Preparing for 2017

 

     I know many people hate making New Year's Resolutions, especially because about 60 days in, they have no idea which ones they made. That's okay, but if you'd like to have a little better focus to your time this year, here's an idea to get you started in different areas of your life. Use the ones that apply, skip the ones that don't:

1.  Spiritual     What would you like to do to focus on your spiritual life this year? Is there a particular book of the bible you want to read? Want to attend a conference/women's conference? Do you want to sign up for a new bible study or a small group in someone's home

• 2.  Family     What would you like to do to focus more on family?  Plan a trip this year to see long distance relatives? Plan a weekly/monthly family day to do something together? Is it trying to get your family to all sit down to dinner together on Sunday nights? 
• 3.  Friends   Could you plan to have lunch once a month with a different friend all year? Could you plan on vacationing either with a friend, a group of friends, or at least include a stop to visit with them during your vacation? What about sending written letters/cards like "in the old days" to stay in touch?
• 4.  Finances     This one is harder because life causes unexpected things that throw finances off track, but could you plan to put aside 1/2 to 1% of your paycheck if you aren't already saving anything each week? Could you change something to save an amount per month (turn the heat or a/c down by a few degrees, quit smoking, go to the discount theaters instead of seeing new movies in their first weekend, buy store brand instead of name brands on a few items each week, etc.)?
• 5.  Mental Health     What do you do to make sure you don't feel burnt out? Most people do nothing for this. Could you plan one day a month for a few hours to be alone? To sit or walk in a nice park? Could you take time to read a few books next year? What about a massage from a massage therapy school where it's cheaper because students are learning and practicing techniques on you? 
• 6.  Learn a new skill     Ever want to learn a second language? Learn to work on a car? Learn to do something in the home or yard improvement category? There's so much info. out there between libraries, You Tube, books, and the Internet - it's easier than ever - and you may learn something that leads to either saving money by doing it yourself or get you a better paying job by speaking that second language. 
• 7.  Physical Fitness     If you have time to workout at a gym, then by all means, sign up and do it for your own health, but if not, maybe just agreeing to begin walking a few days a week would help. You could clear a space to follow a DVD in the privacy of your home. Finding a friend or neighbor to buddy up with helps because of accountability - you're more likely to show up to walk or work out if you know someone's waiting for you.

Here's just a few ideas to get you started! Good luck.

The Not So Crazy Holiday Season

     I know this time of year is usually very hectic but this year, I've been blessed with a low-stress December - perfect after such a tumultuous November, election season, car accident paperwork, going almost 2 months already with one car missing in our household, and Tim on an extra long trip that has him gone from Nov. 29 through Christmas Eve.

     I am 2 weeks from Christmas and my shopping is completely done, including stockings! Everything is wrapped. I only need to mail out a package to MA and one to FL this week. That's it. I paid cash for all but about $200 (and the cost of my new computer & printed that we desperately needed for important things in January). There's nothing like going into January knowing you paid cash for your gifts and you've paid off the credit card before the 30 days are up so you didn't pay any interest, nor carry a balance into the new year.

     I had a wonderful evening of looking at Christmas lights in our area with my youngest who's now in college. I miss driving around with the three of them in the back oohing and ahhing at the lights, something we've done every year since they were born. We got out and walked in one neighborhood getting lots of great pictures (and ideas for next year), as well as drove through another four. So relaxing, no stress, no complaining over work/grades/teachers/employees - just a nice night spent happily together.

     I also got to bring my mother-in-law to the annual Dback Nation holiday auction & fund raiser. Every year Jordan and I go to help raise money for the charities important to the Arizona Diamondback players we partner with. We have a silent auction for lots of baseball items, there's raffles and grab bags too. It's a fun night of friendly baseball fans coming together for one purpose. It was great to be able to bring Mom this year. She had a good time, met lots of people who were very nice to her, and she even won a few great items in the raffles and auction. She won the autographed Yasmany Tomas ball she wanted!

     I really enjoyed when the ladies in our small group got together for brunch at Mimi's Cafe in Scottsdale and we did an ornament exchange right there at the table. It was great to get together with no time constraints, no daily agenda to cover, just enjoying each others' company. I got each of the ladies a coffee mug that I picked out especially for each of them, based on either how I saw them, or what I wished most for them - things like hope, grace, be still, etc. In the exchange I got an ornament that light up - so fun!

     The most stress was when I tried to coordinate schedules for Christmas dinner(s). We're doing a quiet, plated, more formalized meal with just us on Christmas Day but up until today, we weren't sure when that could happen. One son works til midnight Christmas Eve (my original plan), my daughter has to work from 2 am until at least 8 am ON CHRISTMAS MORNING. Isn't that stupid?! The company is closed but her particular franchisee owner decided they WILL be open and already has a banner out front telling everyone. It's so wrong, and so sad to see people who heartlessly destroy family time together so they don't miss out on a few dollars. I bet THEY will be home with THEIR families on Christmas day. Anyway...we're also doing a family meal, buffet style, on the day after Christmas with my in-laws. They're the only family we have within 1000 miles. We've always spent the holidays with the kids' grandparents, and even though they're on a short weekend cruise til the 26th, we didn't want to break tradition. We'll eat with them and exchange gifts when they drive here from the ship's dock in Long Beach, CA.

     Hopefully, by the end of the month, Adam will have found and purchased another car. The check has been issued and should be here this week. He was so impressed with how the car held up in such a terrible accident (so were the mechanics who gave estimates), that he'll probably look for the same car - he had a Hyundai Elantra that was about 8 or 9 years old. He may get one that's a bit newer, but it proved itself to be a great car in an accident.

     Once Tim gets home, since the kids are working and busy right up until we open our gifts late morning on the 25th, we'll have lots of time to relax and just be together with minimal holiday rush. We can just sit back and rest, enjoying our time together. It'll be long overdue by then.

     Hopefully 2017 will be full of wonderful experiences and memories together with family and friends, but for now, I'm happy to just focus on one thing at a time.

Accident Part 2: The Unexpected Miracle

     If you read my last post earlier this month, you already know Adam's without any compensation for an accident where another driver swerved into his lane and totaled his car. It was a very weird series of events that unfolded leading to that.

     Here's the miracle that happened since then:  We got a letter in the mail from a different insurance company that had nothing to do with the accident according to all we'd seen and heard from police reports and insurance companies. Our own insurance did a search they said and found out "the other car has no insurance on it according to its vin number and plate number".  Well, according to the letter we got, a 3rd company was trying to contact Adam because THEIR insured customer had been involved in an accident CAUSING damage to Adam's car. They were admitting their client was at fault, and wanted to pay Adam!!!  When does that EVER happen?!  Maybe it was because the driver was given a ticket of some sort at the scene, according to Adam & his brother?  Maybe the driver borrowed someone's car, that had no insurance, but he had to use his own company to pay to have their car fixed so he had to report it? Either way, there IS insurance covering his damages!

     Since the last post, they fully admitted to being at fault, paid for Adam to have a rental car for a week (which really helps when we're down a vehicle). They paid him a reimbursement check to cover getting his car from the impound and having it towed to the garage for estimates. They also agreed to an amount a few hundred dollars more than he paid for the car! All should be done within another week or two, between Tim having to sign off on all of it, Adam working 60+ hours around Thanksgiving and Black Friday at Target, and getting a day off so he can test out a few cars for sale before buying one.

     My prayer when we first heard there was "accidentally" no collision and no uninsured motorist policy (it's part of collision, not a separate policy) was that God would intervene, reveal all the truth needed so Adam wasn't stuck without a car and compensation for his loss. I prayed that somehow, the path to all of this working out right would be "made smooth".  Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Do you believe? I do!

