THM Basics and How I Manage the System

I had a friend recently ask me for some THM Basics and examples of "normal" foods eaten in a THM way.  At first I was just going to respond by email, but then I realized that I get this question frequently.  Just HOURS later, another friend asked me how I keep my recipes organized.  (She even said "or maybe you could blog about it and tell the world.)  So here we go...

Trim Healthy Mama (THM) is built on the idea that every meal or snack should be centered around a protein and then add either fats OR carbs/starches.  But avoid eating fats and carbs together.  When you do this, you are providing your body with only one fuel source at a time.  That gives your body the ability to burn off the meal and then burn fat from YOUR body.  If you provide your body with both fats and carbs together, your body will burn what it can and then store the remaining portion as fat.  That's when you gain weight.  In the THM world, we call the "fat" meals an (S) for Satisfying and the "carb" meals are called an (E) for Energizing.  I don't know why they didn't just call them (F) and (C) to keep it simple.  Sorry guys.
Here's the boundaries for those who need to know.  But don't worry that you have to remember these details:
(S) < 10g Net Carbs (Carbs - Fiber)
(E) < 5g Fat and 10-45g Net Carbs

In addition to following that basic concept, there are 5 "whites" that need to change in your life.
1. No White Flour - You'll switch to Coconut and Almond Flours for your backing.  These are both (S) flours which kinda blew my mind for awhile.  My flour was a fat???  Yes, it is.  I still use regular cornbread when I make vegetable soup.  And as I've said before, I buy the Arnold Fiber and Flax Sandwich Thins for the girls.  I also buy the Josephs Pitas for (S) sandwiches.  So I follow the rule, but I'm not a susie homemaker.
2. No White Sugar - You'll use Stevia (brand of choice) or Truvia as your sweeteners.  These can be used in everything.  I follow this rule closely as I've learned just how bad sugar is for your body.
3. No White Potatoes.  Sweet Potatoes are fine as an (E).  This was fairly easy to drop or cut from recipes.
4. No White Rice.  You can use small amounts of Brown Rice as an (E), but Quinoa is the recommended substitute.  We don't use much rice anyway, so another easy one for us.
5. No White Pasta.  Really, this is a no pasta rule in the book.  There is an acceptable pasta called "Dreamfields Pasta" which is a low-carb type pasta. But it hurt our stomachs.  So we use Whole Wheat Pasta and only eat it in an (E) meal.

As book recommended, We use Coconut Oil for almost everything these days.  I still occasionally stir-fry with Olive Oil, but we've almost completely dropped every other oil.

Another big change is Milk.  Dairy Milk is pretty much off limits with THM.  The recommended product is Unsweetened Almond Milk.  This makes it a neutral product for (S) or (E).  Personally, I don't like the flavor.  So I buy the "Original Less Sugar" if possible or just the Original Almond Milk if it's all the store has.  A slight cheat, but I'm over it.

There is no calorie counting with THM (Praise.The.Lord) BUT there is a time consideration.   After a meal, you should wait 3 hours to eat again, especially if you're switching from an (S) to an (E) or Vice Versa.  You want to make sure your body has time to burn it off.  If you only had a small snack, then you might only wait 2 hours.  As long as you're eating the (S) and (E) way, then your body is amazingly good at burning the calories.  If you are still struggling with weight loss, then you may have to re-consider your portions.  Sometimes freedom is too much for people.

There are also details about Fuel Pull meals/snacks (mostly protein with very little fat or carbs) and Crossovers (STILL on plan, but contains some fat AND carbs).  Anything beyond a Crossover is off plan (aka cheating).  The book is HUGE, so you know I'm not covering it all...

As for Shan's question, I keep ALL my recipes in a 3-ring binder (surprised anyone?)  This is my regular recipe book.  I have either printed or copied recipes and 3 hold punched them or written them on 3x5 note cards and put them in this binder.  I don't use multiple recipe books and I don't reference my THM book every time.  If I like the recipe, it's in THIS binder.  The key word there is "LIKE" the recipe.  Honestly, it has to earn it's way into my book.  Here's the process.

When I see a recipe in the book I want to try, I put a little post it flag on it. If I find a recipe on pinterest or facebook, I print it off.  I put the "untested" recipes in this notebook. (Anyone from my Life Group will recognize my special pink notebook).  It's where I organize everything.  The THM tab has some general THM documents, like the food categories or my stevia exchange chart.  And that's where I keep all my printed recipes until I have the chance to try them.

When I have the opportunity, I will include a new THM recipe in my meal plan for the week.  I either use my THM book that 1st time or the recipe comes out of the pink notebook.  After the meal, it gets a yay or nay from the family.  The nay's go straight in the recycle bin.  The yay's graduate to the official recipe book.  So if it came directly from the THM book, I would either make a copy of that page or I would write down the recipe and put it in the binder.  I don't plan to reference my book for years to come.  This also allows me to loan my book to friends without losing all my recipes.

If you are a fellow THM friend, please comment with any other helpful information I may have forgotten etc.  I'm sure I forgot some basic points.  And I'm sure my friends would love to have other ideas on organizing or managing the lifestyle.  Hope this helps get you started.