Trim Healthy Mama 107 - Crossovers (and Cheats)

This is my seventh and final post on plan basics.  Future posts will feature recipes, directions, suggestions, insights, and deeper-level learning.  How perfect - seven is God's number of completeness.  (But that's another blog entirely, and possibly a book that I will write someday, Lord willing).

Hopefully by now you have a decent handle on the three main THM meal choices of E, S, and FP.  If not, I recommend studying them until you understand them.  I know it took me a little while.  Don't worry, this is a marathon, not a sprint.  This is not a crash diet, it's a way of life. Don't expect to lose 20 pounds your first month.  Remember who won the race between the tortoise and the hare.

The next concept we are going to look at is the crossover - the XO.

The crossover is where you add some carbs to an S meal.  There are numerous reasons for doing this:

• Growing children need the nutrition and fuel of crossovers
• Pregnant and nursing mothers need the extra energy
• You are at or near goal weight
• It's a special occasion 
• You are at a church potluck and by golly it all looks so good
• Most men/husbands need crossovers
• You are doing THM for health reasons and not weight loss
• You are underweight and are looking to gain a bit
• You just wanna

A crossover is not a cheat meal.  A crossover still keeps to the foods recommended by THM.  Here are some examples:

XO Breakfast

Two hard boiled eggs

Two slices sprouted wheat toast

Fresh strawberries

Coffee or tea

XO Lunch

Chicken Salad with apples, golden raisins, pecans, and mayonnaise dressing

on a bed of greens

Carrots and celery sticks

Yogurt and berry smoothie
(This meal becomes an E if you use just a small sprinkle of pecans and nonfat Greek yogurt for dressing instead of mayo)

XO Dinner

Beef chili with black beans, cheddar cheese, and Greek yogurt

THM Cornbread (see Pinterest)

Iced Tea with Lemon

If it helps, think of the crossover as a little kiss and hug.

A downright cheat is when you go to visit your cute little granddaughter in another city that happens to have a bakery called Five Daughters Bakery which makes the most incredible donuts and you go and get one and enjoy that bacon and maple donut to the fullest with no regrets. (Run-on sentence intentional).

But then you temper the cheat with a visit to the Trim Healthy Mama store that happens to be in the same city!  Hello Nashville.  By the way, if you go out to eat a lot or travel frequently, you can do this plan.  I will definitely post about those situations in the future.

I won't taunt you with donut photos.  But isn't this a cute bakery?

THM Store in Nashville

Gratuitous photo of granddaughter who lives near the bakery

Another cheat example is that you go to a family wedding and simply enjoy the meal they are serving, along with the glass of champagne and a piece of wedding cake.  Go ahead!  This plan allows for such things.  Not every day of course, but THM celebrates food freedom. 

If you find yourself slowing down too much in your weight loss progress, try and make note of how many crossovers or cheats you are allowing yourself, and make changes accordingly.

If you want to start over at the first post on plan basics and read through them again, you may click here.