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*