Trim Healthy Mama Plan (22 page)
Read Trim Healthy Mama Plan Online
Authors: Pearl Barrett
You can purchase high-mineral sea salt from
www.trimhealthymama.com
or find another mineral-rich, natural salt (such as Celtic or Himalayan salt) that you like in your local shopping area.
LECITHIN
What is lecithin? A weird manmade substance? Nope. It is a group of phospholipids found in certain foods and in your body. Your brain is approximately 30 percent lecithin. When you supplement with lecithin, you nourish your brain. This God-designed substance improves memory, helps combat learning disabilities, and promotes longer attention spans.
It has been shown in many studies to relieve age-associated memory impairment,
dementia, and early symptoms of
Alzheimer's disease. Research also shows promising results with lecithin supplementation being able to prevent further deterioration of mental function in Alzheimer's patients.
Within your body, lecithin is richly concentrated in the myelin sheaths that form a protective coating around your nerves. Eating a diet high in lecithin-rich foods, such as runny egg yolks (cooking to opaque destroys much of the lecithin), and supplementing with lecithin are wonderful nerve calmatives and healers.
The two main forms of lecithin available today are from sunflowers (obtained from the seeds) or from soy. We encourage a sunflower-based supplement for more frequent use over soy. We prefer to use a dry lecithin powder over a liquid in our recipes. You can find it at our website or elsewhere online or in some health food stores. It is an incredible emulsifier of foods, which helps make our smoothies, mousses, chocolates, sauces, and drinks so much more wonderfully creamy and delightful. It helps our Healing Trimmy coffees stay creamy and white (“Hot Drinks” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
) and our Thin Thick shakes be the creamiest Fuel Pull drinks you could dream of (“Shakes, Smoothies, Frappas, and Thin Thicks” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
). It sure is not a mandatory ingredient on plan, but it is a delightful one that we have fallen in love with.
What's in lecithin that makes it so effective to boost health? Lecithin is rich in
choline, which is needed throughout the entire body as an integral ingredient in the phospholipid portion of each and every cell membrane. Phosphatidylcholine is a component of lecithin that is an integral neurotransmitter and fortifies your brain and nerve cells. Phosphatidylcholine is also a potent antioxidant that paralyzes the movement of free radicals throughout our bodies. This makes lecithin a powerful antiaging supplement as it fights against oxidative damage to cells (which causes premature and natural aging as well as cancer).
Acetylcholine deficiencies are a cause of
insomnia, so dosing up on sunflower lecithin may help your sheep count go down and your numbers of deep slumbering hours go up. This is due to the choline in lecithin being a direct precursor to acetylcholine.
Lecithin is also a natural fat-emulsifier and can help reverse as well as prevent nonalcoholic
fatty liver disease, which is associated with insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and liver cancer. It also helps to break down harmful types of cholesterol. This emulsifying power makes it a friend of nursing women who are prone to
breast infections. Lecithin has a unique ability to be able to decrease the stickiness of
breast milk
so it is less likely to clog and to help heal already clogged
breast ducts. It is also known as a general breast-health promoter and breast-
cancer fighter.
Do you have creaky joints? Lecithin is an important part of the production of synovial fluid, which is like WD-40 to our joints. It stops the creaks and the squeaks of joint rustiness. It is also considered to be beneficial in decreasing pain and increasing mobility for those suffering with
rheumatoid arthritis.
E
ach of us brings a unique metabolism, set of tastes, different resources, budget, and existing mindset about food to the table. All of these factors will dramatically affect your eating choices and give you a unique experience with the Trim Healthy Mama Plan, and a totally different THM style to the next womanâand let's not forget we have men doing the plan, too. We want to give you an idea of what you can expect as you start out and help you troubleshoot and avoid the pitfalls no matter what “type” you are.
Trim Healthy Mama breaks the diet mold in that it does not give you set menus, set portion sizes, set grocery lists, and the same set foods to eat over and over again. Don't let this throw you. There's a reason all these “set” diet standards are not included in the book. Even portion sizes will vary according to the dietary needs of individual women. Mamas who are nursing and pregnant will need more food than postmenopausal women, whose caloric needs drop during that season of life. It doesn't make sense to tell women in vastly different stages of life with greatly varying metabolisms to ALL eat only half-cup portions. It also doesn't make sense to tell husbands to eat only tiny helpings. There wouldn't be so many happy Trim Healthy Husbands everywhere if their portion sizes were restricted to typical diet-size amounts.
While at first it might seem easier to mindlessly follow a menu than it is to learn and practice new principles, the goal here is to retrain your brain to think of foods in a whole new way. We think preset menus are frankly rather boring; but, yeah, we get that you want to have a visual idea of what to eat as you get started.
We've provided sample menus here for different “types of people” on plan. We want to be very clear that they are only ideasâ¦examples. If you don't like some of the meals
we mentionâby all means create your own meals and ditch ours. We'd actually prefer if you came up with your own. Our ultimate desire for you is not to do our plan but to do yours! A preset stringent menu can never do what truly learning and living the plan can do. Following someone else's idea of what you should eat every day of the week makes it far more likely that you'll get bored or be dissatisfied at the end of a couple of months and walk away from THM as “just another diet.”
With all that said, we understand everyone is different and some of us need more structure than others. The menus included in the next few chapters can give you a good visual on what eating on-plan might look like for you. They include some recipes from the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
. We want you to have success on plan and we've made sure these recipes are going to help you achieve that. But if your budget does not allow you to purchase that book right now, there are many enthusiastic Trim Healthy Mama bloggers who frequently post up their free menus, including lots of yummy recipes to inspire others. And don't forget about Pinterest THM menus and recipesâalthough we can't vouch for the accuracy of all of the THM recipes posted on people's Pinterest pages.
The following blogs are written by seasoned Trim Healthy Mamas who know their way around the plan. They have many example menus you may find helpful:
If you want more
menu ideas, check out
www.trimhealthymama.com
. New idea menus are loaded up monthly in our menu section. But we hope you'll get to the point where you are not following someone else's menu but coming up with your own. To help you customize your own menus, we had some very “techie” people design a unique menu builder for our website. You can use it to pull recipes from the organized archives of Trim Healthy Mama recipes there or input your own. This is a great tool to help you organize menus that actually appeal to you and your own set of unique challenges and preferences. It will also generate a grocery shopping list for you. As sisters, we certainly would not want to write each other's weekly menu. We enjoy different foods and have different approaches. Dictating preset weekly menus to people is not our idea of Food
Freedom and we are not in partnership with any online menu sites who charge for using any part of our Trim Healthy Brand.
It's also important to mention that not all of us are planners. While it is a good idea to have some meal ideas in mind when grocery shopping, you sure don't have to have a weekly menu all printed out to have success on plan. Don't think of yourself as an outcast if you are not the
meal-planning type and get no pleasure from seeing a crisp weekly menu coming out of your printer. Neither of us bothers with set, strict menus for each week. We enjoy winging it! We keep certain meal ideas in mind and then fly by the seats of our pants for the rest our week, which always brings us unforeseen twists and turns. You don't have to turn into Mrs. Uber Organized to be a Trim Healthy Mama; but a little planning (especially in the beginning of your journey) can help you achieve your goals.
Note: You will notice there is usually only one EÂ meal per day in the following sample menus. We hope you enjoy plenty of E snacks, too. Don't forget your fruit for snacks (with protein preferably). Wasa or Ryvita crackers also make great snacks with 1% cottage cheese or Laughing Cow Creamy Light Swiss cheese wedges and tomato (we have dairy-free recipes for those sorts of cheeses in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
). If you don't want to eat protein with your fruit, a drink containing some gelatin or collagen will give ample protein for your E snack. We listed some snack and dessert ideas at the bottom of each menu but they are just a start: There are vast amounts of snacks and desserts to be enjoyed as a Trim Healthy Mama.
Jump first to the “Heads Up” chapter you relate to most if you want, but reading through them all at some stage will help you on your journey. You can learn something from each chapter.
HEADS UP:
DRIVE THRU SUES!
I
f you relate to Drive Thru Sue, who is described in
Chapter 1
, you're probably coming from a diet of sodas and refined starches and perhaps your cooking has primarily involved boxed mac and cheese and putting frozen pizzas and lasagnas in the oven. When and if you cook, it is not so much for the love of itâjust get 'er done and eat!
Don't worry, we're not going to chain you to the stove. Yes, you will find yourself in the kitchen a bit more; but you sure don't have to attempt complicated meals. Easy slow-cooker recipes for dinner and quick (less-than-five-minute) recipes for breakfast and lunch will not be a huge burden on your time and kitchen skill levels. The Muffin in a Mug (MIM) recipes can become your BFF for busy mornings or a speedy afternoon snack. Check out a free frosted version of that muffin on our website or peruse the many Trim Healthy Mama MIMs on Pinterest that lots of creative women in the community have come up with. Maybe you will nuke your muffin in the microwave instead of baking it in the ovenâhey, you are making huge strides coming off processed, blood-sugar-spiking, and devitalized foods, so hooray for you! This is only going to get easierânot harderâas you slowly find your THM feet.
If you want to use some shortcut/Frankenfood itemsâor what we refer to as “Personal Choice” Itemsâin our food lists to help you stay on
plan, no problem. Wrap some rotisserie chicken in a low-carb tortilla with a little mayo, hot sauce, cheese, and lettuce for an SÂ meal. Rotisserie chicken can be a
Drive Thru Sue's lifesaver. If it is not tasty enough for
you, pull off some chicken pieces, add your favorite seasoning (Creole is great), and sauté those chicken pieces in a skillet with just a couple teaspoons of butter. Enjoy with a salad. This takes rotisserie chicken from boring to blazin'!
You can make turkey and cheese sandwiches with a Joseph's pita, and you can even use Dreamfields pasta once a week or once every couple of weeks if that helps you not feel so deprived (each person needs to assess her or his own blood-sugar reaction to this product). What could be easier than browning some meat, adding it to a jar of sugar-free pasta sauce, and then pouring it over plan-friendly pasta? You've got this! Purchase precooked steak and chicken strips. You can roll them in a low-carb wrap, throw them on a bed of precut and prewashed leafy greens from a bag, or toss them with Not-Naughty-Noodles, veggies, sesame oil, and soy sauce in the frying panâyum. This way of eating needn't be complicated.
While the shortcut
bread items can help your entrance into the plan be smoother, we need to add a caution that we don't want you to overdo them. Center your meals around simple whole foods as often as you can, and try not to rely on store-bought low-carb bread options for every single meal every day of the week. We know you are eating far better now than you were before, so no beating up on yourself for baby-step choicesâand don't let anyone else beat you up, either!
WEIGHT LOSS
If you're giving up sodas and fries, you may find that you drop quite a bit of weight in the first couple of weeks. By “quite a bit” we mean five pounds or more. Don't be alarmed if you see close to a ten-pound drop! Some of this is water weight. Your body flushes it out with the excess glucose from your cells. Weight loss will settle down after the initial period to a more usual average of one pound per week (possibly two pounds per week if you have a lot to lose and don't have metabolic issues). Of course, that average may not come off every week; some weeks the scale won't budge, and other weeks you might see two or three pounds melt off. Or you might decide not to watch the scale and instead to go by how your clothes fitâthat's perfectly fine, too. While many Drive Thru Sues do experience fast early weight loss, don't feel like a failure if that does not happen to you or if your averages don't quite make it to a pound per week. We are all different and your body will do its own thing. Enjoy the journey rather than comparing yourself to others.
You may experience a week or even a few weeks of “detox” response from pulling the
sugar rug out from under you. This can feel like flu symptomsâheadaches and fatigue. Troupe through this phase knowing it will pass. Your body needs to shed toxins and learn to adjust to the new fuels of fats and moderate glucose rather than the constantly high glucose it has been
used to. Sugar does provide a sense of energy to the body, but it is a false high and a crash inevitably follows the high. Start out with a couple of full-S days if you want to, but then make sure to add some good EÂ meals so you don't completely pull away the stable energy good carbohydrates provide. You'll come out feeling better than ever and the constant craving for sugar pick-me-ups should soon fall away.
You can do it! If you've been a soda addict, try a couple of our All-Day Sipper
drinks
.
Good Girl Moonshine and the Shrinker have helped thousands of women kick the soda habit, and the health and weight-loss benefits of these drinks can be a huge help on your journey. If at first you aren't partial to the tastes of these drinks, try tweaking them to your liking. Add extracts, try less or more sweetener, or use sparkling water in place of regular water to give you that fizz. Or try some stevia-sweetened colas that are now readily available at so many grocery storesâsome brands even contain a little caffeine, if that is part of the pick-me-up you love about soda.
It may take you a few weeks to get used to the natural sweetener options we suggest in place of sugar. At first your taste buds may rebel. Give them some time. They'll change. Make sure you read
Chapter 13
, “Sweet Mama,” for tips on how to use our sweeteners as you start out. Our Gentle Sweet stevia blend may be the best option for you to start the plan with if you initially dislike the taste of stevia, because this blend tastes the most like sugar and is very forgiving if you use too much.
D
RIVE
T
HRU
S
UE
I
DEA
M
ENU
Day 1
BREAKFASTâS
Frosted Cinnamon Muffin (“Quick Single Muffins” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
or on our website) / Greek yogurt or ½ Triple Zero Greek yogurt with berries / coffee and cream
LUNCHâS
Joseph's pita stuffed with turkey breast, lettuce, mayo, and cheese / Choco Chip Baby Frap or a Thin Thick (“Shakes, Smoothies, Frappas, and Thin Thicks” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
DINNERâS
Cajun Cream Chicken (“Crockpot Meals” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
) / Cauli Rice or Troodles (“Sides” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
Day 2
BREAKFASTâE
Triple Zero Greek yogurt / bowl of oatmeal with a little unsweetened almond milk / ½ orange / coffee and a little half-and-half to stay in E mode
LUNCHâS
Large salad topped with store-bought, precooked steak strips, creamy dressing, and grated cheese
DINNERâS
Egg Roll in a Bowl, using bagged coleslaw for ease (“Family Skillet Meals” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
Day 3
BREAKFASTâS
Fried egg, cheese, and sausage patty breakfast wrap made with frozen, precooked sausage patty heated in the microwave and rolled into a store-bought low-carb wrap
LUNCHâE
Light Progresso soup / 2 Wasa crackers with Laughing Cow Creamy Light Swiss cheese wedges
DINNERâS
Rotisserie chicken / buttered steamed broccoli / side salad with watered-down store-bought creamy dressing
Day 4
BREAKFASTâE
Chocolate Waffles with Strawberries (“Pancakes, Donuts, Crepes, and Waffles” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
LUNCH- S
Leftover rotisserie chicken, lettuce, and mayo in a store-bought low-carb wrap
SUPPERâE
Wicked White Chili (“Crockpot Meals” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
Day 5
BREAKFASTâS
Eggs any way with sausage or bacon
LUNCHâE
Store-bought sprouted bread sandwich with lean deli meat, lettuce, tomato, mustard, and a thin smear of mayo / a small piece of fruit with some low-fat cottage cheese or a Choco Chip Baby Frap (“Shakes, Smoothies, Frappas, and Thin Thicks” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
DINNERâS
Cheeseburger Pie (“Oven Dishes” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
or found on our website) / large side salad / canned green beans with a little extra butter and high-mineral salt
Day 6
BREAKFASTâFP
Strawberry Big Boy Smoothie (“Shakes, Smoothies, Frappas, and Thin Thicks” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
LUNCHâE
Waldorf Cottage Cheese Saladâusing garnish amount of store-bought spicy nuts, finely chopped (“Quick Single Salads” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
DINNERâS
Ridiculous Meatballs and Spaghetti (“Crockpot Meals” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
Day 7
BREAKFASTâS
Brainy Blueberry Muffin (“Quick Single Muffins” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
) / ½ Triple Zero Greek yogurt or ½ cup regular Greek yogurt sweetened with Gentle Sweet
LUNCHâS
Just Like Campbell's Tomato Soup (“Quick Single Soups” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
or found on our website) / grilled cheese made with ½ Joseph's pita or with Swiss Bread (“Breads and Pizza Crusts” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
DINNERâE
Cowboy Grub (“Family Skillet Meals” in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
) / Choco Chip Baby Frap (“Shakes, Smoothies, Frappas, and Thin Thicks” chapter of the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)
Snack Ideas for the Week
Triple Zero Greek yogurt / peanut butterâstuffed celery / Babybel cheese with store-bought roasted or crispy nuts / part-skim cheese stick with an apple / Wasa or Ryvita crackers with Laughing Cow Creamy Light Swiss cheese wedges and cucumber / butter lettuce leaves wrapped around deli meat, cheese, and mayo / hard-boiled eggs and celery sticks / stevia-sweetened store-bought chocolate or a couple squares of 85% cacao chocolate / plan-approved store-bought ice cream like Enlightened brand (or any brand that uses stevia and erythritol as chief sweeteners / any single-serve muffin (“Quick Single Muffins” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
) / any single-serve cake (“Quick Single Serve Cakes” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
) / Joseph's crackers with sliced cheese or Drive Thru Sue Cheesy Crackers or Thinnies (“Crackers, Chips, and Dips” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
) / any shake or creamy drink from the “Shakes, Smoothies, Frappas, and Thin Thicks” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
) / Skinny Chocolate (“Candies and Bars” chapter in the
Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
)