The Accident

     I hear all the time that things happen "for a reason" and I believe it when there's overwhelming evidence it shouldn't and couldn't have happened that way - but it did. This time, it was the case of Adam's accident. He was driving west on the 202 in Mesa when a truck entered by a ramp, cutting off the car in front of Adam. That driver was not paying close enough attention because he panicked. He slammed on his brakes and started swerving all over the road. Adam put his brakes on to slow way down, and had the presence of mind to realize in that instant that he should try to switch lanes to avoid him. The left lane was occupied so he went into the right lane, and even a little beyond into the breakdown lane. It was too late...the car in front of him swerved out of his own lane, into the right lane, and again into the breakdown lane, hitting Adam's car at a 45 degree angle. He hit so hard it totaled the driver's front half of the car and pushed Adam hard into the cement wall on the highway, totaling the passenger's front half of the car, shattering wheels, rims, panels, everything. The transmission got stuck in neutral too, the car basically "shut off" but the key couldn't be removed if not in park, the key was never turned off, so we knew there had to be transmission damage, on top of bent frame, wheels no longer were where they belonged, etc.

     Adam & the driver got out and began to exchange information when 8 police officers from the Dept. of Safety showed up. Because sometimes people get angry in these situations, they immediately separated both drivers, took everyone's information, and handed each back his own paperwork. The other driver was handed some sort of yellow ticket at the scene, skid marks clearly revealing (as well as the angle of the crash) that the other guy was at fault.  Without asking, the officers called a tow truck to take Adam's car, which was not able to be driven, to "the yard".  Adam asked if he could be towed to his house or our usual garage instead and was told, "No."  He then asked if it would take money to get his car back and was again told, "No" since he was not at fault.

     Here's where it gets weird:

     1.  We call our insurance only to find out there's no collision on the car even though we have it on all other cars and always have. Due to an error on their part, it was dropped. This is crazy - about a year ago, Adam was parked at Target working. He came out to find his last car had been hit & totaled. Our insurance company gladly paid to replace it since we had collision. They say we called to drop the car after that, since it was no longer ours. They think what happened was that the rep we talked to said, "No problem."  After we hung up, he may have seen he could NOT drop the car from the policy if the case was technically still OPEN. The only thing he could've done to lower our payment was to drop collision, but keep liability til the case was officially CLOSED. After it was closed, no one dropped it, We thought it already was. No one went back to check. When we added his replacement car (the one in this new accident), we were told it was still on the policy, so they took it off then & added the new car.  When they asked what we wanted covered, we said, "Everything the last one had, we want on this one, since it's just the replacement."  They gave us a new quote and we moved on. Apparently when he looked, he saw just the liability since it looked like we dropped collision (within 1 or 2 days of them declaring it totaled and paying Adam). Adam's had no collision for almost a year and there's no way we could've known or expected it. Especially since everything is online and paperless these days.

     2.  The other guy gave the officer a license and insurance card (required in AZ). Both must have looked legit at the time. Come to find out, there is NO insurance on that vehicle, and he isn't the driver. Our insurance did a check to figure that out (explained in #3) and the driver is a broke renter in a super ghetto neighborhood with no car - and we weren't given the info as to who owns the car - but there is NO insurance on it anyway. Probably, the owner made 1 payment, got a card to look, valid, then never paid the premiums and was dropped.

     3.  The officer wrote ins. info for the other guy. The phone # & company was right, but the policy number was wrong. It wasn't even in the right format for that insurance (3 letters, 7 digits). When we called the insurance company, before we found out the car was uninsured, they had no one by that name or address in their files.

     4.  The officer allowed the other driver to skip date of birth and phone number on the police report, which are the 2 most important pieces of info. we needed to track him down through insurance and to get in touch with him to pay to fix Adam's car.

     5.  We talked to the officer at the scene.  He didn't seem to care the guy gave all false info., apparently fraudulent info to an officer isn't worth his time to chase him, or drive to the guy's house, or check DMV records to contact the owner of the car. When asked about the policy number error he didn't think it was important, and did not take responsibility for it. Also, Adam DID have to pay to get his car out - almost $200 3 days later. He was told by the officers that ins. adjuster would need to see it before we moved it, so we left it til we realized what was going on.

     So the results - Adam's out a $5500 car, no one will pay for it, it's totaled. Even if we could repair it, it would cost as much as the vehicle, or even more, to get it on the road safely and other issues could easily pop up after that. End of story. None of it was his fault. There were errors on the part of every single person involved except Adam, and he's the only one who lost out. The other car was driveable after just changing the tire - probably would never get the repairs done, or just cover it over with a new side panel.

     How could so many things have gone wrong behind the scenes in one split second? It must have been for a reason, although it's hard to figure that out right now. All I know is that we're very thankful Adam was protected in that accident. It could have, and should have, been much, much worse. He walked away without a single scratch, nothing sore, perfectly fine. Thank God for watching over him. Here's a few of the pictures from the accident (the last one shows the car was stuck in neutral & couldn't be shifted, so we know there was transmission damage):

Beginning Week 13 (I think, I'm losing track)

     THM has become my way of eating for life. That doesn't mean I'm 100% perfect all the time, just that if I have one meal that's off plan or a crossover (healthy but has too many fats & carbs to be either an E or an S meal), I know I'm just 3 hours away from being back on track.

     This past week, I had an opportunity to eat out with baseball friends. We're trying to do it every 6 to 8 weeks or so, but life gets busy. Under any other "diet" program, eating out was the kiss of death. I'd order what I'd been forbidden to have before, then never get back on track. It was the whole attitude of, "Since today's blown, I'll start again tomorrow." Then I would eat the leftovers the next day. Now that's 2 days blown so I'd mess up the rest of day 2. Before you know it, a week's gone by and I'm completely off plan. Not so with THM,  This week, when I went out, I had a plan to eat my E meals, all carbs, limited fats - fortunately we went to Sweet Tomatoes, a buffet of salads, soups, pasta, potato bar, and other healthy things. My plan was to skip the foccacia bread (cheesy bread made similar to no sauce pizza), skip the ice cream, and skip the macaroni & cheese (they serve my favorite tasting mac & cheese).  Well, I messed up. I had about a 1C measure of mac & cheese, I ate 2 small pieces of the foccacia bread (less that the size of 1 slice of pizza though), and I had about 1/2C serving of the soft serve vanilla ice cream, no toppings.  No guilt because I still had E type salad, soup, tons of veggies, avoided other fats like creamy dressings and cream soups. I drank unsweetened acai iced tea. And the next morning I was right back on plan with a cinnamon muffin recipe out of the THM book.

     When I have a crossover or off plan meal now and then, the scale stops dropping, it also doesn't go up - something I never experienced before. My body simply maintains at the current loss point, which is about 20 lbs give or take a pound on any given day. The more days I'm 100% on plan, the more it goes down. Lately I've been busy and don't feel like eating much. I seem to be going about 4 hours between meals instead of 2 1/2 to 3. I'm eating less at each sitting when I'm busy. Instead of gaining weight because my body hangs onto every single thing on days/weeks like that, it simply maintains. That's never happened on any other diet plan, and I've tried Atkins, Weigh Down, Weight Watchers, NutriSystem, and Body for Life, along with Lowfat, Fat Free, and LowCarb programs. I've tried the 1000 calorie to 1200 calorie per day programs. All have 2 things in common:  They didn't work, and one meal off plan made me gain about 5 pounds back, even if all I ate was about 1000 calories. Mathmatically, it doesn't even make sense, but that's the story of my life for the past 30 years.

     I think the hardest thing has been to try to incorporate my Alcat test results with THM since there's quite a few healthy foods I should be avoiding for other reasons, things like coconut oil, olive oil, zucchini, basil, cucumbers, etc. I'm slowly using just a little here and there, but if I have any type of change for the worst I drop it back out again - like trouble sleeping again, or tired in the early afternoons, or bloating, or just feeling "out of it", or not happy like I have been after following Alcat recommendations. So far so good, but I know I've been using too much coconut oil. It's SUCH a super healthy food, that it makes its way into most THM recipes. Sometimes I can substitute butter or just use pan spray instead of oil to cook, but I'm finding that balance as I go.

