Noom Week 4

Weight Lost This Week: 0.4 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 5.8 lbs

This number would have been a whole pound less if I’d written this entry yesterday (didn’t I just write that two weeks ago?). My husband and I went out to dinner last night. And while I made mostly healthy choices, any restaurant meal is going to pump up the scale.

I considered lying about it in this blog post, but that kind of reduces the point of this blog. This space is supposed to be helping me document my journey and help me sort out the junk going on in my head that prevents my success in dropping the weight. I’m determined that this time will be different, and so lying in a blog post about this week’s successes and failures isn’t going to help me.

I feel like I’m doing very well with the food choices. I’m really starting to lose the taste for sweets and starting to enjoy (and not feel like it is a chore to eat) veggies and hummus for snacks or hard boiled eggs and an apple for breakfast.

But I’m still drinking more than I should and I know that is likely what hindered me this week. It was a rough week at work and I definitely did more than a little “I deserve this” drinking. I had really backed off wine in the last few weeks but I opened a bottle this week and it just goes down way too quickly for me.

This point, the four week mark, is usually when I would walk away from a program because it isn’t going quickly enough. I should have lost ten pounds by now! Why isn’t it coming off faster when I’m eating well and exercising! And I don’t have all of those answers, but I do see glimmers of hope this time.

I’m noticing a difference in how I feel exercising. I have always exercised and when I was on the treadmill this week I noticed the usual speeds and time frames I was doing didn’t feel quite so challenging any more. I am definitely sleeping better. And I am liking the structure of logging the food and water and the lessons every day. It is keeping my mind in the game, where if I was just food logging I’m not sure I would still be there (hello, online weight watchers).

So I’m going to keep at it. The last time I dropped a lot of weight, thirteen years ago (!!), there were weeks like this where the loss was slight. But it was still a loss, and you have to just take that as part of the journey. That’s what I am telling myself this week. Keep at it, keep trying, progress and not perfection. Just keep swimming.

Noom Week 3

Weight lost this week: 1.6 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 5.4 lbs

Slow and steady is what I’m experiencing so far with Noom. And that’s OK, I’m telling myself, despite the occasional frustration with the pace. I’m grateful to be doing something that is sticking after three weeks, and I am finding it easier to make the right choices.

Example: a girlfriend called me out of the blue yesterday for lunch, and I didn’t panic. I wanted to order a salad because I knew the restaurant has good ones. And I did, and it was delicious. I’m feeling good about wanting to make the right choices.

I’m still a little frustrated with the family meal situation. My husband came home all excited to make pasta carbonara last night. If you don’t know, it’s pasta with a sauce made from cream, bacon and eggs. But in order for this to stick, I have to learn how to deal with this stuff. My husband is never going to want to have grilled chicken breast and steamed veggies with brown rice for dinner. If I can figure out how to portion control and add big salads and veggies on the sides I’ll be able to figure it out.

I’m still working on cutting alcohol down. I’m definitely drinking less but still find myself wanting a drink at the end of a long work day. But I’m definitely cutting back.

Just wanting to keep at this for the long haul. Four weeks has been my max for the last few years in trying to eat healthier. But so far this feels like something I’ll be able to continue indefinitely. Which is good. At the rate I’m going it will be Christmas before I lose what I want to lose.

Noom: Week 2

Weight lost this week: 1.6 lbs
Total weight lost: 3.8 lbs

All in all I have to say I am happy with Noom and feel like it is something I can continue. This week I passed my ten day trial period and so I’ve paid for a five month subscription to keep going. It feels doable.

This week a few small changes came out of some of the Nooming I’m doing:

• I started taking walks after work in the dark with my headlamp
• I began finding new options for take to work breakfasts other than PowerBars
• I was able to decrease my alcoholic beverage consumption

None of these things are earth shaking but all put together are bad habits that I’m starting to turn around. I always used to pack a good lunch for work, but when I started working forty minutes from home breakfast became a challenge. But I realized I can prep cold oatmeal and fruit or hardboiled eggs and an apple or yogurt and granola the night before and those choices are just as portable as a bar.

