My Trim Healthy Journey...

Last October I shared this post after receiving my copy of Trim Healthy Mama in the mail.

I'd like to tell you a little about my journey so far! I am sharing this personal information, in hopes that it will in some way encourage you to live a healthier lifestyle; so that your days upon this earth will be blessed with abundant good health and vitality!

I've been eating the Trim Healthy way for over a year now and I can honestly say it has been the most wonderful year of my life (food and health wise). I’m 22 years old and I have PCOS. I have been married to my wonderful Husband for 3 ½ years. I've struggled with my weight since I became a teenager and every year the weight seemed to inch a little higher. On my wedding day (I was almost 19 years old) I weighed around 175 lb. and after two years of marriage I reached my highest weight, 205 lb.!

Me at my highest weight, 205 lb.

             I felt sick all the time, I had terrible neck and upper back pain that would NOT go away, I had heartburn almost everyday, irregular monthly cycles, my body sent the signal that my tummy was full hopelessly late and therefore I over-ate. I slept restlessly every night with terrible nightmares and felt stressed and exhausted upon waking each morning like I had worked all night long. All of that extra weight was plain uncomfortable and it became harder and harder to feel comfortable in my own skin!

            My Husband and I tried a special diet for 5 months. It involved juicing, eating mostly vegetarian, non-dairy, etc., etc… It was full of rules and just plain horrid! My Husband got too skinny and I lost about 25 lb. It was not practical whatsoever! After realizing that we could not continue eating that way we stopped cold turkey and I quickly gained most of the weight back and began to feel miserable again.

            One day my Husband surprised me with an unexpected package in the mail. It was an interesting looking book that I had been longing to read; it was Trim Healthy Mama!

            Trim Healthy Mama was a super easy read in spite of containing 650 pages. It was full of wisdom gained from much research and study and delivered in such a fun and often times humorous way. I wanted to give this thing a try and see if applying the principles in the book would actually work. I made my first on-plan meal on October 23, 2012. I began my Trim Healthy Journey at 192 lb.

Me at 192 lb.

 In the next few months I would begin learning how to nourish my body in a healthy and slimming way and yet never feel deprived! I enjoyed cooking more than I ever had before and honestly, I enjoyed what I was eating more than I ever had before!

By our 3^rd anniversary, in February, I had lost 12 lb.!

Me at 180 lb.

For four months I yo-yoed and plattoed. I did my first fuel cycle at the beginning of June and lost 4 lb.! I learned so much from that fuel cycle. I realized I had been having too many “Heavy “S” meals, not enough “E” meals, and too many off-plan meals. It was time to get serious. I passed my wedding weight and stalled at 174lb. in August, but after a fuel cycle at the beginning of September the pounds once again began to slowly melt.

Me at 174 lb.

This Thanksgiving I weighed 163.8 lb.! I was fourteen the last time I weighed that much!

Me around  160 lb.

I actually lost weight over Christmas and I've made it to the 150's!!! This week I weighed in at 157.4 lb. That means from my heaviest I've lost a total of 47 lb., with 35 of those pounds being lost after reading and applying the principles found in Trim Healthy Mama! That means I'm over halfway to my original goal weight! It seems almost unreal to me that I have made it this far and without ever feeling deprived!

 I may yo-yo slightly, I may even platto for a while, but I now have the knowledge of what to do when that happens! I know that if I keep taking it one meal at time I will eventually make it to a healthy weight for me! I’m 5’ 3 ½” tall (yes, exactly), and my original goal was 130 lb. It may end up being more like 120 lb., but I’ll know when I get there. When Trey says, “Honey, you’re getting a little on the skinny side…” it’ll be time for some crossovers that will help me maintain. Oh, but wait, there is so much more than weight loss, that’s only part of the blessing that Trim Healthy Mama has been in my life!

            I feel AMAZING!!! My neck and back rarely hurt anymore, heartburn-a thing of the past, my monthly cycles have become regular, after eating a moderate amount of food my body actually signals that I’m full, and I sleep like a baby most nights! I feel calmer and more in control instead of being up and then down all the time. I feel free and I can think clearly! Over all, I just feel like superwoman!

            I can't express my thankfulness enough to the authors of Trim Healthy Mama and the changes that it has brought in my weight and overall health. I wish I had a million free copies to give away to anyone who was willing to give it a try, but I don't. My hope is that after reading this you will be encouraged to get serious about your health and that just maybe you will give Trim Healthy Mama a try.

Before and During...

  Lovin’ this Trim Healthy Journey! Come join me!

~Clair