Books That Have Changed My Life #3 -Trim Healthy Mama

 

       

 After the birth of my second child, I was searching for ways to lose my extra baby weight.

I’d used The Whole 30 to lose weight after the birth of my 1^st, but if you’ve ever tried the Whole 30, it’s great while you’re on it, but it only lasts 30 days, and then you don’t know what to do.

I knew I wanted to stick with unprocessed, whole foods, but even unprocessed whole foods, when eaten without guidelines, did not help me lose that last stubborn 20 pounds or so.

I tried veganism, briefly, reading the book Eat to Live, whose author believes that humans can live off the protein in broccoli, and apparently don’t need much fat in their diets. It worked okay for me for a few months, and I did lose weight, but I often felt exhausted, it dried out my hair and nails, and worst of all, it stripped the fat from my breastmilk, and my 1-year-old nursling stopped gaining weight.

I returned to whole foods again, and of course gained back everything I had lost. Fortunately, my nursling began gaining weight immediately after I started eating like a normal human and though she is naturally small, she was at least on the doctor’s charts again.

So, what was I to do? One thing that had often disturbed me about the Whole 30, which is a form of the Paleo Diet, and about the Eat to Live Veganism was that they both prescribed the same plan for men and women, and seemed to offer little advice for the various stages and differing nutritional needs of women. Women’s bodies are different than men’s bodies, and our needs are constantly changing. The other problem I had with both plans was they both followed an evolutionary ideology that disagrees with the Bible. If I’m a Christian who believes the Word of God is True, should I be investing my body in a plan that doesn't line up with the Word of God?  

Finally, I heard about a book called Trim Healthy Mama.  It followed a whole foods premise, claimed you could eat all the food groups, and also claimed to research what the Bible says about nutrition and what that means for women. The skinny, feminine, happy looking sisters on the cover of the book, who had both had many, many babies yet still looked amazing intrigued me and I asked my husband to purchase me the book.

It is a BIG book, though not a perfect book by any means. I’ll start with the BAD:

1.       It is rambling, and at times the tone could be a little annoying. It is written by two Christian stay-at-home-mom sisters who have researched all this information and sorted through it. They have zero credentials.

2.       The plan requires you to give up white sugar, white flour, white rice, and white potatoes. I had already given those things up intermittently before, so that wasn’t a problem for me, and most healthy diets will tell you to cut that garbage out of your life, (seriously, it’s TERRIBLE for you!) but if you haven’t yet, that could be a huge struggle.

3.       The plan requires a lot of doing your own cooking, which means meal planning, grocery shopping and dishes. This is much easier for Stay-at-Home-moms than it could be for working mothers, though many working ladies on their Facebook group seem to be making it work.  

4.       It’s weird. If you’re looking for a plan that helps you fit in, this is NOT IT. But, sadly, normal is not always healthy.  

For all of the plan's flaws, after 5 years of following THM- I can’t tell you how much I love this plan! 

The GOOD:

1.       I found the information to be some of the best nutritional information I had come across for women.  It is also adaptable to the needs of the men and children in your life and you don’t have to make separate meals for other members of the family.

2.       IT WORKS! I quickly lost the baby weight I was trying to lose and, when I stay on plan, I can fit comfortably into my size 6 jeans. I am pretty unreliable about staying on plan, to be honest. When things are good, I can usually do okay. But when things are stressful, such as in the middle of a pandemic, I don't lose weight because I don't stay on plan. I do stay very healthy, though, just staying 80% on plan.  

3.       The plan is very, very, very, healthy, which was my number one priority, and yes, it is completely adaptable to all the stages of a woman’s life. So many stages! Many women have shared their accounts of their cycles regulating, their fertility returning, their fertile years extending, and the healthy pregnancies and breastfeeding years they’ve sustained on this plan.  

4.       It is Biblical. The authors provide the scripture references so you can make your own decisions about the Biblicality of their claims, but I felt they were spot on.

5. Men can do it, too! There are Trim Healthy Hunks out there who have lost tons of weight doing the plan. They of course have to tailor it to their own nutritional needs, as men tend to need more energy than women, but it WORKS and they really feel much better.  

5.       There are a lot of resources out there for THM. They’ve written more books (a lot of them simpler and better written than the first, but the first book is still my favorite,) there are some fun cookbooks, there is a lovely, positive, well-moderated facebook group, and if you want to get really fancy, you can buy their special ingredients and membership, but I don’t because I’m a Tightwad, remember?! (As I explain in "5 Books that Have Changed My Life: The Tightwad Gazette.") You can totally do the plan without all the fancy-pants ingredients and stay on budget.

Currently I’m pregnant with Baby #4 at 37 years old (remember what I said about women’s fertility being boosted by this plan?) and I’m staying 100% on plan (except for Christmas, of course; I'm not a totally crazy person!) The pregnancy plan is different (you don’t fuel juggle during pregnancy), and I’m really enjoying it. I feel good, my weight gain is steady and appropriate, my hormones levels look lovely, and when the time is right for me to lose the baby weight, THM will be there for me.  

P.S. I'm not a blogger for THM. I don't know them or benefit financially from them in any way. I just really love this plan and wanted to share it with you because it has changed my life.