THM - Day 1

 Trim Healthy Mama Experiment. Day 1.

The food was fabulous. I seriously can't wait to get the book so I can get all the great recipes that I'm seeing on facebook. The only time I felt "deprived" today was when my kids enjoyed an ice cream sundae, which I would normally "share" with them. Oh, and I longingly looked at my all-time favourite almond chocolate chip cookies I packed in my hubby's lunch. Thankfully, skinny chocolate saved me from giving in to that temptation :-D

Breakfast: Fat free plain Greek yogurt, 1/2 tsp peanut butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla, sprinkle of stevia to sweeten, and fresh strawberries. SO good! This is "Fuel-Pull", I think.

Lunch: BLT on a homemade flax wrap with homemade avocado lime dressing. I also had a cheese string and small piece of the homemade skinny chocolate (coconut oil, cocoa, stevia, flaked coconut) for "dessert". This was also very, very good. "S" meal. The rest of the family had it on regular bread with regular mayo. 

Supper: Quinoa, Balsamic Roasted Vegetables, & Chicken (from a store-bought rotisserie chicken). These veggies were AMAZING. Seriously...a new favourite. Mixed veggies (zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, peppers) tossed in 1/2 tsp of olive oil, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper) & roasted at 425 F for about 20 minutes or so. I could eat this meal every week. 

For snacks: this evening I had another piece of the skinny chocolate (that stuff is awesome! I need to make some more tomorrow). I was a bit hungry still, so I made myself a smoothie with frozen mixed berries, fat free plain Greek yogurt (a THM staple), stevia, and a splash of almond milk. The only thing I wasn't too sure about today was the almond milk. I had it in my coffee this morning, too, and it's a little...weird.

For exercise, I did Workout 1 of the 30 Day Shred this evening.
I'm feeling great but am anticipating the possibility of some not-so-nice sugar detox side effects in the next few days.

30 Day Trim Healthy Mama Experiment

With a bit of trepidation, I am going to embark on a 30 day food experiment, loosely following the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) plan. I am also planning to complete the 30 Day Shred exercise dvd. All this is an attempt to stabilize my blood sugar, increase my energy levels, and hopefully feel a whole lot better overall. Oh yes...and hopefully get a good start to shedding the lingering 10-15 pounds of baby weight, which are ridiculously stubborn and did not respond at all to my 9 week bootcamp attempt...sigh.
I have not read the Trim Healthy Mama book yet, so I won't be following their plan exactly (and likely wouldn't anyway.) I'm just guessing as to what things are considered E & S meals based on my very limited knowledge. The "E" meals are supposed to be energizing...meaning more carb-based. The "S" meals are satisfying....meaning more fat-based. "FP" are fuel-pull meals with are low carb & low-fat, so they are supposed to be for times you are less hungry or need a weight-loss boost. My understanding of the plan is to not mix large amounts of fats & carbs in the same meal. Very little sugar is allowed...most things are sweetened with stevia, which I just purchased last week. Coconut oil is also used a lot as a healthy fat, so I bought myself a jar of that, too. Glucomannan is supposed to be used for thickening things like gravy and desserts, but I'm not going to be using that. I am cheating a bit with some of my meals, but realistically, I could never follow THM exactly for my whole life. Never have a baked potato (carbs) with sour cream & bacon bits (fats) again?? Forget it! It's still gonna happen, people! :-D

I hope I can stick it out because I know I'm really going to miss my pop & chips...and french fries. I love french fries. Like, really really love french fries. Oh, and I'm a carb-a-holic. This plan is pretty low-carb. I hope I'm not setting myself up for failure. 

30 days. I can do this. I think. I start tomorrow. Will blog my progress (or lack, thereof). If I commit to 30 days on the plan and see significant change in my overall health, perhaps I will look at THM as more of a way of life and a different way of thinking about food rather than just a "diet".

