Alex Picot-Annand

Much of my childhood was spent with my nose in a book. Still book-bound, my nose has sought out more elevated choices than The Babysitters Club series which was my childhood Kryptonite. While I still adore a deliciously good novel I can lose myself in, I have had to make a compromise with myself: For every book for the soul, one book for the brain. I’ve usually got two books on the go, the soul one being read before bed and the brain one between breaks at work. There have, however, been a few books that have straddled this dichotomy and touched both emotion and intellect. While these examples are all non-fiction, I found them to be mostly engaging enough to read with enthusiasm, while still feeding my desire for practical knowledge. And I think you should read them too.

Here’s a list of three books that influenced me greatly, and dare I say, changed my life.

1. The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz

Along with being a bookworm, I was (am) a sensitive human being. I have gone through periods in my life feeling like I was wearing nothing but tissue paper as my metaphorical skin, being deeply affected by the actions of those around me, and overly concerned if my actions might offend another. I was always well-liked in school, had amazing friends, a warm family, and generally had great people in my life, so my thin skin was relatively protected by a good environment. However, around the time I entered high school, things started to get a bit more dramatic (I blame it on the hormones). The people in my life were still wonderful, but as I started my ascent into maturity I began asking myself questions like, “How do I know if I’m a good person? Do I like who I’m turning into? How do I not let it ruin my day if that complete stranger was mean to me?” This very concise book answered a lot of those questions and became a Bible of sorts for me. Ruiz’s four rules heavily influenced my moral compass. I believe that it helped me to be kind but assertive, ethical and respectful of others, and perhaps most importantly, more able to identify when somebody’s snarky attitude is not about me, and to let it go. I have my bad days, but for the most part, I can say I’m proud of how I conduct myself as a person and feel this book really helped shape who I am. Read this if you feel lost in your social world, or like you’d like to turn over a new leaf and become a better version of yourself.

2. Healthy at 100, John Robbins

This book was part of the assigned reading during my nutrition training at CSNN. Even though I have one of the springiest grandmothers that ever sprung, still bouncing around in her eighties, I too associated aging with aches and creaks, social isolation, and a decline in cognitive function. But no! Robbins takes us on a tour of four different populations in Ecuador, Russia, Pakistan, and Japan whose people are known for living their golden years in style (and by style I mean vibrant health). This book had the effect of clearing the dark fog that clouded my future vision of “When I’m Old”. It made me realize that age is more about the cumulative load of how you treat yourself than it is about years on the planet. Robbins talks about the factors that make these societies stand out, and the most salient factors to healthy aging may surprise you!  Change is inevitable, but aging doesn’t have to equate decline. This book was really, really inspiring to me. Read this if you repeatedly catch yourself telling people, “I tell ya, gettin’ old is no fun!”

3. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, Robert M. Sapolsky

One of the most important things I’ve learned in my formal training as a nutritionist is that nearly every disease (and I mean 99.99999% of them) can be traced back to two factors: Bad diet and stress. The first one is obvious to me, and as a health practitioner who works with food as her main tool, it’s the one I felt more comfortable with. I always respected the importance of stress as a major causative trigger in illness, but almost in an intangible fluff sort of way. You can imagine the witch doctor wearing the jingly bangles waving her hands vaguely saying, “Yes! Stress was the cause of your ills!” Prior to reading this book, the link between stress and disease seemed to me often perilously blurry, lacking the explanations of why A causes B causes C causes D. This book punches vague assumptions about stress and disease right in the face. Sapolsky is an impeccable, almost neurotically thorough researcher and does an amazing job of breaking down how stress causes illness. He is the type of man whose brain I will love to jump into (not to mention his giant beard). I rub this research in the faces of my clients who don’t believe me when I tell them their blood pressure is high because they need to spend more time with their friends playing euchre or that their memory will improve if they get back to their watercolours. Additionally, Sapolsky has spent decades of his life observing apes and monkeys in Africa and brings many humourous and poignant anecdotes from his experiences there that will leave you thinking, “We are nothing but a bunch of pale, tall monkeys”. Read this if you keep dismissing the power of how we perceive our reality (because stress is all about perception) and our health.

Take care,

Alex