Me On A Diet

I get a magazine called Above Rubies and kept seeing an advertised book written by the magazine founder's daughters called Trim Healthy Mama: A Common Sense Guide to Satisfy Your Cravings and Energize Your Life by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett.  The book looked interesting as I glanced through the available samples, but I was put off by the cost, $35 (the book is currently $31.50--the price went down the day after I bought it), and the sheer size of the book--over 600 pages.

A nice big book, packed full of great information

But then last week a status popped up on my Facebook page about someone who had been following the book's advice and had lost 30 pounds in four months.  Well.  My interest was piqued.  I read the reviews on Amazon.  I did a Google search and read around ten blog reviews of the book.  I checked out Trim Healthy Mama's Facebook group.  And I found myself hitting buy and anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new book.  (It is amazing how impatient I have become waiting for things to ship to my home thanks to an Amazon Prime membership--I only had to wait two days for the book to get here, but it felt like an eternity).

Once the book got here, I ended school early and sent the kids outside to play so I could cuddle up with my gigantic book, a notepad, and a highlighter.  The authors make sense.  Their premise is that insulin is the problem and that we need to eat in such a way as to keep insulin regulated.  Plus, our bodies will store fat if we each both glucose and fat at the same time.  There are a lot of scientific reasons for this, but I won't go into them.  

The steadfast rule of the program is:

Never include large amounts of both fats and carbs in the same meal unless you are trying to gain or maintain weight.  In other words, don't tandem fuel.

They then instruct you to eat either Satisfying meals--meals that are higher in fat, but have less than 5 net carbs or Energizing meals--meals that have up to 45 net carbs from the healthiest sources but are low fat.  You can mix and match the meals as you desire, but for each meal you eat either a higher fat S meal or a higher carb E meal.  For all meals you always have protein as your base.  

And then they have the Fuel Pull meals that are high in protein but are both low carb and low fat.  They are neutral meals that you can eat at any time.  But the S and E meals should have at least a 2 1/2 hour break between them to give your body time to digest the fuel source before switching to the next.

There is a whole lot more to it (obviously since the book is very big), but that's the highlights of the program.  To me it makes sense.  Eating only one fuel source at a time enables our bodies to fully digest it without adding extra fat to our bodies.  Switching between the two types keeps our bodies from getting used to one style of eating.  I have done both low carb and low fat diets.  I always lost weight right away but then hit a plateau because my body got used to eating that way.  Not to mention the intense cravings for either carbs or fat.  

I started the program half-heartedly on Friday.  Circumstances made it necessary to eat "normal meals."  But since then I've been following it completely right down to my Skinny Chocolate made from cocoa powder, coconut oil, and Stevia.  It was hard to resist a plate laden with Grandma-made cookies and other desserts Friday evening, but I just kept reminding myself that I had plan-friendly chocolate waiting for me back in my freezer.  I came home and promptly ate a piece.  

This morning I saw a recipe for a flax seed meal wrap and just had to try it.  I made it up quickly in the microwave and stuffed it with cheese and extra lean ground turkey sausage.  It was really yummy.  I have found my new favorite breakfast (assuming my body can tolerate the 3 Tbsp of egg white I gave it.  I might have to figure out a different option for the eggs--More flax?  Ener-g egg replacer?), but for those who don't have egg allergies, this is a surprisingly good wrap.

It's still early days yet, but so far my body is happier, my energy level has improved, I haven't had any sugar highs or lows, and I've lost 4 lbs since Friday.  A very good start.