Trim Healthy Mama Plan (2 page)

For instance, the low-fat diet dogma tells us to cut out fats, especially saturated fats like butter and red meat. Don't eat too many eggs, its champions warn. These foods will lead to high cholesterol, heart attacks, and weight gain. A diet based on nourishing whole grains and only lean forms of proteins is the way to health. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, maybe throw in a little fish or chicken breast here and there—but too much red meat will kill ya!

The high-fat people? Their books and websites inform us that low-fat was for the eighties! Eat all the fat you want, including butter, red meat, and eggs. You'll only be healthier. Run away from grains, though.

The confusion only gets thicker when you take into consideration the argument from the “whole foods only” people. They urge us to keep foods as close to their original state as possible. Eat both fats and carbs and never worry about a calorie as long as your foods are pure, organic, and unadulterated. Anything unprocessed or organic is king in the whole-foods kitchen.

Wait, there's the other side of that argument: The low-calorie folk must have their say. Purity of food does not matter nearly as much as calories do. Eat whatever the heck style you want, just make sure your calories stay low (or count your points). Calories in, calories out—that's the most important foundation for weight and overall health, they insist.
Hmm…sure about that? How's that supposed to work during the challenging seasons of nursing and pregnancy? Low-calorie = sadly lacking milk supply and not enough nourishment for growing baby.

What about plant-based diets? Many vegetarians and vegans don't worry about calories as much as the evils of meat. Their experts tell us to forgo meat and, if possible, all dairy to cleanse and alkalize the body.

The low-carb camp speaks up. They still blame carbs for sickness and obesity. But of course there is a backlash to that camp, too. A growing number of people who've been too low-carb for too long are gaining a strong voice in the dietary arena. Their thyroid and adrenal hormones are shot, in part from lack of healthy carbohydrates, and many are demanding answers.

Stop…ENOUGH!!!! How is any of this sane?

If your brain is about to explode, we were right there with you.

Have you ever felt like throwing a tantrum (stomping included) and yelling, “
FOR ONCE AND FOR ALL…WHO'S RIGHT? SOMEBODY TELL ME! BECAUSE I AM SO DONE TRYING TO FIGURE THIS ALL OUT!!! I'M DONE! DONE! DONE. IN FACT, I'M SO DONE TRYING, ONLY TO FAIL, THAT I DON'T CARE ANYMORE. SOMEBODY GIVE ME A DONUT, NOW!
”

Good thing most of us have never literally thrown this fit in public. If this frustration has been a silent anguish for you, though, you're not alone.

It wasn't until we both reached this place called “done”—until all our extreme diet efforts essentially became “undone”—that a new path of truth emerged. Instead of looking to the next guru, we looked to the Bible. Who could know better than our Creator? Thankfully the Bible holds sound advice, simple advice. So simple it is profound.

We were finally able to drop so many fears, hang-ups, and anxieties over what is and what isn't good for us when we searched the scriptures for answers. It is restful to lean on a plan founded in biblical truths because man-made ideas will always conflict, confuse, rise up as fads, drop down as passé, then constantly recycle.

While people of all religions and beliefs have embraced the principles of this plan—and we welcome them all—we based Trim Healthy Mama on biblical truths. God designed all the food groups for our health, so why nix any of them? (And trust us, we've nixed many of them over the years.) His ways are wiser than any new diet book, any study, or any Internet advice that doesn't line up with His word. Every diet has studies for backup. There has to be something more reliable than those. It took us decades to learn and to finally trust our Creator on this subject, but when we did— Ahhh! Peace. Nothing like that feeling!

It occurred to us: What if some of these opposing diet theories contain certain necessary pieces of the puzzle even if they don't have the whole picture? Instead of choosing sides
and bashing other diets, why can't we treasure the best premises each of these offers? None of these diets would be so well known if some aspect of them was not effective, at least in the short term.

Why pitch a battered tent in just one dietary camp when we can build a wonderful dream home smack dab in the middle of all these arguments instead? Yes, a dream home—a place where you actually want to live! Eating foods that you actually want to eat. Foods that make you grin!

We can glean from the truths but reject the extremes. The parts that conflict with God's word are out for us! The parts that are not doable for busy lives are out! The parts that are just plain ridiculous…get 'em outta here! Hey…just because your blood type is O doesn't mean you have to eat three and a half baby carrots at three thirty in the afternoon, lest your body get out of balance and you have to eat four and a half edamame beans at four thirty. Good grief! It shouldn't be that complicated.

Once you put all the pieces of the puzzle together, the big picture is beautiful, doable, and “oh so tasty”! Think of a tapestry. You won't see the full design by looking at only one colored spool of thread before weaving. But weave many different colored spools together and you have a colorful masterpiece.

We might be sisters but we are not twinsies when it comes to eating styles. Even though the core premise of the way we eat is the same, we don't see eye to eye on everything. Trim Healthy Mama is based on whole foods but some of us Mamas take this food purity premise further than others. Our plan embraces those who prefer to cook from scratch and shun anything less than absolute food purity. Thankfully it also throws arms wide open to Mamas who have no desire to spend lots of time in the kitchen and who couldn't care less if there is a slightly suspect, not quite perfectly natural ingredient in a couple of store-bought food items. Welcome, everyone! We don't have to be cookie cutters of one another! And yes, we can learn from one another rather than debate the issues. We's going to be who we's going to be!

