Barrett Pearl - Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook: Eat Up and Slim Down with More Than 350 Healthy Recipes

The Food Freedom mantra of Trim Healthy Mama (THM) means we dont dictate your every bite or tell you exactly when you should feel full. You will not see any suggested serving sizes indicating you must eat only one sliver of cake or only one baked chicken leg. Youre going to be the boss of you. If we tell you exactly how much of each recipe you may or may not eat, thats our decision, not yoursour eating plan, not yours. We want you to learn that younot usare the key to your lifelong success. We are all so unique. A hungry nursing mama running around after multiple children all day and a postmenopausal computer technician sitting at her desk all day are going to want and need different serving sizes.

But, of course, you want to know how much a recipe makes so you dont go wasting ingredients. Most of the recipes in this book are divided into three groups:

Single Serve A generous one-person meal, dessert, side, snack, or drink.

Family Serve Enough food to feed a large family (of 68 people). If your family is smaller (or you are single), you will simply halve or quarter the ingredientsor better yet, make the full meal and then freeze the leftovers for other no-think meals.

Multiple Serve This category is used for recipes like sauces, crackers, cookies, and the like. You wont see us saying Eat only one cookie or Use only 1 tablespoon of dressing or gravy. Youll use your discretion and common sense.

Youre going to learn how to tune in to your own hunger and full signals. That wont happen perfectly at first; it takes time. You might find some of your favorite recipes in the book and eat too much of them in the beginning weeks or months. Or, perhaps it will take some time to ditch a dieting mindset and you will eat too little. Give yourself some grace. The signals of hunger and of feeling full will become clearer to you the longer you are on plan, and as your blood sugar and insulin levels balance.

Youll notice we sometimes suggest 3 to 6 ounces of chicken, beef, or salmon to top a salad or to put in your single size soup. That is only a suggestion; some of us may need (or want) only 4 ounces of meat on our salad, while others might want or need 8 or 9 ouncesor more. If your guy is on plan with you, you sure dont want to limit him to tiny portions! We have made some suggestions here, simply because they are generally the amounts we personally eat, but you can overrule them. This is not a numbers game, where you have to feel constantly restricted by ounce amounts or calorie counts. (The exception to this is if you are actually setting out to have a Fuel Pull meal, which is described in the that is the only time we put a limit on protein portions.)