Wish me luck :-)

Trim Healthy Mama

Have you heard of the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) book that is all the rage right now? I heard of it several months ago and didn't think about it too much until just recently. Bloggerland is filled with so many positive reviews, testimonies, and "it changed my life" claims that it's really piqued my interest lately. TONS of people are having success with the program, and now I'm seriously considering jumping on the bandwagon. Here's one review that goes in depth into what the plan is about.

I've never, ever tried any sort of diet "program" in my entire life. Okay....maybe there was this one time I did the pita pocket diet for a week... I have loosely counted calories before (just estimates...no weighing of food or calculations) and had great success with that after Elianna was born, but I've never followed some sort of Atkins, South Beach, etc. type of thing where you pay attention to what types of foods you are eating and when and in what combination. Of course, Trim Healthy Mama is not supposed to be a "diet" but a way of eating for the rest of your life.

I requested the book at the library but am thinking it's going to be awhile until my turn comes for it since it has a few holds on it. After reading all the reviews and joining their facebook page,  I feel like I have an okay grasp of the plan. Don't mix fats and carbs at the same meal. There are certain "S" meals (satisfying) that are more fat-based. There are certain "E" meal (energizing) that are more carb-based. The idea is to balance blood sugar. It looks to me that following the plan loosely would mean that with slight modifications, I can eat almost everything I have been eating, but just not in the same combinations. Oh, and I can have desserts, coffee and chocolate, too. I like that.

There is much more to the book than just an eating plan & recipes; it goes into hormone balancing, skin care, etc., so I think it will be an interesting read.

When I mentioned this to Craig, he was like nooooooooo.....I like the way you cook!  HAHA. Well I can promise you this....if the food tastes like garbage, we won't be sticking with it. I hear we can't have white potatoes on this plan (at least not at first).  I guess by "we" I really mean "I" since mashed potatoes is my hubby's all-time favourite food.  After skimming several recipes, I'm pretty confident I can make most of the recipes suit our tastes without straying too far from the plan. The plan uses stevia instead of sugar for sweetening, and I'm not sure how I feel about that....yet. We'll see. I'll be sure to cook up a big pot of mashed potatoes once in awhile to keep hubby happy. :-). It's pretty likely I will loosely follow the plan if I decide to try it. I'll allow for cheat meals and not worry about eating at other people's houses and things.

Why do I want to try THM? My body has been acting up lately...Without going into too much info, let's just say that I've not been feeling my best on many different levels.

I'm trying to be patient as I wait for my book. In the meantime, I'm having a lot of fun scoping Pinterest for some THM meal ideas and recipes.

Menu Plan Monday

We just returned from an awesome holiday to sunny St George, Utah. We were gone for about a week, and our kids had a great time with their grandparents while we enjoyed some kid-free time. More about that some other time once I get through all the pictures.:-).

Here's what we'll be eating this week:

Sunday: Family supper

Monday: Family supper (I'm making a cabbage salad)

Tuesday: Sweet & Sour Chicken with Bell Peppers over Rice

Wednesday: Hamburger Vegetable Soup & 5 Minute Artisan Bread (this is our new favourite!)

Thursday: Leftover Soup & Oven Toasted Ham Sandwiches (on artisan bread)

Friday: One Pot Mac n' Cheese (with diced tomatoes mixed in), Veggies & Dip

Saturday: Homemade Pizza & Caesar Salad

5K Finally

On Saturday I ran my first 5K (3.1 miles) in 2 years. The last time I ran 5K was sometime before I got pregnant with Nathanael. Nathanael is 14 months old plus 9 months of pregnancy...well that's pretty much 2 years ago. I had been following the couch to 5K program but honestly, I hadn't kept up with the workouts for the last few weeks. I just get bored sometimes. I have a problem with following through. I always start projects with lots of gusto and then just get bored and fizzle out. It's a lack of discipline, and I'm trying to work on it :-D. Originally I had wanted to try to run 5K on my birthday, but the day got busy and it never happened.

