My Trim Healthy Mama Journey

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I avoid being overly wordy in my blog posts. I prefer just to get to the lean meat and on plan sweet potatoes. :)

However, I realized I had not yet shared my THM journey with any of you, I hope some of you find it encouraging to your own journey.

In April of 2013 I had been a member at Weight Watchers for a year and finally reached my goal weight! I lost 13 pounds in one year. ONE YEAR! It was the most frustrating year, losing ounces at a time. Working so hard each week, watching the scale barely or never move. But I did it, I lost the 13 pounds and reached my goal weight. (Which I chose the highest possible weight I could so I could at least work towards my Lifetime membership and stop paying $10 per week for attending meetings.)

A month later my local meeting closed down. The closest meeting to me was now 25 minutes away. I am a homeschool mom, I have things to do, places to go and spending a couple of hours (half of that in commute time) plus gas wasn't really an option. I quit Weight Watchers.

Within 3 months of quitting guess what. I gained it all back. ALL OF IT. Every single stinkin ounce I had battled to lose. Of course I wasn't stopping there either! I was working my way up the scale and I didn't see me slowing down!

Then I heard about THM, it was like a ray of sunshine, beautiful and sparkly! I saw rainbows and twinkling lights and fairy dust! My eyes had been opened for the first time!!

NOT!!! What I saw was another BANDWAGON!! Another "thing" that was taking the women by storm, hype and hoopla. Pulease. I was not interested. My girlfriends were talking about it and I was digging in my heels that it wasn't even worth pursuing.

You see, when I was growing up I watched my mom battle her weight my entire life. I KNOW what the struggle looks like. I have seen pretty much every diet out there. I have watched my mom go up and down on the scale and I have seen it in my own life. I used to joke around and tell my husband, when I turn 60 it's all on. I am going to eat what I want when I want and stop battling food everyday, every meal of my life. I am going to give in and just enjoy without guilt!!

You know what that's like? Thinking about food when you wake up? Regretting what you overindulged in the night before? Wondering why you keep making the same stupid food mistakes over and over and feeling like there is no hope of ever really finding the promised yet so elusive "food freedom"? Not being a slave to cravings, not giving up because you already blew it at lunch so what's the point "I'll start over tomorrow". Or, I fight too hard anyway to lose pounds, why not just enjoy my life!!?? All of these thoughts have run through my head and oh so many more. I know I am not alone in my journey, I know many of you have thought and felt exactly what I have gone through.

August 2013 - I have a gift card to Amazon from a friend. I suspiciously eye this book, I read reviews such as Gwen's Nest and others I find online. It seems interesting, but seriously $35 for ONE BOOK??? WHAT?? Well, without that gift card, I could not justify that at all. Way too much money is all I could think. I had that gift card, and nothing else was as pressing to me as getting my weight loss journey back on track. (I'm only in my 40's I have a few more years to hold it together before I completely let it all go, LOL) I will give it a try. Worst case scenario, I sell off that over priced book later and recoup some of my loss. Truthfully, I was not very hopeful as you can gather. I had lost hope in ever really being free or finding joy in food unless it was laced with guilt and self condemnation later.

The book came. I started to read. Then I began to devour it. AMAZING. Truly life changing. Light bulbs were going off in my head, someone finally had culminated all my journey into a book that made sense to me!! I understood why I took a year to lose 13 pounds!! When I ate on WW, my whole day was made up of carbs. Fruit was free!! I ate a lot of bananas. A LOT of BANANAS.  I ate minimal protein and almost no fat. Fat cost a lot of points so I didn't even bother with it. I didn't need it and it made you fat anyway. Haha!! Looking back I crack myself up now, I was eating the skinny food, carbs etc (in my pea brain) and I wasn't losing!! I had a lot to learn, but it was really making sense!!

August 29 was my first meal "on plan". I ate soaked oatmeal. First time I had ever tried that, it certainly wasn't hard, and I was still enjoying my beloved carbs. I only ate breakfasts on plan for the most part that week, but I remained mindful of my meals thinking about changes I could easily make to get them on plan as well. I lost a pound and a half in my first week!!!! I was THRILLED! I did in one week what I couldn't do in a months time on WW.

However, here is my entry (I kept a journal in the back of the book as I went): "Stayed on plan 9/1-9/6 - so far loving it. Weighed in, 1.7 pounds down! OH MY GOSH! Happy, but still skeptical....."

Cracks me up to read that today. My next week I went up .8 of a pound. "....we will see...." was my entry that day. A week later, down over 3 pounds!! I was thrilled and starting to really let go and believe there could be help for me. My weight overall had a downward trend, but I had weeks where I would gain a little, stall but more often lose....that's just what I needed. :)

By October, I had lost the 13 pounds I had regained!! I just couldn't believe it. Just about 3 months I lost what took me a year on the other plan. I was completely sold out. I am now a THM'r for life. What I thought was a ridiculous sum of money for a single book, I can now look back and realize what a fool I had been. I spent over $400 to lose 13 pounds in a year, had I known about THM I could have a fun new wardrobe with that money that would have been left over. This has got to be one of the best bargains out there. I think one of the most incredible things I realized, I was physically smaller at the same weight on THM than I was at that weight on WW. Incredible Almost a full clothing size smaller! Crazy good!!

