For those of you that don’t know me in real life, I’ve got a massive sweet tooth, which happens to be why I suck at diets! Any diet where I feel deprived leads me to failure! So, when a friend of mine introduced me to Trim Healthy Mama about 5 years ago, I sorta thought it was too good to be true. How can you eat cake for breakfast and lose weight?

Let me just tell you that it’s completely possible! I’ve lost and kept off over 20 lbs living this life style about 50% of the time. I wish I had before and after pictures, but honestly pictures of me at my heaviest just don’t exist.

After just that one conversation, I needed to know more, so I did what anyone in my profession does–I started researching Trim Healthy Mama online. A few days into my research during one of our weekly visits to the library on a whim, I decided to see if my local library had the plan book. They did; however, there was a wait list, which I added my name to and and continued to research. When it was finally my turn to check out the book, I think I only had it maybe 2 days before I ordered my own copy from Amazon!

What is Trim Healthy Mama?

Trim Healthy Mama (most often referred to as THM) is an amazing lifestyle brought to life by sisters Pearl Barrett and Serene C. Allison. Read that again; It’s a lifestyle, not a diet. It is also great for diabetics and those who need gluten-free options. Many of the recipes are also Keto friendly.

These are most important take away items from THM:

• It’s all about thinking about your food in a different way.
• Foods aren’t really good or bad. Some just go better together than others.
• It’s so much more about pairing foods correctly!
• Carbs aren’t the enemy either. They just need to be paired with lean proteins in smaller portions.
• Don’t deprive yourself of foods you love. Just find healthier ways to make them.

You can find a ton of information online, and a bunch of different support groups are available on Facebook. However, the best reference I have found are the books themselves. Below you will find my review of their 3 books.

THM Resource Review

The Plan Book

Their first book Trim Healthy Mama Plan was published in 2012 and is an amazing resource.

My copy has been loaned out over and over again, and honestly, I’m not sure who currently has it! It’s a fantastic resource if you really want the science of why the lifestyle works!

If you really want to get into the weeds as far as the science of how this works and why you shouldn’t mix your fats and carbs, this is the book for you!

That being said, if you would rather just have the rules and how to figure out your meals or are on a tight budget, I would skip this book and start with Trim Healthy Table.

The Cookbooks

I ordered both of their cook books via pre-order: Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook and Trim Healthy Table. Both of these books are completely beat up and have notes on so many pages and post-its stuck all over them!

Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook

This book was published in 2015 and released right around the time I started with the plan.

I love a ton of these recipes and make them often. The drinks are amazing! All that being said, I found that the preface for it doesn’t give you quite enough general knowledge, so you have to really pair it with the plan book to get it at times.

Trim Healthy Table

When this book came out in 2017, I ordered it as soon as it became available and even got some bonus material with it as a result!

Where the first cookbook was lacking in general info about the plan, this book completely makes up for it. It explains the meal options in a nice way that lets you understand without getting too far into the weeds as far as the whys are concerned. The recipes are also fantastic, and many have several variations, making them versatile.

If you can only afford one of the resources, this is the one I would go for!