For the first 20 years of my life, I didn't think much about what I ate. I was young, I was active, my mom cooked mostly from scratch, and I was healthy. Nowadays, the definition of "healthy" is debated across social media, news outlets, in mommy groups, even in family relationships. Everyone has their own idea of what healthy is and many people are convinced that what the other guy is doing isn't healthy at all.

Which is why writing a post on "eating healthier" is like signing up for a hit list. I'm not one for contention or divisiveness. You may not agree with me and I may not agree with you, but I'm sure we can all agree that we want to live the fullest life we can.  Being healthy is one way to achieve that.

I've given birth to seven babies. Which means my body has expanded like a watermelon and deflated like an old balloon SEVEN times. Let me tell you, what has been left behind ain't pretty! But the seven wonders running around my house are beautiful and completely worth it.

Still, seven pregnancies means that over the years I have had to lose baby weight several times. I have tried many different methods: an awesome workout routine with my friend. Eating oatmeal a LOT. Feeling hungry all the time. Counting calories. Buying a treadmill and trying to find time to use it. Getting up at 5 am to solve said problem. Each method has worked in its own way. The most effective was the awesome workout routine with my friend. I've never been able to match that because I've never had a workout partner since...

But, during my last pregnancy, I was concerned with how fast I was gaining weight, which was uncharacteristic for my pregnancies. My doctor told me I had to cut carbs. What?! Almost everything I love is carbs! If you know me at all, you'll know one of my passions is cooking and baking and eating the fruits of my labors. My doctor said that without reducing my carbs, no amount of exercise would really help. Diet and exercise have to go hand in hand.

After Baby M was born, I wanted to bounce back into shape as quickly as possible.  Some friends of ours suggested The Fast Metabolism Diet  by Hayley Pomroy. It worked SO well for them, so we decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, it didn't work so well for us. With a large family, the time and effort it took was overwhelming. The planning that was required worked for me being a stay at home mom, but I felt stressed ALL. THE. TIME. 

Still, the principles were life changing for us.  We did the "diet" for 2 1/2 weeks before we knew we needed to make a switch, but because there were days in the FMD that we felt AMAZING, we looked immediately to low carb diets. By this point, we were already wheat, dairy, legume, corn, soy, and sugar free, so adapting a low carb, or low-er carb, diet was simple. And guess what? It was effective, easy, and enjoyable.

My husband lost 18 pounds in 5 weeks and I lost 12. We then went on vacation and just couldn't keep it up. But even eating whatever we wanted, I only gained 3 pounds back. A few months passed and I wanted to lose the last 10 pounds of baby weight, so we adapted our diet again and I quickly lost another 5 and my husband dropped another 8. My will power isn't quite what it should be, so I have a hard time keeping away from baking (and eating), which means I am still working toward a life style change. But, if you're like me, the principles I'm about to share can work for you in whatever stage you're in.  

I took everything we learned from the FMD and a ton of low carb sites and modified it and rewrote it all to make sense to us, and to make it easy to share and easy to follow. 

The first principle is start where you are. Small changes will lead to big ones. Begin now and do what you can to make changes. Maybe it is eating more fruits and veggies. Maybe it is cooking 4 meals a week instead of only 2. Maybe it is avoiding that late night snack you always have or substituting it with a fruit or veggie choice. Maybe it is reducing your portions. Maybe it is having veggies for lunch instead of a meal. Maybe it is drinking more water. Maybe it is passing on seconds. Whatever you do WILL make a difference. And once you've done that one step, take another and make another change.

The second principle is eat whole foods. This is the most significant change you may need to make.

What are whole foods?

Whole foods are foods that are single ingredients or combinations of single ingredients that you can physically hold and purchase at the store that were grown or raised or produced in nature, in a garden, or on a farm. Eggs, milk, oil, nuts, fruit, veggies, cheese, whole grains---these are examples of whole foods. Pasta is also a whole food as its ingredients (semolina flour, water, salt) are all whole foods. Even potato chips can be whole food (potatoes, oil, salt) though they’re not that good for you.

What are NOT whole foods?

Almost anything that comes prepackaged is not a whole food. Cereal, snacks, chips, cookies, box mixes for cakes/muffins, flavored yogurt—these are not whole foods. Other things like cream of mushroom or chicken soups are not whole foods. Most pasta sauces and dressings are also not whole foods. Read the ingredient list. If there is anything in the list that isn’t a real food, it’s not a whole food. Maltodextrin and other additives are not whole foods. Anything with food dye or artificial flavors and colors in it is not a whole food.

Have you seen the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"? He has a machine that has a long name, so he made an acronym out of it which is pretty impossible to pronounce. 

This eating plan is called the Whole Foods LCHFMPHV Diet.  

What is LCHFMPHV?

LCHFMPHV stands for Low Carb/High Fat/Moderate Protein/High Veggie

What is Low Carb?

Carbs are found in grains and sugars. When eating Low Carb, you eliminate all added sugars, most fruits, and most, if not all, grains. If you’re going to eat grains, eat only whole grains (whole wheat, oats, brown rice, quinoa, etc.) and eat them sparingly…like 3-4 times a week. Fruits are also reduced because of their naturally occurring sugars. You can still eat fruit, but stick with berries, apples, and melons. Completely avoid bananas, and limit pineapple, mangoes, oranges, etc. Do not consume any juices as they are extremely high in carbs.

What is High Fat?

We’ve been trained to think fats are bad, but healthy fats are very good for our brains and our body functioning. A diet high in healthy fats include butter (no margarine or butter substitutes…real butter only), coconut oil, olive oil, nuts, avocado, and whole-fat milks (like cheeses, yogurts, and cottage cheese).

