With eagerness, I pre-ordered a copy of the first printing of the original Trim Healthy Mama book by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett when it came out about three years ago. I had been feasting on Serene’s yummy recipes from a previous cook book of hers for years and had also enjoyed some of Pearl’s recipes from the Above Rubies magazine, so I knew that we shared a passion for both cooking and health. When the book arrived, I delved into it with excitement, but with my busy days of homeschooling a house full of young children, my reading was slow-going.
Several of my friends began reading Trim Healthy Mama at the same time and began losing weight and feeling great. My husband saw the results from my friends’ weight losses and began asking me to please start Trim Healthy Mama (or Trim Healthy MAN, in his case) right away. (Note-I started at goal weight and became pregnant with our 7th baby right around the time we began THM, so the weight loss goal in our family was for him) I tried to put my husband off because I was scarcely through the first half of the book and completely overwhelmed at all the technicalities in the book. However, he persisted in begging me to start right away because he knew he needed to lose at least 30 pounds, and he hoped this would help him accomplish that goal in a healthy way. Even though my head was spinning and I did not fully feel “prepared” to start, I agreed to begin THM that next week.
To make it easier on myself (I was nervous that I might accidentally “mess-up”), I made all of my meal plans almost exclusively from the book for the first three months until I kind of “got the hang of it”. After that, I felt more confident in the THM ways and began branching out into using and/or adapting other recipes. My husband lost over 30 pounds in the first 6 months. His weight stayed pretty steady through the next year and a half. At about the two year mark, he decided to buckle down and try to lose more. He began incorporating the sippers, cheated less and ate out less. That did the trick and he lost about 20 more pounds, for a total weight loss of about 50 pounds. He has maintained his weight loss nicely. I should also mention that during those years he commuted two hours for work and runs two other side businesses (not to mention he has 7 kiddos and a wife to keep up with as well), so exercise for him (beyond maybe doing a few push ups in the morning on occasion) was not really possible due to his hectic schedule. He is proof that making a few dietary changes can bring about great results, even without exercise. He is an active person, but desk jobs don’t do anyone any favors when it comes to being physically active. My husband feels great eating on THM and he can definitely tell by how he feels when he needs to get back on track.
Last year I became pregnant, but sadly we lost the baby in the second trimester. I’m not sure if it was due to hormones or something else, but I had a difficult time losing the pounds I had gained during that pregnancy. Eating healthy alone wasn’t seeming to do the trick to help me lose the baby weight. I went 6 months without losing a pound even though I was eating the THM way (and my husband was still losing). In the fall, I decided that perhaps I needed to add some exercise to “jump start” my weight loss, so I decided to try a 15 minute exercise video that I had heard many testimonials about called T Tapp. I wanted to lose the baby weight and Kyle wanted to tone up, so we decided to do it together. We thought we could fit in 15 minutes of exercise a day, so we began by doing the 15 Minute Basic Workout Plus. I talked to the lady at the T Tapp company when I was trying to decide which video to order and she recommended that I order the T Tapp book so I would understand the details of T Tapp. Also, when one orders the book they give you a 30% discount off the video. I asked her recommendation for beginning and she recommended that I start by doing the 2 or 4 week “Bootcamp” (which is doing T Tapp every single day for 2 or 4 weeks to see optimal results). I decided to start with the 4 week bootcamp (I may have missed a few days here or there) and by week 4 I had lost over 14 inches all over my body (the T Tapp book gives you special instructions where and how to measure before you begin). I was so mazed by my results that I decided to keep going. By 8 weeks I had lost about 3 pounds and my stomach was significantly flatter and more toned. My husband and son had also toned their mid sections. It was so simple, it almost didn’t seem that the results could be possible, but it made a believer out of us. We’ve continued to do T Tapp throughout the week, although we don’t do it every single day now. If you are stalled, I suggest trying it–maybe it will be the boost your body needs. You can check it out on their T Tapp website here.
THM has made a huge impact on my family and friends. So far, one of my sisters-in-law has lost almost 60 pounds and my brother, her husband, has lost close to 20 pounds. My other sister-in-law has lost close to 50 pounds. My friend who began THM with us has gone from a size 14 to a size 2! So many other friends and family have lost over 30 pounds as well—it is so exciting to see so many people becoming healthier by making better food choices.
Eating healthfully has always been important to me, so THM didn’t really change the types of foods we consumed all that much. Most of the THM ingredients that many people consider new or “weird” were normal in our house.
For us, the most helpful information in the book was the info on food pairing—to limit the amount of fats and carbohydrates together in a meal. That was a completely foreign concept to me. I grew up as a “Whole Grain Jane”. I was literally making bread since I was a little girl ( you can see a picture of me making bread at 3 years old with my older sister on my first post about my Easy Sprouted Whole Grain and Honey Bread recipe). Growing up, I made about 8 loaves every week or so for my family in our Bosch mixer.
Before I had children, I used to sell my bread and ship it to people. To all my friends and family, I am known for making homemade breads and rolls. When I published a cookbook a few years ago (currently out of print); I included a whole section of breads. However, I knew little about the need for using sprouted flours and about the effects of slathering my breads with lots of butter and the effect that could have on the waistline for people that are struggling with their weight (I love me some buttah!). For people that are not struggling with their weight such as some children, and some pregnant and nursing mothers, etc…combining fats and carbohydrates is often helpful to maintain a healthy weight.
Since beginning THM, I began eating sprouted bread that I bought, but I missed my old homemade bread that was soft and yummy, so I purposed to come up with a soft and easy THM approved sprouted bread recipe. I re-vamped my original bread recipe and came up with this recipe almost 2 years ago. I posted it originally on the THM board and it was such a hit that people asked me to put it on a blog post. That was my first blog post ever and has continued to be my most popular post. I guess other people were missing soft and yummy bread, too! Check out my recipe and more details for my THM Easy Sprouted Whole Grain and Honey Bread here.
THM may not be the route for everyone, but for our family, I am so thankful for THM because it has given my husband, my sisters and so many close friends such an amazing new lease on life! They have more energy, they are healthier emotionally, they are more fit and they will hopefully be around for their families for many more years to come as their bodies repair and rejuvenate themselves through the God-given blessing of nutritious food.
You can find out more about THM, order the book and the THM products by checking it out at my affiliate link below:
