5 Books I Loved in 2023 | Gift Ideas

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What are you waiting for? Good night. Okay, friend, it is a gift-giving and getting time of year, but it's always a good time to read a good book. And I'm a fan. I don't know about you, but I love to be surrounded by books. Love them on my bookshelf. I love to be in a room with them. And this episode is all about 5 books I've loved in 2023, potentially great gift ideas. And I think not just at the holiday time when we're all thinking what's on on somebody's wishlist, or I don't know if you do this, but I do. When I find a good book, especially a cookbook, I find I do this most with because maybe other things are a little bit challenging unless I'm, say, giving something to a client I want them to read, maybe for a mindset shift. But cookbooks are easier as a way to say, hey, I loved this one, I think you will too. And if I'm supporting a friend or a colleague, you know, I'll just buy 2 or I'll buy 3, one me and then one for the shelf, one for gifts, or generally I already have somebody in mind like my niece and my sister-in-law, each would get one. So you get the idea. I'm a book giver, love to get books too, love even if they're hand-me-down and borrowed. And I know if you're listening, I do return them and that wasn't yours. Okay, so fair warning though, This 5 books I loved in 2023 episode will read a little bit like a book review. It's a great gift guide, but perhaps the biggest takeaway for us all is the review of titles. And I'm gonna give you this right away. I won't make you wait. I'm gonna share them all in the beginning. The titles are like Trends on Skinny Jeans or Crop Tops and High-Waisted Tights. Did not love either of those. So you might guess I have more muscular thighs. Those of you that rock those skinny jeans, go you. I was just uncomfortable the whole time. And then it was snug in my butt and too big at my waist. I don't know what that was about, but I didn't love lots of trends, and I'm not sure that I love this one, but I think we have to pay attention. And with none of those trends am I judgmental if you were rocking them and love them yourself. But I think this says a lot about what sells today. Pay attention to these titles because of whether they resonate with you or they maybe offend you a little bit or get your hair to stand up on your neck, especially in light of some of the topics we've covered this year. You know, it's the saying, you don't judge a book by its cover, but we do. You know, by the title, by the image, by the subtitle, they all matter a great deal. And let me tell you, they don't take this lightly in the publishing industry. An agent first, which is where you go first if you want to sell a book to a publisher, a publisher and all the editors, their jobs count on saying yes to authors who are going to write bestsellers. They want every book that they publish to be a bestseller. Of course, everybody can't, but ideally it does really well. They rely on data about sales to determine what will sell next. And did you know this? I mean, this is how far ahead they're projecting. So the titles that I'm reading to you of books that have come out recently, that I read recently, or they're on my wishlist 'cause they're coming. They're trending and they have been. They've been deciding what's going to be the COVID the title, the subtitle for 2 to 3 years potentially. I mean, at the very, very least, it's like a year and a half, and that's fast to get the book completely done and written by the author, get it turned over to editors, get it rewritten. So the author then has to go through it again and do their part. And then go back and forth, most likely. Again, there's always negotiation that takes a long time, and then it's the formatting, and then it's the book cover, and then it's the— and all that time the promotion is happening in the background. They're thinking about it. So just wanted to give you that insight into the book publishing industry, and then we'll go a little bit deeper. I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50, where I address your top struggles and your concerns, but most of all share what to eat, how to move, and how to change your mindset so that you can have that energy and vitality that you want, need, and deserve in this second and better half. Okay, so these titles somebody thinks will sell: 5 Books I Loved in 2023, Younger for Life, Forever Strong, Young Forever, Younger You. Outlive. See a theme there? Like younger, young, youthfulness. Outlive, I like. Stronger for— or young forever. I don't know. Younger you. And actually, that book title was published quite some time ago by— ah, I'm gonna get the name wrong, so I probably shouldn't say it, but I believe it was Chris Crowley was one of the authors, but that was, gosh, between 10 and 15 years ago at the very least. And I've heard them, one, one of the pair of them keynote, but as a doctor and a kind of fitness enthusiast who, you know, realized and changed his life by becoming more fit and active. So that was a whole series, I believe. But do you see that we must be We must be still collectively just enamored with staying young, staying youthful, because that word is appearing pretty strongly and then hinted at elsewhere. So let's dive into these books, and this will be a short episode kind of giving you a run-through on things I like. I'm gonna start with one that isn't quite ready depending on when you're listening, Younger for Life by my friend Dr. Anthony Youn. Now, if you have a sense of humor and