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!

Is that the school bell, again?

Julia, Kiley, August and Emily

We started back to school, yesterday, the 10th. I still can't wrap my mind around starting school so early, but I don't get to choose. Fortunately for us homeschoolers it doesn't make too much of a difference. We can do school anywhere.

I stayed up very late the night before making four of the girls a schultuete for their first day.  My husband's mother is from Germany and I want to incorporate some of that culture into my children's lives. I had more elaborate plans for these originally, but my procrastination wouldn't allow for that. There really are some amazing ones out there on the internet. The girls were thrilled with them, so that makes me happy. Traditionally, in Germany, the schultueten are given to 6-year-old children starting first grade, but I had to make them for the older girls as well, since they had never had one. 

My mother-in-law on her first day of school. Isn't she just darling? 

All set up for the morning surprise.

First day of 9th Grade

Kiley's first day of high school

Julia's first day of first grade

Emily's first day of first grade

August's first day of high school

Juila and Emily, holding their first day of Kindergarten photo. They've grown so much!

Opening the goodies

Who could resist?

Play me a tune

Julia and August

We are now the proud owners of a piano. Emily has shown interest in wanting to play for a little while now. The older girls play violin and we were preparing for the youngest two to start those this year. Emily said she really would rather play piano. We had one problem, no piano.

I searched for a couple of months on Craigslist and Freecycle. There are many free pianos out there but finding one in acceptable condition is not as simple. Each time I sent a message to someone they informed me the instrument was already taken. We all prayed about it and just trusted that we would get one when the time was right.

We have learned that you can pretty much get any large item for free if you’re patient enough. People would rather give away something than try and move it or sell it. We’ve received many nice blessings this way. A king-sized-bed, hot tub, double BOB jogging stroller, wheelbarrow etc….. And so we waited.

Two weeks ago I finally received an answer to a free piano Craigslist Ad. There was no picture, which made me nervous. Adam stopped by the man’s house after work to check it out; he called me and said it looked perfect. It was older but looked nice inside. It is smaller, I don’t know much about pianos, but I believe it’s called a spinet piano.

This past weekend we were able to pick it up. It fit perfectly in our minivan after the seats were all removed. We are professional piano movers now, you know. *wink* I was a bit impressed with it when I saw it. It was much nicer than I had expected. I was told the brand was a good one too. I really know nothing about pianos, but this one is a Story & Clark.

The kids are all very excited. August and Kiley got right down to learning how to play themselves. They already know how to read music and have said the piano has been easy to learn. They have been nice enough to show their little sisters what they’ve learned so far. It still needs to be tuned, but sounds pretty good considering. We are very thankful for God’s blessing and Emily can’t wait to start lessons in a couple of months. I will now have three violinists and a pianist. I really enjoy listening to my children play music; I have always had this dream of my children playing Canon in D  for me on their instruments. I can't wait for that day. 

This n' That

Time has been moving at an exorbitant pace. We finished school on May 18th. Since that day the girls have been rushing to finish their 4-H Record books. Record books are the documentation of all the things they did throughout the 4-H year. They are incredibly time consuming if the child does not keep up with it throughout the year. Of course, my children started out the year with the best of intentions, but never followed through. I swore last year we would not be sucked into the tiring stressful madness that is, Record-Book-at-the-last-minute; yet here we were! We had a bigger advantage than last year being that is was not our first year and we had some idea of what we were doing. Kiley and August participated in many more activities and events this year; their books contained far more than before. Their participation and areas of community service and leadership earned them several awards. Last year they only received a pin for their first year participation. This year, however, they received 7 different awards. They were very proud of their accomplishments, and of course the pins they are now showing off on their hats. The 4-H hat is part of the uniform and all awards (pins and patches) are affixed to the hats to show to others. This past weekend the girls participated in the town Rodeo Parade with their 4-H club. 

August, receiving her awards.

Kiley, receiving her awards.

Julia and Emily with their friend, waiting for the parade to begin

My mother-in-law got to hold the banner in the parade. Lucky her!

August and Kiley with their djembe drums.

The girls' best friend hurt her foot and has to wear a cast. Poor girl.

Once they were finished with their books they had to get all of their entries to the County Fair ready to submit. August planned on submitting her quilt. I wrote about her progress here. I am happy to say she did finish her quilt by working long, exhausting hours. She is sad to have to give it up for a month after she had just finished it though. I'm hoping she gets a nice blue ribbon for her efforts. 