     One other scary thing coming up, vacation. I'll be gone a total of 2 weeks between getting to TX, a week long cruise, then getting home from TX.  I'm already planning on snacks & meals to bring on the way out, looking over the cruise menus and getting used to picking E or S dinners, and figuring out a small grocery list for the drive back home. Hopefully I can balance most meals being on plan with a few crossover things like maybe 2 or 3 desserts in 7 days - or having a drink or two here and there in place of a snack, or maybe add a little protein when sipping. The authors answered me about cruising on plan on their member chat board. They basically said, enjoy all the S dinners like steak, and sauces, and buttery/cheesy sides, as well as E meals like ahi tuna with wild rice and mushrooms, etc., have a few treats along the way so you don't feel deprived or like you're dieting on vacation.  Love that they answer in person, and they said exactly what I wanted to hear!

     I know I say this all the time, but if you want a lifetime eating plan for better health, weight loss, and still enjoy life - Trim Healthy Mama is your plan. Don't waste your money on programs you already tried and know they don't work. Happy Labor Day, everyone!

A New Chapter in My Life

     Life is changing. I'm closing a chapter of my life forever and starting a new one. My time as a homeschooling Mom is over. My last has graduated. All 3 kids are now over 18, have their own car (we're sharing two cars with #3), they all have jobs, and they're all in the adult world now. My youngest just started college. So what's next? I have no idea.

     I'm taking the next few months to try to figure out my purpose now. I could get a part-time job although who wants to give me 5 days off every 3rd weekend when Tim's home? I'm not going to have him home and I'm gone so that we never see each other. That's really bad for a marriage. My fear is that I'll give away my time, have to drop doing the things that ARE part of my life's purpose that I'm doing now, for about $100/wk difference - meanwhile, I'm miserable, and so is everyone else that I'd have to step away from to work.

     I could go back to school, I actually love being a student - but I can't imagine putting thousands of dollars of more pressure on Tim to pay for it for the next 2 to 4 years. I'd probably be okay as a teacher in a private Christian school, but I couldn't do it in a public school since I disagree with almost everything they decide these days. I'd be in court for not silencing my beliefs if a student asks. I also would love to study psychology, or even business. Again though, at the end of the schooling, I'd still need to work, full time to justify the cost of education, and I'm back to the dilemma of not pursuing what I believe I was called to do - I just wish it had a paycheck attached to it. What I do helps people, helps me be a better person to those around me, and makes the world a better place, but it's on a volunteer basis.

     I am over the MLM thing. I had a wonderful experience in Monavie, and would've stayed with them til I died. Loved the products. Loved the pay plan. Loved everything about it - then they sold the company to sort of a parent company that changed it all. The pay plan was not cut & dry anymore, it was harder to plan for it, the best Monavie products got changed or discontinued (except for the juices - but those are only available to those of us who moved TO the new company. New people can't sign up & have access with the new company. I was sad to see that chapter close after years in that business, and all the friends I made there, but it's finally nice to talk to someone without the pressure or guilt of saying/not saying anything about a company. I can just meet people and not feel like I have an ulterior motive, regardless of how pure my motives were to get to know them. I'm happy not worrying about the next event, having to find people to go or else sit alone in a big venue. It's nothing Tim's schedule would EVER allow for these days.

     So where does that leave me? Confused. Scared. My head is constantly rolling ideas around, comparing the good and the bad of each option, it's keeping me up at night feeling like I'm running out of time to decide or something. It's a bad place that I haven't been for many, many years. I pray for direction, but I haven't been given any indication what I'm supposed to do, or at least, none of the options so far are the right answer. I'm trying to be patient, but I need my head to be quiet again. It's like listening to an out of control courtroom full of people arguing both sides of my options.

     In the meantime, I'm catching up on all the things I haven't been able to do for the last 6 months while getting Jordan graduated, passing her GED, teaching her to drive, getting her enrolled in college, among the other day to day stuff I already have on my plate. I'm trying to cook more to save money on groceries. I'm trying to rid our home of materialistic things we don't need, cleaning closets, tossing out boxes of stuff we don't need, thinning down the years of collected dishes, serving platters, mixing bowls, storage containers, etc.

     I'm trying to take time to hunt down new ideas for a job I may be able to do without a college degree and without ANY work experience in the last decade. My last real work experience was before companies used computers! I know I can DO and LEARN just about any job with on-the-job training, but to get in the door, my application is just one of literally hundreds for every job, and without experience and without a degree, it NEVER gets called to the top of the pile for an interview.

     I wish I knew someone who owned a company willing to give me a shot, who knows I'm dependable, honest, and hard-working. Unfortunately, my friends are mostly retired, stay-at-home Moms & wives, or they work a regular job themselves (most with a degree of some kind).  I know the answers will come, I'm just impatient and unsure. Hopefully things will get clearer soon, but for now, I guess I'm stuck with the voices in my head.

Week 11 - It Got Real (stressful)

     So here I was, gliding along doing THM when out of nowhere, life hit me!  I won't get into details, but I had stress coming from each of my 3 young adult, living at home kids - none of which was because they screwed up. Just wanted to be clear about that. They all were just doing or going through stuff at exactly the same time and as their Mom, it was a lot of stress for them.

     On top of that, my husband is only home a few days a month, and this time, he came home a day early. I LOVE when he gets home early, it just meant that I had one less day to tidy up loose ends so I could spend his home time with him and not running around taking care of the house and doing errands.

     Did I mention we also had just a few days to find, finance, and purchase a car? With him heading back out so quickly, my husband has a very short window to get things like this done. We don't have the usual, "We'll start the process, get back to you in a few days, and then we'll go from there."  It has to be done, and done now.

     All this, in addition to the stress in my own head and life, caused a weekend of bad choices regarding THM.  I spent hours on two separate days looking at cars and sitting at the dealership. I missed my snacks so was ravenous by mealtime. It was a really hot Arizona summer day, about 108, so leaving things in a 200+ degree car wasn't an option (coolers don't even work well after 6 hours in that heat). So what did I do? I stayed mostly on plan, but...I had a few drinks on one night, I ate boxed candy at the movies when all the car stuff was over. I ate white bread toast with butter - even though I know not to mix my carbs & fats like that.  I ate Pringles for supper on the worst night. I even ate a tube of mini M&Ms somewhere in all that. I felt guilty. I felt awful health-wise compared to how I feel when I eat wholesome food on plan. What would the scale say?!  I dreaded Monday morning when I normally weigh in. The sugar cravings definitely came back, and I've been so happy up to this point finally breaking free from them.

     Here's why I love THM, well, one of the reasons, I weighed the same on Monday morning! I did manage a few on plan meals in all that so it was pretty forgiving. I did go up by a pound or so a day later, but I'm back where I was before the weekend already. I immediately got back on plan Monday, sticking mostly with all THM cookbook recipes and less "freestyling" my own meals. I drank a slimming drink they share. I was a bit bloated from the sugar and wheat for a few days, but that seems to be gone now too. Trim Healthy Mama is such a wonderful program. It's healthy, forgiving, and normally if you find yourself eating off plan, you can just jump right back on 3 hours later at the next snack or meal. You just don't want to do a whole weekend like that, like I did, but life happens, and I'm real with you. The sugar cravings did stick around for about 3 more days, and that sucked, but it's over already. I found myself wanting chocolate and doughnuts for the first time in months. Glad it's over.

     This week, I made a few snacks ahead of time that are Fuel Pulls, meaning they have very few calories, carbs, & fats - like the Lemon Pudding recipe. This way, when I get hungry, I'm prepared. Fuel Pulls (FP) are great because they can be eaten alone, early if you can't wait til the next meal, or as a dessert after a meal - regardless of if you had an E or an S meal.