maybe a strong stomach You may want to follow him. So he is a most loved, most popular doctor on TikTok, if you can believe that. Now I'm barely there and have no idea what I'm doing, so I don't spend any time or energy doing anything with it. I haven't even looked at my account for a million years. I think I may have removed that app even from my phone, so of course not doing very well, I don't think. Um, but he is super funny. Got to start there, and then now he's on YouTube, and he's— that's taken off as well. And he's on Instagram, and of course doing really well there. But he's super funny, and so he really plays up the funny. He may also give some really great tips. I know I've gotten some real quick fixes for, um, blemishes on your skin, you know, and things I can use and order from Amazon and just have handy. And his reports of this does or doesn't are invaluable, but there's a lot of other things there. The subtitle of Younger for Life by Dr. Yoon is Feel Great and Look Your Best with the Science of Auto-Rejuvenation. Now, I have an upcoming podcast with him where we're actually talking about what is the definition of auto-rejuvenation, but like it sounds, like getting your body to automatically like do the things it's capable of doing, and it used to do better, maybe when you were younger. But rejuvenation, obviously, somewhat— I think we're into this turning back the clock kind of look. You'll hear more about this book, and the author himself will tell it in an episode coming up. It'll be titled Younger for Life with America's Holistic Plastic Surgeon. But truly, if you're on TikTok, um, he is TikTok, YouTube, Instagram favorites plastic surgeon. He's a funny, clearly knowledgeable surgeon whose mission is to turn on the power of your own body instead of turning to the knife. This is one coming out after the new year. I think it's January 2nd might be his pub date, but you can always preorder as it gets closer. And if you're listening after the fact, you can already get it. We'll link to it, share a special 21-day challenge that he's doing on improving that auto rejuvenation that you can do yourself. So how do you do that? Turn back the clock, look a little bit better, younger, starting the new year. I'm all for that, right? And especially, I gotta tell you, I think we all go through those moments. Maybe you don't, I should say. True confessions, I do, you know. And it's every once in a while, it's just like, okay, I feel great, my thinking is just so different, you know. What, sometimes I look in the mirror and I'm like You know, there's just things I wish I could change. I don't know about you. And just, you know, I don't want to look 20 or 25, but I'd like to look like I just stepped out of a spa and I'm relaxed and rested all the time. That, and that I can go makeup-free and feel good about it. And, and maybe a little mascara, a little lipstick, but that's it. You know, I don't want to feel like I have to cover up anything. That's, that's my thing. So Dr. Yoon, you know, Younger for Life is the name of that book. And next up, many of you know Dr. Gabrielle Lyon has been someone I've hosted on this show multiple times talking about protein. She was a guest on the What, When, and Why to Women Over 40 Exercise in May of 2023. And, you know, she's an eternal favorite. She started out being a friend from a mastermind group that I belong to. And then, of course, I mean, we're both talking muscle, we're both talking protein, you know, and it takes someone— if you have not seen her, I mean, she's drop-dead gorgeous, like Mona Lisa gorgeous, only more so. And, you know, people sit up and listen when she's talking. You can't help but not. So she belongs on video. But she of course has been in our audio podcast several times, and we'll link to those episodes. She worked with Dr. Donald Layman. Now that name, probably not as familiar to you. She— he was like her major professor, is what we call it when you're in undergrad or grad school. And if you're into the science of protein for longevity, preserving muscle mass with weight loss, he appears— his name is an author in many of the scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals. Since the late '90s. This is not news, and I've said that many times. It's just it takes so long to get something accepted in mainstream, and it takes even longer to get any governmental guidelines or position statements and recommendations to change. Dr. Lyon has made the information in those scientific journals more mainstream, positively opened the subject of obesity again, but in a very new way. It's not a fat problem, it's a muscle problem. And that's kind of her coined term, so giving credit where credit is due. Her book Forever Strong came out earlier in the fall of 2023, and it's one for everyone in your family. The science can only fill so much of a book. The rest of the content is recipes supporting one means of staying strong and eating protein. And the recommendations that, that we're all making based on this science that's been there and looking really closely at longevity— not increasing your age, but increasing your health, your active age— that's the real goal, right? So the protocols are where— are there. The long list of references, if you're a prove-it-to-me girl, is all in the book. And she even speaks to the exercise. She herself, obviously not an exercise expert, but she's shown what she's done. And she is, uh, a fairly young mom. Now, she's a physician, so you're usually— if you're a physician and a mom, you're not that young a mom because you got to