8 Wellness Books To Transform Your Health

Wellness and nutrition should be a balanced approach that focuses on what feels good to your body and what is good for your health. Being in charge of your health and well-being not only benefits you physically but also mentally.

If you are struggling to break some of your eating habits or want to take a step toward better health and wellness, check out the list of books below. Our counselors and staff chose a variety of books to hopefully give you the push of encouragement to start or continue your health journey.

1. Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety

By Drew Ramsey

Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety book cover

Depression and anxiety disorders are rising, affecting more than fifty-eight million people in the United States alone. Many rely on therapy and medications to alleviate symptoms, but often this is not enough. The latest scientific advances in neuroscience and nutrition, along with our understanding of the mind-gut connection, have proven that how and what we eat greatly affects how we feel—physically, cognitively, and emotionally.

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Drew Ramsey helps us forge a path toward greater mental health through food. Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety breaks down the science of nutritional psychiatry and explains what foods positively affect brain health and improve mental wellness.

Dr. Ramsey distills the most cutting-edge research on nutrition and the brain into actionable tips you can start using today to improve brain-cell health and growth, reduce inflammation, and cultivate a healthy microbiome, all of which contribute to our mental well-being. He explores the twelve essential vitamins and minerals most critical to your brain and body and outlines which anti-inflammatory foods feed the gut.

2. Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition

By Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch

Make peace with food.
Free yourself from chronic dieting forever.
Rediscover the pleasures of eating.

The go-to resource––now fully revised and updated––for building a healthy body image and making peace with food, once and for all.


When it was first published, Intuitive Eating was revolutionary in its anti-dieting approach. The authors, both prominent health professionals in the field of nutrition and eating disorders, urge readers to embrace the goal of developing body positivity and reconnecting with one’s internal wisdom about eating―to unlearn everything they were taught about calorie-counting and other aspects of diet culture and to learn about the harm of weight stigma. Today, their message is more relevant and pressing than ever. With this updated edition of the classic bestseller, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch teach readers how to:

  • Follow the ten principles of Intuitive Eating to achieve a new and trusting relationship with food
  • Fight against diet culture and reject diet mentality forever
  • Find satisfaction in their food choices
  • Exercise kindness toward their feelings, their bodies, and themselves
  • Prevent or heal the wounds of an eating disorder
  • Respect their bodies and make peace with food―at any age, weight, or stage of development
  • Follow body positive feeds for inspiration and validation

. . . and more easy-to-follow suggestions that can lead readers to integrate Intuitive Eating into their everyday lives and feel the freedom that comes with trusting their inner wisdom―for life.

3. The Intuitive Eating Workbook

By Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch

Is stress and worry about food and your body taking the joy out of eating?

Based on the authors’ groundbreaking and game-changing book, Intuitive Eating, this fully revised second edition of The Intuitive Eating Workbook shows you how to transform your relationship with food and change your life for the better.

In this updated edition you will find a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to help you move beyond diet culture, cultivate and honor your hunger and fullness cues, and truly enjoy food again. Based on the ten principles of Intuitive Eating, this workbook encourages you to trust your inner wisdom about eating and develop a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body.

This workbook provides new content on rejecting diet culture, shines a light on the connection between intuitive eating and social justice, and offers a new way of looking at food and mealtime. The compassionate approach in this workbook encourages you to align and connect with your natural hunger and satiety signals, find more satisfaction and pleasure in eating, develop a peaceful relationship with your body, and—most importantly—stop feeling distressed around food!

You were born with all the wisdom you need to eat intuitively. This book will help you reconnect with that wisdom and ultimately change your life—one bite at a time.

4. Made to Crave

By Lysa TerKeurst

Made to Crave book cover about a book that will change your perspective on food and health

What would happen if you started listening to your cravings instead of trying to silence them? If you’re tired of the same old messages of eat less and move more, this book is what you’ve been missing. You know “how to” get healthy… but now there’s finally a book to help you find your “want to”- the lasting emotional and spiritual motivation to meet your goals and stay healthy.

The reality is we were made to crave. Craving isn’t a bad thing. But we must realize God created us to crave more of him. Many of us have misplaced that craving by overindulging in physical pleasures instead of lasting spiritual satisfaction. New York Times bestselling author of It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way, Uninvited, and The Best Yes, Lysa TerKeurst, invites you to find the missing link between a woman’s desire to be healthy and the spiritual empowerment necessary to make that happen. In this book, Lysa will help you:

  • Break the cycle of “I’ll start again Monday” and feel good about yourself today.
  • Stop agonizing over numbers on the scale and make peace with your body.
  • Replace rationalizations that lead to failure with wisdom that leads to victory.

