Christine Trimpe on Healthy Habits with Dori DeCarlo

0:00 She is sure, she is straw is straw, She is true, is true, she is praise, pray, she is she is you. Hello, everyone, welcome to today's Word of Mom Radio. Here on the Word of Mom Media Network. I'm your host, Dori Di Carlo, and you know we are here week after week, show after show, breaking those myths that morepreneurs and business women, especially those of us building our businesses from home, that we're just dabbling in between bake sales and getting our nails done. We're not. We are smart, we are savvy, and we are sharing the wisdom of women in business and in life. And I'm looking forward to bringing today's guest into our Healthy Habits show. Christine Trimp is a transformative wellness leader dedicated to empowering professional Christian women to reclaim their health and vitality through her faith based, holistic approach to weight loss. As the founder of the Sugar Freed Me method and a certified Sugar Licensed practitioner, Christine helps clients achieve lifelong healing from sugar addiction and food related struggles. Her clients experienced dramatic transformations, including sustained weight loss and breakthroughs in physical, emotional and spiritual health with over eighty percent retention in her programs.

1:28 After a personal one hundred pounds weight loss journey, Christine created a method that goes beyond conventional diety, integrating faith, emotional regulation, and metabolic health principles. Christine's own story, marked by a significant health journey, an embrace of cheogenic eating, and a breakthrough lifestyle change, has inspired thousands since she first shared it in her blog and across social media. Her journey has been highlighted in wellness magazines including Women's World and First for Women, and featured on dietdoctor dot com, where she was named a top low carb success story.

2:12 I can keep going, but this is just a fascinating conversation to getting ready to have. So with all that being said, Christine, welcome to Word of Mom, Rady Dory. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really delighted to be here with you. It's my pleasure and I would love for you to take us on your journey, especially the weight loss journey and really how your faith played a role in it. Yeah, I'll start from my turning point story and it actually was almost ten years ago now I can't believe it. I've been doing this for ten years. But ten years ago, I was on an anniversary trip with my husband to celebrate our twenty fifth anniversary, and we left our home state of Michigan and went to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, which is beautiful, and my husband had planned out some hikes for us. So I went to the trail marker that he wanted to go up to Nymph Lake.

3:07 And I looked at the trail marker and it set a half a mile, and I thought I can do a half a mile. But I started up that path and let me tell you, Dory, I only got about halfway up that path to that lake before I began gasping for air and I could not go another step. I had to tell my husband that he could go on without me, and he said, are you sure, And I'm like, yeah, I'm positive, because I needed a moment to myself. In that moment, again, I was gasping for air, my legs were killing me. I sure, just so devastated that I couldn't go on. And the reason being is because my body was not able to do it the hike.

3:51 At that time, I was one hundred pounds overweight, more than one hundred pounds overweight. I would have been what doctors were now classifying me as morbidly obey. And I was just about. Having a time in my life when the chronic health issues were just starting to pile up. I'd already been told I was pre diabetic. At that time, I knew I was carrying around all this extra weight. My knees were in pain, and I sat on the side of that trail on a stump, and I remember just starting to have a conversation with myself, berating myself, and then got to the point where, like, I cannot go on like this. I was not even fifty years old at that time, I was only forty eight, and I started thinking about my future. Am I going to be around to meet my grandchildren? Like only forty eight years old? This, I can't, like, I cannot live exhausted like this any longer.

4:46 So I remember saying a simple prayer and it was just God, I want to I just want to feel better. I just want to feel better, because at that point in my life's journey, I had been yo yo dieting for thirty years, and I never thought that I'd be ever be able to lose weight and keep it off because I'd never been able to maintain a weight loss, so I just wanted to feel better. I didn't want to have to sit down and sit on the sidelines of life any longer. So I call that my turning point moment, my no Plan B moment. I was determined to go home from that trip and take ownership of my health. I want to know how you did it. Yeah, I really do. Yeah.

