Tag: health

In Three Hours

teapotcupdrawing The beauty of a plan is the presence of accompanying grace.  I think this is true with most any plan.  Well, except for plans with deadlines, specific time frames, appointments, etc.

So it is, with the Trim Healthy Mama “plan” for health and optimal weight or finding your trim. With grace.

Grace doesn’t mean carelessness, though.  And it doesn’t mean neglect.  I know that.
Now.

The result of neglecting the plan is sort of like how money evaporates in California.  Or how the reaching of an optimal weight goal is erased by consuming bags of sea salt & dark-chocolate covered almonds from Costco.  Or the only safe hot french bread and butter is a picture of hot french bread & butter.

So, I’m back on the plan — and, actually, I can’t tell you how vulnerable I’m feeling even saying it. I’m like: omygoodness, what if I fail? Again.  Suddenly, it feels confining – like no grace at all.  But, then I bring truth to mind: In three hours.  There’s the grace.  If I fail: in three hours (or any time!!) I have the opportunity to make a better choice/a right choice/a healthy choice.  In three hours, I can get “back on the plan” and go on from there.  In three hours.  No starting all over again, just pressing on.  I resolve to press on and prepare for my better choice.

The grace of  a better choice in three hours is not license to excuse myself for overindulging or to eat whatever I want, whenever I want.

It’s amazing to me to see the parallels of grace regarding self will & food and obedience & faith.

Just like God’s merciful grace in our lives is not license to sin!  God’s grace doesn’t absolve me from obedience to His known commands or the prompting of the Holy Spirit — it actually gives me more motivation to love and pursue God and to not do whatever I want, whenever I want.  I know it’s by the grace and faith of the Lord Jesus that I can know Him, seek Him, walk with Him and trust Him to complete His work in me (and that includes the dying to self regarding food & over indulging).

God’s grace and the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit gives me strong desire and reason to seek Him, to love Him, and to obey Him. For I know I haven’t done, or can do nothing in and of myself to earn or merit His favour — it’s all His, it’s all grace.  Not just in three hours, but minute by minute, day by day.

three months = thm

teacuppamelaA little over three months ago, I ordered the Trim Healthy Mama book.  I kept ‘stumbling’ into links and recipes during searches for health, no sugar and a few other search words I used each day googling for ‘healthy’ foods — or foods with no sugar.  I would read recipes that women had adapted or linked from the THM book and I’d think:  I could NEVER do this… well, at least not for long.  And given the fact that I only know knew how to crash diet, I thought it would be pretty hard thing to justify spending $35. on a book.  The only books I’ve bought in recent years that cost near that much were a couple of CAKE books!   So, yeah, I have had my priorities.   But a few days went by and I kept mulling over the thought that it just might be a good idea… I even thought that the price alone might force me to behave and follow the diet—even though I really didn’t have any idea what the plan really entailed.   Then there was the thought that I surely wouldn’t do a vegan diet or an all raw diet… no, I had not been there done that… I just never wanted to be there doing that, that’s all.  And then there was my beloved every morning cuppa tea with milk & honey.  And then there was my every morning café mocha.  Or two.  And then there was my every single evening cuppa tea with milk & honey.  And then, of course, there were all those other beloved carbie foods.  The food of my people.

But I wasn’t feeling well.  Health problems were driving me to do something… anything… but something different than what I was doing.

So I bought the book.  I know… I know… I should have consulted my husband and should’ve talked it over.  When the book arrived, I did talk it over with him.  Now three months later, you know what I wish?  I wish I’d explored it sooner—I wish I’d bought it sooner.  But I didn’t. 

Looking back on that day — the day I was standing at my butcher block table next to the bookshelf in my kitchen — having just come in from the porch where my UPS man had brought me my package, I was excitedly opening up the cardboard packaging.  I pulled out that enormous book—held it up—and at the time, I didn’t realize I was holding up the book against the backdrop of that bookshelf filled with every kind of not-so-trim-healthy-mama  book there is!!  I set the book down on the shelf and laughed… and wondered, where does this book fit in with my life?  It didn’t fit in…  and that’s why I was where I was that day.

THMbookshelf

Well, sat down and I began to read… and read… and read… and that day, wobbly as they were, I took my first steps on the THM journey… 

THM… Seriously.

teacuppamelaYou know what?  I like the Trim Healthy Mama (diet) plan.  Seriously.  I like it enough to think I’ll always like this plan.  Seriously.  And the reason I keep saying, seriously, is because I believe this plan can only be a benefit if it’s taken seriously.   I can, at this early stage of the plan see the importance of seriousness.  And I can also easily see that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail on this plan.  I finally see the reason for and the wisdom behind the size and weight and cost of this book and the length of time it took Pearl and Serene to write it.  It’s meant to be taken seriously.  Seriously, the plan is meant to be followed: seriously.

