Noom Week 16

Weight Lost This Week: 1.6 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 14.8 lbs

So I’ve pulled off the pound I gained and a bit extra. So effing close to the 150s. I actually saw the 150s three days this week on the scale, but then it bounced back up and now it is the weekend so it hasn’t gone back down again. I’m sure it will in a few days.

This week I tried really hard to keep my counts down. I did well I’d say every day but Saturday. Yesterday we had our cousins over for dinner and there was wine and dessert. There was also dessert Saturday night. Even with all of that, I know I’m still doing better when we have these kinds of things than I would have if I wasn’t on Noom.

I’m in the part of the course where they are talking about “finishing”. I’m not there yet. I’ve been playing with the same five pounds for about a month now, and I still want to lose a solid twenty beyond where I am now. I suppose some people would be close to their “BIG PICTURE” goal after four months, but my pace is slow. And it’s because I’m still not feeling super deprived that I”m still on the train I suppose. It does feel more like “this is the way I eat now” versus “when I hit goal I can do this or that again”.

I can see a point probably where I could transition to a My Fitness Pal just to watch my counts as opposed to paying for the Noom. I’m not utilizing as much of it as I should. All of the articles and the recipes, I should be using them more. Maybe as school winds down and I have more time. It’s just so hard to get everything in right now with work and home and exercise. Having a 40 minute commute takes an hour and a half of my day off the table, and that’s a big chunk. I basically come home, if I work out, then I do that, and by that time it is 6pm. Then it is dinner, maybe an hour or two with the fam, and then off to bed because I’m up at 5 every day.

For now, I’ll keep at it. Enjoying what I can, buckling down when I can.

Noom Week 15

Weight Lost This Week: +1.0 lb
Total Weight Lost: 13.2 lbs

Yes, that’s a gain for this week. It was Spring Break here in CT and while I didn’t go crazy, I did definitely slip off the app, didn’t track every day or read my articles. I traveled twice, once with girlfriends for an overnight in Vermont, and another two days in Delaware to visit my son and his family. I stayed active, exercising every day, which is probably why the damage isn’t worse.

So I’ve accepted the result, knew the choices I was making when I made them, and am moving on. It’s time to regroup this week and get the scale back on track. I really haven’t lost much in at least four weeks, and I am not going to accept that as the way things are now. I am going to track, I’m going to focus on eating those green and yellow foods, getting in my exercise and cutting out the extras that have been sneaking back into my diet lately.

The weather is improving so it will be easier to sneak in a walk after dinner if I want or get up early on the weekends for an extra long walk. I’ve bought a beach pass so I’m looking forward to biking and walking and swimming down near the Sound as the weather warms. I want to keep building on the progress I’ve made and move forward from it.

Noom Week 14

Weight Lost This Week: .4 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 14.2 lbs

Sigh. I feel like a broken record. I’m frustrated with the pace.

I reached out to my coach this week. I’m not really understanding the role of the coach in Noom. I was excited to hear we had coaches at first. I thought that we would get a lot of feedback, get specific tips and be able to have those conversations about “hey, I’m about to make some bad choices, can you help?”

That’s not what the coaches do in Noom, apparently. They are “goal setters”. Mine sends me lots of fluffy questions about “what should we work on this week?” or “Where do you feel you’re at in the journey”. I don’t hear back from mine right away when I reach out. Sometimes it is days. I don’t really see the point. I kind of want someone to kick my ass at this point and say, “Hey! You! I am noticing that you have two drinks every day and if you want to know why you aren’t losing more than .5-1lb a week, that’s it! Stop it already!”

I did get a better answer after a bit of back and forth with her this week. I need to do a better job of communicating what I need, and understanding that they just aren’t exactly the role I envisioned. But I think if I reach out more and ask more questions I’ll see more of what I’m looking for. She sent me some articles on plateauing. I actually thought I’d kind of busted through the stall in my loss this week. I actually saw a number in the 159 range one morning, but it disappeared quickly and I haven’t seen it since. To be fair, I celebrated the start of Spring Break this week at a birthday party on Friday and a girl’s weekend away so it’s not really a surprise.

And frankly, I do see changes. So I’m not throwing in the towel even with the slow pace. At the birthday party, I wasn’t tempted by the beautiful cupcakes or the stuffed breads (OK maybe the stuffed breads, but I didn’t eat them). On girl’s weekend, I didn’t drink the excessive amounts I might have in the past. I had one dessert, one fancy cocktail, and then I stuck with spiked seltzers and water. I made healthy choices when eating out. So I know the numbers will move back downward as a get back to my routine this week.

Clothes are fitting better. I’m officially down a pants size. I bought two pairs last week and they’re both 12s instead of 14s. I’m moving faster when I walk. Yesterday we took a hike and I made it up 550 feet of a mountain to a beautiful lookout. It was hard, no question, but not as hard as it would have been three months ago. So I’m still on this journey, even if it is slow. I’m seeing progress, even if it is slow. I will let my “rider” stay in charge this week, not my “elephant”.

Noom Week 13

Weight Lost This Week: 1.4 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 13.8 lbs

This looks better than I realized when I stepped on the scale this morning. When I stepped on the scale, the scale was up from yesterday, and yesterday’s reading had reflected a nice bust through the current plateau I seem to be experiencing. I had hoped it would be down again, and that would have pushed me into a new “decade”. It also would have meant a bigger loss to post for this week.

But I’d forgotten that I’d posted a gain last week, so this actually pulls that down and still takes me nearly a pound beyond that. I guess I’ll take it. I’ve been getting so frustrated with the scale lately. It feels like I’ve already lost my momentum and I still have so much farther I want to go. While I’m pleased with being down essentially a pound a week at this point, the numbers lately have slowed way down. I weighed the exact same number most of this week for no understandable reason: no bingeing, healthy choices, rest, exercise.

But I guess I’ll have to just understand that if you are staying in this for the long haul, sometimes it is just that way. And I can’t let it stop me from soldiering on, because I do not want to stop where I am. My body likes this spot, hovering around the 160 mark. It’s where I’ve stopped the last two times I’ve lost weight, because this is where my body makes me work harder for it.

There have definitely been non scale victories this week to celebrate, though. I wore a pair a pants to work this week (meaning they were loose enough to actually be seen at work) that I haven’t been able to wear in years. I remember trying them on in January and being shocked at how tight they were. I also got a new pair of jeans yesterday, and they are officially a size down from what I’ve been wearing for the last few years. Very exciting.

But the most exciting for me personally, and part of the YBP goal I have on Noom (Your Big Plan) is that I’m seeing signficant improvements in my performance exercise wise. I did a three mile race yesterday. I know I can’t run much any more, and I’ve resigned myself to that, but I can still race as a walker. The same idea applies: you push yourself to go as fast as you can, and beat your previous times.

In January and February my fast walking pace was around 17:30. I have noticed it has been moving downward, and even set as my exercise goal in Noom to get it down to 16:30. Yesterday I averaged around 15:45 minute miles during my race. My goal had been to finish the three miles in 48 minutes and I finished in 46:53. So now the goal of walking a half marathon is definitely in play. I added six more miles to my race miles yesterday, walking 9 miles total. I’m going to add a mile a week for the next few weeks and by the end of my I should be able to walk a full 13.1. I’d like to do it in a real race, but so far I haven’t found one that fits my schedule and is walker friendly.

So even though the scale isn’t where I’d like it to be, I’m seeing progress. So I’m soldiering on, trying to work on even more habits, pull back on the drinking and keep incorporating more activity into my days. I’m trying to manage the stress and everything else so I can keep moving forward. I’m juggling, but so far the balls are still in the air.