Welcome to 2017! It has been two years since I wrote my first attempt at explaining THM in 3 simple points. Since then, my wife and I have continued to adhere to the THM lifestyle with continued success; even with Ruth being pregnant (with our first!), she has done well to stick with it for the most part.

I had some readers comment that my previous post was too wordy so here is an attempt at simplifying the simplified version of THM. I will make a few more points:

1. Food is meant to be enjoyed. While over-indulgence (gluttony) is wrong, I should not need to starve myself or abstain from good tasting food in order to keep the pounds off. THM lets you do this. Enjoying great food should be a guilt-free experience.
2. How much you eat is not the problem; When you eat and what you eat it with makes all the difference. Let’s address these:
   1. When: Eat every 3 hours – there are two sides to this –
      1. Don’t snack more often than 3 hours – give your body a chance to burn the fuel
      2. Don’t fast more than 3 hours – it is like letting the fire go out. You need to keep your metabolism going.
   2. What you eat it with: Combining your food is the backbone of the THM lifestyle;there are three main categories of food:
      1. Protein: Critical in bodily function of muscle, bone, collagen, skin and virtually every organ in your body. Protein in your food should be the building block of every meal. High protein foods include white meat (chicken, turkey, white fish, etc), lintels, black beans, soy beans, nuts, milk, egg whites, etc.
      2. Fats: high calorie fatty (predominantly triglycerides) fuel that leaves you feeling satisfied after a meal. Fats are needed to maintain a healthy diet. These foods include red meat, egg (with yolks), fish, cheeses, milk, nuts, avocados, etc. They are harder to break down than carbs but once they start burning, look out, your metabolism will be kick started!
      3. Carbs: easy access fuel source often responsible for spiking your blood sugar/insulin. More commonly known as starches and sugars. There are 2 types – simple and complex…think, simple carbs – burn quickly, readily available and thus store easily – sugary foods/drinks, fruit juices, white bread, etc – you want to avoid these. Complex carbs– more difficult to burn, won’t spike your blood sugar; examples are oats, rye bread, Ezekiel bread, etc. –  these are good but in moderation and paired properly.

This is where the “satisfying” (S), “energizing” (E) and “fuel pull” (FP) meals come in.

• “S” meals/snacks combine proteins with fats and are very deliciously satisfying – your body uses the fatty fuel for energy.
• “E” meals/snacks combine proteins with good carbs and give you lots of energy (i.e, recommended before sports etc.) – Your body uses the carb based fuel for energy.
• “FP” meals/snacks are either just protein or neither protein, carbs or fats – more a filler snack – your body uses stored fuel for energy (sugar in your blood or stored fat – yay!). See Ruth’s post on Fuel pull plan.

3. Avoid bad foods: There are certain foods that are just bad. These include (but are not limited to):

• Pop/Soda (including diet pop/soda) and fruit juices/shakes – this is basically liquid sugar or diabetes in a can!
• Sugary foods: candy bars, candy, ice cream, sugary cereals,
• Fast food – burgers, fries, chips, etc – I don’t know how the government food regulation boards still allow this stuff to be sold…I personally believe it is arguably as bad or worse than smoking cigarettes.

Take some time and visit the official Trim Healthy Mama site. I recommend purchasing and reading the book (Canadian customers click here, American click here). I also highly recommend purchasing the THM food products, especially the sweeteners and protein as they are the best quality I have found and reasonably priced (again, (Canadian customers click here, American click here).

Please bookmark this site! Take some time and explore some of the great recipes that Ruth has posted on here. We would greatly appreciate it if you “like” and “share” our posts on Facebook/Pinterest/Google Plus. Also, ask us questions, we are grateful to help.

It is a new year again! This is the time for a new start and a new you!

Ok, I may have some explaining to do. What’s up with the ads on this site?

I am sure you noticed recently that we started displaying ads on here. Ads are very commonplace on the internet; in fact, it is hard to visit a site these days that doesn’t have ads plastered all over it! Rest assured, we aren’t going for the “plastered” look with this blog; that’s why I am writing this post. We want your feedback – if there are questionable ads, or annoying ads that make this site unpleasant for reading, let us know by sending us a note and we will have them taken care of. 

This said, I want to explain some things about the ads on this site: from time to time, someone shares a post that drives viewers here (we greatly appreciate people reading about our experiences with THM); even one share can often bring thousands of visitors so keep it up!  We are deeply humbled when people show us appreciation and support for our posts by clicking “like” or “share” or “pin”, etc.

The ads on this site are personalized to your internet browsing history and so should be relevant to you. Clicking these advertisements will not give you viruses – they are real people advertising based on your interests. Actually, clicking on them generates revenue (a very small amount albeit) for the site which helps pay the expenses of running a blog. I would encourage you to:

1. Click on an advertisement if it appeals to you. Most of these ads are from small businesses just trying to grow through online marketing and they think they have something you might like!
2. More importantly, notify us if there are any inappropriate ads that make it to our site. I have been nervous from day 1 that something inappropriate could pop up on your computer screen. We want this site to be clear of all questionable material – a safe screen to leave open on your browser.
3. Check out our affiliates: bulk herb store –> (link is on the right hand side of the blog). Or, visit the original American THM store to purchase products if you live in the US (most of our readers) our our Canadian THM store for those in Canada.
4. Bookmark this page. “Like” it. “Share” it. Comment on it. The bottom line is that we love hearing from people. It encourages us and helps us encourage others.
5. Ask questions. Sometimes I have the time to write blog posts but I have “bloggers block” and don’t know what to write about. Tell us what you are struggling with. Are you having a hard time explaining THM to your husband? Do you struggle with staying on plan? Need help with meal plans or recipes? Do you find your friends/family give you a hard time about being “on plan”? Do you get comments that annoy you regarding being on THM (i.e., from family/friends)?

Well, I hope this clears some things up for our readers who we greatly appreciate. May God bless you all. Happy THM’ing