Postpartum Weight Gain: What I learned by combining Trim Healthy Mama with Weight Watchers for 3 weeks

 

 On October 31 around 11am my son was born. I had been using the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating during the second and third trimesters of my pregnancy. I was on plan about 80% of the time. The plan allowed me to eat well, keep my questionable blood sugars down, and only gain around 30 pounds. Most of that thirty pounds was gained in the first trimester when I had extreme food aversions, no meat, no eggs, few veggies and cravings for simple carbs and junk. 

 When I had my son I immediately lost all but 5 pounds of what I gained. I was ecstatic. But that was short lived. I am exclusively breastfeeding, if you have ever done that you know it brings on a hunger like nothing you have felt before. Trim Healthy Mama foods are all healthy foods and you do not need to count calories, etc. I took way too much liberty with this. I was starving and just because a pan of brownies was "healthy" I would chow down ignoring the fact I was probably eating tons of extra calories that I did not need. I began to slowly see the weight creeping back up. I got worried as the scale was inching slowly back up. I had to do SOMETHING. 

 First I tried the 21 Day Fix eating plan. It is actually a really solid plan, easy, and kind of fun with the little containers. Sadly it made my milk supply drop. I tried it twice just to be sure. Within 2 days of starting both times my baby became a fussy, hungry basket case. That plan was out. 

 Next I decided I would trying good old weight watchers. I have used their breastfeeding plan in the past with success. 

Bingo! 

We have a winner!

I continued to eat THM foods and count the points. The new Smart Points system is very friendly to a protein based diet, although they penalize you for saturated fat which anyone in the THM, WAPF or Paleo community knows is bad old science. On the breastfeeding plan I am able to fit in plenty of healthy fats like coconut oil and butter so my milk supply stayed up. On WW I quickly realized that some days I was not eating enough, while other days I was eating way too much. I was able to zero in on what foods I was over doing it on and see how much I should be eating. It has made a world of difference, the scale is heading back down. 

 This has taught me that while THM is supposed to be a no calorie counting, eat to satisfaction plan some of us will need to be more aware of limiting our portions than others. If you are following Trim Healthy Mama and have stalled or are gaining it might be worthwhile to look into tracking your food with a paid plan like Weight Watchers or a free service like Myfitnesspal.com, Mydailyplate.com (which may have a different name now), sparkpeople.com or fitday.com. It might help you to see some areas you can improve on such as eating more or less. It will also help you visually see exactly how much of different foods you are eating. 

 After 3 weeks of tracking with WW I feel so much more in control and hopeful. I will be discontinuing WW when my membership runs out but feel that the investment was worth it for the insight it gave me. 

Spa Day For Box Car Willie

My husband came out of the shower in a hurry to get to work. I turned to him and profusely apologized for the amount of dirt Box Car Willie left behind in the tub. 

If you know me you are probably just as confused as my husband. 

"WHO?"

That big tomato plant on the porch. His name is Box Car Willie. 

You see I wanted some tomato plants for my container garden and I got them. The plants were extras a local greenhouse was giving away. Willie is a bit more tame than his counter parts who traveled here with him. Those other guys, well lets say the difference is like going to the county fair and Burning Man. Willie who is the county fair in the scenario is great but understated, he has been struggling a little to stay hydrated. Those other tomato plants, they are a crazy bunch growing out of their containers with wild abandon. I can't tell where one begins and the other ends. No sense trying to tame the chaos now. Like Burning Man the best thing to do with those tomato plants is just to let the wild craziness happen and try to enjoy the ride.

 Today Willie traveled up to the house for some TLC. Willie was not alone, he shares his pot with 2 tiny zucchini seedlings also in need of a little pampering. We got to the house, I set the pot in the tub, filled the tub with about 2 inches of water and let the crew soak. I watered the top of the soil a bit also. I wish I had taken a before picture. Willie was on his last leg. Droopy, dry sad Willie looked like he was not long for the world. 

 Several hours in the tub and you should see Willie now! 

 Almost the picture of health again. Willie and the zuke twins will spend a couple days on my porch getting some extra TLC before heading back out with the rest of the plants. I will have to take a picture during the day tomorrow. 

 For now I will leave you with pictures of other happenings in our kitchen. We are picking some baby cucumbers, beets, and little bell peppers from our garden. I have been going to the farmers market and my kind sister in law sends me love from her garden as well. I am trying to do some fermentation to get some enzymes and probiotics in my diet. Time to start preparing my body for the group B Strep test and birth. Did I mention I hit the third trimester this week? 

Kraut is nearly ready for the fridge in the large jar. The purple and white cabbage mix becomes a perfect pink color. The small jar are beets I shredded for fermentation tonight. 

Salad with goodies from our garden

My 12 year old son was proud to help me pick these items. The carrots were culls we pulled to make room for other carrots they were too close too. I decided to use them in salad so they were not wasted. 

Beets, carrots and a couple turnips. This made a very full quart jar when it was cooked. Everything is pink. 

Busy!

 I have not abandoned the ship. I have just been very busy. I have been caring for a couple extra children in my home, as well as having other teens visit. I think I pretty much spend the day cooking, working, doing laundry and playing referee.

 I have a few things growing in the garden. Little baby cucumbers are sprouting. My wild tomato plants are finally making little green tomatoes. My squash plants look awful but have baby squash on them. I picked a couple beets this week. They are not as big as I would like but they are coming out of the ground. Is that normal? I have no idea.

 My chickens have been on strike since I began this blog. I have only been getting one to two eggs every couple days. Yesterday I got three eggs. I nearly danced to the house with joy. I am hoping we are turning the corner and eggs will be plentiful again. I guess I will not hold my breath on that though, it is after 3pm and I have not seen an egg yet today.