What is Moderate Protein?

Animal proteins…all meats…are high in protein and low in carbs. They help our body during digestion because they are complex to digest, so our body has to burn fat to digest them, and pour lots of protein into our muscles, so our body builds muscles during digestion rather than burning it. Eggs are high in protein and are a fantastic way to start the day. Studies show that people who consume eggs for breakfast eat less calories during the day, have healthier body weights, and eat better all day long.

What is High Veggie?

Vegetables are a necessary component of healthy digestion because the complexity of their structure makes them difficult to digest—meaning the body has to work harder (burn more calories) to digest them. Their nutrients also aid in the metabolic process, helping our bodies to digest all food better. Vegetables also have tons of vitamins and nutrients that are necessary for all body functions. You can get all the nutrients and vitamins you need from vegetables rather than fruits, with way less sugar. In this diet, you should consume tons and tons of veggies, particularly green ones, and you really can’t eat too many. Avoid all veggies that grow in the ground as much as possible, as they are high in carbs. This includes all potatoes. Carrots are an exception to this rule.

So what can I eat?

Eat whole foods.

Eat all the veggies you want, particularly lettuce (no iceburg), cabbage, spinach, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, peppers, pumpkin, squash, asparagus, artichoke, and carrots (among many others). Beans and peas are good too, but they are technically not veggies, so don’t go crazy on them.

Eat all the animal meats and eggs you want. Start you day with 2-3 eggs every day. Add peppers, spinach, onion, tomatoes, and avocado and you’ve got a feast. Even add some bacon (especially good if it is natural bacon…no additives) or leftover roast or steak or ham. Awesome.

Eat whole fat dairy, just not too much as it is also high in calories.

Eat nuts, but also not too much because they are very high in calories. Almonds are the best choice.

Eat limited fruits, but when you eat fruit, eat particularly berries.

Eat very few, if any, grains. Give them up completely short term and you will lose weight very fast. Keep them in low amounts and you’ll still lose weight, just not as fast. Eat them like normal and you won’t lose weight very fast at all.

What can’t I eat?

No added sugars at all. None. No artificial sugars either. Give it up cold turkey for just 4 weeks and you’ll lose a lot of weight. You can have it again in a month if you must. But do it for now. If you need sugar, eat berries or melons. If you really need sugar, grind some birch xylitol into a powder, but really try to go without. There are some natural sugar substitutes, like xylitol or stevia, but others claim to be natural substitutes but are really not good for you at all. Blue agave is one of these. Don’t go there. If you can’t go without sugar, use honey, but do it very sparingly. When we eat sugar, a couple things happen. First, our body digests the sugar first, rather than fat. Second, in order to digest sugar, our body creates an aid that is a molecule wrapped in water. So we gain water weight (think bloated), which is not what we’re trying to do.

No processed foods. Period.

No processed grains. No white flour or white rice.

Try to avoid all corn and soy. They aren’t terrible for you, but they counter your attempts to lose weight.

Limit beans, like pinto, black, and kidney. They also are super good for you, but don’t help you lose weight. You can add them back in a month.

What about drinks?

Drink water. And TONS of it. You should drink ½ your body weight in ounces. So if you weigh 150 pounds, you should be drinking 75 ounces of water every day. That’s a lot more than you probably are drinking currently.

Drink milk, but not tons of it.

That’s it. Definitely no soda, no juice, and no flavored water, because it isn’t a whole food most of the time. Check the ingredients.

Will I lose weight?

YES! Simply eliminating processed foods from your diet will cause you to lose 5-8 pounds immediately. A lot of your initial weight loss will be from water loss, particularly because your body will shed those molecules wrapped in water since you won’t be digesting glucose anymore. After the first week of weight loss (truly 5-10 pounds in a week), you will continue to drop weight quickly because you will be consuming nutrient dense foods that force your body to burn even more calories to digest them. Because of the moderate protein and high fat, you will actually consume way fewer calories in the day but will feel totally full.

When I was eating this way, I tracked my calories just to see how much I was eating. I found it hard to even eat 1200 calories in a day. I was completely full and satisfied, but forced myself to eat more to get over 1200 in a day. Even at that, my baby started struggling because I wasn’t getting enough calories to support her too. Yet I didn’t want to eat anything else because I was already full.

I found I lost about 5-6 pounds a week eating this way. When I stopped eating this way, I gained back 3-4 pounds, but then evened out again. I also found that I had so much more energy, felt much lighter (not just weigh-wise, but overall just a feeling of lightness), and my body was working really well. When I introduced grains and sugar back into my diet, I got constipated, was very bloated, had a hard time digesting, and felt bogged down. I like that this diet really makes me feel GOOD.

How long do I have to eat this way?

Well, eat this way as long as you want. You really need to do it for more than 2 weeks because you only lose water at first. To get to burning fat quickly, you need to go 2 weeks or more. Four weeks is ideal. But you might do four weeks and want to lose more, so go longer. After you go off this eating method, stick with whole foods as much as possible. Try to eat whole foods at least 90% of the time. You can eat sugars and other "Don't's" sparingly, so you can keep living. But if you’re like me, I had tons of self control when eating this way and NONE when I stopped. So I am eating way more sugar than I should. WAY more. Still, I avoid other processed foods as much as possible, so the sugars and grains I eat at least aren’t compounded by other garbage.

I love food and it is an integral part of my life. I’m not going to go without baking and cooking and all the wonderful traditions and holidays and everything that I love about food. But I can eat almost anything as long as 90% of what I’m eating on a regular basis is whole foods that are good for us.

And don’t stop eating your veggies! You’ll find out just how much a difference consistent veggies in large quantities make. You’ll feel so much better if you keep eating lots.