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Questions, questions…we all have them, but sometimes we just don’t have the chance to ask. Last week I asked my Facebook followers if they had any questions for me to try to answer, and they responded admirably with some great ones! I definitely don’t claim to have all the answers, but I’ll answer as best I can and hopefully you can find some helpful info here. With so many questions, I really don’t have the time to go in-depth on each question, but I’ll do my best to give a complete answer for each. Thank you to all of you who submitted questions!
I’ll answer all these from my own personal experience, but please know that I’m not representing Trim Healthy Mama officially or anything like that. This is just me, Briana, doing my best to wax eloquent.
- “What kind of meal should I eat when to get maximum weight loss? Should I eat S or E in the morning, etc.?” (Kathleen D.)
Schedules work differently for different people, so the most important key here is to find what works for your body. My top tips: 1) eat a variety of meal types, 2) don’t eat the same fuel type every day at the same time (i.e. don’t always eat E for breakfast), 3) get plenty of E meals in, 4) make good use of Fuel Pull snacks if you’re a slow loser, and 5) don’t eat heavy stuff late at night. Variety is the most important thing because it keeps your metabolism guessing!
- “What do you do with a husband that is diabetic, eats constantly, and will only listen to what the dietitians at the hospital are telling him after his heart attack?” (Traci M.)
I’m not married so I hesitate to say too much, but I would first and foremost work on your relationship with him and give him your respect. This will pave the way for gently introducing him to a healthy way of eating. Lead by example. Also, I’d be careful discrediting everything the dietitians say. Even if the advice they give doesn’t line up with THM, they know your husband’s health problems and have a reason for what they’re telling him. I don’t know what kind of instructions the dieticians are giving your husband, and there are definitely a lot of misconceptions about diet and diabetes in the medical world, but I know they also have some good info and both sides need to be weighed. I’m sure it’s frustrating, but your relationship with your husband is more important than following the Trim Healthy Mama plan. 😉
- “I follow the recipes in the book but then I read that if you really want to lose weight you should cut back on dairy and fruit… So what is the truth?” (Debbie J.)
Some people have sensitivities to dairy so it can cause weight loss stalls. I eat a lot of dairy and have never noticed that it causes problems for me, so I think it’s just a person-by-person thing. If you’re having trouble losing weight, dairy would be a good thing to experiment with cutting back on to see if you get better results. As for the fruit, eating moderate amounts with protein in an E setting shouldn’t cause problems as far as I know. If you’re experiencing weight loss stalls, try completely cutting out the fruits that are higher in sugar, such as bananas and pineapple (which are approved on plan in small amounts).
- “My fallback a lot of times when I’m hungry and tired is FSF’s, can I eat this too often? 🙂 That and skinny choc. and rich choc. fudge! :)” (Tammy F.)
Fat Stripping Frappas are great things to fill up on because they’re Fuel Pulls and full of protein! Skinny Chocolate is another great fall-back because it’s a Deep S with pure fats that burn efficiently. The rich chocolate fudge might be something to keep in check a little more (I’m not familiar with the recipe but I’m guessing it’s heavier in fats that don’t burn quite so efficiently). If you want to lose weight, be careful eating a lot of heavy stuff late at night when you’re hungry; that’s a great time to pull out the Fat Stripping Frappa!
- “Feeding a child… how to keep it filling, healthy, and a XO every time. She gets lots of toast wrote butter lol” (Brittany L.)
- “I’d love some In-depth advice on how to do THM for kids.” (Christine H.)
Not having any children, this is another question that I feel under-qualified to answer…haha. I have a 13 year old sister that is even stricter about healthy eating than I am, exercises religiously, and doesn’t have a spare ounce of weight to lose. She eats quite a few crossovers and includes honey in her diet. I think the crossovers are the key here (you have the right idea with the butter on toast!), and don’t be afraid to let your children have healthy carbs that you wouldn’t indulge in like honey, maple syrup, and regular wheat bread. Their fast-burning metabolisms can handle it better than you can. A side of fruit or grains with a meal heavy in fats is a great way to get those crossovers in!
