Noom Week 12

Weight Gained This Week: +.6 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 11.4 lbs

I’m definitely frustrated to see a gain on the scale. It’s the first one since I started. This whole week has confused me. I ate well all week, cut back on my nightly drinks and the scale stubbornly inched up early in the week and then held. Yesterday it dropped back down a bit, but then a lunch out with a girlfriend and a dinner out with the husband made the slight up tick complete.

This feels like a plateau although it seems absolutely insane to me that I could be plateauing with so far to go in the journey. I’m not even to my ten percent goal yet. The little yellow dot Noom puts on that goal possible date keeps moving outward. First it was sitting around March 12, then March 26 and now it is bumped out to April 9. And the nice line that Noom charts for you every day when you put in your weight definitely has a flatter slope to it after today.

I’m trying to focus on the positive. That the lunch and the dinner out are one offs, and i still chose better than I would have before I started this journey. I would have probably added a sweet cocktail to last night’s dinner before I started this and last night I was satisfied. I added a bit of leftover pasta to my salads this week for bulk, because we were low on some other ingredients, maybe that’s it.

Either way, I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep moving forward. Even with the slight gain, the clothes are definitely feeling loser, I’m fitting into some clothes that were too tight before, and things are moving even if the scale is not. So I’m going to keep marching on and not give up like I have in the past when weeks like this happen. I’m going to keep going. I’ll go to the grocery today to make sure I don’t run out of veggies this week and make sure my salads are high on veg and low on calorie dense foods.

I’m not going to let this setback stop me.

Noom Week 11

Weight Lost This Week: 1.4 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 12.6 lbs

I spent most of this week frustrated that I was just playing around with the same pound that popped up in response to last weekends indulgences. The scale didn’t move, then it moved a bit, then it went back up, then it stayed put, and I got frustrated. They call it a “slip” in Noom. When the scale doesn’t cooperate, and you get frustrated, and then you make bad choices because you’re just thinking “this will never work, it never works, I’ll always be this weight.” Couple that with some bad news at work and I had several days of just not being in the game.

But something happened Thursday. I was able to push past it. I saw what was happening, recognized it, and decided I wouldn’t let it get me. I wouldn’t let those “thought distortions” (as Noom calls them) stop me from soldiering on. I am doing well, I told myself, down over ten pounds now, lighter than I’ve been in nearly two years, and on track to keep going. Why would I give that up now? Sure, this week sucked. But that doesn’t mean I have to make it suck more by ruining all the progress I’ve made.

So I went to the gym that day and rode the bike with a vengeance, thinking the whole time of that number where I was stuck at and saying it wouldn’t beat me. Obviously I thought about more than that but it kept popping in there. What I want, the “Big Picture” of my goal. Yes, I want to lose weight and fit my jeans and feel better, but what I really want is to be able to reach those athletic goals I have. To be able to go farther and faster. To swim faster, bike faster, walk faster. Be able to hike. Be able to walk a half marathon. To feel like I belong at these events doing all of these things.

And then the shift happened. The scale responded. I tried on a pair of jeans that I haven’t worn for five years and they *almost* fit. Well, they fit but they weren’t comfortable yet. Another five pounds maybe. That’s when I knew: I was going to be able to push past this. And this morning, when the scale was down again, I saw the validation. The hard work is paying off. It will go in ebbs and flows, slips and slides. I just have to stay the course.

Noom Week 10

Weight Lost This Week: .2 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 11 lbs

Yeah, but it’s still a loss.

I’m OK with it. I know exactly why the scale is showing such a small loss. It was a lot of wine and a dinner out on Friday, a lunch with girlfriends at a local winery after shopping on Saturday, and a dinner out again on Saturday night. I made all of those decisions and I’m (mostly) OK with the results, because I thoroughly enjoyed all of those meals.

And, on the plus side, I made far better choices than I would have a year ago or six months ago. I ate a burger over a salad, I had mussels and tomato soup. I didn’t have dessert, or fried fish, or the fried calamari that I love. Yes, I’m beating myself up about the alcohol. It’s certainly why my weight loss is not over a pound a week at this stage, because it’s the one area where sometimes I treat myself instead of working to overhaul my choices there.

But on the other hand, I am living. I feel like I can keep doing this. That what I am doing is working and I will be able to keep on this path. So even if it is slow, it is sustainable. I’m seeing the differences in my walking paces and my stamina. I’m feeling better, less tired. My mood is improving.

There will always be dinners out, lunches with girlfriends, and vacations. It’s about being able to make smarter choices most of the time, not being perfect all of the time. So I’m not down much today. In a few days the alcohol bloat will go away from my two days of indulgence and then the scale will respond. If the last two months has taught me anything it is not to panic if the scale goes up after a meal or two out. So I’m not. I’m in this. I’m still in this.

Noom Week 9

Weight Lost This Week: 1.4 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 10.8 lbs

This week felt really good. I’m starting to feel my clothes getting looser. I can see in the mirror the spare tire that had ballooned around my waist is deflating. And I’m definitely finding it easier to choose foods that will serve my goals.

A girlfriend and I went out to dinner on Thursday. It was my idea. Early in my days on this program, I worried about going out to restaurants with a friend. Would they say something about the choices I was making? Would I be able to make a solid choice when I see my friend order yummy pasta or eggplant parm? But this week? While I definitely admired her pasta, I truly enjoyed my salad with goat cheese, beets and grilled chicken. It tasted delicious and the scale didn’t go up the next morning, as it often does when I eat out at a restaurant.

I’m happy to have finally crossed the ten pound line. I felt like I was just edging close to it for so long. Now that goal is under my belt, the next goal is the next “decade”.

Another thing I’m noticing is exercise feels better. I’ve always been active, even at my heaviest, but for the first time in a long time I’m noticing that it is feeling really good. The endorphins kick in, my walking paces are faster, I’m not as winded. This was honestly one of my big goals beyond just the weight loss: to be able to be more active and push further and faster. To have food fueling me instead of holding me back. And now that I’m starting to see that too? It feels very good. And motivating me to keep on this path.