Break the rules of behavior change so you can change your behavior for good!

“Since the pandemic began, I’ve been reading mostly fiction, but I tore through this. It offers gentle, practical guidance about how to stop setting and then backsliding on ambitious exercise and eating goals and instead find the ‘perfect imperfect option’ that motivates us to do something — anything — healthy right now. ‘We can find joy,’ Segar writes, ‘in even the smallest momentum toward our larger health goals.’”
—Gretchen Reynolds,  The Washington Post Well+Being’s Your Move columnist and author of The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer 

“Michelle Segar is my go-to expert on sustainable behavior change. Her work is smart, innovative, evidence-based, and actionable. In The Joy Choice, she reveals some of the most interesting and counterintuitive findings that I have read in years. Perhaps most importantly, this book shows us how to take small steps that are far more likely to lead to sustainable behavioral changes. If you want to eat better, move more and have a sound night’s sleep…start here.”
— Tom Rath, Bestselling author of Eat Move Sleep and StrengthsFinder 2.0

“If you’ve ever felt challenged to stick with health goals and plans amidst a busy, chaotic life The Joy Choice was written for you.  Segar uses understandable science, stories, and graphics to explain why failing to meet our eating and exercise goals isn’t because we just fail. And even better, she reveals easy and fun ways to be to stay consistent with our health goals, while still tending to the meaningful people and demands in our lives.”
—Tina Payne Bryson, LCSW, Ph.D., New York Times Bestselling co-author of The Whole-Brain Child and No Drama Discipline, and author of The Bottom Line for Baby

“If you’re frustrated with your progress in exercising and eating right, this book is for you. Michelle Segar distills the research and enlists a warm, engaging style to shift the focus away from narratives of willpower and toward a new approach to our choices that is full of humanity, imperfection, and, yes, joy.”
—Dan Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret, When, and Drive

“Even the most committed couch potato is no match for Michelle Segar’s energy and expertise. If you don’t think working out and eating well can be fun, get ready to think again. This is an insightful and entertaining read on the science and practice of adopting healthy habits.”
—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again

“The Joy Choice offers a new, practical approach to sustaining healthy behaviors that’s both science-based and humane. Dr. Segar fully acknowledges the daily challenges that threaten to disrupt our self-care plans and reframes them as “choice points”— opportunities to think flexibly, connect to our values, and accept imperfection. Going for consistency over time (rather than aiming for an unachievable perfect execution of the plan) is liberating and, yes, joyful! The Joy Choice comes at a time when we couldn’t need it more.”
—LuAnn Heinen, Vice President of Business Group on Health

“She’s done it again! I’ve been sharing Michelle Segar’s insights in my lectures around the world and with my patients at home since reading her first book, No Sweat. Her new book, The Joy Choice, builds on this past work with new science and deeper insights into how we can cut through the all-or-nothing thinking that accumulates over time, eventually derailing our goals.  Using stories from her health coaching practice and graphics to relay this fresh thinking, The Joy Choice is a riveting and quick read. By the end, we’ve learned the know-how to painlessly and playfully maintain consistency with our healthy eating and exercise goals while still living our busy lives.”
—John Ratey, MD, Harvard Medical School and bestselling author of Driven to Distraction and Spark

“The Joy Choice is a humane and inspiring book about how we can learn to stick with our greater eating and exercise goals. It uses cutting-edge research to explain why we shouldn’t beat ourselves up when we can’t do what we planned, and provides us with a science-based, practical framework for successful behavior change. Eloquent, informed, and wise, this is a book I’ll be telling all of my friends to read.”
—Ethan Kross, bestselling author of Chatter

“Combining her accessible, optimistic, can-do ethos with research, Michelle teaches us the art of thinking about our own thinking. Through learning how to flexibly reframe and re-imagine our perfectly imperfect lives, we can divine our own Joy Choices even when “stuff happens,” every day.”
—Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Health Economist, blogger at Health Populi, and author of Health Consuming: from Health Consumer to Health Citizen

“The science of behavior change forms the foundation of the work educators and trainers do every day. The Joy of Choice explains the latest research and new thinking about how to encourage changes in behavior in ways that support (instead of stress out) everyday living. Beyond helping individuals better stick with healthier lifestyles, this insightful book provides compelling examples and a roadmap for learning and development professionals to put these new principles into practice in our work creating behavior change for others.”
—David Kelly, EVP and Executive Director of The Learning Guild

“If you feel you have “failed” at every healthy eating or physical activity plan you’ve ever tried, you are almost certainly a victim of the modern-day diet culture we live in. But there is a way to escape this trap, and it’s called the Joy Choice!  Dr. Segar provides a step-by-step guide and the specific tools needed for implementing meaningful, healthful changes, once and for all.  The Joy Choice is a must read — not only for individuals, but for dietitians, therapists, and coaches, too.”
—Suzanne Dixon, MPH, MS, RDN, Registered Dietitian and Epidemiologist

“An essential read on how behavior change really happens (hint: it’s not just habits!). A go-to expert, Michelle Segar knows exactly which levers to pull to achieve lasting results. If you’ve ever struggled with exercise or eating goals you need to read this book!”
—Ron Friedman, Ph.D., bestselling author of The Best Place to Work and Decoding Greatness

“As one who has struggled over the years to lose weight and maintain regular exercise regimes because life always seems to “get in the way,” I found The Joy Choice a wonderfully powerful guide to fresh ways to approach our relationship with our most important self-care -goals. Dr. Segar reveals why so many of the goal-achievement strategies we’ve been taught actually sabotage our success. And she helps us embrace a new approach that works because it aligns with our deepest values, supporting who we are in our core and preventing the deep internal resistance that so commonly gets in our way. Get The Joy Choice today! It will finally free you to achieve your top self-care goals in a far simpler way that aligns with your most empowered and confident self.”
—Kathy Caprino, M.A., Career & Leadership Coach, and author of The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss

“The Joy Choice offers up a counterintuitive new formula for creating sustainable changes in eating and exercise through joy, purpose, and play. From a creative integration of the latest science and provocative stories from her work with clients and industry, Segar tells us a new tale of behavior change that lets us reach our goals in perfectly imperfect ways. This book is for anyone who has felt like a failure or simply hasn’t figured out how to stick with healthier lifestyles and seeks to do so.”
—Scott Barry Kaufman, author of Transcend and host of “The Psychology Podcast”