Trim Healthy Mama.

After Miles was born in late November of last year, losing weight was a challenge. Despite my best efforts of eating well, the pounds just weren't coming off. I did weight watchers for about five months or so and lost just shy of 20 lbs. it was enough to make me feel a lot better, but definitely didn't get me to where I'd ultimately like to be. I also knew that counting and tracking everything I ate was not something I could (or wanted to) sustain long-term. Yes, it might help me shed weight quickly, but what about when I lost all the weight? Would I have a strategy for maintenance? Or would I start a cycle: go off the rails, gain some weight back, get back on track (counting points), lose a few pounds, repeat?

So I began exploring other options. Late August this year, Joe and I did the Advocare 24 Day Challenge. It wasn't too difficult and I felt energetic and healthy (mainly getting off sugar, I think, is what helped). I didn't lose any weight on the Challenge, which frustrated me, but I was feeling good physically.

When I was pregnant with Miles, I dabbled a bit in following a plan called Trim Healthy Mama. The basic premise is that you eat a diet that is free of sugar and refined carbs and is high in protein. In addition, you separate the two primary fuel types: fat (S, for satisfying) and carbs (E, for energizing). For example, apples and peanut butter, while both permitted, should not be combined a single sitting. Instead, you might have peanut butter with celery or an apple with nonfat Greek yogurt. The Trim Healthy Mama Plan book explains it like this: "If you focus on one primary fuel at a time, rather than squishing both together at every meal, you will burn through the fuel provided. After that your body must look around for something else to burn... You've got to burn something and with this new knowledge you can guide your body to burn its own body fat."

I've been working, slowly, on adapting to eating this way. I'd say I'm following this plan around 70% of the time right now. I haven't lost weight, but I am feeling good physically and my clothes are fitting better. Joe says I'm looking smaller. It is extremely annoying that the scale is stuck, but I'm trying not to focus on that. I took some measurements a couple weeks ago and I'm interested to check again soon to see if I'm losing any inches. Working on getting myself up to following the plan about 90% of the time.