My story doesn't end there.....several years ago I was diagnosed with food allergies. My list is:
Wheat, dairy, almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, turkey, eggs. (oh, eggs was a super sad one)
This made THM challenging for me. Everything had eggs, a lot of the fun foods I now couldn't have. Well, a challenging situation can be turned into a challenge to overcome, and that is what I chose to do! I started playing with these new ingredients and creating yummy things. It has been a slow process, but that is how this blog was born. I saw other mamas struggling to enjoy THM without certain foods and thought I would share what I have created for myself so others could eat fun and yummy treats too.

As I continued on my THM journey, I realized I was feeling so much better physically. It was incredible. I decided to try adding in some of my food allergens, I started with cheese, to my surprise, I could tolerate it! I have incorporated so many healing foods into my life I have found that I am literally healing from the inside out! What a great blessing that I would never have found on any other plan.

Now for my biggest surprise of all, a completely unexpected result, not even something I would have even hoped for on any eating plan. Emotional health. I don't know why, I was quite familiar with nutrition before THM, but I never made the link in my own life, that I could literally find emotional health through food. I ate and craved all of those carb filled options because of the physical and emotional response I would feel. I can remember moments of high stress, anxiety sadness and I would choose a carby sugar laden treat and literally feel better. However, that moment quickly passed and sadly, the emotions plus guilt would ride in like a wave. It was an awful cycle.

I have struggled with an anxiety disorder for many years. I have gone to counseling, which has helped for sure, I had joined a recovery group for adult children of alcoholics (Celebrate Recovery), which also helped, A LOT. Pieces to my healing puzzle were missing and while I still have seasons of struggle, I now have a whole new powerful tool in my tool box! Food that doesn't just help me lose weight, but it heals my body and nourishes my brain which leads to a much more peaceful soul. I praise God that I was not so stubborn as to bypass this gift I feel is from Him to me. <3
Please understand, I know my healing is from God alone, however caring for this vessel He created is integral in being the best I can be and serve Him as fully as I am able to through taking care of not just my soul through His word, but through nourishing this body so it is able and ready to serve the Lord of Hosts!

I would like to share an eye opening moment I had while on THM, perhaps you can relate...
I was experiencing a very hard and stressful day, something very emotional had happened and I desperately wanted to use my old coping technique of fatty/carby food to soothe my stormy soul.

I opened up the refrigerator and was scanning for that perfect treat that would help me "feel better". What I saw was a batch of skinny chocolate and a jar of cashew butter. I literally stood at my refrigerator, pulled a piece of skinny chocolate, slathered it with cashew butter and popped it into my mouth. Repeat x 5. Then the light bulb moment arrived. I stood there for a moment and realized I felt satisfied. (I got what the S meant in that moment as well.) I was completely satisfied. I didn't want or NEED another piece. I felt calm and in control again. If that had been a Hershey bar, no matter the size, I would have devoured it and been looking for more. This was an incredible moment for me. I had never experienced anything like this with food before. I soon realized how deprived my body and brain had been of nourishing fats. What a difference they made. Along with eating protein, I was becoming a healthier person in every way!

So, how has my journey been? Honestly, up and down. I have regained some of the weight I originally took off. Life with all of it's ups and downs has shown on the scale at times. I no longer feel trapped or hopeless. I am filled with hope when it comes to eating now, I feel I have the secret key all women are looking for. I want to have my cake and eat it too and on THM I can! I have tools now I have never had. I can and am losing the extra weight I had regained, I know how and I can enjoy the journey! I have never felt this way about any diet before THM. These other diets always like to say it's not a diet it's a lifestyle. Not even close. THM is now my lifestyle. I still enjoy off plan items once in a while, but really, I love sticking to the plan, feeling healthy in every aspect of my life. I am overjoyed to share THM with my daughter, she will have tools that will serve her for her life, even if she doesn't choose THM as her primary eating style. She will have tricks and tips that she can implement forever to be healthy and enjoy food.

So, the journey continues. I am now in the process of opening a retail outlet store for THM. It was such an utter surprise and I feel a true gift from God. I have in the past run small businesses as part of being a stay at home mom, but none that I felt I could so completely stand behind and feel proud of. It's an exciting season in my life and a happy outlook to my future of sharing this incredible plan, wonderful treats and fellowship with other women. A ministry unlike anything I had ever anticipated.

If you feel inspired now to check out Trim Healthy Mama I recommend the following books!



You can also purchase all of your THM food needs at my Affiliate Link HERE!

With Joy ~ Tina

*photo courtesy of Shaggy Studios - my incredibly beautiful and talented daughter :)