- “Will u cook for me so I don’t have to?!? ;P” (Heather P.)
Hahaha…how did that comment get 13 likes? You guys obviously haven’t had to eat all my flops.
- “What can I do about E meals making me so tired? I avoid them unless I know I don’t have anything big to do.” (Teresa J.)
The first thing I would check here is whether or not you have some underlying health problems that are causing this symptom when you eat meals heavier in carbs. That shouldn’t be happening, and I’m really not an expert on that kind of thing so unfortunately I don’t have any advice on the matter.
- “How does your diet & life change after reaching your goal weight?” (Breanna S.)
I’d like to be able to experience this! Haha…despite being a veteran blogger, I’m still not at goal weight. A lot of my slow progress is caused by running off to Bible school and summer jobs where I can’t control what is served, so a good part of my THM journey has been spent losing weight I gain in situations like that (and Holmes County, OH, just has too many soft serve ice cream places). And I’m a blogger that likes to cook food and eat it. I’m still working on the whole portion control thing. I’ve been seeing results lately though, and it looks like I’ll be home for most of this year so I look forward to making progress! As soon as I finish cookbook testing, Fuel Cycle here I come! To actually answer your question, I would guess that your lifestyle isn’t going to change a lot after reaching goal weight, but you’ll have the freedom to include more crossovers. The number of crossovers added will vary from person to person. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll need many since I’m an “easy keeper”, to borrow horseman’s terminology. I’m gonna have me some eggs and toast when I get to goal weight though – you better believe it!
- “I lost all the weight I needed to in the first year of doing thm (48lb). Since then I’ve been struggling a bit with keeping it off. I think I was doing too many cross overs maybe. I was also finding that I was obsessed with watching the clock to see when I could have another snack or meal. The biggest challenge was finishing my breakfast smoothie on time to have a long enough break before lunch time (which varies from day to day). What I’ve been trying in the past three weeks is alternating days between E & S meals. I make sure I have at least three E days per week. Is this okay to do? I think it’s working and I’m feeling like I’m not as obsessed about food and time.” (Marcella D.)
That’s completely fine! Congratulations on finding what works for your body!
- “How can I feel full with an E meal? Even after having an E dessert.” (Alicia M.)
Make sure you’re getting plenty of lean protein, a good carb source, and fill up with lots of great nonstarchy veggie sides. The protein is a huge key here. A big Fuel Pull shake with gluccomannan in it can be a great way to fill in the cracks too. You might find that the “empty E syndrome” will disappear with time. I used to feel the same way, but after being on plan for so long, I don’t feel that way nearly as much as I used to.
- “I would ask if yeast is strictly off plan and why?” (Pauline S.)
Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve never heard that yeast is off plan. Without sugars to feed it, it won’t work in a bread recipe like it normally would, but sometimes I add it to recipes for that yeast flavor.
Helpful posts and pages you might like:
- Starting THM
- My complete recipe index in picture form
- THM Success Series
- When You’re Overwhelmed on THM
- Dos and Don’ts From a THM Veteran
Tamara Farson says
I finally got to read this ~ thank you Briana, you were helpful once again! 🙂 I am a slow loser so also curious about checking out more FP snacks, and maybe limiting my dairy to see if that helps! 🙂
Jenny says
Hi Brianna,
I had a question for you. Sometimes after meals, I like to drink warm almond milk to fill up if I’m still hungry. I’ll put vanilla and truvia in it. But I was reading on almond milk ingredients and it seems to be higher in fat than I thought it would be. Is it possible I’m going into crossover mode when I do this? Should I only do it with S meals? Should I mix it with water? I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing to do, but it seems to work well for me.
Briana Thomas says
If it works well for you and you’re still losing the weight you want to lose, I wouldn’t worry about it. However, if you experience a weight loss stall, keep an eye on your portions so you’re not adding more than 5 grams of fat to an E meal. Silk brand unsweetened almond milk has 5 grams of fat in two cups of almond milk, and I doubt you’re drinking more than that so I’m guessing this isn’t a big issue. Homemade almond milk you’d have to be a lot more careful with because it’s often higher in fat.
Jenny says
Thank you.