     Back on track, I'm ready to really focus on being careful for the next 5 or 6 weeks before our cruise. I know I'll be eating off plan during that 2 week trip (driving there/back, cruise, 1-2 days in TX). It's a LIFETIME eating plan, so I don't worry about it. I know a year from now, I'll be better off, healthier, trimmer, adding years to my life, and one meal, one weekend, one vacation won't change that. Have a great weekend.

8 1/2 weeks so far

     Today I'm about half way through week 9, ending on Sunday night. I'm down 18 pounds! I don't post unless I hit the same weight 2 days in a row. This morning the scale said 18 lost, I wanted to be sure so I measured one more time and it said just over 19 - but I'll say it's 18 for now. I feel good, considering I've had interrupted sleep to drive my daughter to work in the middle of the night for the past 5 months. I also have to get up early to pick her up since her shifts are short. In spite of that, when I sleep it's restful usually, and although I may occasionally need a short nap in the afternoon, I feel great.

     The past week or two I've started my day with a Trimmie - it's basically coffee with super healthy additives like protein, coconut oil, sunflower lecithin, etc...stuff to help my nerves, brain, inflammation, improve skin & hair, and detoxify my body for better health. Hot or iced, it's making a big difference that I can feel now (compared to in the past).  I'm still trying to avoid most of the foods my Alcat test told me to avoid, but slowly adding in foods, mostly veggies, that it said to add back in slowly, like once or twice a week the most. So far so good.

     My favorite new recipe of the week was the Salisbury Steak in a creamy mushroom & onion sauce. It was so good that I made a quick patty the second day with leftover sauce. Both times with French Cut green beans. It's something I'll definitely be making again.

     As I approach Week 10 on Sunday/Monday, I have new recipes added to my list:  Cinnamon Roll Toast, Dark Chocolate Raspberry Dessert, Strawberry Slushy, Banana Bread Pudding, Orange Chicken, Peanut Butter Cookie Muffin with Chocolate Sauce, Fajitas, Boneless Wings, and Potsticker Patties. This is such a wonderful way to eat!

     The book tells you not to exercise in the beginning. It's such a different way of meal creation that they want you to get the hang of it before trying to account for extra calories to exercise. It's been about 2 1/2 months and I'm ready - but being over 100 degrees every day  and humid because it's monsoon season - sure does make it hard to want to begin a new program that will make you hot & sweaty on top of the weather we already have.  I'll probably start soon with yoga, pilates, wall sits, and walking. It's too hot for zumba and other aerobics. I have a few weights around the house I'll use too. I'm already losing at a good pace without exercise. I just hope by adding it, my body doesn't start to hold onto everything again.

     I wish I could show everyone how easy it is to follow the plan, to make the super quick meals, and how to take just a little time to plan ahead. I know so many out there are frustrated because they do everything right and don't get results from other plans - I was one of them - for 20 years! This works.

End of Week 7

   Yes, I didn't get to an End of Week 6 post. Tim got home on Tuesday morning instead of the previous Thursday. That means he was home during the week instead of the weekend. Between changing our routine, running around getting his errands done, shopping for his food for the truck, and then his home time being cut short - it just didn't get done, so don't look for it. You didn't miss it. I did.

     So I ended Week 7 at about a 17 pound loss. I was so happy! As I began this week, Week 8, I took my daughter to the store so she could buy some clothes for work & college. I found some great deals for myself too - a $3 dress, a $5 skirt, and a $5 shirt. The dressing room didn't work out like I expected, though. I brought in my usual size and began trying them on. We've all been there, it looks great on the rack, but once you try it on you realize it just doesn't fit. That's what happened to me...THEY WERE ALL TOO BIG! I have officially gone down a whole size!  Oddly enough, I recently cut my hair short, very short. When I began losing weight, I had to pin the back of the neck on some of my shirts. Now it shows and looks awful so I guess I outgrew those too. I don't think I'll have to buy much as I lose weight because like most women, we hang onto some items hoping to get back into again "someday". I'm almost back into quite a few shirts and almost into a few more pairs of shorts & pants. By the time we go on vacation in October, I should be able to get into them with a little room to spare...already so close.

     What's new with the foods? I find myself easily avoiding most temptations. I was at the food court in the mall yesterday. I was thinking for a second that one meal wouldn't undo everything. I'll just do my best, not make a horrible choice, then 3 hours later I'd be back on track again. Know what happened? I walked past every food place, searched every menu, and realized I didn't want to eat the "Crossovers" (fatty meats with tons of carbs paired together). I also didn't want to go near sugary sauces like Panda Express' orange chicken either. I ended up getting Chick-fil-a grilled (unbreaded) chicken nuggets, 8 pieces of good lean protein without sugary sauce. I barely dipped them into Buffalo sauce but realized I liked them better plain. I drank an unsweetened iced tea from Paradise Bakery next door. Filling. Satisfying. Not really an S or an E meal, but not a cheat meal either. I had a single small waffle fry and called it a done deal. I didn't feel deprived like when I used to eat "healthy" instead of ordering the junkfood I really wanted. Must be because there's no sugary or gluten pull on me anymore. 

     As for recipes, I had my usual favorites, Swedish Meatballs, Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole, Pizza, French Toast in a Bowl, Frosted Cinnamon Muffin, and Fajitas.  I made Chocolate Chip Cookies & Skinny Chocolate last week, along with Berry Gummy candies - I love those!!! Next time I'm going to make Lemon Gummies to take to the ballgame on Friday & Saturday. I bought candy molds so I can monitor portions of the chocolate (small squares almost like a Hershey Bar) and the gummy candies. Love making Thinnies too - Sargento ULTRA THIN cheese slices, quartered, and baked on low heat for half an hour - they get crispy like chips, but yes, they're a bit greasy - but so good. Those are great for the ballgame. 

     Looking forward to more victories on and off the scale going forward. I'm on my way and off to a great start. 

End of Week 5

     The scale is moving again...as of this morning, I'm down a full 14 pounds! The NSV (non-scale victories) are adding up:  2 pairs of shorts I don't have to unzip/unbutton to put on & take off - they're THAT loose! Also, I've been going through my closet and found I already can get back into about half a dozen items I wouldn't wear for the last 6 - 12 months. The bloating was the worst! An item would fit, but there was this bulge I didn't like, so I retired that item. Now that I'm avoiding regular gluten and sugar (although I'm still eating THM cakes, muffins, cookies, candies, shakes, etc), it seems to have almost completely vanished in those half dozen things I tried on. What's better than new clothes? Fitting into every single thing in your closet and getting use out of what you ALREADY spent money on. I'll be so excited to get into the next 6 because I'm almost back into some of my favorites.  I hoped THM would work where no other plans would, but I'm shocked how well it seems to be working. Almost 3 pounds a week on average - that's phenomenal for me!

     What good recipes did I have during week 5?  Trim MacSalad, Iced Samoa Swirl Coffee, Open faced mozzarella & turkey toast/melt (2 slices per recipe), Sweet & Spicy Stir Fry, Strawberry Big Boy shake, Pancakes with syrupWaldorf Cottage Salad, the Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole was AMAZING, and I invented a quick, 5 minute "S" meal by combining chopped turkey ham, mayo, yellow mustard, a little shredded mozzarella, then just threw in salt, pepper, paprika, and onion powder. Mixed it together and it was so good! Served with non starchy veggies like green beans or broccoli, it's perfect.

     What do I look forward to in Week 6? Root Beer Float, Bean Boss Soup, Fish & Green Chips (the chips are baked, seasoned, crispy green beans), Pudding, and maybe a candy recipe or two to take to the baseball park this week. A small group of friends are getting together Friday night for dinner, so we chose a healthy restaurant called "Sweet Tomatoes". It's a salad bar, soup, fresh, healthy ingredient type of place. They also have baked potatoes, pastas, mac & cheese, and ice cream. I may have a few Crossovers (when you have too many carbs & fats in the same sitting - but healthy foods, not junk food). It's just one meal, and I'll do my best to stay on plan, and I already eat much smaller portions than I used to, so I'm not worried. At the same time, I will enjoy myself, not feel deprived, and 3 hours later (or by breakfast) I'll be back on schedule again.