I’m guessing that this all might sound like I’m just playing around in order to see how many times and ways I might use the word, seriously.  Trust me, I’m not.  I guess I really and truly want to communicate that it’s not a plan to be dabbled with or that it’s not a plan to be taken lightly and  it’s not a plan to be undertaken without serious preparation.   There’s so much more to the book and plan than simply eating foods in correct combinations… more to it than “dieting” or eating lower carbs…  more to it than eliminating sugar or honey or white flour or potatoes or corn or whatever other high-glycemic index food you might think of.

Our local variety store annually sets up a huge school supplies section and taped to the shelves that are loaded with every kind of pen, pencil, paper, notebook, eraser, etc., etc., that you might think of are lists provided by local school teachers for what is expected for each student to purchase and bring with them to school each new school year.  The teachers are planners and they are serious about preparing students in advance with what will be expected of them.  This thought has come to me a number of times as I’ve come across yet another thing I don’t yet have in my Trim Healthy Kitchen.  I have a running supply list of food items I’m slowly acquiring.   And while I initially did have many of the necessary foods to follow the plan — I did not have a lot of ingredients to follow the plan successfully or seriously.  With each passing day I’m discovering more and more the investment of time and the depth of planning that went into this book and why it’s referred to a plan and not a diet.  Seriously.

So, this is my in advance encouragement if you’re planning to buy the Trim Healthy Mama book or if you think you’ll make it fine without spending the $35. to buy the book or if you think you’ll wing it with ingredients you have on hand in your pantry or fridge.   Sincerely, you won’t be able to work the plan if you don’t study it and if you’re not prepared.  Seriously.

If you really wanna be a THM… it’s going to cost you and you’re going to have to take it seriously.  It practically goes without saying: I know, for me, healthwise,  not planning was costing me a whole lot more than this new planning.  Seriously.

[Tip: Trim Healthy Mama Facebook]

THM… so much hope

teacuppamelaAs I press on, on the THM (Trim Healthy Mama) journey, I have so much hope.   I have so much hope bcz I’m so not alone and I’m so not seeing this as a diet but a different way of approaching health and nutrition.  I say this bcz I’ve experienced so many diets in the past.  And the difference, for me, with Trim Healthy Mama (after this, THM), is that it’s not a limited time diet.  By this I mean, it’s not the lemonade-type diet or the military-type diet or the mama with a wayward child/depression diet or the zone-type diet or name another type of diet that’s generally undertaken for a limited period of time and eventually the old way of eating returns.  And so do the pounds.

Now, why did I say I’m so not alone in this?  Easy… thousands of other women are implementing the THM plan in their own lives and homes and numerous websites, Facebook groups and Pinterest pins are dedicated to THM.   Women all over are sharing their successes, before and after’s, struggles, plans, recipes, suggestions and enthusiastic encouragement with relative strangers–but not strangers really,  who’re traveling the same journey.  Shared experiences give hope… shared understanding gives hope… all this gives women the motivation to press on.  All this, and more,  keeps me pressing on.

I’d hazard to guess that for a lot of women who seriously undertake the THM plan, there comes some sort of a day of reckoning, a day or time where they recognize that food and excess weight and out of control eating is symptomatic of deeper issues—things the Lord intends bring to the light and to help deal with—and what originally interested them in doing a new thing to lose weight, a different diet or whatever is not what keeps them on plan.  What keeps them (and now, me) on plan is the daily journey to health and yielding to the Lord the area of food and its stronghold–or previous stronghold.

I’m finding incredible freedom in not eating everything I want — freedom in recognizing that food had a stronghold on me and day by day I’m seeing this stronghold’s grip diminishing.   The Lord’s addressing some areas that don’t seem to have anything to do with food–but yet food’s been the outward stronghold.  See, here’s an example… I so often don’t didn’t want to “diet” bcz I love, love, love café mochas.  Love em.  Drink drank ’em every morning.  Yes, plural.  Yes, every morning. Hot milk, two pumps of chocolate and a long shot of coffee.  Drink, rinse, repeat.  Didn’t want to give ’em up—–couldn’t give ’em up—-wouldn’t give ’em up.  But I began to recognize that my delights were harming me–too much sugar was causing  problems and I knew I needed to make some changes.  I was loving the sugar but it wasn’t loving me back.  And isn’t that how sin is?  We give in and it mockingly smacks us on the backside.

