I have been given this product as part of a product review through the Chronic Illness Bloggers network. Although the product was a gift, all opinions in this review remain my own and I was in no way influenced by the company.
The Whole Health Life is, to put it simply, a book that discusses how our mind and body are so tightly connected and how that connection impacts our lives, especially the lives of those with a chronic illness.
Before I tell you what the book is about, let me tell you what it isn’t. The Whole Health Life is not:
- a quick fix or a cure for your disease or a guarantee that you won’t get a disease in your lifetime
- an alternative to every medication your doctor has prescribed for you
- full of expensive supplements and treatments
What it is, is a comprehensive guide of simple, evidence-based solutions to improve your health from all angles.
When I started reading the book, I immediately identified with the author, Shannon Harvey, and her diagnosis story. I recalled how quickly my Rheumatoid Arthritis disease came on and how long it took my doctors to diagnose me correctly. But what really clicked for me was when Shannon described her life pre-diagnosis- the long hours at work, eating bad foods, getting no sleep, drinking lots of caffeine, and feeling stress from every direction.
“All these elements of my stress-charged life came together to create the perfect storm in my body, a storm that switched on genes to trigger autoimmune disease.”
The Whole Health Life focuses on the following key topics: stress, emotions, belief, food, movement, environment, sleep, healthcare, and relationships. The last topic is lasting change where you can take what you’ve learned and helps you make plans so you can keep making healthy choices.
Each topic is thoroughly written about in it’s own chapter including the author’s own stories accompanied by science based research. But my favorite of each topic, is in the last few pages. Each chapter ends with the following:
Key Takeaways– the most important pieces of information.
Getting Started– Under the food topic, for example, this section tells you how to clear your house of junk food, switch out foods for those with better nutritional content, etc.
Extra Resources– This includes resources available online, such as a food diary template. It also includes suggested books if you want to read more about the topic.
It will take me some time to implement all that I’ve learned from The Whole Health Life but I’m excited about these changes. This book has made me feel empowered about my disease which I haven’t felt in a long time.
If you’re reading this and don’t have a chronic illness, I encourage you to read the book. You are at a point in your life where, like the author Shannon says, “had I been able to step back and look at my life as a whole, I would have seen that things were way out of balance”. You can take what is in this book and apply it to your life now, as a preventive. And, if you’re like me and have multiple chronic diseases, this book is an opportunity for you to step back as well and assess your life as a whole.
If you’re interested in getting a copy of this wonderful book, it’s available on Amazon.