Serene is much more of a “food purist” while Pearl is yet to reform her ways as a “shortcut queen.” The plan works incredibly for both of us but we implement it in slightly different ways. Serene's kitchen is full of kefir grains, kombucha mushrooms, sprouting grains,
and giant stockpots filled with bones releasing their nutrients. Pearl made sourdough bread once and vowed to never try it again. Big flop! She doesn't mind buying sprouted bread from the grocery store or using a convenience, packaged item or two here and there. Serene never cheats on off-plan foods. Pearl does now and then. If you ever see the word
microwave
mentioned in a recipe, that will be Pearl's suggestion; Serene will be running from the radiation and offering her purist friends alternatives—after she has given Pearl a lecture!

Don't sell yourself short by relying on someone else to do your dietary thinking for you. We are going to clearly explain the plan here in as short a fashion as is possible but this is not Trim Healthy Mama for dummies. You're not going to be denied whole food groups. You will eat carbs and fats and proteins; we'll just show you how to enjoy them in a way that allows you to stay healthy, trim, and happy. Once you understand these principles, you'll be set for a lifetime and you'll be making your own wise nutritional decisions. We could give you a week's worth of specific weight-loss meals with exact portion sizes and basically say, “Eat this; you will lose weight.” Or there are the thirty- to ninety-day plans—you know the ones. We'd control your dietary life for one to three months and then leave you to your own devices after that. But that's all just more of the same and it only leads to more “done.”

You need to make this plan your own if this is to be a forever solution, and that means you have to think–at first.

Trim Healthy Mama is not made up of a bunch of rules and lists. It does have some guidelines—like fueling your body by eating every three to four hours throughout the day, knowing which foods to eat together and which to eat separately—but it cannot be fully understood if it's stripped down to just numbers and a Top Ten of “Foods You Must Avoid.” There is not “only one way” to make it work. We want you to understand the spirit of freedom behind it and the “whys.” Then it will click and you'll find your own groove.

As a unique person, you require different amounts of food than the person to your left or right. You have different tastes, health issues, family challenges, schedules, abilities in the kitchen; and you burn fat at different rates than others do. A lifetime approach to trim and healthy requires an understanding that our bodies will all react differently and
the word
healthy
in this plan is every bit as important as the word
trim.
We're going to take a pass on those conventional diet book formulas and lead you through the particulars, the struggles, and all the baby-stepping questions.

If you are a nursing or pregnant Mama, yes, you can absolutely eat the Trim Healthy way but your needs will be different from those of a woman beyond that stage of life. Throw another gender into a set program and that muddles things even further. Asking a six-foot-two man to eat the same amounts as a five-foot-two woman doesn't even make sense.

Maybe you have hormone issues—polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), thyroid issues, or hormone decline due to menopause.

Are you gluten-free or do you have multiple food allergies?

Perhaps you are feeding a large family and your budget is extremely tight.

Or maybe you are a businessman or businesswoman and cannot avoid eating out frequently.

How could a week's worth of rigid meals and measured portions meet all of these variant needs? Short answer: They can't. Diets that force-feed you that sort of rigidity are only more fraudulent dead ends, and we refuse to be part of them.

Let's do this! Don't be afraid of failing. We have adopted the seal's policy of “no Mama left behind.” (But if you're the rare man who reads this book, “no man left behind” fits, too.) If you stink at diets—well, that is excellent. Most people doing this along with you stink at diets, too. Many of us also stink at exercising; that's okay. You may not have the energy for exercise when you first start. But slowly…as your health and energy levels improve…you'll want to do some sort of exercise to let off that energy steam. And then we'll tell you to chill out and stop exercising so much! Overexercising is not allowed. Settle down, girl!

Please just relax and read this book through before you begin tossing junk food out of your cupboard! Don't go buying a whole bunch of special ingredients you're not quite ready for. You can do this plan with everyday, inexpensive food from your grocery store and then, as you learn about other helpful ingredients, you can choose to incorporate them slowly—or not at all. Special ingredients are fun but they are not “must haves.” Take
this one chapter at a time, giving yourself time to digest the information. Release that tension rising inside you that's concerned with all the changes you are going to have to make and how overwhelmed that is going to make you feel. Nope, that's your meanie voice. We're going to train you not to listen to that voice. Tune in to the kind and gentle voice—the one that says you don't have to get this down perfectly on your first day. You are going to make mistakes. No biggie. You've got a lifetime to get this right.

This lifestyle is forgiving. You'll get up when you mess up, dust yourself off, and jump right back into the journey. Guilt, shame, and self-loathing are not on plan! Here's another important THM mantra: “You are always only three hours away from your next slimming meal.”

All you need to start your journey is an open mind and a willingness to shed bad habits. But this is very attainable when you replace those old bad habits with new ones that are fun and easy. Your new food choices will have nothing in common with doldrums and deprivation. You'll learn to build up your body and your immune system in the yummiest of ways with ample protein at every meal. You will eat fats in luscious quantities; you will also eat carbs. Meat, dairy, veggies, beans, gentle grains, fruit, and oh so many treats are all on plan. If you have allergies or sensitivities to any of the foods, that is not a deal breaker. You'll still be able to enjoy plenty of yummy, health-giving foods doing the plan your own way.

So get yourself a cup of joe, find a spot to read (even if you have to lock yourself in the bathroom to get some peace), and let's begin!