Belated Blogger THM Comes to LIfe

after 22 pounds lost

     I know, I know, it's been like forever since my last blog. Life seem to sweep me along a fast moving current, where making time to blog was more of a chore than a purging of thoughts and happenings.  With the encouragement of friends and promises to follow through I am writing this day.

     Where do I start, or better yet, where did we end off. It was nearing August in Michigan and our visit with the grandkids was coming to its end and I was trying to knock off a stubborn 12th pound.  Wow! Time flies. Today I'm happy to report I am down 22 pounds.
     To recap my last  few blogs, I was learning how to properly combine foods for better digestion, thus more vitamin and nutritients in. Suzanne Somers "Slim and Sexy", Mark Hyman's "Sugar Solution", and Gillian McKeith's "You Are What You Eat" were on my summer reading list. Each of these books lean towards some form of food combination for better health. I am not looking for the starve myself, carb myself, protein myself "diet." Been there, done that. I need one that is a sustainable way to eat, long term, where the end result is not just weight loss but a much healthier me inside and out.
 

Leah in July wedding

While I was busy learning food combining I watched my daughter Leah melt off all the baby fat from the birth of Charlotte nine months earlier. She was following a program referred to on their  Facebook pages as THM. She quietly hinted that THM is food combining at it's best. It was the obvious results on her sexy little body that convinced me into buying yet another book. "Trim Healthy Mama" by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett. It took sometime to read it. Took time to get motivated and even longer to get the hang of it.
 
     It may seem confusing however after a few weeks of following it, it becomes habit. Basically it is as follows. Your body is fueled either by fats or sugars. When meals are made up of huge amounts of both kinds of fuels, your body doesn't know how to metabolize them. It can not break down or use the excess "energy" so it either sits for long periods of time waiting to get chimed up into something it can expel or it gets stored as fat. 
     THM meals consist of either Fats with few sugars OR sugars with few Fats. Fats need an acid environment to dissolve. Sugars need an alkaline environment. When eating the THM way, the enzymes needed for good digestion are not competing against each other but, working at full capacity in using food for fuel, nutrition, cell rejuvenation rather than storing as fat. The THM main objective is to control healthy insulin flow. Instead of the huge spikes and drop offs that the American diet promotes. Spikes in insulin levels cause Inflammation. Inflammation is the main cause of sickness and disease.That's another blog page.
     So the "diet" or new way of eating goes something like this: Meals are made up as S meals, E meals and FP meals.
 
S = Satiated. Meals that fill you up. Includes fat and proteins, little carbs.   up to 45 grams of fat / less than 10 grams of carbs.
E = Energy. Meant to give a boost in energy. Includes more carbs, less fats.
      up to 45 grams of carbs. 
      Less than 5 grams of fat.
FP = Full Pull.  Where fuel is pulled from the fat stores of your body.
     Less than 5 grams of fat
     less than 10 grams of carbs.
 
     Yes, it means getting to know your foods intimately. It means chucking overly processed foods for food with lasting sustenance value. It has meant relying on my ability to use quality ingredients to create more nutritious meals. Eating healthy in a system where food at it's best is mediocre, is not easy. It takes a real desire, effort and self control to want to feed your family and self in a way that is optimal for health and longevity. It's a journey of reeducating and forcing a deletion of long held bad eating habits. It is a battle from within to train and except a healthier lifestyle. Even though I do very well at times, at times I fail to follow the program. But, we (my husband and I) just pick up where we faltered and get back on track. There will always be the family gathering or girls nights out where food choice is limited. In time we will  learn to prepare for these.
 
     So, this is what I've been doing since August. Weight loss has been stable at about a pound a week, give or take. It's been fun making new recipes. If you are on Facebook check out the THM pages. There's thousands of participants of THM, the transformations are inspiring. From what I understand Amazon can not keep the book in stock but it is available on the THM website.

Until next time,

Julie