 This past Saturday I hopped on the treadmill thinking I'd jog for a bit (not even planning to try the 5K), but I was feeling surprisingly good at 10 minutes into it, so I decided to do at least 15 minutes. This is how the conversation inside my head went, if you care to hear it...though you probably don't! What goes through my mind kind of fascinates me though, as running & working out is so much a mental thing. I wonder what goes through the mind of someone who runs marathons??

@10 minutes in: Wow... I'm feeling good. Oh ya... I can do 15 minutes for sure. Maybe I can even do the whole 5K today.

@12 minutes in: My legs hurt. I'm tired. I'm going to quit at 15 min.Time to turn on some Toby Mac. 

@15 minutes: Feeling good again. I can definitely do 5 more minutes. 

@20 minutes: I'm bored. Time to quit. Oh, but I only have to do 10 more minutes to get to 5K. How sweet would it be if I could do my 5K today... Yeah, it would be awesome. I guess I can do at least 22 minutes, since I need to push myself a bit further than I did the other week (20 minutes). Okay 22 minutes. That will be good enough.

@21 minutes: I'm going to die. I'm definitely quitting in one minute. Time to find a pump up song on jango to get me through. 

@22 minutes: I only have 8 minutes left to get to 5K. 8 minutes. I can do this. I hear the trainers from the Biggest Loser in my head saying, "Push through. Dig deeper. Don't quit on me." LOL

@23 minutes: I'm listening to the song "Everlasting God" and though I'm sooo incredibly tired right now, the song is reminding me of God's character, and I can't help but worship God as I'm running, thinking about how awesome it is that our God NEVER gets tired even though I'm so incredibly physically tired at this point. This is especially encouraging to me as the past few weeks have been very emotionally draining for me. 

@25 minutes. I'm soooo tired. I feel like I'm going to die.

@27 minutes: Brutal, just brutal. Want to quit so badly, but I'm soooo close to finishing the 5K. I find TobyMac's Eye on It and blast it. 

@27 minutes: Final kick time. I gradually increase my speed from 6 mph to 7 mph

@30 minutes: Done!

P.S. I normally can't stand music like Toby Mac or anything Christian rock related, but it definitely helps me work out harder when I listen to that kind of music. It's not something you'll hear me play any time other than through my headphones during my workouts since when I hear that stuff in a different circumstance, it normally drives me a bit crazy....haha....but it's clean pump-up/work-out music :-).

Menu Plan Monday

This week we are eating simple, quick meals that don't take a lot of prep time. I am trying to simplify our meal plans so that I'm not spending as much time on meal prep, leaving me more time to do other things.

Sunday: Skillet Light Lasagna (one of our favourite meatless 15 minute dinners. I substitute cottage cheese for the ricotta since we prefer it) & Tossed Salad

Monday: Leftovers & Pancakes with Strawberries

Tuesday:  Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken (NEW - modifying slightly) over Noodles,  Peas/Carrots, Salad

Wednesday: Stuffed Pepper Soup, Artisan Bread (NEW)

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers

Menu Plan Monday

Sunday was one nasty day, weather-wise. We were about to leave for church when the freezing rain started, so we decided to stay home. The rain turned to snow (and lots of it!) with high winds. I was very happy to stay in my warm house rather than be out on the roads.

Life has been seeming a bit chaotic lately. I really feel like I need to get on some sort of flexible schedule one of these days. The fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants method just isn't working for me (or the kids). When Elianna was a baby, I was on a weekly housekeeping routine and got into a good rhythm in my daily routine. With 2 kids...it just isn't happening.  The rhythm of my day is chaos. Maybe this is just "normal" :-D, I don't know...but I'm thinking that has to be a better way!

 We are keeping it simple this week:

Sunday:Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup (NEW)

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes (NEW), Veggies & Dip

Wednesday: Crockpot Beef & Broccoli & Rice

Thursday:  Leftovers

Friday: Taco Salad

Saturday: Leftovers

*Linking up to Menu Plan Monday hosted by orgjunkie.com*