🏋️🥗🧘‍♀️ Healthy Habits for Student Success

Make a great start to 2025 by setting intentions that proiritize your health and well-being!

The New Year is a great time to set new personal goals and recognize the impacts of healthy habits on academic success. Whether your want to increase your physical activity, improve your nutrition, try new wellness techniques, or learn new study techniques, we have the resources to help you.

Here's a small selection of our print and digital books on the benefits of fitness, nutrition, wellness and good study habits to inspire you!

Book cover for a conversation for healthy eating with an illustration of a couple of plates with knoves and forks on a blue background.A Conversation About Healthy Eating

A Conversation about Healthy Eating brings together all the relevant science about healthy eating in one place, and it’s exactly that – a conversation; an informal discussion between a scientist and a friend about their eating habits,keeping the science firmly rooted in everyday life. The conversation moves from topics such as metabolism and digestion to gut bacteria, hormones, neuroscience and the immune system. All of these concepts are explained in accessible terms to help you understand the roles they play in maintaining a healthy diet.

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Book cover for your fittest future self with a photograph of a woman lifting weights and lunging.Your Fittest Future Self: Making Choices Today for a Happier, Healthier, Fitter Future You

Redefine “fit” to create your fittest future you! With all of diet and exercise regimens available, it is almost impossible to navigate the health world without feeling overwhelmed or paralyzed by indecision. Instead of trying to find the perfect program to follow, Kathleen Trotter shows you how to create one, with your own unique health history, goals, and life realities in mind. The key to long-term health success is the ability to sift through all of the diet and workout information available and put together a "health mix” that works for you.

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Book cover for from surviving to thriving with an illustration of someone watering a plant on the front.From Surviving to Thriving: A Student's Guide to Feeling and Doing Well at University

A practical, hands-on book, to help you understand, experience and put into practice skills and strategies to improve and sustain your wellbeing so that you can thrive throughout your time at university. With enough scientific theory and knowledge for you to understand why it works, our focus is on practical activities that will make a difference in your life. Each chapter explores a key area of positive psychology and provides activities to enhance your wellbeing and contribute to that of other people.

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Book cover for how to be original.How to be Original: Transform Your Assignments and Achieve Better Grades

Originality is needed to achieve top marks in assignments, but what does it even mean? Simply put, it opens doors: to making a difference; to excellent marks, to success. You'll often find marking criteria stating you need to make an 'original contribution', 'show originality', or 'evidence of originality', yet it is not taught or even explained. This book addresses this, providing you with the techniques and methods you need to transform your work and achieve better grades.

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Book cover image for Your Brain on exercise with an illustration of a mans head with a brain in and a small figure lifting weights.Your Brain on Exercise

Does regular exercise positively affect brain function? Does our thinking become faster because we exercise? Does running a marathon make us smarter? Dr. Gary Wenk's goal is to provide a realistic perspective on what benefits your brain should expect to achieve from exercise. Your Brain on Exercise skillfully blends scholarship with illuminating insights and clarity. Without requiring any specialized knowledge about the brain, Your Brain on Exercise entertainingly illustrates the intersection between brain health, the consequences of exercise, and our need to eat in an entirely new light.

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Book cover for simplify your studySimplify Your Study: Effective Strategies for Coursework and Exams

This book provides clear and straight-forward strategies to help you understand the conventions of academic assignments and what lecturers expect from your work. Simplify Your Study is organized around nine core units which focus on the 'sticking points' of university study, including organization and planning, reading and note-making strategies, producing essays, critical thinking, delivering presentations and preparing for exams. Packed with tried-and-tested strategies for success, this essential resource will help you achieve your academic potential.

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Book cover for the art of healthy living with a photograph of the author on the front in her kitchen with healthy food.The Art of Healthy Living

We could all benefit from a more energetic, vibrant, healthier quality of life. There are many reasons to live a healthy lifestyle and just as many approaches to achieving it. If you are looking to be inspired and motivated, then try the practical tips contained in The Art of Healthy Living. You will see improved creativity, an increase in personal development and elevated performance levels in work, sports, the classroom, relationships, the home and throughout your life.

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Book cover for the ultimate college students health handbook with illustrations of things related to student health.

The Ultimate College Student Health Handbook

What if you can’t sleep well (or can’t sleep at all) in your dorm room? What if a pill “gets stuck” in your throat? What if your roommate falls asleep (or passes out) wearing contacts, and wakes up with one painfully stuck? Your friend’s terrible sore throat isn’t Strep or Mono? What else could it be? What should you do for food poisoning? When do you really need X-rays for a sprained ankle or injured toe? What helps severe test anxiety or fear of public speaking? Dr. Jill Grimes has the answer to these questions and many more.

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Book cover for smart work, with white writing on an oranmge background.Smart Work: How to Increase Productivity, Achieve Balance and Reduce Stress

Organize your way to renewed focus and calm! Are you drowning in constant emails, phone calls, paperwork, interruptions and meeting actions? This book throws you a lifeline. Smart Work shows you how to take advantage of your digital tools to reprioritize, refocus and get back to doing what’s important. You may already have the latest technology, but if you're still swamped, you're not using it to your advantage. This useful guide shows you how to centralize and organize your workflow for better outcomes. With Smart Work, you'll develop a simple and sustainable productivity system to manage your inputs and realize your goals.

