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Last year, I successfully lost 15 pounds. I didn’t starve myself, I didn’t deprive myself of things I like and I didn’t have to work my lifestyle around my food choices. I wanted to lose 23 pounds, but when I got to 15, I got lazy. You would think that seeing changes in the mirror would have motivated me to continue, but truthfully, I got comfortable. I was wearing my goal size jeans and I felt good.
So I got complacent. Life got crazy for a couple of months, then the holidays came around, and before you know it, I’d gained back four pounds….and I had no one to blame for it but myself. I chose to put the food in my mouth, I chose to drink some calories and I finally gave myself permission to stop the one cardio habit that I hated: running.
Then, the last two weeks of December, I threw it all to the wind and stopped paying attention to the scale. I didn’t get anymore weight, but I felt bloated. I was lacking in energy and I was started to feel guilty about undoing the good I had done. Then I saw another photo of myself and it hit me — I had to start caring again.
I don’t do resolutions, but January is a good time to get refocused on things in your life that you’ve let slide while you celebrate with loved ones, shop till you drop and enjoy all the holiday treats. And, the reality is that it’s a lot harder to return to, or start, healthier habits when you are surrounded by egg nog and Christmas cookies. So, we do the only thing we can, which is to commit to starting anew when January comes around because it feels futile to start sooner.
With that, here I am, on day #1 of my new Noom program. Noom isn’t your typical weight loss program. It’s not a list of foods to eat and workouts to do, but a more guided process towards getting healthy while reaching your goals. It all starts with a single step, right?
If you’ve been on social media at all, you’ve probably seen a Noom ad. The process is simple — answer a few questions, provide your email address, and within just a few moments, you’ll have received your free custom plan. That plan arrives via email, so you can download and read at your leisure. Using the specifics you provided, like your weight, your height, a few insights into your habits and health, it breaks down your first 14 days, step by step.
The onboarding process helps you learn a few basics about eating, such as calorie density. The goal is to eat more low-calorie dense foods, as they provide a smaller amount of calories in a large amount of food. Foods that are naturally full of more water, such as fruits, vegetables, cooked grains, lean meat, and more, are low-calorie dense foods. The opposite of that is high-energy dense foods, where you get a lot of calories in a small amount of food, like chocolate and alcohol.
In short, you get to eat more foods and consume less calories. We feel full by volume, not calories. That’s kind of empowering to think about, right?
You and your Noom weight loss coach will work together as you continue through the program, learning about yourself and how to become a little healthier, in ways that work with your goals and lifestyle, on a daily basis.
Tonight, I get to tell my coach a little bit about myself, and I’ll begin to log my activity and my food/beverage consumption. This helps my coach to learn more about me so she can continue to work with me on a more personal level, providing help that’s customized to me, not just my numbers. I’ve already got a new outlook and I can start tomorrow’s meal plan — which I typically try to plan in advance anyway — on a much better note without immediate setbacks.
If you’re on the path to weight loss or becoming healthier, consider Noom!
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