More Noom

[bill_schubert]

I'll have my monthly chart on 1 Dec but am Nooming along and as of yesterday have participated in 350 Noom 'lessons' totaling about 74 thousand minutes of training on the physiology and psychology of eating.  

This is really what Noom is about and is worth the $150 I paid.  Most of what they say I already knew or intuited or is obvious.   They whole gig is to just eat anything but pay attention to a few aspects, overall caloric intake and food density.  So eat more grapes than raisins, more salad than cake, more whole wheat than processed crackers.

Nothing earth shattering.   Just pay attention to what you already know.  And little by little let it do its thing.  It is the long game.

So far my weight has bounced up and down when looked at on a daily basis but bit by bit I realize that I was approaching despondency when my weight was stuck at 220 for a week.  And again when it was stuck at 215.  And now it bounces up and down but I'm at 213 and looking for single digits.

I'm not starving myself or eating too much differently than before.  Instead of a big piece of pie I have a half and, really, am just as happy.  I make and eat Almond milk chocolate pudding and have a little more than a quarter of a cup for desert and it feels luxurious.

Down side:  I've not had a buttermilk biscuit in a few months and I need to fix that.  Nor cheese straws.  Maybe I'll solve both of those problems today.  But I'll likely make and freeze them in chunks I can enjoy in some moderation.

But I'm not usually hungry and I've not been able to exercise on my bike so losing weight anyway is kind of a revelation.  I feel some cake, biscuits, and pie coming on once I can blow through an hour or two on the bike and create a deficit that needs to be filled.

I've also gotten used to logging all the food and will mostly continue to do that I think.  It increases my awareness, my presence with eating.  After my Noom subscription runs out I'll likely move over to MyFitnessPal as the reviews of it are better regarding the logging and they have more of a PC presence.  Noom is mostly about the lessons and has nearly zero PC presence.  All phone.

I'd say that the journey has, so far, been a success.  I've still got the second half of the weight I wanted to lose and then practice at stabilizing but I'm pretty confident it will happen.  It is kind of nice to be able to tie my shoes without having to bend over the basketball that was my stomach.  It will be interesting when I can exercise again. 

Comments

[mollywheezy.livejournal.com]

I've been sort of slacking on the lessons lately. Need to get back to doing those daily. Like you, I knew most of what they are saying, but their way of putting together the information is helpful. And I hadn't heard of caloric density before, at least not as clearly stated where it made sense. My weight goes up and down a lot, but I'm on a downward trend which is good and don't feel deprived and it's sustainable. I am started to plan my higher calorie treats on days I have dance class and get more calories. ;)

Thanks for getting me the discount! It's working!

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

So glad it is working for you. It is absolutely the long game. Not a diet but reengineering your lifestyle and relationship with food. The further you get into lessons, the less it has to do with quality of food and the more it has to do with psychology of living in general.

Unfortunately the groups setup in Noom is not very good. It would be nice if they took that seriously. They need to group people who are in the same section of the training together and have a small group. Then some interaction might be useful. I pretty much ignore the whole "share this with your group" part of the training.

If you've not gone to Reddit /noom it is really supportive and lots of good info on it.

Feel free to reach out if you want to compare info.

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

One of the cooking show hosts told during one episode that the Italians understand that after three bites, we don't consciously experience sweet. So their desserts tend to be in very small servings, and they satisfy the sweet craving.
I thought that was interesting and so started paying attention and by golly, that's pretty much spot-on!

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

I believe that. It is also my experience. We are such unconscious eaters.

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

Well done! I use Myfitnesspal off and on, mostly for tracking fibre intake and specific nutrients. I like how I am able to save my own recipes in the app. That is the part of tracking that always defeats me, since I eat relatively little pre-made or restaurant food.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is where the food delivery (Hello Fresh, Home Chef, Dinnerly) system I use is golden. All the dinners, while not pre-made, come with complete nutrition info and many are already in Noom and, I assume, in MyFitnessPal.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Just another advantage of being lazy!!

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

It can be a hard habit to break that you finish what's on your plate, but once you do with regard to sweet things it can be life-changing. Actually listening to what the body wants is a revelation. I also found the info that there's a species of gut bacteria that thrives on sugar and once it starts getting actually pushes you to eat more immensely useful. It's not me who wants cookies again today after having them yesterday, it's bacteria, and I ain't gonna be bossed around by bacteria.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

One thing Noom does it work at breaking the habits we're used to. One of the lessons ends with: Tonight, leave food on your plate. Just do it. And then throw it out. The world will not end."

They attack the thoughts pretty well.

And fortunately I've got pretty good control of my sugar. Part of that happened, IMHO, when I mostly stopped drinking. Now I infrequently have a beer and then am over it for a long time. Back from daily three or four bourbons a night, or more. Huge difference in sugar.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how your taste for it can change once you cut it down. I have to cut the sugar in recipes down by at least half these days just to make it edible.