I have listed my 15 Goals for 2015. I am doing a 90 Day Challenge to help me jumpstart reaching my goals this year. One of those goals is to eat healthy nutrient dense foods to live. I will be posting my meal plans / food journals during my 90 Day Challenge for better health and wellness to give you an idea of what I am eating and where I am at on my journey. Sometimes I will include nutritional data if I have had time to calculate it, and I will post some of the delicious recipes I use too.

I am using recipes from several different “camps”. Some are common recipes I will re-make into a healthier version. Nearly all recipes will comply with the Weston A Price Foundation and Nourishing Traditions foods, FMD, and THM. Some recipes are gluten-free, sugar-free, some are grain-free, dairy-free free, some are low histamine, and many are found in the FMD, THM, Lowcarb, Paleo, Raw Food, etc. strategy camps that go along well together. My main focus will be a merged FMD and THM strategy.

I have learned a lot about healthy foods and natural remedies over the years. But even though I ate healthy, and avoided many of the common cultural pitfalls of medications and used natural methods, the pounds still continued to add on each year. Though I was generally healthy, I could not stop gaining weight. I didn’t know there was a strategy to seperate fuels in meals to promote a healthy weight. But over the past two years, I learned from both the FMD and THM camps that I don’t have to deprive nutrients to get achieve weight-loss, I just have to know what foods to combine and when to use them. This knowledge is completely liberating. There is the light at the end of a long tunnel, it is a hope for a better tomorrow, and a basic truth that everyone can achieve a healthier version of themself if they have and apply this knowledge.

How FMD and THM diets are similar:
Both of the Fast Metabolism Diet (FMD) and THM diets encourage eating a lot of food. You are not eating small portions. You are reving up your metabolism by eating a lot of healthy foods, and burning the fuels. Both stratgies recommend gluten-free meals, soy free meals, sugar-free meals, and promote eating healthy meals and snacks throughout the day. Both diets encourage eating and discourage focussing on calorie counting. Both also encourage protein at each meal. Finally, both programs encourage you to either focus on protein and carbs, or protein and fats for each meal, and to eat meals at least 3 hours apart to be sure your digestive tract has emptied of the previous meal, and helps to keep the body’s focus on using one type of fuel at a time. Otherwise, when consuming a high amount of both carbs and fats together in the same meals, your body will use one fuel and store the other fuel creating a vicious cycle of weight gain. Both programs also encourage you to consume half your body weight number in ounces of fluid to stay hydrated and promote detoxification, healing, and weight loss. Both programs encourage mild exercise, every other day with days of rest built-in, but also state that exercise is not a requirement to weight-loss and that you can cause a stall in your weight-loss if you exercise too much every day.

THM suggests alternating between different meals and snacks (S, E, and F) every 3 hours:
S Meals (protein and fats)
E Meals (protein and carbs)
Fuel Pull Meals (low carb and low-fat).
There are also some crossover meal options for maintenance.

FMD suggests alternating meals and snacks (in phases 1, 2, 3) every 3 to 4 hours:
Phase 1 2 days a week (Monday and Tuesday)
High Carb-Lean Protein (grains / legumes, lean proteins, veggies, high and low glycemic fruits);
Phase 2– 2 days a week (Wednesday and Thursday)
Low Carb/Low Fat-Lean Protein (lean proteins, non starchy veggies);
Phase 3 3 days a week (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)
Medium Carb/Healthy Fat/ Protein (grains / legumes, proteins, veggies, low glycemic fruits, and fats including nuts, oils, avocados, fatty proteins and fatty cuts of meat, etc).

How FMD and THM diets are different:
FMD focusses on switching fuels from Carbs to Low-Carb/low-fat to Fats every two to three days. It also eliminates all dairy, caffeine, and alcohol. THM focusses on switching fuels any day or any meal you want to as long as you have had a 3 hour break in-between each meal. So you don’t have to wait days and days to get your fats or your carbs, as long as you have spaced them out, you could have them both in the same day. Ahhh…that is so much more refreshing to me than waiting 5 days to get in my fats for 3 days on rotation. I really struggled with this before, and I feel it is a little bit too strict for me. THM allows certain dairy products like yogurt, kefir, real cream, butter, cheese, and allows coffee, etc. too. They both use different low-carb / low-fat / high-carb / high-fat versions of foods to comply with their specific meal type S,E, or F and Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3. So, for this dairy loving gal, I enjoyed many of the recipes in THM and felt much more emotionally satisfied with my meals after eating the THM way.

