Coming Full Circle: Why I Left Trim Healthy Mama to go back to Weight Watchers

Earlier this year I wrote this post about why I was leaving Weight Watchers. I still agree with most of what I wrote in that post HOWEVER, here I am again.  I know that counting points works and nothing else I have tried this year worked.  The only weight I lost this year was when I combined counting points with Trim Healthy Mama.  When I tried to just follow the plan, I didn't lose. As a matter of fact, I even gained when I first started.

I faithfully tried Trim Healthy Mama for over 30 weeks.  I was a moderator for the Facebook page and worked with the other moderators to help others in their weight loss journey as well.  I posted my meal plans and recipes here. I really convinced myself that this was THE way to eat. I thought it was the healthiest way, but I ended up food obsessed and afraid to eat certain foods or eat foods in certain combinations.   Even though I lost had over 85 lbs eating crossovers (prior to coming to THM), crossover meals are not considered weight loss friendly.  (Crossover meals are those that include fats and carbohydrates.) I did have that in the back of my mind, but I still thought this was the healthy way to eat and having reached a plateau earlier this year I was desperate to continue losing weight.

After gaining a few pounds and trying the plan for about 8 weeks, I decided to combine Trim Healthy Mama with counting points and I was able to lose some weight.  I reached my mini-goal of losing 100 lbs and went on to lose a bit more.  After a couple of months, I decided to try a fuel cycle and drop point counting.  I pretty much stopped losing after that.

After not losing, it was suggested that I might lose weight if I started eating 3 full days of FPs a week (FPs are meals that are low in both carbs and fats). Unfortunately, this didn't work for me either.  At that point I started looking into other things from Paleo/Primal eating to really low-carb.  This led me to try an Atkins induction (SO HARD) and got back down to my lowest weight, but as soon as I stopped the induction (and I don't mean pigging out...just normal eating) the weight came right back with a little extra and that is where I am now...ready to leave THM and low-carb diets behind. (I stepped down from being a THM moderator in late September, so really I moved on from it several weeks ago and now I'm leaving the low-carb lifestyle behind as well.)

The bottom line is that Trim Healthy Mama just did not work for me and turned me into a crazed, panicked dieter. I want a more balanced diet...no extremes, no food fear, no obsessing.

I also want to include a bit of a confession and the reason why I think Weight Watchers stopped working for me and why THM appealed to me so much.  The reason?  Gluttony.  One reason I originally switched from calorie counting to Weight Watchers was that fruits and vegetables are 0 Points Plus.  In my mind, this meant "free".  Weight Watchers does not really teach this, but it worked for me in the beginning so I just ate as much fruit as I wanted to.  Eventually however, I was eating too much fruit.  I knew it, but I wasn't willing to change it and keep doing the program.  THM made it seem as though you could eat as much as you want as long as you don't mix fuels.  This really is NOT true.

I still remember how upset I felt when I was told that I needed to cut back from eating so much heavy S.  (Heavy S meals are those that are high in fat.)  I was told to eat less nuts and cheese and that the cheeseburger pie was something to be eaten infrequently.  Some of the recipes were created by Serene for when she was nursing but the book never tells you this.  Many of the recipes have no serving sizes and none have nutritional information.  On page 434, in reference to a fuel cycle it says, "You can enjoy our homemade Skinny Chocolate in liberal quantities since it is made from coconut oil." My definition of liberal is a large amount...much larger than what the authors would consider liberal.    I didn't get to be morbidly obese by eating small portions. I need portion control. Weight Watchers gives this to me, THM did not.  I am now at a point (having done lots of low-carbing) that  I am willing to limit fruit and not overeat it just because I don't have to count it.

I could list other examples but I think you get the idea and I didn't set out to bash THM.  It works for some people and I truly believe that Pearl and Serene want to help women lose weight. Please note, this is the reason why I, Karen @ The Fruit of Her Hands is no longer following the THM lifestyle.  If it works for you, then please, by all means continue.  My advice about weight loss has always been to find something that works for you and then DO it! (see my tips for losing weight {scroll down}...I should have followed my own advice.)

This struggle I have with my weight has been and will continue to be a life long journey.  I have no idea where it will take me but I look forward to seeing how things will go following the Weight Watchers plan again.  At this point, I am not going back to meetings (though I do miss my friends there).  I may or may not go back at some point.  I plan to keep sharing my journey here so stay tuned.