Before I go I would like to just introduce you to a side business of mine. I am a presenter for Younique Cosmetics. It is a wonderful company with THE BEST mascara. On July 15th Younique released an improved version of our signature 3D fiber lash mascara. I have not tried the new formula because I need to use up my old supply. If you are looking for great products and a little extra pocket money leave me a comment. I would love to tell you all the great things about Younique. The best part, we really do get paid instantly to our own pretty purple debit card. How many companies do that?

A Simple Nourishing Meal

I need to buy groceries but it is not time to go yet (pay day cha ching). Time to use what on hand. Tonight that meant a nice salad and a fry up dish I just called "Stuff". It really scares the children when I tell them we are having Stuff for supper. 

Stuff

A few random potatoes

1 pound ground beef

Some random baby carrots that needed to be used

Cajun seasoning

salt

pepper

onion powder

Coconut oil

A wedge of this GORGEOUS organic cabbage my sister in law grew up the hill at her place

I just sauteed the potatoes and carrots in copious amounts of coconut oil with some of the seasonings. I used  a lot of onion powder. Normally I would use fresh onions but I am out today. I am also out of my homemade lard which normally would be my go to fat for sauteed potatoes. I just need to buy some canning jars before I render down the insane amount of organic pig fat in the freezer. 

 When these were done I removed them (leaving the extra oil behind) and placed them in a bowl. 

Next I sauteed the beef with seasonings and a dash of Worchestershire Sauce. This was then removed from the bowl leaving the extra oil behind. 

Now I put the cut up cabbage into the pan, This was also cooked up with seasonings and added to the bowl when finished.

Everything was mixed up and served. 

 This meal was nothing special to look at. In fact it was pretty ugly and I didn't bother to take a picture. This is nourishing, home cooked food. It is not gourmet eye candy. My husband enjoyed it. My son gobbled up 2 bowls and said I could make it instead of cake on his birthday. I guess it was good. We often make a similar dish called Sausage O'hoolihan using smoked sausage in place of ground beef. You could customize this to your own taste and to use what you have on hand. It could be served on rice if you did not have potatoes. Any meat or vegetable combo you like would work well. It's all about using what you have. 

Egg Update

 I wish I was posting a cheerful update with pictures of fluffy day old chicks. Sadly that is not happening. 

 A few days into our hatching experiment we had some strong thunderstorms come through. We experienced a 5 hour power outage. When the power returned the eggs had gotten very cool. I think this is the point where we lost most of them. 

 In a couple days if all had gone well we would have had chicks starting to peck their way to freedom. Instead I have had leaking rotten eggs. Last night when I went to mist the container for humidity one exploded. I don't think I need to explain the sensory experience I enjoyed. Let me just say I am glad I am past the morning sickness stage of pregnancy or dinner would have been lost. 

 I only have one egg that looks like it might have life in it. I will continue to watch it, remove fizzing rotten eggs and see what happens. I can't see into the dark brown shelled eggs when I candle them so maybe I will be surprised. 

 I do not think this is a incubator problem. I was able to keep the temperature almost perfect other than the night of the power outage. I would not hesitate to use this again to try and hatch eggs. Next time I would think to have a back up plan to keep the eggs warm in the event of an outage.  

Recycled Food A.K.A. Cook Once, Eat Twice

Chili!

I admit most people do not think of chili as a good summer meal. I happen to think it is a great summer meal because I can put it in the slow cooker. This is great if you happen to be married to one of those men who does not enjoy light summer meals. 

 I based this meal on using up produce I bought on sale, leftover meat and bean mixture from the freezer, and canned good purchased on sale. I added in a half pound of sale priced grass fed ground beef I saved from when I made pasta sauce recently. 

One tip I would like to share with you is how I save time and tears chopping veggies for things like sauces and soups. I now clean them, make them into large chunks and zip them through my little Ninja food processor. I feel it saves me time. It also makes things small so they are easier to hide from picky young eyes. 

Green peppers await their fate inside the Ninja. You're next Onions!

Completed chopped veggie mix getting a quick saute

 I was out of fresh garlic so I used some of these crazy fellows instead. These are garlic scapes. Scapes are the stalk of the garlic plant you harvest in spring. They are curly and wild looking. They have a mild garlic flavor. 

After the veggies went in the cooker I browned the ground beef. The beef joined the chicken mixture from the freezer in the slow cooker. 

Terrible blurry photo of the leftover ground chicken bean mixture frozen in a bowl. This was from a Trim healthy Mama compliant recipe called Dirt-E Rice. 

Here are the canned goods I used. I only used half the corn in the chili. 

Everything was added to the crock pot along with seasonings. I used chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, real salt and black pepper. I also tossed in 1/4 cup of lentils and 1 cup water. 

 I did not manage to get a picture of the finished product. It was a very good chili. The finely minded veggies cooked down nicely. The recycled meat worked well even with it's Cajun seasoning. Three people ate the chili for supper and we have about 3 servings left in the fridge to be used for lunch or yet again recycled into something new.

Here are some ideas for using up leftover chili

*Nachos

*Baked with corn bread on top

*Taco soup

*Chili Mac

*Baked potatoes topped with chili, cheese, sour cream, etc

*If you eat bread products, specifically processed ones you could push canned biscuit dough into muffin tins, fill with chili, top with cheese and bake to make chili biscuit cups

*Serve the chili on rice 

*Burritos

Sharpening a Knife On a Mug

 We all have some old mugs hanging around. Make them multi-task by using them to sharpen your knives.