Looking back, I really think I thought I’d make some changes and get on track and then be able to go back to the same ol’ same ol’ ways (especially since I’ve done this soooo many times).  That was foolishness–and I know it.  I really know it now.  Greater than all that, I now also know that the Lord was putting His finger on some deeper matters, using all of this to help me be willing to deal with other non-food related issues.  It is His mercy and lovingkindness to bring us to these places of correction and brokenness in our walk with Him.  It is for freedom He set us free.  I’d lost sight of that somewhere along the way.

Interestingly, what eventually brought me to THM began with that search for health remedies.  Still struggling with some ongoing health issues, still searching for solutions, I began to see frequent connections with the Trim Healthy Mama book.  Some of my Google searches  for low/no sugar or low glycemic index recipes took me to a few blogs/sites I thoroughly enjoy today — I didn’t initially see the THM connection!  Sadly, over the last year because of family busyness and other things, I hadn’t been tracking along with the Above Rubies site nor the progress of the writing of the THM book—though I’d seen copies of it here and there, recently.  Additionally, I regret I hadn’t been  in close touch with local friends who where already working the THM plan, else I might’ve had some questions answered earlier and I might’ve had some health issues addressed earlier, too.  But I have to continually affirm: I’m pressing on; no worries, I’m simply glad for the opportunity to have this book in hand now and I’m pressing on (with thousands of other women! ~smile~). I have so much hope… and I’m pressing on.

Discipline… THM

teacuppamelaIt seems to me that nothing spotlights the will or the flesh quite like discipline.  I’ve found (yet again) that I surely relate well to the Biblical passage regarding the willing spirit and weak flesh.  Though that passage doesn’t necessarily relate to undisciplined eating, it does relate to the flesh and its incredible weakness under temptation.

  quoteWatch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation:
the spirit indeed is willing,  but the flesh is weak.”
Matthew 26.41

As I sojourn on the THM path (Trim Healthy Mama), each day I find new things over which I seem to have no strength or no ability.  And then a day or two passes and I see the Lord has made a way for me to accomplish specific goals or to embrace this discipline. And another Truth comes to mind – again, understood that the Lord may truly be pruning and/or addressing a different matter here.  But I find great comfort in knowing He is with me, is for me, helps me, guides me, protects me, provides for  me:  as I look to Him – as I yield to Him.  He is providing me with strength and resources to press on toward the goal of better health and other benefits.

quoteThere hath no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man:  but God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be  tempted above that ye are able;
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it.”
1Corinthians 10.13

Each day as I read and reread this book and other THM related articles and blogs (Gwen’s), I find new things I either do or should implement.   Interestingly, I discover that other women are struggling with the very similar things from time to time.  It may seem trivial, but one such struggle is the struggle to space meals and snacks in three hour intervals.  Now, I recognize that for many people, this is a snap – maybe even a natural way of life!  But for others –me– this is not so.   I, like most mamas, am in the kitchen for one reason or another most all day long – every day.  And it’s like I’m a food magnet – unintentional as I’ve been about food and aimlessly snacking through the day… until now.  Thus, the hidden blessing or hidden truth of the THM lifestyle: Intentional eating.

Maybe you’ve heard someone recite a vow and the wording includes: “…is it your intention to fulfill___?” Well, that’s the sort of what I consider when I think of the word intention and the THM eating plan.   When beginning this plan, there’s got to be a determination to be intentional about it.  It’s not a plan to be taken lightly or unadvisedly – by this I mean, it’s not going to be of any value if undertaken haphazardly.  In fact, I’m fairly certain, new as I am to the journey, that there could be some real negative health repercussions should the plan not be understood and practiced or undertaken as outlined.  I can see how one might experience exactly the opposite of health should the plan not be followed correctly or should it be carried out without discipline or intention.

Like many things in life, the THM plan is soooo easy!  It is so easy.  So easy.   But that’s the peculiar dilemma to things, isn’t it?  How could something so easy be so hard?   I see that (for me) it’s sheer determination, sheer discipline — the discipline of doing what I know I ought to do – not doing what I want to do. For sometimes, my ought’s and my wants are my greatest enemies (sort of the Romans 7 conundrum).  Through the years many times you’ve heard me say, Truly, good things are the enemy of best things.   And while there may be many good things to eat in my kitchen, I’m determining to stop and think: is this the best thing for me right now?  Do I really want to go backwards?  Am I content to give up or pass by some good things in order that I might have (or look forward to) better things?

All this to say that  spacing meals and snacks, snacks and meals into three hour intervals is a discipline I’m willing to work to achieve… knowing I’m doing this for better things.