THM was developed by two very smart sisters who have self trained themselves in the science of food, health, and wellbeing. Through their collaborative efforts and years of experimenting and studying the work of various doctors and specialists, they developed a strategy of seperating carbs from fats, and a long list of recipes that clearly made a difference in helping themselves and their friends be at a healthy vibrant weight while carrying for the needs of their families. Since they published their book, they have successfully helped thousands of women loose weight and acheive a level of health they could not reach on their own. But there are clear advantages to following FMD too. FMD is more restrictive than THM by excluding dairy and caffeine, but it works quicker, and it is a proven healthy lifestyle that was developed by a certified clinical nutritionist who specializes in healing the thyroid especially, and also include healing adrenal glands, the heart, and brain while getting to a healthy weight. The author of FMD has had tremendous success in her long career with four nutritional clinics, a long long list of lives that have been changed, as a practitioner of healing the body through nutritional foods.

Most of the foods I plan to choose for the next 90 days will comply with the 3 meal types and phases of both the Fast Metabolism Diet (FMD) and the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) programs of eating 3 to 4 hours apart, eating within a half hour of waking, separating carbs and fats in my meals, etc. However, looking ahead, I do plan to cheat from the FMD program occasionally by using some of the dairy recipes from the THM deserts which may contain dairy or peanut flour (not allowed on FMD), but are still sugar-free and gluten-free, and highly nutritious. I hope to work one or two of these delicious treats a week during Phase 1 when higher carbs are allowed, and during Phase 3 when higher fats are allowed. I think it is better to start out acknowledging a plan for healthy treats / cheats built-in.

For example, I love THM (S) shakes and THM (E and F) GGMS (Good Girl Moon Shine: glorified ginger lemonade recipes that change based on what fruit you add or leave out).

The GGMS has made a huge difference in my ability to stay hydrated as I do not like the taste of plain tap or well water.

The THM style (S) Shakes taste just like the real milk shakes I grew up with, but they are a much healthier version. They are high in protein, and moderate in healthy fats, and sugar-free.

I also enjoy coffee with cream or bulletproof coffee with butter and coconut oil, so I may work in at least one, and maybe a few of these coffee treats a week. Coffee is not conducive to healing the adrenal glands, that is why FMD has removed it from the diet, so it needs to be used wisely. But I read recently an article in the Weston A Price Foundation that said one cup a day or even a few cups of bulletproof style coffee a week can be a healthy choice if not used as a breakfast replacement and also if paired with a protein. That is good news, as I love a creamy frothy coffee and could drink it all day long, but that would be a bad idea. But I am not ready to give up dairy and coffee completely because I believe there is great health to be acheived in using them correctly. So even though FMD does not encourage use of dairy, or coffee, I plan to use them from time to time in the similar appropriate phase (fats). I do not want to sabotage my progress, so I will have to re-evaluate this plan as I go along and be careful not to over indulge, and be sure that I am achieving the results I am hoping for.

I have tried both of these strategies in the past, and I am confident they both work.
On the FMD program, I was able to achieve a weight loss of about 18 lbs a month, or about 4.5l bs a week, or about .6 lb a day. That is incredible! I slept well too. I started FMD in April and by mid May I saw a huge change in myself. I felt energized and I was truly excited about this way of eating Friday through Tuesday, but felt out of energy by the evening of Wednesday and all of Thursday I was completely exhausted. I do not do well on two days of low-carb/low-fat eating. It was devastating to me to give up my farm fresh milk, kefir, yogurt, cottage cheese and butter I loved. We moved across country the end of May 2013 and I was not able to successfully repeat the program in our new location. When we first moved, I didn’t have a stove or dishes until mid July (about 6 weeks). Then my husband was without work for several months and I could not afford the ingredients. So I felt defeated. By December 2013 I had gained back the weight I lost on FMD. A supportive friend kept telling me about her success with THM and that it was more affordable. She suggested I give it a try. I found out I was pregnant in January and I started THM in February 2014. I miscarried the baby in April 2014, but kept going with the THM diet. With the THM program, I was able to enjoy my dairy, and achieve a weight loss of about 22 lbs in four months which equals about 5.5 lbs a month, 1.4 lbs a week, or .18 pounds a day. However, by the third month on THM, my weight loss had slowed to .8 lb a week and then stalled for many weeks on end before losing the next .8 lb and during that struggle to get it moving again, I lost my desire to continue after following it successfully for four months. I felt desperate to find a way to jump-start my weight-loss again, even though I loved and continued many of the recipes, and I then switched to a low-carb focus, and lost a few more pounds and then maintained the weight I lost for three months, but again I seen maintaining as a long stall, and then went off dieting altogether. I should have jumped right back on either THM or FMD when that jump start happened, but I didn’t have the foresight to see it. Over time, I slowly re-gained the weight and was back to where I started by December. So from February of 2014 to December 2014 I lost 22 lbs, lost an additional 3 lbs, and then gained it all back by the year-end. Talk about a yo-yo, HOW AWEFUL!