     Still the best eating plan for LIFE ever! Have a great week!

   

End of Week 4

     I know, I'm about 48 hrs late in posting. So I'm officially into Week 5 of Trim Healthy Mama and still loving it. I love their concept of Non-Scale Victories (NSV). That's when maybe the scale doesn't move, although they recommend forgetting the scale - most of us have lived on one long enough. Maybe you don't feel like you're losing weight or thought you'd be smaller by now. By the way, anything more than 1 to 2 lbs a week, other than maybe in the very beginning, is usually unhealthy and doesn't stay off. At the end of Week 4, I was hovering at about a 12 or 13 lb loss, I don't really see much going on day to day, but, I know I feel better, I'm almost never hungry where before I was ALWAYS feeling "unsatisfied" from the overdose of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, junk fillers, & chemicals hidden in supposedly healthy foods. Now it seems I should be eating more than I want to, so I'm making my portions a bit smaller at times, but not so small I'm starving at the next meal or snack. I have been using more Fuel Pull (FP) meals, which center on a good protein, but have so few carbs or fats to be an E or an S meal.  Sometimes a Triple Zero Greek Yogurt is perfect. Just enough to keep my blood sugar stable. If I get hungry sooner than the recommended 3 hours, I stayed at a FP so I can choose either an E or an S next time. If I had eaten either an E or an S, I should wait a full 3 hours before "switching gears". By the way, I also noticed I fit in shirts & a particular pair of shorts better than before starting THM.

     Good recipes from Week 4? Waldorf Cottage Cheese Salad, Quesadillas, Taco Salad, Crepes with Berries, of course Pizza! That's a once or twice a week now, Superfood Chocolate Chews (candies/FP), Creamless Creamy Chicken - that was really good, Sloppy Joe's, Sweet & Spicy Asian Stir Fry, Peanut Puff Cake (for one, with creamy frosting), and Chocolate Nut Granola (cereal with almond milk). Yeah, best foods I've even been allowed to eat on ANY plan out there!

     Challenges? Not really any. I have no sugar in my system and I find in this state, I have no craving for it when I see others eating a doughnut, or cookies, or anything else sweet. I went to Paradise Bakery yesterday for lunch and although it's all healthy, I chose to try to pick either an E or an S meal so I had to give it some thought - nothing with too many carbs along with heavy dressing, nothing that would have lots of hidden sugars (esp. lite dressings), nothing with meat and cheese (S meal) served on 2 pieces of bread (E meal carbs), etc. I chose the Caesar salad, pretty much lettuce, chicken, and creamy dressing - an easy S meal - but it arrived at the table with croutons/carbs. I simply ate around the croutons leaving them in my bowl. I felt satisfied by the S meal, didn't feel like I was missing out at all by not eating the croutons. I left pleasantly satisfied, not stuffed, and happy I stayed on plan. Eating out without guilt? I love it!

     This week should be easy since I'll be eating at home, but next week should be challenging. I have J's birthday so there will be cake & ice cream somewhere along the way, then a full long day at the ballpark, I'll probably just eat a loaded burger w/o the bun and bring some snacks, dinner out Friday night (we picked Sweet Tomatoes, a healthy place), and date night with Tim, no idea where that'll be.

     This week's greatest recipe so far? Trim Mac Salad. All the flavors of a Big Mac but 100% healthy, nothing bad in it at all. I haven't eaten at a McD's in about 7 or 8 years, mainly because the junk hidden in the food made me sick every time before that. This recipe though - makes you feel like you're cheating on the plan, tastes so much better, and is good for you. I also love my Strawberry Shortcake Shake when I'm not hungry, but want something a little sweet.

     If you haven't jumped on board with THM yet, take the book out of the library. Get started. You'll be so happy you did. The days of diets are over.

THM: End of Week 3

     This just keeps getting easier and easier. This week I did less cookbook recipes and more "regular" foods I had in the house.  I always have Morning Star Farms meatless foods in the house since Jordan is allergic to all meats, poultry, and fish. I know there's a lot of good/bad press out there on soy products, but she can't just eat beans and nuts for protein every day. Anyway, Morning Star Farms is the only company I've ever found with vegetarian products that taste really, really good. They also make foods that resemble what you're replacing so you never feel like your missing out, for example, they make meatless versions of chicken patties, hamburgers, steak strips, chicken nuggets, ribs, breakfast sausage, bacon, etc. When I don't feel like cooking, it's great to just make a pre-made food like that, add some veggies, or a low carb wrap, or put it on a salad - easy, I just don't abuse the soy. I have maybe one or two items a week, out of 35 meals & snacks. Not too bad. Trader Joe's also makes a great Chili Lime Chicken Burger. They're in a frozen 4 pack, not too high in calories, fats, nor grams - so you can make them go either S or E depending on what you do with it.

     I also am trying to pull away from the bad habit of getting on the scale every day. I know I lost a healthy 2 pounds this week, about 12 total in 3 weeks, That's better than all the other exercise and diet programs I've tried.

     One of the Trim Healthy Mama things I love seeing in their social media posts are the NSV, Non-Scale Victories. That's when maybe your scale doesn't seem to be moving hardly at all, but you still find obvious benefits like a before & after photo shows you much smaller, or someone who no longer needs meds for high cholesterol or blood pressure, or dropping a few clothing sizes. I know a lot of women get frustrated when the scale isn't moving even when they're doing everything according to plan. That frustration can easily lead to an emotional justification of a "treat". Psychologically, you're not getting that happiness from a lower scale number, so your mind wants one even if it comes from somewhere else. Then the guilt settles in over "cheating",  then you justify the whole day is blown, and before you know it, you're entirely off your plan. With NSVs, you can avoid this by not focusing on a number, but on various positives along the way.

     This week, as I enter week 4, I'm going to go back to cookbook recipes now that the house is pretty cleared out and I have ingredients for the recipes I like the most, plus a few new ones I want to try. Maybe the way to stay on plan the best (for a lifetime) will turn out to be 1 to 2 weeks of lots of cookbook recipes, then a week of less of them so I can incorporate a few foods not in the cookbook, yet still are okay for THM eating.

     I'm most excited about being 100% sugar free for 21 days, and in 3 weeks I believe I've only had 2 slices of naturally sprouted Ezekiel bread (on plan) and about 3 low carb tortillas (also on plan). Everything else in the baked category has been gluten-free, so I know there's tons of health benefits going on inside my body I haven't even realized yet. Best of all, I know I'll have better health in the future because of my choice to remove sugar and gluten from my diet now.  Have a great rest of your week, make it a good one.

THM: End of Week 2

     Woohoo!!!  At the end of 2 weeks, I'm down 10 pounds on the scale! Now I know, the first thought is, "but what if it's just water weight - or I'm losing lean muscle?"  Far from it. I know how much that bloating look has gone down in certain places. I have more energy. I feel great. And I love what I'm eating.

     By being on this, I'm now 2 weeks in of being sugar free. I'm 99.9% gluten free too. In 2 weeks I've had 2 slices of sprouted Ezekiel bread for a sandwich, and I've had 1 low carb tortilla per week for a fajita. I could never be sugar free before, the cravings were too strong. It's hidden everywhere, especially in places like condiments, marinades, sauces, frozen foods, etc. I've been using the THM sweetener blends that use Stevia.

     So what did I get to eat on Week 2 while I lost weight and got healthier?  I had the best recipe so far, the Cheeseburger Pie - which I shared with the boys and they liked it too, I made the Egg Roll in a Bowl. Everyone loves that one.  I had pancakes with syrup, chicken alfredo, hamburgers (no bun, I used lettuce cups made from leaves of Butter/Boston lettuce), steak on salad, chicken on salad, chili lime chicken burgers, a great dessert/snack called cottage berry whip that has the texture of mouse and sorbet mixed, all kinds of shakes, all day sipper drinks, and last night I made the most amazing chocolate chip frap (that's their spelling).  I've also had baked goods like waffles, muffins, cakes - I truly don't feel like I'm missing out on anything!

