As with any weight loss plan, there can be ups and downs with the pounds falling off. Here are 9 things to do if you aren’t losing on THM.
Trim Healthy Mama is a healthy way to lose weight and keep it off. After my 2nd pregnancy, it helped me lose 60 pounds of baby weight. But as with any plan, it can be frustrating if you are not losing when you are following the guidelines.
Do you feel like you are doing all the right things and still not losing? Or losing way too slowly?
I understand how frustrating that can be. You are dedicating time, money and sacrifice into a plan and you want to see results. And if you are like me you want to see them yesterday!
Here you will find 9 things to do if you aren’t losing on THM. Some of these tips are easier than other but they are all good things to consider. You deserve to be rewarded for all your hard work cooking those THM meals and avoiding the sugar that surrounds us these days.
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9 Things To Do If You Aren’t Losing On THM
Try these 9 tips to ensure that your plan is the most conducive to losing weight and leading you to a healthier lifestyle.
Review the Trim Healthy Mama Plan
If you haven’t read the book, you need to. Obviously I love blogs and other info that you can find on the internet but you really need to read the book if you haven’t.
OK, Off my THM soap box.
Next, get your book back out. Skim through it again. Do you have a good grasp on how to create each meal? Are you accidentally creating unintentional XO’s because you don’t fully understand the plan?
You might have understood it at one time and then things got cloudy. Whatever the reason, reviewing the plan can help to ensure that you are following the plan correctly.
Stop Eating Off Plan
So if you read about my start with THM, you know I ate a stinking cupcake on day one on my THM plan. And I’m not talking about a Gentle Sweet laced cupcake stuffed with other on plan ingredients. On day one, I ate one of those huge, $5 a pop gourmet cupcakes with sugar oozing off the top.
It was my Birthday. Who else even decides to start a diet on their birthday other than me? It isn’t smart. Anyway, I went off plan for a cupcake and then I got right back on plan 3 hours later. Grace people, grace.
My philosophy is that if I am going to go off plan, it should be for something I consider amazing. Mexican cheese dip, a big glass of wine or a delicious cupcake. I try to make it a planned and conscious choice to go off plan for something I really want. Not just a handful of my kid’s goldfish. Not. Worth. It.
But if you are experiencing a stall in your weight loss, evaluate the number of times you are choosing to going off plan or perhaps unintentionally going off plan. Sometimes you may feel like you are just going off plan once a week or once a month but it might have added up on you.
If you are deviating from the plan consistently, it could be derailing your efforts.
Evaluate Your E and S Meal Frequency
How many S meals are you eating a week? How many E? There is no magic number as to what you should be eating, however, if the weight is not coming off it is something to consider.
When you are first starting out, it is easy to kind of avoid E meals. They are scary to those that have been avoiding carbs like the plague before THM. And let’s be honest, bacon and cheese can sound more appealing than brown rice.
Enjoy those S meals but make sure you are getting in some E’s too. I have seen lots of people report that after they started to balance out their meals and include E meals, they started losing more weight.
One of my tips is to do an E snack if you are struggling with getting your E meals in. I sometimes find it easier to grab an apple and a string cheese at 3 pm than cooking a low fat/healthy carbs E meal for dinner. Find something that works for you.
Here is a post on how to rotate your fuels that might help if you need more information on how to make this work for you.
Curb Eating Out
It is really easy to just go completely off plan when you are eating out. If your will power is not in a great spot, the temptation can push you into making a poor choice at a restaurant. If you are doing this often, it may be pushing you further from your weight loss goals.
If you attempt to stay on plan, it is still harder when you are out. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it and you can definitely make the best choice available. But since you are not preparing the food, you never really know what is going on in that kitchen.
If you do need to eat out, you can find some of your best Fast Food options to stay on plan here and how to eat at sit down restaurants on plan.
Exercise
I know, I know. No one really wants to hear that. But if you are losing slowly, a great boost can be exercise.
You don’t have to become a marathon runner, just a brisk walk after work or play some ball with one of your kids. Getting active is beneficial not only for your waistline but also your mood.
Walking my daughter to school and riding my Echelon bike are two of my favorite options.
Count Calories
I am throwing the worst two right in the middle of this list! First I say exercise and now count your calories. If you are like me, one of the Trim Healthy Mama “selling points” was that I wasn’t going to have to count calories. I hate it.
Stay with me. Just try counting those calories for a couple of days. Do you have lots of high fat dairy? Indulging in too much red meat or high fat proteins? Has your Lily’s chocolate treat become more of a meal?
The truth is, you don’t have to count calories on THM and I love that. But if you are eating 4,000 on plan calories a day, you probably are not going to lose weight. Although you don’t have to count calories on Trim Healthy Mama, if you want to lose those pounds you should be reasonable with your caloric intake.
Do a Fuel Pull Cycle
If you evaluate your meals and you are eating too many calories, you may want to try a Fuel Pull cycle. I think of this as the THM cleanse.
It gets you back to making sure you are eating plenty of lean items and tons of non-starchy veggies. These are great filler items that help keep calories down while bulking up your plate and keeping you full. So when you switch back to your normal S, E & maybe even some FP meals or snacks you will incorporate more of these calorie friendly foods in your plans.
Helping to keep that caloric intake reasonable should help you get closer to your goals.
Reduce Your Frankenfoods or Personal Choice Items
The sisters created this plan in a manner that is actually very basic. It focuses on whole foods, protein and sprouted grains. In fact, when people complain about it being too expensive, it is often because they have gone too far with the frakenfoods and special ingredients.
The personal choice items are typically convenience foods designed to help you stay on plan when time or circumstances make that difficult. They are a better choice than some other prepared items and help Drive Thru Sues and other THM followers stay on plan (because who really has time to make their own mayo?).
If you read the book, they do ask that you limit your PC items. And if you stop losing weight, this is one of the first things that I would cut out or reduce.
On Plan Items High In Natural Sugar/Starch
In a recent poddy, Serene and Pearl discussed some of the foods that had once been considered by many to be forbidden on THM. Bananas, corn, honey and potatoes are some of the key offenders.
The sisters were pretty clear that these are foods provided by God and they are not off limits. However, if you are trying to lose weight and not just maintain, check your portions of these items.
So are you eating 3 bananas a day? If so, that is too much to lose weight due to the natural sugars.
Succeeding on Trim Healthy Mama
I hope these 9 things to do if you aren’t losing on THM help you to rise above your weight loss slump. Stick with it and meet your Trim Healthy Mama Goal! You can also read here about the on plan food that I quit when I wasn’t losing weight & then I started losing again (don’t worry I didn’t quit anything crazy like dessert or cheese!).
And remember, just because the scale is not moving doesn’t mean you are not progressing. If you see other signs of progress, don’t be discouraged by the scale. Are your clothes fitting better?
Take pictures of yourself. Do you look thinner? Show the comparison to a family member or post it on a THM Facebook group. Sometimes you are your own worst critic. Be proud of your progress! You are strong!
Be sure to check out all of my THM resources before you go!
5 THM Meals with 1 Rotisserie Chicken
Easy Weekly THM Meal Plan with E and S Meals
My 60 Lb THM Weight Loss and 2 Week Meal Plan
Drive Thru Sue No cook 7 Day Meal Plan
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