5:27 So one of the first things I did when I got home from that trip, and I told my husband still while we were on the trip, I told him, when I get home, I will make an appointment for a sleep study. And I had been putting that off for probably ten years that I had been chronically snoring, keeping us both awake at night, and it got really bad in the mountain altitude too, So I did that. Monday morning. I called. I said, give me the first available appointment. I don't want to chicken out on it because I knew I would be coming home with a seapap machine, because I knew my diagnosis would be obstructive sleep apnea, and I just didn't want to do that. It sounded so uncomfortable to me, but sure enough, I did come home with a seapap and that was the very first medical intervention that I took that I'm so grateful for that I finally found the resolve to do it, to do something I'd been putting off for so long because part of a health journey that was super important to me and to all the women that I coach.

6:28 I see that as well too. I really encourage them they need to consider their sleep hygiene as well. So when I started sleeping better, I started waking up more refreshed, and then I was able to just start tackling things one by one. And shortly after that obstructive sleep apnea diagnosis, I also started having painful ovarian cyst and my doctor ordered an ultrasound for me, and it was discovered during my ultrasound that I had fatty liver disease. So the combination of all those three things happening with like in a six to eight week time period really even strengthened my resolve to continue taking ownership of my health. And the fatty liver disease is what really sparked my interest and got me on the path to this sugar freed lifestyle because I learned that my liver was full of fat because of the standard American diet that I was eating, which was higher in sugar than when I eat now, like not just sugar the sweet stuff, but sugar in the form of the carbohydrates from pasta and from bread and potato and things like that. So that keen interest that I had in the fatty liver taught me that my weight problems, my obesity problems, were all about my hormonal health, and that sugar is a major hormone disruptor, and I needed to learn things like I got to balance my blood sugar so that my insulin hormone would be balanced. And when my insulin hormone got healthy, that's really As I started

8:00 getting my insulin hormone healthy, that's really when the weight loss magic started happening. And adopting a low carb lifestyle is when the weight started just falling off. I would love for you to talk to us about the sugar freed method and really what sugar does to our bodies. Yes, when I learned all of this about sugar, I was really blown away because I had been I had been adhering to dietary advice like everything in moderation and eat less and move more. So all of those years, like I had been doing other programs where I would count my points or count my calories, but some of those foods I was still eating were still high in sugar or high in carbohydrates, and someone like me, my metabolic function was not good. And normally when you see people that have fatty liver disease or are carrying around a lot of obesity, they really need to focus in on their metabolic health. So the sugar free me method is simply the easiest way to explain. It is to get your blood sugars in balance. And you when I was eating a diet higher in carbohydrates, for example, when I was still working in corporate America, I would go out and have lunch with my friends and it might have been a sub sandwich, or it might have been, you know, a pasta dish or something. It was higher in carbohydrates. And do you know how in the middle of the afternoon you feel this crash. It's like, oh, I just really feel like I could take a nap right now. And that's your blood sugar crashing. That's you know,

9:30 after you eat a meal that's higher in sugar, higher in carbohydrates, your blood sugar is going to spike up, and then when it crashes, that's when your body's saying, hey, I need some more attention. So for many, many years I lived as a sugar burner because I was responding to those sugar crashes and just trying to keep my energy up with a diet higher in carbohydrates. But now, what I learned through this journey is as I began to lower the amount of carbohydrates I was eating daily, my blood sugar stabilized and my insulin hormone began healing. And insulin is your fat storing hormone. So when I learned that that was like, that was like the key that I needed to, you know, to find finally find success in a weight loss journey and also in maintaining a weight loss for life.

10:20 I one hundred percent believe that this is the way that I'm going to live for life. I really monitor the sugar that I eat in the form of white sugar, sweet sugars, and also you know, potato chips, tortilla chips, things like that. I know that they were harmful to my health, and so abstaining from them is really working for me. And let me tell you that it is. It is truly possible to break up with sugar and bustle sugar cravings because the less of that that you eat, you know, that will really relieve the cravings. And I don't really miss eating foods like that that were destroying my metabolism. You know, it's interesting to me because people are under that misnomer diet soda.

11:03 Hmm. That's one of the first things to me that just I see people chugging their sugar free diet sodas, thinking oh myne so yeah right, yeah, and I don't eat you break it to them, Christine, That's okay. I will. This is something I ask my coaching clients all the time. If they were to look at the ingredient label, what is the nutritional benefit of diet soda. It's pure chemicals. There is no nutritional benefit in that. And now, as we're focusing on our health and this healing journey, we want to choose nutrient rich foods. And also it's been proven that diet soda triggers sugar cravings too. I mean, it really keeps those cravings alive in your mind. And the goal of the Sugar Freed Me method is to quiet those cravings so that when we are cute or triggered emotionally, and so many of us want to cope with food, you know when we are triggered emotionally too.

12:06 But the we quieting those sugar cravings are something that are really going to help you step into the freedom. And that's what the freed part is in the sugar freed method. It's interesting to me because I am not I'm not a soda drinker. I'd rather drink water. I love to drink tea. I've never had a cup of coffee. I don't use sugar. I don't use honey in my tea. I don't you know, once in a blue mood, if I'm drinking a Chay tea i wanted a little sweet, I'll use a tea school honey. But I'm not a big sugar person. I love to bake. I give it away. But that being said, when I do want to enjoy something, I want to enjoy it. So how do you balance this, Christine?

12:49 Well, fortunately, there are so many wonderful creative recipe craters out there that will use sugar substitutes like stevia and erythratol, and you can find all kinds of life carb desserts. If you go on Pinterest or go on. Google, you know to look so there is a way to have that sweet satisfaction. And I don't. I don't do a whole lot of baking. I never really did. My source of sugar preference was like the potato chips or the potatoes and the French vice things. Like that that are and bread. I used to really fill up on bread, and knowing then when I learned that that was really damaging my metabolic health because I was insulin resistant. And it sounds like you might be someone that not everybody is insulin resistant, but if your doctor has told you you're insulin resistant or you have metabolic syndrome, then you are very sensitive to these blood sugar swings and the insulin hormone being the fat storing hormone, and there is a way to heal that. And when you see people carrying around a lot of obesity and you know, morbidly obese, most likely their doctor has told them they're insulin resistant, so to heal the hormone insulin to get it in a healthy state, to lower the blood marker reading really abstaining and lowering the amount of carbohydrates you're eating on a daily basis can really help heal and reverse a lot of those chronic diseases which I ended up reversing my pre diabetes.

14:14 I reversed my obstructural sleep appening, I reversed my fatty liver disease, and I reversed my morbid obesity. And I did that by the choices and the food that I make. On that note, think of what Christine is saying here. Please, we're going to take a quick break, say thank you to our sponsors, and we'll be back here in just a moment. On Word of Mom Radio. She is brave, she is bold, she is you, and we want to tell your story. Are you ready to share your journey with us on Word of Mom Radio? Go to wordomomradio dot com and register as a guest. We want to tell your story because when you win, we all win.

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15:54 And we're back here with Christine Trimp. We are talking about the sugar freed mema and really the epidemic in our country, and I want to switch over to childhood obesity because that is so frightening to me, and it is such a learned behavior. So often it is very rare that you see a healthy weighted family, I'll say it that way, right, an obese child, right? Yeah? How do we deal with this? Because there is what are the different contributing factors to most of this?

16:35 Christine, Well, I do think that obviously we have an obesity epidemic in this country right now. And not to. Sound like a huge conspiracy theorist, I'm not, but our food environment has only gotten worse since the you know, I'm fifty eight now, so and I did go through some periods of chubbiness when I was a child, So I think that metabolically I was, you know, very susceptible to being morbidly obese. It is not all genetics. I don't believe that either. I do one hundred percent believe it's the food environment. So I look at like school lunches, for example, now and I see I kind of cringe. I'm like, oh, my goodness, now that I know what I know. If we could remove, you know, the bags of potato chips and the chocolate chip cookies and things like that and have them as a treat occasionally for kids, most kids can handle that. But yes, we definitely need to do better. And I'm very excited about the attention that metabolic health is beginning to get in our country.

17:37 You know, we're talking about removing the dice from food, and we're talking about changing school lunches and things like that. So I do believe that I have hope. I have a lot of hope because there's a lot of awesome stories of people just like me that have been able to turn their health around for the better by choosing whole nutritious foods. I say that if I call it from God's goods, smart is bored. If God created it, it doesn't need an ingredient label. And that's typically. What I choose to put in my mouth and how I keep my body healthy. Well, on that note, what are some of the healthy alternatives, especially for our kids? And yeah, we're in healthy habits. We're all the healthy habits. Show that you write still in them. That is going to impact future generations.

18:22 Right, And oh, I wish I could have a do over with my own kids. Believe me, because I can remember going up and down every aisle of the grocery store and grabbing the things like the fruit snacks and the hostess ho hose, you know, things like that to pack in their lunches. But now, my best tip that I love to give for my young moms raising kids too, obviously start them early with whole and wholesome foods. And I would I would not. Be giving my kids this sugar laden fruit snacks and things like that factory processed. You know, it's not real fruit. It was pure chemicals. What I was given my. Kids shopping the perimeter of the grocery restore and choosing foods from those sections like your meat and your dairy, and your fish, and your fresh fruits and veggies. That is like the most wholesome, nutrient rich foods that we can eat too for our health. I think that they would grow stronger and healthier.

19:19 Well, I'm going to share a story with you my kids. I was a single mom since my kids were six, four and two. Oh wow, So they were now four, six and eight. And it was a Wednesday, so that was just snack day because Daddy was going to come down and pick him up. He only lived a half a mile away. You were very successfully divorced. And my friend Mary Allen was visiting and brought a thing of malamars. So she's having a cup of tea in malamars. I'm having a cup of tea and I have some little mini carrots. Now I'm eating some veggies. And the kids come home from school. The bus stop was literally across the street from our house, just at the small little one way street. So we income the three of them and they're all excited and what's our snack day today?

20:02 And I said, well, Mary Ellen brought malamars, and they were like, what is that? I said, Oh, it's a cookie with marshmallows and chocolate. It's delicious. And they said what else. I said, well, you know, baby carrots. All three of them picked the baby carrots and Marie Bullen was like, what have you done of these kids? And I said, but Mary Ellen, I'm the one who's eating baby carrots too. And here's the thing. I was the veggies and dip mom. I made hummus from scratch. And so now I have adult kids and grandchildren. And my grandson was so funny. I fresh squeezed orange juice. We were at my friend's house two and a half. Takes a sip and goes, oh, this helps keep me hydrated.

20:42 My friends almost fell off the chair. It was so funny. But it really is amazing when you teach your kids. As soon as they had teeth. I would pull the strings off of celery skin the back of it so it wouldn't get caught, and sliver celery and carrots, sticks and everything else. Since they were little, they are going to learn whatever you're going to give them to learn. Ye, yeah, you know what. I had chips in my house. I ate stuff. I wasn't that mom that you wouldn't let them eat anything, but you know, they'd come in, Oh, Mom, we're out of salsa, and I'd throw a couple of fresh tomatoes and some stuff in my food processor and go here you go. So I made my own things. I was always that mom. And when my kids went started eating at friends' houses, they opened up a jar of sauce and took something out of the freezer and I looked at them. I said, what do you think everybody cooks like your mother? And they were shocked that they didn't.

21:40 They thought everybody's mom was like this, and I do. I think it's really important because we model for our children all these different things. I would love for you to talk about your book, Sugar Freed, because this method is something that people need to Understan. Yeah, it is something that it's definitely written for faith based women. My faith was very instrumental in my journey because what I discovered is I was dealing with my food struggles and really examining what I had been doing all those years that I was a food addict. I was a sugar addict.

22:21 Like I was coping, I was constantly craving, and I was I talk a lot about secret eating, and you know, I was just carrying around a lot of guilt and shame about my food behaviors, you know. And then I would try for short periods of another program, but because I was still doing everything in moderation, that was like continuing to trigger the sugar craving. So what you know, getting off of sugar was really the key to what set me free. And so I see all the women that I work with, they I have very similar stories to mine. I'm very blessed in privileged to be able to coach people that are just like you know, just like me, because that makes it.

23:03 A lot easier. But I have the book broken down into four sections purposely because first of all, the first section is called Resolve it we have to figure out and get to the point like I was on the side of that mountain, like I have to do something about this. I can't continue to go on living like this. So we have to have that resolve to really take ownership of our health. And then the next section is called Restoring your Body, and that's where I give the practical information like what does this look like, what are we going to eat? When are we going to eat, when are we not going to eat? And you know the choices that we make to nourish our body every day. And then the next section is about. Renewing your mind. This really the most difficult part of this journey for me, and I warn my coaching clients too, is the emotional health.

23:50 The emotional aspect because again, most of us are that I have, that I work with and people that read my book, you know, we do cope with food a lot, and it's very common. It's not something we like to talk about, but it's very common. And then the fourth and final section of the book is redeeming your spiritual walk. And this really was a spiritual journey for me because I had neglected my faith and my spiritual growth. I was very spiritually immature for so many years. And this is really what changed my life. Is like when I began to look into God's word on how he was calling me as a believer to care for my health. I never thought that there was good guidance. I never thought to really look there for that, but I found it. And truly that's what changed my life and is changing the lives of the women.

24:40 That I have the privilege to coach. That the book is set. Up, what a great way to wrap up this conversation, Christine, what would you like to leave our listeners with and how many they reach out to you? Yeah, I would just like to leave them with considering the cravings. Like I realized that all of those years that I struggle with my weight, that I was craving all the wrong things and not just craving food. I was just craving some way to fill all the holes in my soul that I was feeling, you know, empty and shameful and guilt because of my health struggles. So if we can identify what we are truly are craving and go on this difficult journey, it is one of the hardest things you would ever do, but is one of the most worthwhile things to flip your cravings so that you can stop craving the sugar and just start craving.

25:33 I say, now I crave joy. It's like I just crave the joy in living. And that's what my book's all about. That's what I guide women through in my coaching program. So it really does come all down to what we're craving. And that's really a deep, deep question to consider and think about. It really is how can people find you Christine. They can find me on my website, which is just my name, Christine. There's a page there about my book, Sugar Freed. The subtitle is called stop Losing the Weightless Battle, Start Gaining the Victory. And there's also a whole page there about my program, which is also called the Sugar Freed Be Weightless Solution. So the book and the coaching program work hand in hand.

26:18 All of Christine's links are going to be live. Trimp is spelled t r impe. So I encourage you reach out because so many of us are dealing with the yo yo life of weight coming on and coming off. So take a look, take a read, and take off some weight because you'd really do. I like the idea that you crave joy. So Christine, thank you so much for coming and sharing your journey with us today. Thank you for having me Dory, it's been my pleasure. And for all of you tuning in, thanks so much for being here. We're going to close out with our fabulous theme song from Smith's Sisters in the Day Drivers.

27:01 So till next time, this is Dory dig Barlow saying, go out and create a marvelous you. Bye for now. She is sure she is sure, she is strong, she is strong, she is true, she is true, she is braise Bra. She is bold, she is you, she is you, she is she is sure, she is sure, she is strong, is strong, she is true, she is true, she is brave, she is bold, she is she is you, is you, she is you. She is sure of herself. Yes, she takes care of his powerful and strong. Yes, she knows who she is, has integrity, woman, strong and true. You know her by name. See this woman is you, she is sure, she is she is strong, he is strong, she is true, is true, she is braise Bra, she is bo, is you, she is you, she is she is sure, she is strong, is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, she is she, she is you, she is she is U. Adds value and hope. Has proved to be brave. See it's never too late, never time to behave reaching for dreams doesn't matter. The age believes in herself, hung from her cage, she is sure, she is sure, she is strong, is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, brave, she is she is you,

28:37 she is she, she is sure, she she is strong, she is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, brave, she is she is you.