Trim Healthy Mama or Trim Healthy Mimi!

For the last four weeks, I have been embarking on a totally new way of eating...well, sort of. Enter Trim Healthy Mama ! or..shall I say..Trim Healthy MIMI!

Through the past couple of decades, and through a myriad of health issues, I have googled and researched and attempted to find a way to naturally overcome at least most, of my health problems. These problems started a long time ago, when at a very young age, I incorporated every bad habit known to man!
Let me just say, it caught up with me! In the late 90's I was diagnosed with assorted auto-immune issues. If you know anything about them, then you know they are difficult to diagnose, therefore Dr.'s have a tendency to throw one prescription after another at them, all the while creating even more disastrous effects!
I love my Dr. He has been more than patient, listened to me during complete meltdowns, been cautious with steroids(thank GOD!) and has humored me through much of these years! In 2000, I was on morphine for pain, and all the same drugs as a cancer patient I knew, daily hydro therapy aka hanging in traction in a pool, working on my feet every day and sleeping a good portion of the rest of the time. I was on a path that only led to my early demise!
 Enter, Juice Plus. Through the advice of a friend..also a nurse...I began to eat Juice Plus! It is simply food..pure richly concentrated nutrition of 17 raw fruits and vegetables in a capsule..no sugar, no sodium..all the nutrition. Within the year, I was off nearly all of the 7 medications I was on! I began to lose a little weight, get a little healthier and pretty much sailed through the next 5 or 6 years, telling everyone I knew what this product had done for me!
And then...I started to really drop weight. It was falling off...like 30 pounds in 3 weeks! I was having terrible pain whenever I would eat anything, so I did what any thinking human would..and I stopped when it hurt! That summer I went through every test known to man. I dropped close to 90 pounds and NOT in a healthy way! I had scopes and xrays and CT's and ultrasounds and ZERO energy. Finally, a gastroenterologist ordered a test for gastroparesis. Easiest test I endured...and they found the problem. My stomach wasn't emptying. I didn't have a lot of the normal symptoms for this disease. I wasn't throwing up...mostly because, I wasn't really eating. There was a paralysis of the valve that empties into the stomach. So, the GI put me on Raglan...OMG. within a month, I felt like I was going crazy! My moods would swing, I was agitated all the time..couldn't sleep! There was talk of putting a pacemaker in my stomach, because by this time...I was really weak. One day I called the GI doc and just said, "I can't take this drug anymore! It makes me feel like some kind of psycho!" He had just gotten back from a conference and they had discussed new treatment with a widely used antibiotic. Erythromicin. Long story short, I tried it. I was able to push through some of the pain and eventually it seemed to help. and then ...the weight started coming back with a vengeance! Can you even imagine how jacked up my metabolism was?? This was in 2007. I knew I had to find a way to keep it off. So this began my journey. I have tried weight watchers...it helped a bit. I have tried Paleo, it helped for a while. I have tried cutting back on carbs, again..some success. I gained back nearly 50 of the pounds I had lost! This past December, I was introduced to doTERRA Essential Oils. I was getting a cold, I didn't want to get a cold! I knew essential oils had some power and I tried a few different kinds. I decided to become a wellness advocate for doTERRA because, after using them..I never got that cold! While talking about the Slim and Sassy(metabolic blend from doTERRA) to a friend of mine, she asked me if I had heard of Trim Healthy Mama! I had seen posts on Facebook but had never really looked into it. I did what I always do...google and I are BFF's. I checked our library and went right away to pick up a copy. It is a THICK book, with a TON of information in it! What intrigued me the most was the explanation of insulin spikes. My husband has a problem with his sugar levels because he had to have most of his pancreas removed! So, I decided to start implementing a few of the ideas as I continued to try and understand the process...it really isn't that difficult, but there is so much information and I think it is human nature..at least this human's nature, to make everything more complicated than it actually is! The basics are this...you cycle different meal types..low carb with moderate carb low fat...cut out all sugar and artificial sweeteners...*most difficult part!!! and you wait 3 hours between eating and no gluten to speak of..only sprouted breads in E meals only and low carb tortillas or pitas.

S Meals are satisfying..think bacon and eggs and cheese...and bacon.....lol
E Meals are energizing...think sprouted bread sandwiches with lean meats and no more than 5 grams of fat.
FP is fuel pull and it is low carb and low fat.
There is so much more! I joined a few facebook pages...and found so many helpful and frustrating tips! But now..I am in it to win it! I have lost 12 pounds and gone down a size! I feel better than I have in a long time! and this blog is going to be part of my journey! I will share recipes, results and rants!
Let me just share my first recipe. I served this last night for my husband and son and oh my gosh! it was so good! We had it with broccoli and a salad. They had potatoes...me, not so much!
I got this from a facebook page but it is from another blogger!

Low Carb Jalapeno Popper Chicken

Just go look at it..I promise in the future I will post all ingredients and everything..but she already did it..and with pictures!!! so delish!

Hoping you will join me on this journey!