Why Try Again?
I had my 45th birthday in December 2014. I had decided once again that I don’t want to be this heavy and I must do something about it. I want to be a healthier version of me for 2015. I am tired of the constant ups and downs of my weight. The only way I know to achieve this healthier me, is to implement the FMD and THM strategies again, with some much-needed modifications to keep my energy and my desire to persevere while on them. If you take away all the joy of my creamy shakes and treats, or the hydrating wonder power of GGMS, or my love to enjoy the whole egg, not just the whites, then I would not make it long on FMD. But I still want to use the FMD plan to organize my days, and see a quicker results for my efforts.

Both programs are great, but in my opinion, the FMD helps the weight come off faster and focusses on healing the thyroid, which for most of us, especially me, is so important on our journey to better health. I definitely feel my thyroid needs healing. THM is great too, and helps address the needs of the adrenal glands and is calming because it provides lots of comfort foods, deserts, and emotional and spiritual support in your Christian faith, support in your duties as a wife and mother, and helps to heal the emotional side of why people over eat and are malnourished. THM even has a an awesome Trim Healthy Mama Pregnant and Nursing support group to help you along your journey. I wish someone would combine both of these amazing programs, FMD and THM, in a proven weight-loss strategy, because they are both great and both seem to contain an amazing key of wisdom to helping people lose weight. But I don’t know of any combined approach out there. So I am going to experiment with somewhat merging these programs for 90 Days, and see if I can achieve a healthy well nourished body that includes weight loss, healthier skin, healthier hair, more energy, and a more normal size for my 5’2″ frame.

For 90 days I am following a merged plan of both the FMD and THM strategies, and using great recipes from both. You can follow my pictures on Instagram for the most current photos of my meals. It is easier for me to wrap my brain around the FMD method, with my days organized with the same phase meals, but I love the freedom in eating desserts and treats that are allowed on the THM too. So I will evaluate some of the THM recipes and fit them into the FMD plan on the appropriate phases as much as I can. I will also be supplementing my diet with a few herbs, superfood supplements, and essential oils which I will post in my food journal.

My daily food intake goal is to eat 3 nourishing meals and 2 nourishing snacks, 3 to 4 hours apart:
Phase 1 (FMD) and E (THM) Meals: Monday and Tuesday
Phase 2 (FMD) and F (THM) Meals: Wednesday and Thursday (if I can last the full two days)
Phase 3 (FMD) and S (THM) Meals: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

I will start posting my meal plans and food journal soon, and keep you informed of my progress on this journey to health and wellness during the 90 Day Challenge.

I realize my plan to combine these approaches may offend the purists, those who only believe THM works, or those who believe only FMD works, or those who believe on Paleo or LowCarb diets work. I have known many of these folks who can only believe in the one diet that has benefitted them, and I don’t have any desire to convince anyone to choose one over the other, or to even try this combined approach. Not everything works 100% for every person, as I found out when I did these different programs by themselves. I realize why all of these programs work, and why each of these programs have shortcomings for people with various different needs. My journey is different from someone else’s journey. I am on a journey to find out what works best for me. I hope my readers, and everyone desiring a better healthier 2015 can find what works for them too.

Be blessed!

I pray that God, who gives peace, will make you completely holy. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept healthy and faultless until our Lord Jesus Christ returns. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

This post will be linked up with:
Raising Homemakers
Raising Memories