A Simply Healthy Life, Caroline Fausel. Tyndale Refresh (ISBN: 9781496486905) 2025.

Summary: A guide to health focusing on our bodies, our homes, our relationships, and our spirituality.

Caroline Fausel was often sick as a child. As an adult, she figured out that food, for her, had been a big part of the problem, and could be the cure as well. This led to her becoming a certified health and wellness coach. One of her core convictions is that health begins with intentional choices. Either we choose or life chooses for us. Also, health is holistic, how we care for our bodies, our environment, beginning with our homes, our relationships, and our faith our spirituality. This book collects and distills the information and experiences collected from her coaching work.

Before getting into the four areas of health, she begins with a chapter on the power of habit. She offers tips for forming habits including starting small, and one thing I’ve not heard of before, habit-stacking, in which we add a habit to one already established, like focusing on something for which we are grateful whenever we wash our hands. She also addresses bad habits, inviting us to consider how we feel when we engage in a negative behavior and identifying a positive behavior to swap in when we feel that way. Gradually, as we cultivate good habits and stack them upon each other, Fausel suggests we might frame these as a “rule of life,” one of the most constructive ways I’ve seen for developing a rule.

She then turns to care for our bodies. Fausel looks at what makes food healthy or unhealthy. She is realistic in recognizing that we cannot easily eliminate all unhealthy foods and suggests thinking in terms of “all the time” and “sometimes” foods. In general, the less processing and additives the better, and she gives a number of specific suggestions (as well as recipes in the back!). One suggestion I would question is her commendation of raw milk, given the current bird flu epidemic and the health risks associated with raw milk consumption. However, this chapter is chock full of good ideas, particularly in reducing the amount of sugars and additives in our diets.

She moves on to exercise, making suggestions for the important triad of cardio, strength training, and stretching. And moving hard, as she puts it, helps us sleep hard. She offers helpful suggestions for sleep hygiene. Finally, in a chapter on optimal functioning, she addresses hydration, skin care, and our need for fiber. Hydration, fiber, and even sweating are important components of our body’s detoxification systems.

Fausel also believes our environment is important to health. She addresses the indoor air quality in our homes and how cleaners, VOCs, and plastics affect us, and suggests safe cleaning practices. Fausel also believes healthy homes are uncluttered and she offers helps for purging, room by room. Not only this, but she addresses the root of clutter in our consumerism and commends generosity as an alternative. Finally, she addresses the environmental implications of our home lives–transportation, the products we buy, and our energy use, and even composting as a way to lower our carbon footprint.

Our emotional and relational health is another piece of a healthy life. Fausel begins with practices for cultivating mental resilience and reducing stress. Good emotional health is also tied to good friendships. The author offers tips for building and prioritizing friendships as well as for knowing when to end a friendship. Lastly, in this section, is a discussion of building harmonious family relationships, including the time of intentional time together as a whole family, and with each child.

The last section of the book concerns healthy spirituality. While Fausel is openly Christiian, the material on sabbath and finding your purpose is widely applicable. She encourages the practice of setting aside one 24 hour period a week to rest and stop working and offers suggestions for how this can be a lifegiving practice. Finally, citing longevity studies, she advocates for having a clear sense of one’s purpose. She suggests journaling several questions:

• What do you love?
• What did you enjoy as a child?
• What makes you angry about the world?
• What are you good at?
• What are the pain points in your life?

The challenge of this book is that it offers so many ideas about healthy living. But the author helps us in several ways. Each chapter concludes with three levels of challenges: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The foundation of habits and starting small is important. The author helps us take “baby steps” to a healthier life while offering us the big picture. This is a book to be lived with. With the turn of the year, this might be a good resource to acquire to sustain healthy living in 2025.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.