On Becoming Trim & Healthy

I started following the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan in August of this year. For the last several months I have hosted a monthly group in my home to share about the plan with friends who want to hear more about it. A few days ago, I uploaded a photograph comparison on Facebook and got a lot of questions about what I was doing. So, here it is in a nutshell.

Trim Healthy Mama (or THM) is a low-glycemic eating plan. It is a way of eating - a lifestyle, not a diet. Diets are unhealthy. Diet starve your body. Diets deprive you of wonderful foods.

The bare bones of the Trim Healthy Mama program are to

• separate healthy fats from healthy carbs

• eat at least every three hours to keep your body nourished

• eat no sugar, no corn products, no white flour, and no white potatoes

Once you understand the concept of the program, you can tweak your family's favorite recipes to fit the plan. There are many recipes in the book that I enjoy, but in my weekly menu I use more of my regular recipes than I do THM recipes. This is especially true for my evening meals.

When I started THM, I began by changing my morning routines, sitting down to eat at a regular time and then "changing fuels" three hours later for a snack or lunch (depending on when I ate breakfast.) I ate a THM-approved lunch and afternoon snack. Then for dinner I made a normal dinner and made the best choices I could to stay on plan (avoiding sugar or potatoes if I had made them for the kids.) 

I changed very little about what I ate. I did change how and when I ate it. Oh and now I eat bread. And desserts. And lots of yummy things I have avoided over the last ten years while I battled my weight.

I've lost 42 pounds (and counting!) I've lost this weight without exercise. I know that exercise is important, but it is not vital to this weight loss program.