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Self-Improvement 2022 Book Reviews

The first 'self-improvement' book that I read in 2022 was The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy by Caroline Dooner. I am not going to get into the details of why I read this book but if you know at all what this book's goal is then you can probably guess my reasoning for reading it. I read this in January and began implementing the practices while reading it. I found this book to be helpful for the initial start of my journey, but also found the content to be very repetitive. With that being said it did kickstart my journey so for that I am grateful. I found the discussions of different starvation and other studies to be very interesting and helpful in understanding the significance of what the author was telling the reader to do. Throughout the book and at the end the author included resources and additional materials on various topics. I have put some of the books given in the resources section on my to read list for 2022. 

One of my favorite YouTubers Angie Bellmare gave a list of her favorite books. Her descriptions of the books made me put a number of them on my to read list for 2022. The first one I read (listened to on Audible) was The Power by Rhonda Byrne. I am at a point in my life where I am ready to focus on personal growth and seeing changes in my life and this book was the perfect way to get into doing that. I listened to The Power over the course of a month and absolutely loved it. Since starting the book I have implemented a number of different practices given in the book into my everyday life. This includes giving gratitude, giving love, reversing negative thoughts, manifesting and more. Since finishing it over two months ago I have started listening to it once again in hopes of getting even more out of it.

For my birthday this year I wanted to go thrift shopping. At the one Goodwill that we went to they had three hardcover copies of three of the books on my to read list; The Body Book: The Law of Hunger, the Science of Strength, and Other Ways to Love Your Amazing Body by Cameron Diaz, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I believe that these books were put there that day because I was meant to read them. 

The first book I read from this haul was The Body Book: The Law of Hunger, the Science of Strength, and Other Ways to Love Your Amazing Body by Cameron Diaz . After reading The F*ck It Diet, I still felt like there was and is room for me to improve my relationship with food, exercise, and how I view my body. Reading this book not only gave me a better idea of how food fuels the body, but also what types of food should be used to fuel the body. In my opinion this book changed my relationship with food as I now view food as fuel and not just eat to eat like The F*ck It Diet recommends. As someone with a bachelors of science I found the sections on the anatomy of the body to be the most interesting. The graphics and explanations for all of the scientific parts were described in simple and easy to digest wording. In my opinion anyone regardless of their education can understand the scientific parts. This book also gave me the push and encouragement to listen to my body when it comes to exercise. Before I was really hard on myself when I didn't run because I thought it was the only way for me to combat all the food that I was eating. Now I see exercise as a way to maintain and build strength in my body so I live a long and healthy life. I have since slowly reintegrated strength training into my weekly workouts, it has been years since I regularly included this in my weekly workouts. This has not only given me something new to look forward to, but I see it less as a way to change the physical composition of my body and more for the long term benefits of my muscles and bones. I highly recommend this book. I especially recommend it if you feel like you have an unhealthy relationship with your body, food, or exercise. I personally recommend it over The F*ck It Diet just because I got more out of it.

I listened to The Power by Rhonda Byrne on Audible at the start of the year. I chose to read this before The Secret by Rhonda Byrne because I felt like it would explain The Secret, but also give tangible tips on how to use The Secret. I was right because I did read The Secret after The Power and I liked The Power a lot more. I found The Power to be more beneficial than The Secret. The Secret explains what it is and the history behind it, while The Power tells you how to use and implement it into your life. I found both to be worth the read, but if you only wanted to read one I would go with The Power.

If you have followed my book reviews or blog since last year then you will know that my top book of 2021 was Untamed by Glennon Doyle. At the time I did not review the book on my blog because I had so much going on in my life and it was a read that was so personal to me that I could not put into words what I liked and disliked about it. I have since purchased my own copy after having read a friend's copy the first time and reread the book. Even though I only read the book a year ago it was like reading it for the first time all over again. It still brought self reflection like it did the first time. I am also in a very different place in my life from the first time I read it. This time I also used sticky page flags to mark some of my favorite quotes or messages. Once again I am not going to review this book in its entirety because it is a personal read for me. With saying that I am once again glad I picked up this book and reread it. I highly recommend it. I also worked through the Get Untamed: The Journal and loved it. I also recommend you pick that up. 

Atomic Habits by James Clear has been on my to read list ever since my best friend recommend it to me a few years ago. I was not able to get my hands on a used copy until the fall of 2022. I was excited to pick up this book and read it because I was in a unique place in my life where I had a job but it was on-call and was not fulfilling me in the way I needed it to. At the time I was also looking to add running back into my life after taking some time off. So applying for jobs and running were the only two habits that I was looking to add to my life. Because I already did almost all of the habits that James Clear recommend in this book I found parts of it to not be relevant to me other than a reminder to keep doing them. I found the scientific research to be the most interesting parts of the book. I also loved the inclusion of personal stories from the author and other success stories. This book reminded me a lot of a book I read in my leadership class in college, I wish I remembered the title of the book. I would say this was a beneficial read but I could have got more out of it if I had read it at the beginning of the year which is when I started adding in most of the daily habits that he recommends. I say get yourself a copy if you are looking to add new habits to your life because it gives you a step-by-step process on how to do so. I can give the methods some credit because I used the practices to come up with a method for me to apply for jobs and I did land a job using the method. So thank you James Clear for that. 

Check out my book reviews for 2022!!

2022 Book Rankings


Check out my book reviews for 2021!!


Check out my book reviews for 2020!!

Check out my book reviews for 2019!!



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