. More than a book, Eat Move Sleep is a new way to live.

MY THOUGHTS: 

I read one of Tom Rath's earlier books, "How full is your bucket?", so I was aware of some of his background. He has a genetic disorder which makes him several times more prone to the growth of malignant tumours than most people. He dealt with this with such a great, optimistic attitude in that book, I thought it made him a man well worth listening to when it comes to dealing out health advice.

While that other title was mostly about mental and spiritual attitudes, this one turns out to be far more practical. In each chapter, there is a wealth of advice on how we can dramatically improve our wellbeing by looking at things as elementary as our diet, exercise and sleep patterns.

I was surprised by how easily we may fall into bad habits without even knowing it. I kept nodding, "Hey, I do that." As a person who thought I had a reasonably healthy approach to life, I was flabbergasted to find out how much room for improvement there really is. I knew about the ones I've let slip. It's the other habits, which I never considered, that blew me away.

It has the scope for you to move at your own pace, making one small change at a time. In fact, this is probably the most sensible way of approaching it, as there are hundreds of different suggestions. I'll think I'll work on one until it becomes second nature, and then tackle another.

I might start by getting a few extra hours of sleep each night and moving more at regular intervals throughout the day. I might even forego that crusty bread roll at restaurants, while I'm waiting for the main course to arrive.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Missionday in return for an honest review.

3.5 stars
Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes available from Amazon