wait, right, until you get through all the education, the residency, and all the things. But she's got two littles, I think under 3. Maybe both of them are under 4 at the very least. And, you know, she looks pretty amazing. So, um, maybe a little different and not quite as relative to somebody who's 55, 65, or 75, but the science on strength comes from her time in studying longevity with geriatrics, you know, as a student. So Great read. Next up, Young Forever. Now, don't confuse the two. Forever Strong, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon's. Young Forever, that came out even earlier by Dr. Mark Hyman. Now, he's an extremely popular— and we know from polling our audience and digging, many of you follow Dr. Mark Hyman, know who he is. So do you see a theme here? Where are we at? Let's see. Younger for Life. Forever strong, young forever, and we're not even all the way through. This book explores the biological hallmarks of aging, and this is meaning what typically happens, the causes, the consequences of these hallmarks, and then shows us how to overcome them with simple dietary, lifestyle, and emerging longevity strategies. You're going to hear how to turn on your body's key longevity switches, how to reduce inflammation and support the health of your immune system. How to exercise, sleep, and de-stress for healthy aging. How to eat your way to a long life featuring Dr. Hyman's Pagan diet. Which supplements are right for you? Where the research on aging is headed. So gold if you could see a crystal ball, you know, to hear from Dr. Mark Hyman, who himself is 63. And during the course of promotion for this book, you know, he shows himself shirt off. And I believe— now I don't like to spread rumors, but I believe he has a fairly young wife. He's a newer dad, and that's pretty exciting, right? I mean, that says a lot for not only what you would want as a human, you know, in your early 60s to have a young child. Well, let's look at high school graduation. I mean, what do you want to be? How do you want to feel? How do you want to show up? For that kid, right? Yeah. So, you know, he's got motivation for himself, but you know, it also speaks to what's possible for any of us. What is possible? That's exciting. So spoiler alert, this really reveals what we all collectively want, does it not? Next up, are you ready for this? Younger You, Dr. Kara Fitzgerald, If you're new to the power of your epigenetics, that is your lifestyle habits, the choices you and I make every single day about what time you get up, what time you go to bed, what you're eating for breakfast, when you're eating it, the order you're eating it— that daily habit, you know, is either accelerating or decelerating your age, biological age. Okay, and this is for you. We all have cancer cells within us. We don't all get cancer. Some of us have genetics that predispose us to obesity. I do. I do genetic testing. We don't provide, you know, a great deal of information about doing that, but I have clients who want to dig a little bit more. And DNA can also tell us a little bit about why are you exercising so much. So intensely, doing the work, getting no results. Sometimes when I give advice that, based on signs and symptoms happening out front that we can see and observe, it's not enough. And when you see in your DNA you're actually predisposed to more endurance exercise, or to responding more positively to anaerobic exercise like strength training and high-intensity interval training, but with endurance, you're not going to do very well. We can see that in your DNA. We can see that you will do better with different food concentrations, meaning your macronutrients. I do better actually with a little bit more carbohydrate in my diet compared to others, and others might do better with a little bit more fat. You know, the one thing that we all probably need is protein. Although I just recently spoke with an individual who said, you know, when I went high protein, here's what happened to me. And in that case, what I would suggest is, number one, you observe your weight, your body composition, fat and your lean muscle, and then you look at experimenting with, you know, when you go up or when you go down, or do you need to have this cyclical event and just be timing the protein that you get around your exercise so that you're optimizing your muscle protein synthesis? We all need something different. But in this book, Dr. Kara Fitzgerald shares the diet and lifestyle plan that shows you how to influence your epigenetics for a younger you. In Younger You, you'll learn it's not your genetics, can't blame mom and dad, it is epigenetics. We've always known this, or at least I hope you have. For the last 20 or 25 years I've been saying this, and yet The book is coming out in proof. Not everybody knows this. This is about how DNA methylation powerfully influences your epigenetic expression. And this means how your body expresses and processes things. The foods and lifestyle choices that most affect DNA methylation, like the amount of fats that you're taking in. Sometimes supplements can be really helpful. Simple swaps to your daily routines that'll add years to your life, but really life to your years, I think. And that's not stated here in the description of the book, but it's what I would say we all want. The full eating and lifestyle program with recipes and meal plans to reduce your biological age and increase vitality. How to take care of your epigenetic expression at every stage, from infancy to midlife, in your later decades. You know, side note here, very