Jamie Gold - A Room-by-Room Guide to Optimizing Your Home for Health, Fitness, and Happiness

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This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health, or any other kind of personal professional services in the book. The reader should consult his or her medical, health, or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it.

The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, that is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

Copyright 2020 by Jamie Gold

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Tiller Press hardcover edition September 2020

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Interior design by Jennifer Chung

Cover design by Patrick Sullivan

Front cover courtesy of Blanco

Author photo by Brent Haywood Photography

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gold, Jamie, 1960 author.

Title: Wellness by design : a room-by-room guide to optimizing your home for health, fitness, and happiness / by Jamie Gold.

Description: New York : Tiller Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020000877 (print) | LCCN 2020000878 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982139049 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982139056 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Interior decorationHealth aspects. | Housing and health.

Classification: LCC NK2113 .G644 2020 (print) | LCC NK2113 (ebook) | DDC 747dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000877

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000878

ISBN 978-1-9821-3904-9

ISBN 978-1-9821-3905-6 (ebook)

This book is dedicated to everyone who believes they can train, fuel, and accomplish whatever goals they challenge themselves to achieve

And to my parents, who inspired me with their example to believe that I could too.

I bet you picked up this book because youre invested in improving or maintaining your health and youre looking for new ways to do so. Thats a great reason. Im interested in mine, too, and have discovered many connections between where we live and our total well-being, which I look forward to sharing with you in these pages. Let me share a little of my story firstincluding how I came to learn of these connections, which have already benefited me greatly, and which I believe can benefit you too.

I havent always been great at taking care of myself. I was reasonably active in my twenties and thirties, swimming, hiking, and strength training after work and on the weekends. But when I finished grad school and started working more demanding jobs in my forties, I began de-stressing with junk food and TV instead of working out or even walking. I became completely sedentary, and the pounds piled on.

When my marriage crashed and burned just before my forty-ninth birthday, I realized that I was a heart attack waiting to happen and needed to get off the dang couch. Fortunately, our subdivision had a heated pool, and I started swimming laps again. I enjoyed both the movement and the calming nature of slicing through the water. I also found that my body started craving healthier foods like fresh fruits and vegetables again to power my laps, a welcome reintroduction to better eating.

That was the start of a three-year journey to losing about a hundred pounds, which I plan to keep off forever! As you may have found yourself, losing lots of weight is much more exciting than maintaining a healthy weight. It elicits compliments from friends, offers new and sleeker wardrobe options, inspires new confidence, and can generate new dating possibilities. Losing weight takes weeks, months, or even a year or more. Maintaining weight takes a lifetime of consistency, long after the thrill has worn off. Many people eventually regain the weight; Ive been guilty of a little backsliding too. Its a constant battle as I move toward the big six-oh and beyond.

The most effective strategy for me was changing my mind-set from dieting and exercising to training and fueling. I set a goal: to complete a three-mile Spartan Race in January 2014 after volunteering at a similar event and winning a free entry online. I found an obstacle course racing (OCR) coach in my area, learned how to scale six- and eight-foot walls (not gracefully, mind you!), run trails, and do burpees. Most women in their fifties get their mud at spas; I was getting mine crawling under barbed wire.

After that first OCR event, I set new goals to complete a Spartan Trifecta (5K, 15K, and half-marathon distances in one year), two military-style GoRuck endurance events, two Ragnar trail relays, half and full marathons, and the summiting of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower forty-eight states. Each required dedicated training, proper nutrition, rest, and recovery.

I met other racing, endurance, and mountaineering enthusiasts and joined an active community that loves spending weekends in the mountains, running road and trail races, hiking, and doing all kinds of fun workouts together. We still talk and post about the best foods for performance and avoiding stomach upset during our training sessions and events. We spend nights at each others homes before race mornings so well be closer to the start lines, and we compare recovery strategies for the inevitable injuries and ailments that come from pushing yourself hard. Those strategies often include foam rollers, yoga mats, and the restorative joy of jetted showers and spa tubs.

While we may travel to events and work or vacation away from home, most of our fueling and recovery take place where we live. That is true for most everyone, regardless of athletic interests or careers. We meal prep and cook in our kitchens, clean up and unwind in our master bathrooms, and restore our energy in our bedrooms, getting as many hours of sleep as we can before starting our long, busy days.

Our living spaces have a tremendous impact on our physical and emotional well-being, from how theyre constructed to how theyre organized and decorated. This book explores the many ways they can support or sabotage us, room by room, and shares suggestions for making them healthier, safer, and more functional as we strive to live our best lives. Whether youre renting your first apartment, updating your current house, or building your forever home, youll find ideas in these pages to improve both your living space and your health.