THM Testimony: How eating more E meals changed everything!

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I am so excited today to share a post from Cheryl, a local friend of mine. She has had such great success doing THM, and has some wonderful tips to share with us! Enjoy! ~Sheri

Hi!  I have been a Trim Healthy Mama for just over 2 years and have lost over 50 lbs.  For me this way of eating has revolutionized my whole way of thinking and my health.  I read an article about 5 Ways NOT To Do THM written by Pearl and Serene.  I was shocked to realize I was an “E Faker”; and in part was hurting my body.  As a result, I had been in a long stall.  In October of 2015, I got the new Trim Healthy Mama Plan book and started reading.  Oh my! It all started to come together for me and yes, I was doing it wrong —  not every E meal but quite a few of what I thought were my regular E meals.  I would start with the lean meat but the carbs were a mystery to me.  I also didn’t eat many E meals, it felt too difficult to put together and a little more expensive.

Since then I have been focusing on building great E meals.  And I am happy to report that I could eat an E breakfast every day of the week and not eat more than one of them twice in that week.  I try to make sure I don’t eat an E meal every morning but sometimes it happens for me.  Lunches are about half and half and I have also found a few fun dinners that even my family enjoys that are E’s.

This is what I have learned in building great E meals.

First I start with the lean meat but what do I want to pair it with?  So we are thinking carbs; which ones are right for us.  Well I know that fruit is needed in my diet but I don’t always eat enough.  So this is a place to add fruit.  For breakfast, I have cooked myself egg whites with veggies, served it with one piece of on plan toast and 4 to 6 slices of peaches (no sugar added).  Fresh fruit also works when it is in season.  Apple Cinnamon Crockpot Oatmeal, THM Cookbook page 256 has been a favorite.  I cut up the apples and use steel-cut oats, cook it overnight.  Leftovers refrigerate and freeze well (short term—I recommend using it within a month).

Here are some more E Breakfast options:

• THM pancakes, page 259, these are delicious with fruit topping, (Hoping for a waffle iron for my birthday to try the batter as waffles J)
• Egg whites with salmon and veggies; one or two pieces of toast, or eat an apple
• Sweet Dreams Peachy Oatmeal (THM Cookbook, pg. 247) or Sweet Dreams Cookie Bowl Oatmeal (FP) pg. 249
• Oatmeal Bake – usually cooked with blue berries and served with plain Greek Yogurt (This main recipe I use is from Miranda @ Emily Reviews; my family and I made a few changes.)

Lunches and Dinners:

Some of these E meals I have made as a dinner first and then decided to make just for lunches.  One of the ways I save money on the Ultra Lean turkey is to just make up the meal and package it for my lunches.  (The children and husband don’t always need the ultra and this is a way I find I can save some money and keeping me on the plan.)

My E lunches are:  (Don’t forget all of the veggies (FP) you can pile on your plate to round off any of these meals!)

• E Chili – I have written my own recipe and I use the Ultra Lean Ground Turkey for this one.
• Sprouted bread with turkey slices, spinach, and red onion slices, Dijon mustard.  Cucumber slices on the side, an out lunch usually for me.
• Cowboy Grub, THM Cookbook page 59, a serving (1 ½ cup) put in a 2 cup container and froze, made about 8 servings.
• Southwest Roll-Ups – originally seen on her blog and made it my own THM way. I found out she then freezes them which I have done from the start. I tweaked to be close to on plan as an E.  Many families enjoy these as a dinner and then you can load them up with cross-over type foods.  I eat one with some plain Greek Yogurt for lunch.  With veggies on the side, it works for me.
• Orange Chicken from Mrs. Criddles Kitchen – this is a great one.  Made it a lot when oranges were cheap at Aldi.  I even froze the liquids for the recipe for a later date.  I served the rice on the side so I had more control over the amount of rice I ate.
• Chicken breasts served with Sweet Potatoes, beans, or choice of veggie
• Chicken breast served with ¾ cup brown rice and choice of veggies
• Wipe Your Mouth BBQ – This is a yummy crockpot meal and you can find it on Page 43 in the new THM cookbook!

I read somewhere in the THM community of a lady who practices an E day, then an S day.  I have done a few full E days.  I have to tell you that I am the most energized that day.  It takes a little bit more work but sometimes those days are just full of energy for myself.  For those types of days, I do tend to make sure I eat at the every 3 hour mark or so, because I am hungry.  I leave cut up veggies (cucumbers, red peppers) in the refrigerator and I make sure I have some Greek yogurt on hand.  One of my favorite mid-afternoon snacks is a cut-up banana with Greek yogurt.  This is about the only time I eat a banana except the occasional smoothie with banana.  So doing an E day twice a month or so, I get to enjoy the banana treat!

With adding these E meals more regularly to my week, I have lost more weight since my long stall.  During the weeks I am concentrating on losing, I try to have about 10 to 12 E meals that week plus 2-3 Fuel Pulls.  That’s not including the snacks.  Snacks vary for me but during the losing journey, I will tend to pick a fuel pull snack over other snacks.  One really nice E snack is the Oatmeal Bake.  I will cut it in 6 pieces instead of the 4 for a meal size.  It looks more like an oatmeal bar then.  The bars refrigerate and freeze well.  I put them in snack bags so all I need to do is grab one when I am packing up a lunch and/or snack for myself. I do not like overly sweet things, so some of my snacks have less sugar than they call for.  For example the oatmeal bake if making a pan for bars, I will cut the sugar a bit more.  I have been known to cut the sugar in half in some of the THM cake recipes.  So don’t be afraid of making snacks that are not ultra-sweet.

I was hoping with this post to give you great E meal options for throughout the day by showing you how to add good carbs to these meals and give them balance.  Also to show you how it has helped me lose weight and how you might be able to save some time and money by making up these recipes and freezing them for planned lunches.  I hope you found this helpful.

If you have any questions, you can contact me, Cheryl, at —  strawberrybrooke1 AT gmail DOT com.

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Thank you so much, Cheryl, for sharing your experience with E meals! I know it has helped me a lot, as I am one that kind of has stayed away from a lot of E meals. Not anymore thanks to Cheryl!

As always, you can view all my Trim Healthy Mama stuff over on my Trim Healthy Mama page!