     Today I begin Week 3 with a new recipe, French Toast in a Bowl. It has all the taste and texture of french toast, but it's done in under 2 minutes. So happy. After I hit my goal weight, I plan on teaching a class/support group on THM. This beats anything I've ever tried for losing weight and getting healthy - and I've tried them all!

THM: The end of Week 1

     Week 1 will be short, just 6 days, so I can have my weeks start on Mondays instead of Tuesdays. So how did my first THM week go? I feel good, slept 9 hours straight through last night (only done that a handful of times in my life), I've lost about 4 pounds, a lot of the mid-section bloating is gone, and I haven't been hungry at all this whole time.
     What have I had to eat?  I've had healthier versions of the following foods, but all of them tasted great and only took about 5 minutes to make:

Frosted Cinnamon Muffins

Fajitas

Pizza with extra cheese, artichoke, and turkey bacon

Chili

Steak topped salad with bleu cheese dressing

sandwich with meat and veggies 

Lemon cake & white cake with a cream cheese frosting

Pancakes and Chocolate Waffles

Omelettes with cheese and meat and veggies

Asian dishes with noodles, meat, and veggies

Chicken alfredo

Blueberry & Strawberry muffins

Thick chocolate shakes

Fantastic tea concoctions to sip on all day

Are you ready to try Trim Healthy Mama yet? 

     I'm so looking forward to Week 2! I'll use lots of cookbook recipes, but now that I have the hang of it, I'll also be using up food around the house like meats, refrigerated items, and pantry items, so nothing gets wasted.  

     Life is good and happy again - if you decide to try it, please comment or message me back so I know and can encourage you on your own journey.

Days 4 & 5

     Day 4 was great again. Breakfast was a chocolate waffle with strawberries. The recipe made more than I could eat, so I gave some to my daughter. She said, "well, it does taste healthy, but it's still good." She's super picky these days (as an adult) so coming from her, that's pretty good. Breakfast was late so I had no morning snack. Lunch was some rotisserie chicken left over from the night before, with lettuce, mayo (which I spiced up with horseradish and spices) in a low carb tortilla. I liked that it was quick and easy. I've got the time to make the recipes in the cookbook, most take only 5 minutes to put together, but sometimes I just don't feel like it. Anyway, my afternoon snack was a frosted cinnamon muffin - tasty, and done in under 5 minutes. I substituted vanilla extract for the lemon juice in the frosting and now it was smooth instead of clumpy and looking all separated. Supper was a quick White Chili.  It was just stuff I keep on hand anyway - 2 cans of white beans, a can of rotel (tomatoes with chilis), a can of diced tomatoes, I chose to add 2 jalapenos w/o the seeds, and the last of the rotisserie chicken. That's it. Once it was heated through, it was done, quick, easy, and tasty. 

     I notice that this is the first time I've been on an eating plan that I'm not hungry. I mean not even a little bit. Sometimes I spend a good 10 minutes deciding on a snack because I'm not really hungry, but know not to let my blood sugar drop, then spike later. In fact, I've felt so satisfied that I started to wonder about portion sizes. There's no rules, and most of the recipes say "single serve", but still...

     Day 5 was another easy day. I started with a microwaved blueberry muffin that's done start to finish in 5 minutes. Lunch was roast beef, turkey bacon, lettuce, mayo (a very thin layer, literally only about 1/2 Tbs., a drop of horseradish, on 2 slices of Ezekiel naturally sprouted bread. It was just a sandwich, no cheese though since this was an E meal (energizing/carbs but low fat), but I stayed full all afternoon.

     It's time for my afternoon snack and I'm truly not hungry, so I reached for a small Fuel Pull (FP) recipe - one with so little carbs and fats centered on a protein that it doesn't affect your body like an E or S meal would. I found a quick chocolate shake in the cookbook. I'm not a fan of chocolate - I don't like chocolate cake, most candy bars, chocolate ice cream, I barely like Boston Cream donuts, brownies, and chocolate chip cookies - but I gave it a try. Let me start by saying, this is HEALTHY - It has in it frozen okra! and protein whey powder, and plain gelatin, and date palm oil, but it also has vanilla, unsweetened cocoa powder, and Stevia. Expecting to have an awfully healthy taste, I was shocked it was so good! I'm not an okra fan to start with - but this is thick, creamy, tastes like chocolate ice cream with maybe a scoop of malt in it, or mixed with a little chocolate frozen yogurt. But it doesn't taste thin and artificial - it tastes really rich and good. You have to try it if you decide on the THM plan!

     Supper tonight will be an E meal. I have some turkey cutlets to use up and 3 or 4 mouths to feed, so I'm making a (turkey) chicken alfredo over noodles. The only difference is when everyone else has regular pasta, which around here are usually quinoa noodles anyway, I'll have noodles made from the konjac root. They have no calories, no carbs, no fats, but lots of fiber. They're Japanese noodles that have been around for years in Asia, but not here. Usually they're packaged in briny fish-smelling liquid, like we package hot dogs, but THM sells them packaged in a much cleaner, non-fishy smelling water. I tried them in a homemade Ramen type of dish before starting the plan and I loved them. They're chewy like al dente pasta should be, not gummy like American pasta. 

     I can't imagine NOT eating on a plan like this long term. It's healthy, tastes good, easy, quick, makes sense, heals things along the way, and I'll also drop either weight, inches, or both?!  I would recommend it to everyone!

Day 3

     I think after the first week, I'll probably only post when something new comes up, or once a week, whichever comes first.

     Day 2's supper, Egg Roll in a Bowl, was GREAT! I wanted to share with Jordan (and Logan, as it turned out), so instead of ground beef, chicken or turkey, I used MorningStar Farms (soy) meatless Crumbles. I know, there's a lot of talk about soy and GMOs these days, but Jordan is allergic to ALL meats, broths, fish, seafood, and she has to eat something besides a ton of dairy and beans for her protein. Anyway, I used crumbles. Instead of shredding cabbage, the cookbook recommended having a bag of cole slaw mix instead, which would include some shredded carrot too. It was so easy! What I made fed 3 of us easily, and could've stretched for 4 over rice or stir fried vegetables. Everyone thought it was great. I'll definitely be making that again.

     The evening snack was a white cake with vanilla frosting, but my frosting is clumpy, almost like it's separated. I have to figure out if it's just that I don't whip it enough, or something else. It's basically lowfat cream cheese, butter, sweetener, and vanilla - it tastes great but looks "wrong". I'll have to figure that out - I bet I can find a video on THM's website that shows how so I can see what I'm missing, but again, it still tastes good.

     Day 3, today, I had eggs with cheese and turkey bacon. I made another Trimmer (all day sipper drink), but left out the cayenne, since it's on my list of foods I have sensitivities to. I wanted to use chili powder but I'm all out until this weekend, so I just left it out. Understanding the plan, I can make a similar drink with coffee, sweetener, almond milk, and vanilla - or use herbal tea instead of black tea (on my Alcat once or twice a week list). The cookbook has other recipes too, and the video on THM's site says to experiment with different teas, extracts, add cocoa powder for a chocolate flavor, etc. There are no rules, just avoid combining high carbs with high fats. That's it.

     Lunch could be as simple as a can of Progresso Light soup, but instead, I cooked a small, thin, leftover turkey cutlet (maybe 3 oz), then put it over a salad with lettuce, tomato, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and heaping tablespoon of lowfat cottage cheese - no dressing needed with the moisture from the other ingredients. It was so tasty, really easy, and even very inexpensive since berries are in season here.

