What Is Trim Healthy Mama?

Helping you understand in a nutshell just what is Trim Healthy Mama.

I know many of you already follow the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating. For those that don’t, you might be wondering what in the world all these confusing terms like ‘E meal’, ‘S meal’ and ‘trimmy’ actually mean! I’m here today to go over the basics of THM and hopefully make it a bit easier to understand!

How it started

Trim Healthy Mama was created by two sisters, Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison. They were tired of trying diet fads and wanted to find a sustainable way to eat, stay trim, and not go crazy in the process! They released their original book in 2014 and since then thousands of women [and also men!] have jumped on board. Pearl and Serene believe God has given us all the food groups to enjoy, we just need to be wise about how we go about it!

We need fats AND carbs

Our bodies use either fats or carbs [glucose] for fuel. Protein is essential too but we don’t burn it as a fuel. We always burn the carbs first and then the fats. If we are frequently including fats AND carbs in the same meal, our bodies can have trouble burning of all the fuel we are giving it, making it much harder to loose weight!

“Never include large amounts of both fats and carbs in the same meal unless you are trying to gain or maintain weight. In other words, don’t tandem fuel.”

Trim Healthy Mama original plan book pg. 64

Because of this, the THM way of eating separates our meals into Satisfying [S] meals, which are the ones that contain healthy fats but keep the carbs low, [under 10 grams], and Energizing [E] meals, which contain healthy carbs but keep the fats low, [under 5 grams which is about 1 tsp.].

There is no set limit to the amount of fats we can have in S meals, but in E meals the carb limit is 45 grams. This allows us to enjoy healthy carbs that nourish our adrenals and boost our metabolism, but also keeps our blood sugar at even levels.

Where is your protein?

Both S and E meals should be centered around protein. Protein fills us up, helps us burn fat, and keeps blood sugar from spiking.

So basically, at each meal you pick your protein source and then decide if you want to combine it with fats or carbs! The only foods not allowed are the obvious ones like white sugar, white flour and refined, artificial foods. Natural sweeteners like stevia, xylitol and monkfruit, and sprouted or gluten free flours such as almond, oat and coconut make great substitutions.

Where are your veggies?

Trim Healthy Mama encourages us to eat lots of green leafy veggies, or any kind of veggie for that matter! The two questions to ask when building a meal are, “Where is my protein?” and “Where are my veggies?”. This is also a plan of food freedom though, and healthy cake for breakfast is totally OK! How much better does it get!?

A few other meal types

Once you are used to the S and E idea, there are a few other meals that can be included. Fuel Pulls [FP] are meals that keep carbs AND fats low. These are ultra slimming to throw into your meal rotation, but shouldn’t be over done.

When carbs and fats are combined in the same meal instead of separated, it’s still healthy, just not as weight loss friendly. These kind of meals are called Crossovers [XO], and are perfect for including when you are at goal weight.

“Each food group is a gift to us to enjoy for life. S and E meals provide all the nutrients needed for a long term sustainable way of eating. They also offer the pleasure of variety. This is crucial for success as it is easy to get sick of the same foods over and over again. Including all macronutrients, all fuels, and a wide variety of caloric meals is the way to celebrate God’s abundant gift of food to us. With this celebratory approach, we also keep in mind that we don’t have to include everything in the same meal.”

Trim Healthy Mama original plan book pg. 127

Carbs scared me!!

Coming from a low carb, Keto way of eating, I already understood the S meals, but it was mind blowing to me that carbs were actually necessary and good for you! I had always considered them the enemy and here I’d just been eating them in the wrong way. It was definitely a little scary to start including them but I figured I’d give it a shot. Am I glad I did! Without realizing it, by eating low carb for so long I had really slowed my metabolism down. Carbs brought it back to life! I can eat more than I ever could now that I’m separating my fuels in a way that makes them easy for my body to burn through. And in my books, any lifestyle where you can eat more and not gain weight is right up my alley!!

Still confused?

This probably still all sounds somewhat confusing. There is a learning curve with pretty much everything though, and you don’t have to get it perfect right away! I’m kind of an all or nothing person, but if that’s not you, a great way to start is one meal at a time! Make breakfast the THM way and once that gets easy, move on to lunch, or whatever sounds easiest to you!

I’ve been doing THM for just over a year now. At first I definitely had to do more planning and research, but now it is totally second nature. I love how there’s always the freedom to eat a off plan meal once in a while and get right back on track.

So what is Trim Healthy Mama?

This quote pretty much sums it up!

“For me, it’s not about the things I can’t eat. The world of things I can eat in my home that not only taste good, but are good for me, never ends. Open your mind to a world where healthy eating and good habits are something to look forward to, not something from which you have to run away.”

Samuel Allison, Trim Healthy Mama plan book forward

Any questions?

Feel free to comment below! I’d be happy to answer the best I can! Or follow along on Instagram where I share more about how I do the plan. You can find the Trim Healthy Mama plan book at their website, or on Amazon.

Save this for later

You can pin this post by clicking on either one of the infographics. A Pin It button should pop up.

All recipes and photos on this blog are created by and the property of Homespun Eats. Feel free to share a photo or link of a recipe and give credit to Homespun Eats, but copying a recipe or post in it’s entirety is strictly not allowed.