The quilt before the quilting and binding.

The back

The final result.

All four girls submitted art/painting entries to the fair this year. Emily and Julia were so happy to be able to do things like their big sisters. They are hoping for ribbons as well. Three of the girls are going to be turning in a table setting for competition. August is doing a Cherry Blossom themed setting, Julia's will be based on the book, "Are You My Mother?" and Emily's will be based on the book, "velma gratch and the way cool butterfly". Those aren't due to be submitted until next week, so I'm sure you can guess what we are working on this week!?!


In other news, Adam and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary over the weekend. Usually we go away for the weekend, but we stayed around town and ended up working instead. The kids were all with Adam's parents so we still were able to go out to eat a couple of times and be alone for a few days. He has been remodeling a house for the past several months and he had the backyard left to landscape before the job is complete. We are all looking forward to this job being over so he can move along to the next job. I got to learn to lay sod, it was actually kinda fun, like working a puzzle. 

The yard after we weeded it but before the sod

And after, didn't I do a great job? My husband is the best teacher.

Emily and Julia are taking swim lessons for the first time. For this week and next they will learn how to not drown. We are setting up an above ground pool this summer, so these girls need to know how to swim. Plus, by six-years-old, it's just not cool to swim in a life jacket all the time. 


I have more but I'll save it for another post. This one is long enough. Have a fun week!

One of those moments

Don't you ever just have those moments? You know, those moments when you are out in public somewhere and you glance over to see your child doing something terribly embarrassing?

One of those moments when your small daughter is walking through the store with her dress pulled all the way up around her chest. Oh she's grinning and having a grand ole' time, walking along, oblivious to the fact that everyone is snickering at her.

I had two, yes two, of those kind of moments happen today.

Today's first moment happened when my small daughter was desperately trying to get to the car before I left, lest she have to stay home with her sisters. She comes darting out of the house carrying her shoes AND shirt, wearing only her skirt. I FREAKED OUT.

*screeching* "WHAT-DO-YOU-THINK-YOU-ARE-DOING-GET-BACK-IN-THE-HOUSE-NOOOOOOOOOW!"

She is still little and no one was outside. I had to laugh so hard. I assume she missed the part where I told her I would wait for her in the car while she got dressed and wouldn't leave her behind.

Today's second moment actually involved the same child as earlier in the day. She's certainly on a roll today. We were sitting in the waiting area at the beauty salon while my older daughter was getting her hair trimmed. I'm checking some stuff on my smartphone and I see my little girl in the corner of my eye, doing something. I briefly discuss with myself for a second before I look.

"Is she?"
"no way"
"I think she is"
"oh she can't be"
"please let this not be what I'm seeing'

So, I slowly turn and look and my eyes open 10 times the size in horror. SHE IS! She pulled off her flip-flop and was biting her big toenail. I whispered, in pure shock, without breathing

"whatareyoudoingputyourfootdownnowthatissogrossyou'regoingtogetsicktherearepeoplewatchingyou"  breathe.......

She looked at me like, "what are you talking about crazy woman my toe is bugging me"

Life is definitely exciting.

She lost it!

Emily lost her first tooth yesterday. She's been working on wiggling it out for several weeks. She was delighted to find a dollar under her pillow this morning in place of her tooth.

She's officially a big kid!

Emily & Julia turned 6

Emily and Julia had their 6th birthday this week. They had their family and friends party today, it sure was fun. They wanted to have an, "Art Party". We decided to make all of the decorations ourselves and was it a lot of work, but it sure turned out cute.


This is their actual birthday. They wanted pizza for dinner and a strawberry chocolate cheesecake. Yum.

Opening the gift they received in the mail

Gifts from mom and dad. 

Emily loves to bake, she got some cookie baking stuff. 

Julia loves to help Daddy work. She got her own tool set and tool bag. 

August used her own money and bought the girls each a fish. They named them Oscar and John. 

The party is what they have been anticipating most for the past couple of months. We had a fun candy buffet and each of the kids took some home with them. Each kid was given an apron to wear and they had several different activities to choose from:

Create your own pom-pom animals; String a Fruit Loop necklace; Decorate a bookmark; Color some playdough and Face Painting. 

We did our best to stick to the rainbow colors or primary colors.

It was a very fun, tiring day.