A New Year and a Book for a New You!
Like most years, 2019 has been a year of ups and downs for me. Thankfully, a few more ups than downs!
One of the big positives was discovering the book Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life. Unlike most self-help books, which usually feature titles that make promises they never keep, this book actually did change my life, and for the better!
I bought the Kindle version in January 2019 for a very simple reason: it was incredibly cheap! It was on sale at Amazon for $0.99, and I had $0.75 in credit. So, the book only cost me $0.24, by far the best quarter I have ever spent!
From the title, I thought the book was going to be about productivity and time management. I find that I never have enough hours in a day, and I was hoping I could find one or two tips that would help me save some time.
The book sat unopened on my Kindle until just a few months ago, in October. I was starting to wear down, and I figured the book might help.
My first big surprise was that the book was really about Ayurveda, not time management. I had no idea what Ayurveda was, so this was a bit of a shock. If you’re not familiar with Ayurveda either, here is a very brief explanation, from ayurveda.com:
“In Sanskrit, Ayurveda means “The Science of Life.” Ayurvedic knowledge originated in India more than 5,000 years ago and is often called the “Mother of All Healing.””
The book, written by Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar with Michelle Seaton, gives many suggestions as to how you can change your schedule and improve your health.
I focused on only a few, ones that made sense to me, and ones that were easy to implement:
I would eat my largest meal of the day at noon, not in the evening, when I could.
I would eat a light meal in the evening before it gets dark and not snack afterwards.
I would practice interval training (walk very fast for 1 minute and at a normal speed for 2 minutes for a total of 21 minutes) before I ate breakfast in the morning.
I would scrape the bacteria off my tongue with a tongue scraper.
I wasn’t sure about number 4, but I happened to be in a pharmacy shortly after reading the book. By coincidence, tongue scrapers and tongue cleaning gel were on sale, so I figured what the heck. It couldn’t hurt.
It’s only been a few months, but everything Dr. Kshirsagar said would happen has indeed happened. I’ve lost some weight, and I love my morning walks. Both my health and my outlook have improved! I just feel better.
Learning more about Ayurveda is one of my main goals for 2020. I just purchased a few more books about it as Christmas presents for myself, and I’m reading one now. And I’ll reread this book. As I said, I barely scratched the surface!
I just checked Amazon, and you can read Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life for free if you have Kindle Unlimited (I don’t). Otherwise, it’s $9.99. That’s more than I paid, but knowing what I know now, I think the book is definitely worth it.
You can’t really put a price on your health and feeling better, can you?
Whether you buy it or not, I wish you a very happy and healthy 2020! And I thank you for reading!