     Supper will be a bit early and then I'll probably make an evening snack, rather than an afternoon snack and a late, heavier supper. I plan on having rotisserie chicken, with broccoli and maybe a salad if I feel like it. If I want it to be an E meal (carbs but low in fats), I can keep it just like it is. If I want to turn it into an S meal (fats but low carbs), I can eat the same thing, but add butter or cheese sauce to the broccoli, or have peas in a parmesan sauce, and have creamy dressing on my salad. I'll decide at mealtime. That's the beauty of this - at any meal or snack, I get to choose which way to go. There's no set order to have them, just make them one way or the other. Occasionally they have what they call a Fuel Pull, which seems to incluce both fats and carbs, just low amounts of each around a good protein. I plan on reading more into those.

     I'm looking forward to dessert. I'm planning on a single serve sized Pineapple Upside Down cake. I can't wait. This is really a much more enjoyable way to eat than any other program I've tried - no drinking shakes twice a day, no expensive prepackaged box meals on auto-ship, no totally gluten-free rules, no Atkins style carb restrictions (I love my fruit!).  If you're considering it, just do it. You'll enjoy the food freedom it brings.

THM - Day 2

     Yesterday I posted how I started a new way of eating called Trim Healthy Mama. I thought I'd check in to let you know how my first day went. Normally on the first day of any program, I do okay, eat something I forgot I wasn't supposed to, or else I've figured out everything I won't get to have for a while. Can you relate? The thought of never having an entire food group forever would make me start second guessing my decision to start something new - but this time, this really does seem like something I can live with.
     Breakfast was a quick frosted cinnamon muffin that had the consistency of a cake. It was great. It kept me full until lunch time, too.
     Lunch was a salad topped with a tiny NY Strip steak I found at the store on sale. I of course used creamy bleu cheese dressing over my lettuce & tomatoes. I added just a few berries for sweetness, and I was really full. The actual portion size was only about 4 oz of meat and barely 3 romaine leaves with only 1/2 a tomato. Such a filling meal. That must be why they call it an "S" meal, which stands for satisfying.
     The plan strongly recommends that you try to eat about every 3 hours, give or take, to keep your blood sugar levels steady. When they drop and spike all day from not eating, then overeating, that's when we start to mess up our bodies efficiency. For my afternoon snack, I felt like I was craving sugary carbs, so I found an easy recipe for a microwavable lemon cake with frosting. It took just a few minutes to mix, under 2 minutes to cook, and in 5 minutes I had a great snack to fix those cravings. I will say it's easy to tweak these recipes if you need to. In an earlier post I discussed my food sensitivity test and list. I can't have coconut oil so I had a choice to use either red palm oil or just butter. I chose the oil just to see how it would taste baked out. It was a very tangy lemon cake (I put the maximum lemon, not the minimum) and I think part of it was the red palm flavor too. I loved it, I'll definitely be making it again, and next time I'll try the butter version.
     For supper, I was still "satisfied", not hungry, not stuffed, just satisfied. I postponed supper until the very last part of that 3 hour window. I decided to have the beef roast I made in the crock pot. I needed to cook it and the guys needed to eat too. I put it in a bowl, melted some cheese over it, then added some brown gravy over it. It was a little bowl of yumminess! I needed some non-starchy vegetables with it but was simply too full for anything but that small bowl - so I used Romaine lettuce leaves as a sort of taco and ate it that way.
     The cookbook has recipes for small desserts that you can follow supper with, like mini frappes, but I was done for the day. I also had an "all day sipper", like a homemade chai, to sip on all day too.
     Day 1 - delicious, easy, healthy, satisfying, filling, so happy with this new plan.

     Day 2 started with an "E" meal, for "energyzing" - here's the healthy carbs.  I had old-fashioned oatmeal, not the quick or instant oats, because the older type is healthier and mine is gluten-free. I had just half a cup with a few pieces of fruit cut up in it, a little almond milk, no sweetener. I also had an Oikos Triple Zero Greek yogurt cup - no calories, no fat, made with Stevia instead of sugar or fake substitutes.
     Because my day started at early, breakfast was around 6. By 9 AM I wasn't overly hungry, but I knew I needed a snack. I pulled out the cookbook for ideas, but decided a couple of eggs with cheese and about one ounce of leftover roast would be more than enough.
     Lunchtime I was actually hungry, but not ravenous. It was strange. It was very different from when I normally feel hungry. This was more of a hollow, non-bloated, not tired kind of run down feeling (like a carb crash from the previous meal). I felt healthy, but like my body had efficiently used up what I'd previously eaten. I ended up getting home later than planned so it was almost 4 hours before eating. Not too bad. What I made was another recipe from the cookbook. I had homemade tomato soup that took me one minute to make, and just a few more to heat on the stove (I could've microwaved it, I guess). The book recommended half a low carb pita, opened and split, and used for a half sized grilled cheese. I've been to 3 stores so far and no one has low carb PITAs, just wraps/tortillas & breads. I improvised easily by using half of a low carb (small size) tortilla, and with the cheese in the middle, it was like having 1/4 of a cheese quesadilla. Pretty satisfying so I don't miss out on the usual number of carbs.
     Tonight I'll make a recipe called Egg Roll in a Bowl - sounds like fun. I need to be in bed before 6 PM to take my daughter to work at 2 AM, so I probably won't be having my snack. I'll just plan to make it some other day this week. It's a single serve sized white cake with frosting. Now THAT'S an eating plan I can live with!

     One last note, my all day sipper called The Shrinker has cayenne pepper in it. I love the taste but I could tell something I'd eaten must've been on my Alcat sensitivity foods list. Sure enough, cayenne should be removed from my diet. So how hard is it to alter the recipe and continue enjoying it? I just switch to chili pepper and I'm good to go - I have no sensitivities to chilis. So even if you have allergies or situations where you can't have gluten, or meat, or seafood, or dairy - you can still easily alter this and do it.

Trim Healthy Mama - Day 1

   

     Today is the first  official day of eating using the Trim Healthy Mama plan & cookbook. I heard about it through my cousin's wife who lives way up in Alaska, and she looks great every time I see photos of her. I bought the Plan book and the cookbook. When they came in I started reading immediately.
     The first thing that got my attention was that both authors had been through what I'd been through:  trying every plan out there - Atkins, Low Carb, Fat Free, Jenny Craig/Weight Watchers/NutriSystem programs, Vegetarianism, Vegan, Raw only, etc. and they didn't get results either. Come to think of it, almost all the women I know have tried so many of these with no luck, either! The gym thing? Yeah, I think being healthy and fit is important, but when you've spent 90min. to 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, up at 4:30 am, just to get to the gym and do both weights and cardio - and all you lose in 6 months is TWO POUNDS and never really dropped a size - why bother?! Something else had to be going on.
     These two ladies have figured out that a better way to help your body use what you eat the way it was meant to is to follow a sort of food pairing program. This was something that came and went in the late 90s, early 00s, but being Americans, we rejected it. We like our steak and potatoes, burgers and fries, hot dogs and potato chips, chili with all the toppings, etc. What THM's plan says, is to start with your protein - lean meat, red meat, fish, poultry, whey protein, etc. Then you either add fats to your fattier proteins, or else add carbs to your leaner protein. Just don't mix fats and carbs. That's basically it in a nutshell.  You can even pick which way you want to go with it at each meal or snack, no rules.
     The plan book and cookbook make it easy, it just takes a little bit of thought in the first week or so, then it gets easier and second nature. I didn't start until today because I knew I had a few things like a planned dinner out, snacks at a movie, a birthday party, and a tea with friends, that I had to get through first. I also ordered a few of the THM convenience products off their site, like the baking mix and sweetener. While waiting for today, I spent about a week eating the way I would if I'd already started - matching lean proteins with carbs and fattier proteins like red meat and ground beef with my fats. Know what happened? I dropped a size, lost a lot of the muffin-top bloating I'd struggled with for a year, and lost about 5 pounds - without really trying! I'm so excited to do this!
     The best part is that this plan really is something I can see myself doing forever, since it never has you count calories, or grams of anything (although they give slight guidelines for OCD people like me), you aren't told what your portion sizes are, just rough ideas. As they put it, "If we tell you that then it's OUR eating program. You decide what's right for you because it's YOUR eating plan."  No entire group of foods are off limits - like no carbs, or has to be gluten-free, or never eat fruits, in fact the only thing they really recommend is getting off the sugars and switch to either Stevia, or a blend with Stevia you can either purchase at a health food store or through them. They even created typical menus based on lifestyle, whether you're a busy, working Mom who usually hits the drive thru, or a purist who only eats organics, or a Mom who must budget for a large family. Total flexibility.
     As my first day, let me share with you my first meal. It took 5 min. to make, and just 15 min. in the oven (or I could've chosen to microwave it). It's a Frosted Cinnamon Muffin (cookbook recipe) and an "all day sipper" drink that helps you lose all day. It tastes like homemade chai, it's amazingly good. Here's my photo:

