Menu Plan & Starting THM (again!)

I can hardly believe where we are in life right now. It is so interesting how God works and leads us. I can truly say that I never would have expected us to be where we are right now, but nearly 3 weeks in, and the journey has been wonderful so far. Over 2 years of praying for God's clear direction and seeing so many of our prayers answered with no and then finally a clear yes while other doors that we pursued were closed. (One door we had been pursuing was closed literally 10 minutes before our yes answer.). Details about what we are currently up to will likely follow on the blog in the future, but for now, those who know me in person are welcome to call or message me to find out more.

Also, you will likely notice Trim Health Mama (THM) friendly meals this week. I have wavered back and forth and back and forth about this. I have tried the THM way of eating before, had success, fell of the train. I had previously decided it just wasn't for me. Last summer I had a small amount of success losing a few pounds with calorie counting, low carbing, and pretty restricted portion control. However, I ended up gaining all the weight back plus ten pounds more. The reality is I'm currently at my heaviest non-pregnant weight, and I just don't feel good about where I'm at. I want to be fit and healthy and have just really struggled to figure this all out and have lasting success. I am going to try THM again, but I am making no promises for a lasting commitment or for this to be "it".

Here are my reasons for trying it again:

1) Lower-carb seems to work better for me than calorie-counting at this point in my life.  After my first was born, I had great success with strict calorie counting and exercise. I lost a lot of weight and kept it off for quite awhile (even after my 2nd was born, I lost most of my baby weight that way). After my third baby, calorie counting just hasn't seemed to work well for me anymore. Perhaps I am insulin-resistant or something... Several months ago I again tried calorie counting and lots of exercise, had minimal success, but I felt like I was very hungry all the time. When I eat the THM way, I am not terribly hungry all the time. THM is actually not low-carb, but I would consider it lower-carb as it does cut out pretty much all processed sugar, grains, and flour. Brown rice, sprouted or sourdough bread is allowed, though, in the right setting, so it is not an extreme low-carb eating plan.

2) With THM, I can eat most of my favourite foods with only a few adjustments: The biggest and hardest change for me is probably giving up sugar and taco chips. I need to get used to the sugar-substitutes again, which does take a bit of an adjustment. Truvia is my favourite on-plan substitute. I can still have pizza (just have to use reduced-fat cheese and sourdough bread). I can still make my favourite cream-based pasta sauces and will just use zucchini noodles or dreamfields low-carb pasta instead. I think if I toast a Joseph's pita, I could come up with a half-decent taco chip and salsa alternative. If that fails, there's always crispy cheese chips (literally, shredded cheese baked in mounds into a chip that is super tasty cause cheese is just awesome). A big part of THM is just rearranging the foods you eat so that the carbs and fats are separate and finding ways to make my favourite foods THM-friendly. This is doable for me....I think.

3) Buying some of the special THM items is much easier now than it used to be. THM has become so popular that they now carry their own products, which are now easily ordered online. I know they aren't necessary to have in order to follow the plan, but I'm busy and need convenience in order to have this actually work. I also now feel more at ease with spending a bit more on groceries in order to make this work and my health to improve. Sadly, simple carbs (bread, pasta, white sugar, white flour, & potatoes) are some of the cheapest groceries and dairy and vegetables (and sugar substitutes like Truvia) are more expensive. So, in my opinion, in order to make THM easy to follow, it requires more grocery money.

4) I can make nearly all our favourite meals THM-friendly for myself by simply avoiding some of the side dishes my family will enjoy and adding in a salad.

5) I'm going to allow myself some cheats once in a while. My summer will include roll kuchen. No other explanation necessary.

Here is our menu plan for the week:

Monday: Beef & Vegetable Stir Fry over Rice. I had mine over 2 packages of shiratake noodles.

Tuesday: BLT's and Potato Wedges. I will have mine in a Joseph's lavash bread wrap and have salad instead of potato wedges (I would have turnip wedges if I have them, but I don't).

Wednesday: Beef Burgundy, Mashed Potatoes, Veggies, Salad (I will skip potatoes)\

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza (using sourdough bread that I will start fermenting on Tuesday)

Saturday: Tacos (I'll have mine on lavash bread wrap instead of white tortilla shell)