recently, I think it was actually Dave Asprey, who I should mention. I'm staring right here at my desk. I have a stack of books, some of which I, I have read, some of which I haven't, need to get to. His book came out in January of 2023. It's not on this list, but it is called Smarter Not Harder, his newest book. And, and I would highly recommend it because it's talking about biohacking, a recent episode that we've had on that. Refers to it. And, you know, I think this is all within theme today. Wanting to be younger, more youthful, is still a wish in spite of, you know, the anti-ageism, you know, guests that we've had on like Ashton Applewhite in a previous episode. And we'll link to that too, you know. And there's this incongruency, I think, for, for me and for us, you know, We're not in control of these book titles. We're in control of buying them. And yet, you know, I'm not going to not buy the book because of the title. I would not buy it because of the contents, potentially, if I had a great description and knew what they were and wasn't interested. But I think what we have to do is just look, wow, you know, we are all still obsessed you know, with avoiding aging, avoiding growing older, and looking at what can we do. And yet, you know, I want to say devil's advocate, I think we all look at that from an aesthetic thing, not wanting to look old or, you know, feel old, have joints feel old. But what about— I mean, it's possible. So if we don't age, we don't get old, you know, can we cut healthcare costs? Because by reversing biological age, we decrease disease. Because historically, with age, the likelihood of depression, anxiety, heart disease all go up. Do they have to? We have to question that. They just have because of the lifestyle, and it's increased dramatically in the last 30 to 50 years. So what if we could use science to our advantage, not falsely, but literally, so that our bodies can do the work? Like intermittent fasting requires nothing. You don't have to have anything that costs something. Exercise in the right way, not the wrong way, right? One will accelerate aging, the other will reverse it. Something to keep in mind. Okay, the last book is called Outlive. The title by Dr. Peter Attia, and he has become like extremely popular. So many of you follow him, watch him, found him on YouTube, listen to his podcast, and he's just really diving into a broad array of topics, but all about the entire theme of all of these books. This book is what he calls— he describes the opposite of biohacking. So if you haven't listened to my episode yet, try that. But one has to wonder— and this one anyway, I'm wondering— isn't biohacking based on science? You know, and I'm linking to that episode where I discuss biohacking that you probably are doing even if you don't know it. There are a lot of things inside this book I love, but of course on the top Why Exercise is the Most Potent Pro-Longevity Drug and How to Begin Training for the Centenarian Decathlon. Okay, I love, love, love it. So yes, you know, he's on my list of trying to get him on the Flipping 50 podcast. So if you know somebody— isn't it funny that everybody we need to know is within 5 people of us? So if you know somebody who knows somebody, I want an introduction. Why you should forget about diets. Focus instead on nutritional biochemistry, using technology and data to personalize your eating pattern. This does not mean eat scientifically derived foods from a lab. This means eating whole foods that agree with your system, your DNA, your chemistry. Why striving for physical health and longevity but ignoring emotional health could be the ultimate curse of all. The bottom line on the titles of these books that I love in 2023 and coming out early 2024: we're clearly obsessed with anti-aging, even if the authors are not. The words young and younger are high-volume search words, enough so that agents and publishers agree that they will sell. So whether it's ageist or it's not, we collectively seem to want it Applause to Dr. Lyons and Dr. Peter Attia for Forever Strong and Outlive, which don't actually imply that we're hating aging and getting older, but we are still wanting to get older and, to use the terms of the community, bolder, not older. Growing bolder. Love it. One book I haven't mentioned here, and it's not, not kind of in keeping with the theme, but it is on my nightstand right now. So if these all seem a little bit too scientific and lifestyle, life habits and lifestyle change for you right now, sometimes I too just want an escape, a bit more of a story. And I was looking for just that in kind of a pivotal few moments of this fall. And what I found is a book called Finding Me by Viola Davis. She's a masterful storyteller, and I'm only about a third of the way through, but I have a newfound respect for each of the roles that she has played, knowing what it was that she's tapped into in her own soul in order to do that. I think you might like it too. We will link in the show notes to other episodes that you might like, some of the things that I've alluded to here, as well as resources that you might want and links to where you can get those books if you're looking. Of course, anywhere books are sold and/or on Amazon, and I'll link to my store where I've got them all inside. Thanks so much for joining me. I hope you love books, and I would love to hear from you if you've read a good one. Wherever you might have seen this posted, share it with me either on Instagram or on Facebook. Love to hear from you. Show notes will be at flipping50.com/booksilovedin2023.