Starting up again

What a year this has been. We had houseguests for 11 months. It was nearly impossible for us to stick with any plan. That being said, we were totally derailed. I totally understand that everyone in the household needs to be on the same eating plan. I learned that our bodies have been biochemically changed because of the American diet. We are at the mercy of our food industry. Wheat, corn and soy have been so modified that they no longer have any nutritional value. All three genetically include pesticides in the seeds themselves. Wheat has become addictive and spikes glucose in the system. It is worse than eating a bowl of sugar. Eating or 4 servings of wheat a day will assuredly result in diabetes. Corn is not much better. Soy has estrogen hormones that totally mess up your system. The next hurray is processed food. Basically anything with a label on it probably has sugar in some form or another. I never realized how bad sugar was for the system. I knew sugar was "sinful", had a lot of calories and that desserts needed to be kept to a minimum or you would gain weight. Well it is much worse than that. Sugar completely shuts down the ability for the body to burn fat. Sugar turns on all of the bodies hormones to STORE fat and to make you hungry. Basically you get biological changes in your brain that tells your body you are starving. Your body goes into store mode and you get unbelieveable cravings for fat and sugar. Sugar is both fat and a carb. Eating sugar will result in weight gain, insulin resistance, diabetes, fatty liver and a host of health problems that go along with obesity. You end up with a metabolic illness and your hormones stop working as they should. The only way to get around it is to cut out wheat, corn, soy, and sugar. You already know to give up all of the bad fats so through that in too. You also know to give up artificial flavors and dyes because they are toxic to the system. That means no processed foods. No breads, cakes, cookies, pies, cupcakes. No sodas of any kind! No junk food. After all, what can you buy that doesn't have a bun or bread at a fast food place. Easier to say what it DOES leave in the diet. This is what we strive to do 95% of the time. Our diet consists of vegetables and fruits, beans, nuts and seeds. We have all of the tea we want. About twice a week we might have fish. We limited our dairy consumption considerably. We might have a little sprinkle of goat cheese with our food from time to time. I am also looking into Kefir and yogurt made from hormone free goat milk at the suggestion of a detox book I am following. We have a smoothie every morning made with spinach, vegetables and fruits. We had a raw salad for lunch and steamed vegetables or vegetable soup for dinner. Sometimes we have a salad for dinner as well, epecially if it is late. Beans are our main source of protein. Quinioa, steel cut oats or black rice are some of the grains we eat but rather sparingly. I make salad dressing everyday with fresh lemon juice and olive oil. We use himalayan salt. I cook with grape seed oil if I saute my food. I use every kind of seasoning there is. We drink herbal teas and Yerba mate which is a type of tea. We cut out coffee a long time ago. I would say we do this 100% of the time but we slide when we go to dinner with our friends. We only know of 2 or 3 restaurants that we can eat at without completely going off the plan. When we do go out, we strive for a salad or maybe grilled fish. We do a detox and liver cleanse one a month. We started in September but skipped December and January because of social constraints. The detox really takes a full weekend and we cannot compromise or diet. We are losing weight. Slowly, but it is coming off. The program is really not about weightloss but to regain our health. Books I am reading: The Amazing Gallbladder Flush by Andeas Moritz Natural Medicine Third Edition by Michael Murray M.D. and Joseph Pizzorno M.D. Warning, this is a 46,901 page encyclopedia on health. A really dry read. Detox and Revitalize by Susanne Belen Most recently, FAT CHANCE - Beating the odds against sugar, processed food, obesity and disease by Robert Lustig M.D. This book was really an eye opener. It doesn't tell you how to lose weight but tells you why you cannot. We don't have a chance of losing weight unless something is done about the American diet. The government will not do anything until the American citizen's vote is proved o be more important than the lobbiest.