In January 2021 (yes, a full year ago!) I was thinking about goals and resolutions – and I was really struggling with my pandemic (and let’s admit it, pre-pandemic) weight.
All of my friends dismissed it as “well, that’s menopause weight – it happens”.
I’m not one to take things laying down. I’m a problem solver to the nth degree.
Besides, not only am I NOT yet in menopause but even if I were…I am not giving up my youthful body without a mother fricking battle. And when I set my mind to something, I win!
Some Background
I’ve been a lifelong exerciser and fitness buff. I was a diet counselor and certified fitness instructor in prior lives. I’ve watched my diet pretty much my entire life. Most of my effort was focused around the content and quality of workouts. I’ve dabbled with diets enough to know they don’t have lasting change.
I enjoy setting personal goals so I’ve always been able to stay motivated to run a little farther, lift a little heavier, lose that stubborn last five pounds. I’ve never thought about my drive or motivation. I always had it.
Enter the pandemic circa 2020. Suddenly my routine, one I had relied on for food and exercise structure for most of my lifetime…stopped.
It happened to all of us. You know.
For the first few months of 2020 I thought – Yeah – I’ve got this. And I did. Diet and exercise were steady.
But then…maybe it was low-grade depression, maybe it was natural laziness breaking through, maybe it was a general sense of “why does any of this matter?”…my routines fell off. My diet stopped being fuel for activity and started being comfort related. My exercise dropped off. The sum total was – weight gain.
The day I thought to step on the scale shocked me. I don’t think I looked bad – but I couldn’t fit in any clothing and decades of hard earned fitness felt like it was wiped away in an instant.
Suddenly I realized that while I had plenty of skills to keep going. But I utterly lacked the skill to START (or restart). I tried and tried. I failed and failed. I couldn’t find the missing piece to get me going again.
I was desperate.
Enter Noom
I’d been seeing the advertisements for Noom for years on social media. I didn’t really know what it was, I felt like it was more geared towards millennials (aka not MY generation) and the whole “group thing” didn’t resonate me with – I’m not much for crowds. But I was desperate. On January 1st, 2021, I signed up. Initially I only did three months…to see how it went.
Fifteen days into the program, I was down five pounds and cautiously optimistic.
Noom approaches overall health holistically from many sides. It provides foundational education on portion control, calories, food selections, social triggers, and mental health. It encourages awareness and consciousness as primary tools of living and committing to a healthier life. It also encourages movement and what I’ll call calorie awareness.
Each day there are a few articles to read to keep you motivated and focused. I really found those helpful in the early days. With their handy app, there is a way to track weight, food intake by meal, calories, water, exercise, steps, etc. It wasn’t anything new or different for me – but clearly I needed it. I had to go back to basics.
Noom helped re-create habit and routine for me when I had none. It provided small, digestible amounts of information about altering a relationship to food that helped me examine what behaviors got me to my current state. And, it motivated me to move more. It made me acutely aware that my general commute decreased from several thousand steps (to my car, to the office, up and down the stairs) to a single flight in my house.
The biggest benefit I found with Noom was really unexpected. It was a language and an awareness about a lot of self-sabotaging thoughts that had generally been kept at bay with my healthy “pre-pandemic” routine. I learned about thought distortion, all or nothing thinking, social cues and pressures, fog eating, and so much more.
Group Support
Though my overall journey was going well, about six months in (I extended because I was doing great by mid-year but still wanted to go farther) I found my motivation flagging again. That’s when I finally understood the benefits of the group. Not surprisingly, the number of people who remain committed to the Noom journey dwindles over time. As these groups get smaller, they do “merges”. This means that every few months you get a fresh batch of “long timers” added to the online support group who are really committed to the healthy lifestyle journey. I found a lot of inspiration from these people.
Camaraderie and support have their place and I’m glad I reached out and started participating.
Conclusion
Is noom for everyone? Of course not. But I’m really grateful I stuck with it for a year. I was fretting over the cost of it but then I realized I had boots that cost more than the program. Can I afford to dedicate as much money to my health and well being as I do to a single pair of boots? Heck yeah!
Did I reach my goal? Funny story. Yes and no. I definitely got down to a very comfortable weight in about six months – and then I stopped following my fundamentals. I’m hovering about 10 lbs lower and I still have a bit more I’d like to lose. The biggest difference is that now, I have confidence in my ability to stop my self-sabotage in its tracks. I can leverage all of the psychological tips and tricks I’ve learned over the past year to ensure I have more tools in my toolkit to keep myself healthy going forward. I have a better understanding of how to portion control based on calorie density and physical needs.
Would I recommend it? 100%! I’ve tried a lot of plans over my lifetime. Noom reinforces a way of life over fad diets. It helps build a foundation for healthier living long term.