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Book cover for the book of nordic self care with a nordic illustration of a flower and birds on the front.The Book of Nordic Self-Care

The Nordic countries are renowned for being among the happiest in the world, and in this beautifully illustrated guide, Elisabeth Carlsson shares the keys to their lifestyle to help you improve your health and wellbeing. From small self-care rituals to ways to shift your mindset, this guide includes plenty of inspiration from the Nordic countries to help you simplify and savor your everyday life.

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Book cover for how to be a successful studentHow to be a Successful Student: 20 Study Habits Based on the Science of Learning

This is a clear, concise, evidence-based guide to the habits that are scientifically proven to help people learn. Acclaimed educational psychologist Richard Mayer distills cutting edge research to focus on the 20 best study habits for college students, including habits for motivating yourself to learn, managing your learning environment, and effectively applying learning strategies. This accessible, practical book covers all three areas with evidence-based, approachable suggestions to help you become a successful student by developing effective study habits and rejecting ineffective ones.

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Book cover for everyday vitality with a picture of green boxing gloves with flowers growing out of them.Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength

The three main wellsprings of vitality are: meaningfully connecting with others; engaging in experiences that challenge you; and contributing to something beyond yourself. These activities foster resilience by boosting emotional stamina and generating uplifts—the counterparts to daily irritations and annoyances. Whether it is having a good conversation, doing a favor for someone, going for a walk, or reading an interesting article and then calling a friend to talk about it, commonplace experiences and micromoments serve as the building blocks of everyday resilience. Everyday Vitality explains how to identify them in your life, develop them, and use them as a foundation on which to thrive.

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Book cover for eat that frogEat That Frog! For Students: 22 Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Excel in School

Students of all ages can struggle with how to manage their time. Encountering the necessity of time management for the first time, high schoolers juggle classes, extracurricular activities, jobs, internships, family responsibilities, and more. College brings more freedom and less structure—making time management even more critical. Brian Tracy offers tips, tools, and techniques for structuring time, setting goals, staying on task (even when you’re not interested), dealing with stress, and developing the skills to achieve far more than you ever thought possible!

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Book cover for the wellness principles.The Wellness Principles: Cooking for a Healthy Life

An accessible guide with 100 delicious tried-and-tested recipes for healthy living - to eat well, live well, and stay well. The Wellness Principles incorporates traditional and holistic medical philosophies as the path towards optimal health and is the ideal book for anyone who wants to eat healthier, enjoy fresh ingredients, be guided to a more holistic lifestyle, maintain health, or look for the ideal nutritional path to wellness.

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Updates

A big welcome to all our new and returning students! Here's some updates on our study spaces to help you find the library spot that's right for you.

📣 Coming soon: Individual Study Booth

We're excited about the arrival of our new bookable Individual Study Booth!

You may be intrigued by the new booth that's popped-up on Level 1, close to the windows near the fiction area of the library. The Individual Study Booth is not yet in use as it still needs a few tweaks, but stay tuned, and we'll let you know when it's open and available for bookings!

🧘‍♀️ Bookable seats in the Focus Area

Our relaxing Focus Area is tucked into a corner of the individual quiet study area of the basement (Level 0), located to the left of the library classroom.

The focus area has:

  • dimmable lighting
  • soft carpeting
  • calming images of nature
  • balance ball chairs
  • a natural daylight lamp
  • a Zen Den area to disconnect from electronics

It's one of the quietest spots in the library, away from the study rooms and doors. It’s available for drop-in use, but if you want to make sure you get a spot, you can book one of the focus area seats in advance.

📆 Bookable seats at specialized workstations

We have 156 workstations in the library for you to choose from, but not all workstations are created equal!

Whilst our regular workstations have all the necessary requirements for most coursework, some of our workstations are loaded with additional specialized software and have a greater processing power. View our list of software applications installed on library computers to see what's available on both our regular and specialized workstations.

We have:

  • 137 - regular workstations
  • 14 - GIS/data/design workstations
  • 2 - assistive technology workstations
  • 2 - scanner workstations
  • 1 - 3D modelling workstation

All specialized workstations are located on Level 1 of the library. If you want to make sure you get a spot, be sure to book a specialized workstation seat in advance. You can drop-in for use if nobody has booked them.

 

🔨 Goodbye: Trades and Apprenticeship ExamBank

As of January 2025, the Reg Erhardt Library will no longer be providing access to the Trades and Apprenticeship Exambank. Students may continue to use the Exambank website, but will need to create their own account and purchase their own credits to continue generating test questions.

Featured e-Resource

alexander street logo

Alexander Street is a database that offers a variety of streaming media for teaching and learning, and it's available free to SAIT students and staff via the library. Videos include materials from over 300 unique content partners including BBC, Bloomberg, Canal+, CRM Learning, Discovery, CBS, HBO, Janus Films (Criterion Collection), Kantola, Medcom, National Geographic, NBCUniversal, and many more, with a wide array of topics to discover and learn.

If you want to brush up on your study skills to help you get through the semester, here's a video series you might like: Student Success Series - This Alexander Street video series offers practical, research-based advice to help college students develop the skills to support a happy, healthy and productive higher education experience.

Access Alexander Street
a view of the moutains and stream in between

Oki, Âba wathtech, Danit'ada, Tawnshi, Hello.

SAIT is located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of Treaty 7 which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Îyârhe Nakoda of Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney.

We are situated in an area the Blackfoot tribes traditionally called Moh’kinsstis, where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. We now call it the city of Calgary, which is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta.