Trim Healthy Mama Plan (4 page)

She chuckles. “Actually, my husband, who is not here today, is always happier when I give in because I get cranky without carbs and he doesn't mind me pleasantly plump as long as I'm pleasant. But seriously, carbs terrify me! I only have to look at them and I gain back those thirty pounds within a couple months, and they bring some friends with them. My cousin here, Back to Cave Dave, has been like a coach to me over the years—although I'm sure I frustrate him a lot, because he never carb-binges. I'm serious, he could live on beef jerky alone and be deliriously happy!”

Dave stands up, a tall, wiry man who looks like a cross between a college professor and a gym rat. He clears his throat and pauses to find the right words. “The early primate intestinal system was suitable for berries and foraging, perhaps some insects. Grains, however, were not a part of paleo man's diet. I'm very concerned with the inclusion of—”

Barb nudges him. “Okay, one of Dave's hot topics. I know you could do a whole weekend seminar on paleo history, but we should let the next members have their turn.” She chuckles nervously, pulls him back down to his seat, and takes her own.

Pat and Jess stand up together, both in their mid-forties. They share that they are friends who met online at an adrenal support forum.

Pat sighs and begins speaking first. “Where do I start? Well, I wish I could start, but my body is in stop mode. I've stopped losing weight, stopped being able to exercise—that's due to the fibromyalgia—and I've been diagnosed with sensitivities to twenty different foods. You tell me what is left to eat when you can't have gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, strawberries, nightshade vegetables, and the list goes on. I can have white rice and boiled meat, not much else.”

Thyroid Mess Jess fills the silence left over from Pat's abrupt finish. “Guess it's my turn. I'm Jess, and I'm on a healing journey, not a weight-loss one. In fact, I've gained about twenty pounds on the new protocol I'm on. Even though this pushed me out of a healthy BMI, this is for the best. I need to raise my thyroid hormone levels and dieting is not going to do that. The fun part about what I'm doing right now is that I can eat chocolate ice cream most nights before bed and not have to feel guilty. My body needs sugar to soothe my agitated hormones. I really need to give my adrenals a rest. I spent
too many years starving myself and denying, denying, denying. So yes, I'm gaining weight. Yes, my blood pressure and fasting blood sugar have gone back up to borderline high but my morning basal temperatures are so much better. I'm going to focus on resting my thyroid and adrenals, then figure out how to get this weight off again without destroying my health in the process. Guess I am a bit stumped on how to do that but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

Jess and Pat both sit down. Everyone at the IDA meeting is encouraged to get into smaller circle groups and share more deeply about themselves and their struggles. Whole Grain Jane, who has always wanted to try a juice fast, invites Raw Green Colleen to sit next to her in their group. Brown Bread Fred disappears into the men's room, intending to take his time.

If you saw yourself in any of these characters or have had another frustrating journey of weight gain and loss, of health ups and downs, welcome to the club. Between the two of us we had most of them covered in our own bumpy diet journeys. We couldn't help poking a little fun at meetings like this and at ourselves, too, for all the different diet tangents we've been on. But if you relate to anyone at that meeting, you know it's not all a laughing manner. Hopelessness hurts. Damaged health and weight issues hurt.

As different as they are, most of these diets we've tried over the years have one thing in common: They have all vilified a certain food group or macronutrient and urged the removal of it. In order to lose weight, people usually try to give up fats or carbs or animal foods or healthy amounts of calories. Choose your misery. These extreme diets are nearly impossible to maintain.

After all, what happens when a whole food group is removed? Imbalances start. In the case of Whole Grain Jane and her hubby, Brown Bread Fred, fats are feared, so they are avoided. What takes over? Whole-grain pasta, whole-grain rice, whole-grain crackers, whole-grain bars—these become foundational foods. Lots of fresh and dried fruit as well. Even though our friends here try to steer clear of processed forms of sugar and rarely snack on candy bars, sugar is the biggest part of their diet. It's the biggest part of almost everyone's diet. And it's a problem.

We can hear the gasps of disbelief. “What do you mean? They don't even eat
sugar—she said they use honey.”

Your bloodstream does not care whether sugar comes from hefty servings of brown-rice pasta, honey-sweetened homemade granola, or a Snickers candy bar—the end result is sugar in the blood, known as glucose.

At first glance, Drive Thru Sue might be the most obvious member here with high sugar issues; but Farm Fresh Tess and her husband, Organic Only Tony, are not exempt despite their food purity and organic approach. Baked potato = sugar. Homemade, honey-sweetened apple pie = sugar; whole-grain mac and cheese = sugar.

While whole-grain forms of starches spike your blood sugar less than white refined forms do, it is the abundance of them in both Whole Grain Jane's and Farm Fresh Tess's diets that causes health and weight issues. Even though they have very little fat in their diet, Jane and Fred are struggling with their weight because of this deceptive problem. Any time there is excess sugar in the bloodstream it is deposited in your fat cells. It suddenly turns into fat.

Blood sugar itself (otherwise known as glucose) is not a baddie. Your brain and
body require this stuff to thrive. But too much blood sugar? That is the problem that has reached epidemic proportions and is destroying the health of countless millions. But there's no need to throw up our hands in despair and give up. High blood sugar is reversible: You can start turning this problem around in your very next meal.

We're going to stress this once again just so you get it well and good:
ANY BLOOD SUGAR THAT YOUR BODY CANNOT USE WILL TURN TO FAT
!

Once a fat cell receives blood sugar, a transformation takes place. Abracadabra: Sugar is not sugar anymore—it is now fat. It doesn't matter if the package the food came in said “Fat-Free” or not. Your body made that a lie.

Time for a little biology lesson to show how this happens: Think of your fat cells as wild party animals and your muscle cells as sensible librarian types. Your muscle cells use blood sugar for energy, but once they are full they very tidily close up shop and accept no more. Your fat cells, on the other hand, will party 24-7. They never turn away glucose,
even if they are already stuffed with a boatload of it. They'll be like, “More blood sugar? Yeah baby, bring it on! Blood sugar in the hayouse! Partaaay!!!”

Your hormone
insulin comes into play in this magic transformation of sugar to fat. Many of us are taught to think of insulin as a big bad hormone whose only intention is to fatten us up. While it does promote fat gain if levels of it are constantly too high in the body, God created this very necessary hormone to transport glucose, proteins, and fat out of your bloodstream and into your cells.

We like to think of insulin as a friendly neighborhood delivery truck. It loads up blood sugar and takes it out of your bloodstream. The first place it goes is to your muscle cells: “Beep beep—got a glucose load here for you—open up!” If you are a young person with a healthy metabolism, your cells are friendly to insulin. They'll open wide and accept glucose and then burn it up for fuel…wonderful. No need for the body to store any fat in that scenario.

Problems arise due to our modern diet. Very few of us can burn through all the blood sugar our modern diet consists of with carbs being such a ridiculously high part of it. Also, as we age the problem gets worse. We become more insulin resistant—ever heard that phrase? It is thrown around a lot. Insulin resistance is a rampant condition, especially if we have lived life on a high-carb/sugar diet. It just means your cells are not on friendly terms with insulin.

A case of insulin resistance goes down something like this: Insulin says, “Open up to receive blood sugar.” Your cells respond by completely ignoring the request; or if they do open up to receive the load, they do it halfheartedly and accept only about half of the blood-sugar load.

On your cells' behalf, it is not really that they want to be rude; they are usually just simply too stuffed with glucose from their previous meal or snack. They truly can't fit any more in. They never get the chance to empty out and feel that natural desire for more glucose. They are sick of insulin constantly arriving at their doorstep with loads of blood sugar. “Gimme a break!” they moan.

So insulin is like, “Be like that, then; I know some folks who'll be happy to take this load and the next after this.” Where does insulin go with the rest of the blood sugar? Yep, you guessed it: to your fat cells at Hip Party Central, who are only too happy to accept it. Doesn't matter if that load of blood sugar came from a so-called healthy meal of a honey and peanut butter sandwich on wheat with whole-wheat pretzels on the side and a fruit-sweetened, low-fat yogurt for dessert, or whether it came from Pepsi and a Snickers bar.
The end result is often far too similar. Your fat cells will party on and grow ever larger by accepting more and more loads of glucose while your muscle cells will retire to bed early and grow ever more insulin resistant.

The knee-jerk response to all this is to avoid carbs like the plague. But just because many have now figured out that overdoing carbs (even so-called healthy “whole-grain carbs”) is detrimental, we should not toss them out altogether and go from one extreme to another. Thyroid Mess Jess's story shows us that that approach only ends with more problems.

God didn't create carbohydrates without
important purpose. The Bible depicts God's blessing on all food groups in Deuteronomy 32, where it describes God taking care of His people. He mentions the food He gave them and we can see in this beautiful passage how God depicts Himself as a caring parent, careful to leave nothing out of their diet. The passage, starting at verse 13, mentions how He gave the children of Israel “the increase of the field” (grains and greens), “honey from the rock” (glucose), “oil from the flinty rock” (fats/oils), “the fat of the ram” (meat and animal fats), “butter of kine” (butter from cows), “the milk of the sheep” (sheep's dairy products), and “the pure blood of the grape” (fruit). Grains and fruits are clearly in that verse—carbs are gifts to us! They just need to be used wisely.

So how about we stop denying ourselves important food groups in the effort to find our trim and healthiest selves. We've all had about enough, haven't we? Imbalanced diets don't work. We all know that. But not only do they not work, they also do harm. They mess with your metabolism and cause a sense of failure when you inevitably give them up when life gets in the way despite your best intentions. How about we find a sane balance again together and start fueling rather than restricting. We can fuel our bodies all the way to trim.

Join the many who are now living in this Food Freedom. Excess weight is being shed; blood-sugar numbers are coming down, blood pressure is stabilizing, inflammation is decreasing—and it is all really quite simple once you give yourself some time to apply it.

Once you understand this term
Food Freedom
you will understand the Trim Healthy Mama Plan. Food Freedom simply means you won't have to miss out—you'll celebrate foods rather than deny yourself. You won't miss out on decadent fats, but you won't miss your healthy carbs, either. In fact you must eat both of those important food fuels. You'll just do it smartly—you'll get your savvy on by learning when and how to eat fats and carbs and to make sure they are always anchored by protein. It's not complicated, it just takes a little practice.

Why do we
crave fats or carbs when we're denied them? Easy: Our Creator, in His infinite design, knows we need them to thrive. Is our loving heavenly Father so cruel that He would give us these
cravings from birth but then punish us for eating them with health consequences? We don't believe that for a minute.

Going without either carbs or fats always puts the body into a state of imbalance and depletion. Our bodies scream “Gimme Gimme” for good reason. The desire for these fuels is so innate that we usually end up giving up on efforts to rigidly avoid them. Sadly, that often means diving deep into the wrong types of carbs or fat.

“I'll have the double cheeseburger, medium—no, make that large fries, and add in the chocolate shake.”

Sound familiar?

Maybe a damaging drive-thru run is not your thing. Some of our purist-minded Mamas have different vices. Coming off a three-day detox cleanse they may think, “Mmm, I gotta have me some homemade, honey-sweetened banana cake, made with organic, gluten-free flour, and of course pastured whipped cream on top, following my grass-fed steak and garden-grown baked potato.”

While this meal might sound awfully clean and healthy to the whole-foodsy, purist mind, it causes the rise of OUTTA CONTROL blood sugar due to the combination of grains (even gluten-free grains), honey, banana, and other starches in the meal. Sure, they're all natural sources of carbs, none of them processed or containing any toxins; but added together they are a train wreck when it comes to your blood sugar. And don't forget the fats in that generous dollop of pastured cream and in the steak. Loading fats on top of carbs is simply too much fuel for most of us adults to handle. The ingredients alone in this meal might be pure and natural but there is nothing very natural about high blood sugar and an exploding waistline.