     It tasted so good! The muffin had the consistency of a cake, tasting sort of like a cross between maybe a sweet bran muffin and carrot cake? The cream cheese frosting was good too, but next time I'd take the time to blend or maybe even melt the cream cheese. The drink I made a few days ago for the first time. Everyone in the house tried it and loved it too. The strangest thing about the muffin was that I expected to use the THM baking mix for my flour, but it only used 3T of ground flaxseed meal, which I actually already had in the house. That's why of all the breakfast items I could've chosen, I thought I'd try this. Quick, easy, super-moist, healthy, and so filling that I skipped the 1/2 Triple Zero Greek yogurt that could've been paired with this. Can't wait to see how lunch goes. 

     

   

Food Intolerances & the ALCAT test

   I recently had an Alcat Test done by my doctor. It doesn't test for food allergies, but it does test for food intolerances. The difference is that an allergy is instant, your throat closes, or you break out in a rash, it's immediate and can be life-threatening. An intolerance is harder to catch. It's when you eat something that your body can't process correctly and it causes all kinds of troubles at the cellular level, but you don't feel the effects until 3 to 5 days later. For example, you get a migraine, but don't realize it's because you ate something bad for your body 4 days ago. The hard part is, the foods they test for are generally thought to be "healthy foods", and they are, but not for you personally.

   My results weren't too bad. There's only about 11 things I have a really bad internal reaction to: basil, bananas, cantaloupe, cauliflower, coconut (incl. coconut milk and coconut oil), cucumbers, grapes (including wine), lentils, pears, zucchini, and olive (including olive oil). You'd be surprised just how many recipes call for these ingredients when you eat healthy! But of all the healthy foods on the planet, 11 isn't so bad. I was eating basil almost every meal, olive & coconut oil were my only oils to cook with, and who doesn't love organic bananas?

   The next section of results are foods that I should eliminate for 90 days, then add back into my diet, one at a time, and not more than once every 4 days. If I do that, I'll either develop a super sensitivity to it and know to get rid of it, or else I'll be able to add it back into my diet permanently as long as it's only once every 4 days, so I don't build up too much in my system. I have a fairly long list of those items, about 35 foods. Most aren't a big deal because I almost never eat them, but others may only have ended up here because I was eating them almost every day - like apples, bell peppers, green tea, cumin, kale, quinoa, beets, and wild rice. All healthy foods, I probably just need to not have them so often.

   I'm almost a month into this. I haven't been 100% faithful to dropping the 35 foods, sometimes there's no substitute available in the house. I've had a bit of oregano, something that had cocoa in it, etc, but I have eliminated the bad 11 foods 100%. After just about 30 days, here's my results:

   Many of you know, I've had insomnia my whole life. I was lucky to get about 2 years of a supplement that worked wonders, but the company stopped making it a few years ago with no substitute. It was a very unique blend. I wake up after just 2 hours, then up for hours, then sleep/wake up about every half hour til it's time to get up.  In the last 30 days, I've found I sleep 6 to 7 hours a night, straight through, 5 out of 7 nights a week. If I got nothing else out of this, sleeping is worth it.

   I also have been struggling for about 3 years now with just not feeling right. Do you know what I mean? Nothing's wrong. You aren't sick or coming down with anything, You just don't feel "good". There's no waking up thinking that today is already going to be a great day. You just kind of go through the motions every day sort of in a fog.  In the last 30 days, I wake up almost every single day now feeling great, feeling happy, with a clear head, and looking forward to every day. That started IMMEDIATELY after dropping those 11 bad foods.

   Another odd surprise was that my resting heart rate was around 80 - 85 bpm, and I always felt it was too fast, even when just sitting down, not stressed. Now it averages around 70 when I'm ACTIVE and at rest, it's in the low 60s. That in turn drops my blood pressure, something I've struggled with for about 10 years now. If it spikes, it takes forever to come back down - but now it's averaging a little better than the goal of 120/80.

   My body will not drop weight. End of story. I've tried smaller meals, eating healthy, exercise, going to the gym, shakes, supplements, all of it. Nothing works, ever.  Since Christmas, I'm down about 10 pounds, with most of it coming in the last 30 days. I'm not sure that'll keep up or my body will adjust and stop losing, but for now, it's working.

   I noticed at an event recently that I have a lot more endurance and it takes a lot more to get to the "out of breath" stage. That's a plus since my goals don't involve a number on the scale, they involve overall health improvement - stamina, endurance, flexibility, energy, strength, etc.

   I was falling asleep (or close to it) around 3:00 every afternoon. Now I don't get tired AT ALL!
I'm able to do more than before and still not run out of steam until bedtime, and then I fall asleep almost immediately.

   The last thing, which is really important is that for as long as I can remember (since I was about 3) I have lived in a constant state of stress. I have the knots in my shoulders to prove it - which I wore like earrings for my whole life - always raised up and not relaxed. In the last 90 days, I have been more relaxed than ever before. I FEEL more at peace. I don't have the same sudden out-of-nowhere outbursts (even if they are in my head) when people cut me off in traffic, or they say/do something stupid, or something goes wrong. I just roll through it without the stress now.

   Overall, I can already see that the Alcat test was worth doing. The dietary changes are worth the effort. I would HIGHLY recommend checking to see if your insurance covers it. You can have it done (they take 6 tubes of blood, results are back in 2 weeks) as a small, medium, or large test, depending on insurance coverage and what you're willing to spend. You can test anywhere from 50 to 200 foods,
functional foods/medicinal herbs, male herbs/female herbs, 20 food additives & colorings, 21 molds, and 10 environmental chemicals. We happen to have Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield out of Wisconsin, and they covered the entire test, all groups, a $1200 test, 100%.  You never know, yours just might cover it. One word of advice...since most PCPs don't understand nutrition, only prescriptions, you may need to have a different type of doctor order the tests. I used my Chiropractor because she's big into natural healing of the body and eating right. It doesn't have to be a naturopath, since insurance doesn't cover their services. Just find one that understands foods and their link to health.

   Good luck and I hope you find better health for yourself! I'll report back after 60 and 90 days, then as I add things back in.
 

2016

   Top 10 things I'm looking forward to in 2016:

1.  Hoping to have a day to spend with my family in New England next summer
     I may only have one day to see them, but I'm trying to make a short trip work.

2.  Hoping to take a cruise with Tim in the fall. We're planning on going out of Galveston, TX
     and see Cozumel, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman.

3.  I just started a new small group of women that will be meeting once a week. It'll be a small
     circle of friendship, support, fun, and more. I have such a heart for Women's Ministry.

4.  I plan on infusing my 2016 with more JOY. That means more friends, interacting with my
     family more often, seeing new things, experiencing new places, and spending less time home.

5.  I plan on improving my health in 2016. Better foods, more exercise, trying new things.

6.  Being a weekend season ticket holder at our MLB team's games.

7.  Being more creative - through photographs. I'm going to get better at Instagram, more often.

8.  Jordan graduates high school this spring!

9.  Jordan begins college this fall!

10.  Jordan will get her license this year.