The one challenge I had this week was a girls’ night on Saturday. Even with drinking less and eating all the healthy options that we shared I still found the scale up over a pound (if I’d written this yesterday I would be cheering over double the amount lost this week) overnight. I’m trying to not fret over it; the scale is still down over a pound for the week. And I still made great choices: I made homemade hummus instead of using storebought. I ate fruit, veggies, multigrain chips, raw nuts and salad. There were cookies and chocolates that I didn’t go near. I had two glasses of wine where normally I would definitely have had more. I drank three bottles of water instead of more wine. So overall there is a win embedded in there but I’m wrapped up in what the scale said.

But that’s the one great thing I’m learning from Noom. You know your head messes with you on these things. It’s called thought distortion. That all or nothing mindset of having one setback and throwing in the towel on the whole thing. I had a good week, I’ve made progress, and this is going to take a long time, not just two weeks. So today is a new day, this week is a new week, and I’m marching forward. Mostly.

Noom: Week 1

So here I am, back again on the weight loss train. Yo yo dieter much? I think since I’ve started this blog over eight years ago I’ve dropped and regained the same 20+ pounds at least twice, maybe three times. I’ve documented the Fast Metabolism diet (too restrictive for me) and Weight Watchers online (not enough support for me) here. Now, I’ve moved onto Noom.

I just completed week 1. This week I lost 2.2 pounds.

What I liked: Similar to Weight Watchers and My Fitness Pal, you log all of your food, water and exercise into an app. It’s easy and clear. Foods are categorized as Green, Yellow and Red based on calorie density. You have an overall calorie daily budget, but within each category you have guidelines as well. Obviously green foods are the ones you should be eating the most of: think veggies, fruits, whole grains. Yellow are in moderation: dairy products, lean meats. And red are the least, the ones with high calorie density: nuts, red meat, alcohol.

So far, for me, I am really liking the daily lessons. That’s the piece that was missing out of WW online for me. Every morning I read a few articles tailored to input I gave the Noom app. It starts my day off in the right mindset for making better choices and understanding why I’ve been not doing that for the last while. It is also very forgiving, reminding you that perfection is not the goal and that you’ll do better in the long run if you know that there are times when you will not be happy with a choice you made. There is no “program” of food or “right or wrong” or off limit anything, which is also nice.

I started off this week slow, I just logged for a few days to see where my food was landing, and then by Wednesday or Thursday got a little more serious and tried making better choices. So even with not being super careful, I lost two pounds which feels like a win.

What I didn’t like: The only part that seems odd to me are the daily weigh ins. If the scale fluctuates and we know that then weighing daily seems a bit counter intuitive. But I’m getting used to the routine of it.

Today’s lesson was all about motivation and I know I’m clearly in the honeymoon phase, but I’ll take it. It’s better than where I was a week ago.

Back Again

It’s been over a year since I blogged here, but I have been traversing my posts here in the last few weeks. It’s the start of a New Year which usually means I’m trying to get myself back on track after an indulgent Christmas holiday break, and this year is no exception. Or maybe it is the exception because it is COVID world and I’m working harder than ever, which has lead to months, not weeks, of over indulging.

I’ve got to break the habits. I mentioned to a friend the other day that I just don’t have the motivation. I want to lose weight but every time I try I just keep circling around the same old habits, the same old issues and nothing changes. I’m 40 pounds heavier than I was six years ago. Part of that is menopause, but part of that is me just letting things go.

The irony is I’m more active than ever. I walk, I bike, I swim. I do workouts at home at 530 in the morning. But the scale keeps creeping up anyway.

So today I signed up for a 10 day trial of Noom. It’s supposed to be all about the psychology of why we gain weight and how to use the tools of psychology to lose it. Which sounds right for me. I know all of what I’m supposed to do. I just don’t do it. So I answered all of the questions, set up the account and input my first sets of starting points.

Noom claims that I can reach my goal by June. That sounds amazing. And at this point, I feel ready to try. I can’t stay like this. I hate my clothes, I hate the way I look in the mirror and in the age of Zoom I REALLY hate the way I look on that. Plus I am active, and I want to do more. I want to be faster. I want to be able to get back into events if they ever come back. I want to walk a half marathon and do the 40 mile bike tour of NYC I signed up for last year (and who knows if will ever happen).

I know that I’m somewhat more healthy because I’m active but a BMI of 34 is just not healthy. And I feel ready to start making some changes. I’ll try to stay motivated by blogging about the process.

Here we go…again.