To soy or not to soy...

What happened to last week? Well, to update on my goals, my weekly goal was the same as the week before and my monthly goal was to eat no fast food. Both were accomplished with out any issues.

I've been doing a lot of research pertaining to consumption of soy based products. The evidence I've found so far is striking. Did you know that soy can block your thyroid from functioning properly, leading to a slow metabolism, and weight gain. It contains enzymes that actually block the absorption of protein and other nutrients, which can lead to mal-nourishment. The phyto-estrogen it contains can also fuel breast cancer. Not to mention that soy based infant formulas can cause early sexual maturation in girls, producing menstrual periods as young as 6 years old! You can find a lot of information on this page, a blog with some general information and links, an article called Soy myths, and a another article that thoroughly breaks down the science of it.

Wow! Pretty compelling stuff...as you can imagine, I will be slowly fading out all of the products in our home containing soy (amazing how many are out there!) and introducing almond and coconut milk, coconut and hemp oil, and possibly even palm shortening. I found a great site that sells every thing coconut. You can find it here. They also have some good information about the consumption of coconut oil and how it actually helps your thyroid regulate you metabolism. Here is a lengthy discussion on the benefits of primarily using coconut oil, and a page full of useful resources. I tell you what, as a vegetarian, removing soy from my diet is no easy feat, by any means. I've also removed eggs from my diet. Though, I think I would be willing to add them back in if they were from my own chickens, which wouldn't happen until we had a house of our own.

So, as anticipated, my goal for this next week (8/24-30) is to complete 5, 30 minute sessions of activity. Right before we were going to go on our weekly Sunday bike ride, it started rain and has been off and on all evening. Starting my week off with exercise really jump starts my routine. Now I have to put a little more effort to make sure I fit in all 5 with only 6 days left.

Ok, off to bed with me.