Fighting Off Allergies by Eating Less Soy. An Experiment.

I don't know if soy is the cause of my allergies, I have noticed many other people having allergies this year.  However I believe soy could be the cause of my allergies.  Over the past week or so I have been eating more protein bars than usual.  Many protein bars contain soy.

Last night, not thinking that soy could contribute to allergies, I decided to look up foods that cause allergies.  The obvious ones came up, peanuts, eggs, and other nuts.  However I noticed that soy was in there.  Then it hit me, I noticed right away I was probably eating way more soy than I should have from these protein bars.

Cutting out the soy should be an easy task for me, even though I love the protein bars I believe cutting them out of my diet for the next week is for the better.  They have way too many ingredient and are a processed food.  I will also be saving money since they can be expensive to buy.

I have never had allergies before, or if I did it was only a couple days throughout the year.  I even noticed this year many people I know having allergies even if they don't eat soy.  So I can't blame soy for my allergies unless by the end of the week my allergies go away or almost go away.

What will I be eating over the next week?  This is a good question and a question you should ask yourself if you are going to cut something that isn't serving you from your diet.  Myself I will for sure be eating chicken, organic black and pinto beans, some salad, maybe some salmon, and brown rice.  The chicken will pretty much be my staple food as it usually is, but I also have been craving salmon, so why not have salmon?  I may even get some other kinds of fish or meat as long as it doesn't have soy in it.

There is only one day I will be eating junk food this week as usual and that is fathers day which is going to be my cheat day.  Speaking of cheat day, on Saturday I ate a shit ton of junk food as it was my cheat day, but all day my allergies got worse and since then have stayed worse than they already were.  Inside my mouth at the roof of my mouth it is itching, my nose and mostly my right eye is itchy and my nose will run and my eyes will water.  Pretty normal for allergies but I really noticed after that cheat day how my body reacted.

Closing thoughts.

Over the next week we will see how not eating soy will affect my allergies and how I am feeling.  If it doesn't affect a single thing I will be honest about it with you guys, but I am going to make an assumption and say it will at least help a little bit with getting rid of my allergies.  Only time will tell and I hope you guys follow along with me over the next week.  Anyways guys, I will see you in a week with my update, as always have a wonderful day and strive for the healthiest life possible!

-Brian

5 Unusual Ways You Didn't Know How to Lose Weight.

Drink water

Drinking water may sound too simple or too boring.  When I was younger all I would drink is Coke or Mountain Dew.  This not only resulted in cavities, but also in wight gain.  The amount of processed sugars in pop is insane (Coke having 65 grams in only 20 ounces, Mountain Dew having 77 grams in 20 ounces) and everyday I would drink wayyyyyyy more than 20 ounces.  If  I could take back all the pop I drank when I was younger I would, it wasn't worth it one bit.
I know switching to water can be hard.  I hated water and it seemed impossible to start drinking it but I was able to do it slowly and in turn made it a habit to drink water instead of pop.  If I can do it so can you!  All the processed sugar is not only going to make you overweight, but will also hurt other parts of your body as I mentioned before, teeth.  I mentioned this first because it is the biggest way to lose weight and anyone can do it.

You dont have to eat healthy (as long as you are in a calorie deficit)

Although I recommend you eat healthy to lose weight you don't have to.  I have had times where I was eating healthy but was gaining weight because I was binge eating all day pretty much.
A professor by the name of Mark Haub ate the "Twinkie Diet" where all he ate was junk food such as, sugary cereals, Twinkies and other desserts like Twinkies, and Doritos.  Mark was able to lose 27 pounds in 10 weeks.
Like I said earlier I don't recommend eating only junk food but it can work as long as you consume less calories than you burn on a daily basis.

Cheat days

Cheat days may sound like they wouldn't work.  And this is understandable.  How in the world would eating a lot of junk food for one day help you lose weight?

For me and many others cheat days keep you sane while dieting or eating healthy all week.  That one day you can have junk food always feels so good (until you eat too much).  For me cheat days might be different than other peoples cheat days.  I like to kind of go all out because I go all out all week on eating healthy I think its fair to go all out and eat junk one day a week.
Dieting can be hard a cheat day is a easy way to make losing weight fun and enjoyable.

Walking instead of running for cardio

I love to go for walks a few times a week.  Sometimes I will take walks inside, sometimes outside depending on the day.  It doesn't really matter where you take the walk but
as long as you are walking for at least 30 minutes.  Myself I hate running and jogging, it is a good skill to have but I despise it for a couple reasons.  First  I get tired way too fast (this is my fault) second I feel hungry and like I could eat anything.
This is why I like to walk better.  I can buy calories and get some fresh air by walking around a few times a week instead of running out of energy or getting hungry.  You will still feel pretty full from what you ate earlier (if you already ate that day) and be able to have energy to relax and walk around for a while.

Consume fat (nuts, and fish)

We live in a world where people are still scared to eat fat because people believe it will make them fat.  This does sound like it would be true, however some fats are better than others.  In this section we are not talking about greasy fats that can leave the body harmed over time.  Here we are talking about fats such as fats from nuts, fish, and oils.
As I am counting my calories some fats can have lots of calories, so I will start with one of the best sources of fats but also protein, salmon.  They are filled with Omega-3 fatty acids which, to name just a few benefits, help with preventing the risk of heart disease, can improve sleep, and can help improve mental disorders.  But since you came here about wight loss, salmon is a fish that will make you full fast and keep you full for a long time, you will get a good amount of protein per calorie ratio which will make counting calories easier and you will fail less on your diet!
Next we will talk about nuts. Man do I love nuts! (no homo).  Here I am going to tell you my experience and the effect nuts have had on me.  I eat mostly 3 types of nuts, peanuts, almonds, and macadamia nuts.  There are other nuts I like to eat but I rarely eat them such as cashews, brazil nuts, walnuts, and pecans.  However when I do eat nuts I find myself feeling a boost in my mood.  There is one nut that I have trouble not putting down, and that is the macadamia nut, I could literally eat a whole can of them if I wanted to in one sitting.  Macadamia nuts are one of the best nuts if you learn to have self control with them, as they can boost metabolism, but don't eat too many if you are counting calories, the calories can add up extremely fast.
I find that eating nuts in a salad with some type of protein to be helpful to stay full longer and push off cravings without consuming over 600 calories for one meal.
There are many other healthy fats that I did not go into here such as avocado, coconut oil, and olive oil.  I also love to eat these foods but am not aware of all the benefits and I only want to give you guys advice to the benefits I know for these foods.

Closing thoughts.

I hope this was helpful to you for your weight loss journey and also gave you a couple fun ways to lose weight by implementing cheat days into your week, once a week so you don't get burnt out while trying to lose weight by following some boring diet.