Hi Readers! Sorry updates have been a bit sporadic since the new year. John and I have been doing great lately, and although we've been extremely busy, we're doing well! Aside from work being hectic, we've also both been studying away for our Real Estate Exams that are coming up soon, exploring potential business opportunities/investments, and working diligently on getting the new blog ready for launch.
However busy we may be, though, we've been making it a point to relax and enjoy San Diego while taking advantage of the nice weather that we moved here for! Yesterday it was nearly 80 degrees here, so John and I packed a picnic lunch and hung out on the beach for the afternoon. It was wonderful to kick back and relax for a bit while working on our tans for the first time of the season!
On the topic of relaxation, I'm currently undergoing some major personal lifestyle changes, from working out every morning, to establishing and maintaining a healthy diet, to focusing on giving myself newfound "Melissa time". My stomach has been bothering me lately, and although we aren't yet sure if it's related to stress, or an allergy, or something entirely different, I've been trying to make positive changes to better myself, and I am determined to improve my mental and gut health by the end of 2014!
An article that I recently read, entitled 9 Steps To Perfect Health - #1: Don't Eat Toxins, by Chris Kresser was a real eye opener for me. Since I haven't been feeling the greatest, I've been thinking a lot about what I'm eating and putting into my body, and the more I learn, the more appalled I become at some of the practices that have become norm in this country in regards to the foods that we so readily consume on a daily basis.
Although the article is a bit overwhelming in length, it is SO worth the read. I'd highly recommend taking the 15 or so minutes to get through it. I can't even believe that all of these foods (that are really toxins) are still available to us to eat, let alone that they're in nearly everything we consume!!! And they aren't "toxins" you'd think they'd be, they're four food products that we eat regularly, that are found in nearly everything that we as Americans consume - refined cereal grains, industrial seed oils, sugar, and processed soy. "Bread, pastries, muffins, crackers, cookies, soda, fruit juice, fast food and other convenience foods are all loaded with these toxins. And when the majority of what most people eat on a daily basis is toxic, it’s not hard to understand why our health is failing."
I was appalled at the info on soy: (And soy is in so much that we eat without us even knowing it!!)
"Perhaps most alarmingly, a study at the Harvard Public School of Health in 2008 found that men who consumed the equivalent of one cup of soy milk per day had a 50% lower sperm count than men who didn’t eat soy.
In 1992, the Swiss Health Service estimated that women consuming the equivalent of two cups of soy milk per day provides the estrogenic equivalent of one birth control pill. That means women eating cereal with soy milk and drinking a soy latte each day are effectively getting the same estrogen effect as if they were taking a birth control pill.
This effect is even more dramatic in infants fed soy formula. Babies fed soy-based formula have 13,000 to 22,000 times more estrogen compounds in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula. Infants exclusively fed soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least five birth control pills per day."
WHATTTT?! And then there's this, which is interesting to me as I am definitely finding myself having become very gluten sensitive, and possibly even gluten intolerant.
"Dr. Kenneth Fine, a pioneer in gluten intolerance research, has demonstrated that 1 in 3 Americans are gluten intolerant, and that 8 in 10 have the genes that predispose them to developing gluten intolerance.
This is nothing short of a public health catastrophe in a nation where the #1 source of calories is refined flour. But while most are at least aware of the dangers of sugar, trans-fat and other unhealthy foods, fewer than 1 in 8 people with celiac disease are aware of their condition."
I know we should take all things that we read with a grain of salt, but I just thought I'd share what I thought was an exceptionally interesting article. Hope all is well with every one of you! John and I are getting extremely excited to show you RhythmofourLives.com. It's so close to being done and ready for launch!!
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