Reach your healthy goals and grow closer to God through the process.

5. Well to the Core

By Robin Long

Robin Long, certified Pilates instructor and founder of Lindywell, is on a mission to help you reclaim your health, your fitness, and your body. In Well to the Core, join Robin on a journey toward holistic health and discover:

  • ten core components of an effective and realistic approach to healthy and balanced living;
  • a grace-over-guilt mindset to release shame and develop helpful habits in every season of life;
  • how breath, nature, rest, and play can improve your quality of life; and
  • exclusive Pilates workouts, mindfulness exercises, and deliciously crafted recipes to nourish your mind, body, and soul.

It is possible to break free from constant stress about what you’re eating, how you’re exercising, or how much weight you need to lose in order to really start living. This is where true wellness begins. Let Robin Long show you the way in Well to the Core.

6. Breaking Free from Body Shame: Dare to Reclaim What God Has Named Good

By Jess Connolly

You were made for more than a love/hate relationship with your body.

It’s one thing to know in your head that you were created in the image of God. Yet it’s quite another to experience this belief in your body, against the cultural ideals of a woman’s worth. And between the two lies a world of frustration, disappointment, and the shame of somehow feeling both too much and never enough in your body.

The truest thing about you is that you are made and loved by God. And the truest thing about Him is that He cannot make bad things. This book will help you believe it with your whole self, as Jess guides you through an eye-opening, empowering process of:

  • Renaming what the world has labeled as less-than
  • Resting in God’s workmanship
  • Experiencing restoration where there has been injury
  • And becoming a change agent in partnering with God to bring revival to a generation of women

Far from a superficial issue, self-image is a spiritual issue, because God has named your body good from the beginning. Whether your struggle is with eating and exercise habits, stress or trauma, infertility or injury, this book makes space for you to experience God meeting you in this tender place, and ring His freedom bell over your body in a whole new way.

7. Metabolism Makeover: Ditch the Diet, Train Your Brain, Drop the Weight for Good

By Megan Hansen

We’ve been taught by the diet industry that the key to weight-loss success is eating less and exercising more. Both research and experience have proven this theory wrong. Yet we continue to count calories, eliminate carbs, track macronutrients, and cut out entire food groups because the only thing scarier than failing at another diet is trusting ourselves enough not to be on one at all.

It’s time to ditch the diet and learn how our bodies actually work. In Metabolism Makeover, registered dietitian nutritionist Megan Hansen strips away the complexity and confusion surrounding dieting and replaces them with a simple framework that will give you the tools to:

  • Learn the science behind the six key pillars of the Metabolic Ecosystem―blood sugar control, muscle, movement, stress management, good sleep, and a healthy gut―and how to adjust each pillar to fit your lifestyle.
  • Master the art of long-term weight loss by understanding how to get your subconscious mind on board with change instead of relying on willpower to follow through.
  • Use the informed intuitive-eating approach to predict a craving before it starts, manage it once it hits, or prevent it from ever happening in the first place
  • Apply the Next Best Choice framework so you can handle anything that pops up, including the Diet Danger Zones (such as vacations and holidays), without going into “f*ck it” mode.

Your body knows how to lose weight and keep it off―you just haven’t been given the owner’s manual yet. Metabolism Makeover empowers you to regain control of your appetite, mindset, and life.

8. How to Nourish Your Child Through an Eating Disorder

By Casey Crosbie & Wendy Sterling

A revolutionary, entirely visual approach to helping your child overcome their eating disorder (ED) and eat normally again that does away with counting calories and measuring food—rooted in the leading evidence-based approach: Family-Based Therapy (FBT)

Parents are the first to know when their child starts behaving differently. Has your son stopped eating his favorite food, or does he refuse to eat out with friends? Has your daughter drastically increased her exercise regimen, or become obsessed with health foods? These are among the telltale signs that your child, like millions of others, may have an eating disorder (ED).

In this essential guide, registered dietitians Casey Crosbie and Wendy Sterling introduce an all-new strategy you can use to help your child at home. The Plate-by-Plate approach is rooted in family-based treatment (FBT)—the leading psychological therapy for EDs. Unlike complicated “exchange” systems, this is simple: Crosbie and Sterling coach you through every aspect of meeting your child’s nutritional needs, using just one tool—a ten-inch plate.

    Learn about the counselors and staff who recommended these health and wellness books!