Trim Healthy Mama Progress - Update!

"In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears." Psalm 18:6

I posted previously about my, Too Good To Be True experience on the fairly new and very popular, Trim Healthy Mama eating plan. 

It's been close to 2 months since my last progress post. By next Sunday I'll have been on the THM plan for 7 months. To date I'm at a total weight loss of 50 pounds. My heaviest weight having started at 180 pounds and currently I'm at 130 pounds. I'm only 5 pounds now from the goal I set. Just this week I moved out of the "overweight" range on the BMI chart to the "normal" range. Before starting THM I was in the "obese I" range.

This has just become a normal way of living for me. I have no desire to "cheat" because this way of eating so plentiful and satisfying that there is really no reason to. I do have planned cheats. Once a month I play Bunco with my friends and that is my cheat night. We have a potluck-style appetizers and it's just not realistic to try and eat on plan in that situation, so I made it a fun night where I get to have some off plan foods.

I would also like to point out that I have, for the most part, not used the recommended sweeteners. At the beginning I used stevia. I had been using stevia for 3-years already, but then a friend had written a blog post that pointed to stevia as a culprit for miscarriage. I dove into this further and read and read as much as I could find about it.  And while perhaps the evidence is just anecdotal, it struck a nerve with me.  From 2010 until just two weeks ago, I have miscarried FIVE pregnancies; all while using stevia in some form. I quit using stevia about a month into the THM plan, but didn't realize it was in the protein powder I was using until just a month ago. I also made the mistake of using Truvia for a short while after the stevia also without realizing it was stevia. My new Dr. is doing a full work up and testing to see if there can be another reason for the recurrent miscarriage. 

My main sweetener of choice has been coconut sugar. It's low on the glycemic index so it won't spike blood-sugar like regular sugar will. While it's not, "on plan",  it has not stalled or slowed down any of my weight loss. 

My friend started a facebook group geared toward whole foods for those who are not using on-plan sweeteners, but rather real food sweeteners like raw honey, dark maple syrup and coconut sugar. Here is the link if you're interested in joining. Trim Healthy Mama - whole foods style. 

And here's the evidence that this works. PICTURES!! 

5 1/2 months on plan

6 months on plan

7 months on plan and down a total of 50 pounds gone FOREVER!
180 pounds to 130 pounds
Size 14/16 to size 4. 

Bean and Chicken Soup ~ THM E Meal

I created an E soup. Here is the recipe. It was loved by all here.

The ing. list is specifically what I used, you can adjust to fit your family's needs/size. This comfortably served 6/7. I calculated the entire meal to have about 200/210 net carbs so when it's divided by 6 or 7 servings it's still low enough to have a wasa cracker or 2 with it.

Ingredients: 
3 boneless skinless organic chicken breasts.
2 cans organic great northern beans - drained and rinsed
2 cans organic black beans - drained and rinsed
1 can organic diced tomato with the juice
1 can Rotel diced tomato with green chilies
2 32oz boxes of organic chicken stock
1 yellow onion
sea salt, pepper, garlic powder
crushed red pepper (optional)
1 Tablespoon butter

Instructions:
Cut chicken into cubes, brown in butter in soup pot until cooked through
Add all beans and stir in a cook for a few minutes
Add cans of tomato with the juice and chicken stock
Dice onion and sautee in a separate skillet with 1 teaspoon butter/oil - add to soup
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.
I added two shakes of crushed red pepper and it was a tad on the spicy side. The Rotel already gives it a little kick so I'll probably leave that out next time.
Cook on medium heat about 20/30 minutes.

*If you're worried about the amount of butter, it's only 4 teaspoons spread out among 6/7 servings so you're not going over the fat amount*

The kids put some sour cream in theirs to make it a crossover.

New Business Page and Hat Giveaway

Hello all,

Several months ago I blogged here about the character hats I'd been making and selling. Recently I started a business page on Facebook for my hats.

Just like the blog post title the page is called, "Put Some Character on Your Head", I gained over 100 likes fairly quickly so I am having a "Candy Corn Hat" giveaway to celebrate.

The giveaway entry is on the business page itself and you can find that by clicking on: GIVEAWAY

The hat will look like this: 

It's easy to enter,  but it must be done on the Facebook page in the comments section under the picture of the hat in order to qualify to win.

The details are below:

Hello friends! We've hit 124 likes. Thank you! I'm going to be giving away a Candy Corn hat for hitting 100 likes. 

TO ENTER TO WIN:
(3 entries per person) you must leave separate comments:
1. Like "Put Some Character on Your Head" facebook page and leave a comment saying you did.
2. Share the giveaway with your friends so they can enter, too. Leave a comment saying you shared.
3. Leave a comment saying which hat in the gallery is your favorite or what character would you like to see made.

The winner will be chosen next Thursday Sept. 25th.
*the hat will be made after the winner is chosen to allow for sizing*

*the attached photo is a sample, credit for the pattern goes to: Sewhooked.com*

Breaking Radio Silence: Too Good To Be True "Trim Healthy Mama" Success

A couple of years ago I tried to lose a bunch of extra weight I had gained. These posts are here, here and here. I was doing well for the most part but it became too difficult to continue. I was HUNGRY! I had tried to limit myself to 1200 calories a day and remove sugar. I fell into a sort of depression after another  miscarriage I suffered in September of that same year. Despite continuing to eat mostly healthy and organic foods, grass-fed meats and raw milk, I gained most of the weight back and lost the motivation to try again.

