Trim Healthy Mama!

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Teresa turned nine months old last Friday. I can't believe it! Even Joshua said, "Wow! Only three more months until her birthday." Craziness!

Over the past few months, I have been thinking a lot about my weight and what I was going to do about it. I had hit a plateau in losing the baby weight. Unsure of how I wanted to handle that, I began writing a series of blog posts titled, "The Weight of Motherhood."

I wanted to find a resource with ideas that would help me to live and eat in a more healthful way. I did not want to count anything - calories, carbs, fat grams, etc. I wanted to find a more sustainable, long-term approach to health and weight loss.

I also wanted to connect my health to my faith. My faith has become such an integral part of how I live my life. It effects everything. I want to relate it to what I eat each day and how I take care of myself.  I know that God is calling me to include Him in my health, in how I take care of myself and in ALL aspects of my life - even including things that may seem too small or petty, such as losing baby weight.

While doing a lot of research on Amazon, I came across the book Trim Healthy Mama. 

It's number of good reviews (545 reviews with 4.5 stars) made me immediately interested in finding out more about it. Upon some more research, I discovered that it was written by two Christian sisters, Pearl P. Barrett and Serene C. Allison.

Their web site describes the book:

Authors Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett provide a comprehensive, Biblically-sound, effective and delicious way to eat for health and weight loss. Written with humor and thorough research, this book will entertain, enlighten and encourage women (and men!) to feed their bodies and souls the way God created us to thrive. Separating scientific realities from the fads, this book addresses the diverse needs of adults and growing children. You’ll never look at food and health the same way again.

Biblically-sound health and weight loss? What does that even mean? It immediately peaked my curiosity.

I began searching for more information from around the web. After a while, I found that two bloggers who I really enjoy have written posts about Trim Healthy Mama, have had success with it and recommend it. Erika Shupe at Large Families on Purpose  wrote a post about Trim Healthy Mama last year. Amy Roberts at Raising Arrows  also has several posts that mention Trim Healthy Mama.

So I bought it!

The Basic Idea Is . . .

The book is pretty large at 642 pages. However, it does include about 250 recipes. So far, I have read about the first 100 pages. So I've got a long way to go.

However, I have read the chapter that explains their basic premise. In ten words, it is: Be more carb conscious and don't eat carbs with fat.

Now, that is REALLY simplifying it. Pearl and Serene are very educated in the science of nutrition. While they aren't nutritionists, they quote many nutritionists, doctors and refer to many different studies. In my opinion, they seem to know their stuff.

Being more carb conscious means choosing great carbohydrates. They do not have you completely take out any food group, which I really appreciate.

For the most part, you don't eat carbs with fat. This does not mean you are on a low fat diet. Rather, you either have a meal with carbs or you have a meal with fat. You only feed your body one fuel source at a time, allowing it to burn more fat. Again, I am really simplifying. I just explained in six sentences what they explained in a few chapters.

They definitely do not advocate a low-fat diet. Quite the contrary! They explain the necessity of fat and encourage you to enjoy full-fat dairy, coconut oil, olive oil, red meat, etc. You just don't enjoy those things with carbohydrates.

There is a whole chapter about how this way of eating is Bibically-sound, which I found very interesting and enjoyed. It helps me to connect my eating habits and my faith.

So, I'm trying it out. Pearl and Serene really advocate long-term health. They say that this is not a race to lose weight. They encourage you to really give it a try for three months before gauging whether or not it's working. Since I began writing about weight loss and motherhood a month ago, I have lost four pounds. I received Trim Healthy Mama two weeks ago. During the first week I began implementing it, I lost two pounds. I have kept them off but so far have not lost anymore.

I really need to be patient. While I say that I want to focus on long-term health, I would also just like a quick fix. Weight loss feels more gratifying when it happens quickly! But I've been down that road before and as it hasn't really worked the way I would like, I am going to give this a try.

I will keep you posted!

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