I felt sick all the time. My body was in pain: migraines, carpal tunnel, headaches, knee pain, numbness in my legs and arms, and depression. Honestly, I hated myself, I hated the way I looked and the way I felt. I became overly critical of everyone and everything. I was just a miserable person. I prayed, I cried, I just wanted to feel better. The thought of exercise just depressed me more, my body hurt way too much. My marriage was suffering; we had a treacherous two years and actually discussed divorce. 

In January of this year I saw posts showing up on my Facebook news feed about, "Trim Healthy Mama". I "liked" their page so I could follow all these too-good-to-be-true success stories. These women were losing 20,30,100 pounds in short amounts of time. I figured this was probably a scam, this doesn't work for real people like me. Weight loss is hard, right? It requires tons of exercise, deprivation and being hungry. No thanks, I'm just not ready for this again.  I became more intrigued as the success testimonies came rolling in, so I looked up how to buy the book. The price of the book was discouraging, there is no way my husband will let me buy a diet book for $35. Oh well there went that idea. A month later in February I suffered another miscarriage, that was my breaking point: I had to get healthy; I had to buy this book. I sacrificed some things for that month and bought the book. 

I started my Trim Healthy Mama journey on March 10, 2014 at 170 pounds and a size 14/16. I'm only 5'1" so this weight put me in the obese category. My previous high weight from my original attempt to lose was 180 and size 16. I read the book and jumped in full speed ahead! I started following the plan with the utmost skepticism and my clothes started to become loose almost immediately. My weight began to fall and the more it fell the better I felt. I suddenly had more energy and my body was hurting less. 

This works! My current weight as of today  is 139 and I'm in a size 6. In just 5 months I am that too-good-to-be-true story. I have 14 pounds until my goal of a healthy BMI. I no longer have daily headaches, pains in my knees, carpal tunnel, numbness or depression. I feel fantastic! I have tons of energy and just the other day I was at the park with the kids and I was able to run with them all over the place. I was never able to run before. My menstrual cramps are nonexistent, before I had to take RX pain pills because the cramps were so painful; for the last 5 months I haven't even had to take an Advil.   This has been the easiest weight loss plan I've ever done. The food is real, delicious and plentiful. I never feel deprived or hungry. I still have chocolate and muffins and cake and cookies and ice cream.  I eat cheese and sour cream, eggs and bacon! 

I wish the font or my typed words could express how wonderful I feel and of course how grateful to God I am for answering my desperate prayers for help. This isn't about vanity, it's about health. If I'm not healthy how can I be a good wife and mother? Feeling better has helped me to be better in everything; I'm happier, more confident and excited to live my life. I have many friends who have now started THM just because of my success, I pray that they would feel as good as I do. 

Here are my photos: Warning this is going to be pic heavy. I always appreciate a lot of photos when I'm looking at someones weight loss and I would assume others out there feel the same. I've had a successful 31 pound weight loss in 5 months.

At my heaviest 180 pounds

My heaviest non-pregnancy 180 pounds

175 pounds

This is February prior to the latest miscarriage. I'm on the far left. 

This was one of my first progress photos. The picture on left was taken
 a few days before starting THM.
The center is after a couple of weeks and the right was after a month. 

Progress. The 150 photo was after 3 months on plan. 

Progress: 180 and 147

And this is my most recent photo taken last week at 141 pounds.
 I'm now at 139 pounds and wearing a size 6 and a small in tops. 

This all still seems too good to be true, yet here I am. It works!

Put Some Character On Your Head

Whew. I have been off of here for quite a while. We have been busy, busy, busy. I really miss blogging and I'm not promising I'm going to start up again, but I will think about it. =)

I wanted to share all the hats I've been making over the last year. I've sold most of these to help with my Christmas gift shopping this year. I really love making these hats. They are so much fun!

I've had a lot of first time requests for hats I've never made. I"m happy to say they have all turned out better than I expected.

I really love seeing photos of the kids and/or adults who have received my hats. It gives them so much more character. I wanted to start selling them on Etsy or Ebay or something like that, but I was so blessed to be busy with orders from friends, or friends of friends that I haven't had time to make any to sell online.

The hats can be made from newborn size all the way up to large adult men size.

Let me know what you think.

This is my very first character hat from one year ago. They've gotten much better since.

Hello Kitty

These next photo is of my third through fifth character hats ever.

Perry the Platypus and Sock Monkey

This one is from a baby shower in April of this year.

Dinosaur baby hat

Pink and Brown Sock Monkey

Purple and Orange Sock Monkey

The rest of the photos are all hats made from August of this year through this past week.

Cookie Monster baby hat

Minnie Mouse in pink

Oakland Raiders colors - sock monkey 

Rapunzel

Horse/Pony

One-eye Minion

Sesame Street - Elmo, Ernie, Grover, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird

 Buzz Lightyear

This is my first attempt at a Minecraft Creeper. 

I've since found some really neat green yarn that makes it look more pixleated like Minecraft really is.

The minion hats have been the most popular of the ones I've made. I think I've done about 10 of them.

Kiley has requested an R2D2 hat, she's a big Star Wars nerd.

Thanks for reading as always. I'm sure I've lost most of my regular readers since I've gone so long without blogging.

Blessings to you and yours and have a Happy New Year.

-Kimmie