Hey folks! I wanted to update where I was at with my healthy weight journey and my previous experience with Noom that I originally posted here about on May 9th & July 18th, 2020.
I’m excited to say that the “IF” or “Intermittent Fasting” has been the most successful part of this journey for me. The habit-breaking has NOT been easy – to not eat after 8:00pm and sometimes, I do break that fast before breakfast but most of the time – thank You GOD – I reach for a zero calorie electrolyte drink (because I know I’m probably just getting dehydrated and do NOT need food, but hydration). So far, I’m down twenty pounds which has not been easy considering I can’t eat a lot of the foods that would help me not be hungry! I definitely feel a bit lighter LOL! But for me, if you’ve read any of my other posts, being an ostomate, I have to maintain a healthy weight for my appliance to stay as well as it did when I got it (which is about 20 pounds less than where I’m at now but I’m getting there!).
All to say – DON’T QUIT!!! Even if you feel like you’ve blown it during the day or even longer – just keep at it! I know for me, God has helped because I need His voice reminding me to make the healthier choice food wise.
Moving my body also helps. That’s not so easy when you’re dealing with 24/7 fatigue, and a boatload of auto-immune diseases but I still try. Somedays, I can walk outside, and others, I’m walking inside to scrounge up a couple thousand steps and then I need a nap, but you know what? That’s OK! Its cumulative! Just do what you can. Just keep moving! ❤
July 18th, 2020:
The short answer is, Noom has a good idea going and the longer answer is, improvements are definitely needed. The final result for me is that I did not continue with it. Have you ever heard “take what you like and leave the rest”? I first heard this slogan in my early recovery days in Al-Anon Family Groups. Well, that applies here with Noom.
The app is a good way to stay on top of your day – if you are attached to your phone. If you’re not, this may not be the program for you. It’s packed with education articles, mini-quizzes and encouragement as well as groups (when they work, mine moved me after the first two weeks for no reason and plopped me into a new one with new folks – more below) as well as a way to track your foods. It can also work with your Fitbit app (to a point) but all in all, it has a good premise.
My biggest pet peeve was the group issue. I could get used to logging my foods and trying to stay in the zones it suggests for caloric density watching (liquid foods hold your stomach from growling longer than solids so they focus a lot on “density”) and I certainly could see the benefit of not calling ANY food “bad” or identifying a sweet as a “treat” or a “cheat day” (who likes labels anyway?) BUT no bueno on the group dumping thing. I mean, the gals in my group and I just started to connect and BOOM – you’re moved out and into another one with no warning or explanation (I couldn’t get anyone to tell me why – not from the on-demand coach, group coach or customer service).
For me, it’s a double edged sword; I understand the need for groups in this journey and how seemingly arbitrarily they move people so I expressed how this needs to be fixed, as someone with a great deal of recovery and recovery ministry leadership experience – NOT a good practice at all – yet also, I’m a participant and I’m not happy for myself and my recovery with this practice. I was not happy for myself and the others so, I made sure they knew. My hope was they would fix the issue for me, put me (and the others) back with the gals I was with) but that didn’t happen. It was very disappointing. I guess that’s why I got my first month’s membership refunded without asking. I would rather have stayed on but I did learn a lot about their program, just not much in the way of really anything else – since I’ve been on this road with foods, what my body can handle now and the “Noom factor” – which is the behavioral / need for change (psych) component. I liked the group and on-demand coach component – that was totally something I could use but without it, Fitbit will track my movements and calories too AND do something that Noom doesn’t (yet?) too; macro-nutrients.
So that’s it in a nutshell. I’m taking with me what worked and leaving the rest! I’m getting back into the Intermittent Fasting routine (which for me is just not eating overnight LOL!) Oh – I did lose my first 7 pounds on Noom. The first 2-3 weeks is definitely the hardest to get back into a healthy IF routine, but they did help during that time and I’m also down another five pounds since (and I’m not doing this perfectly y’all!) and though I’m not focused on a “soupier” type of diet either, not to mention how I can not tolerate high fiber, it’s still stuck with me not to see any food as good or bad – it just is. Its either more nutritious than others; a wiser choice for that day or that time of the day than others. Its about making a healthy choice whenever possible but even if I don’t, that’s OK too. I’ll keep fighting for my health with what I know works for me; daily walking as much as my body will tolerate, making wiser dietary choices, resting as much as it needs and doing my best to enjoy this precious gift of life God’s given me, ODAT in this crazy “pandemic”. Let’s all keep encouraging each other and just keep moving. Hey – I think that’s another blog post of mine =)
If you didn’t read the first part of this entry – its below. Thanks for sharing your day with me here today!
*Original Post 5/9/2020*
So I just finished my first week of “Noom” & wanted to share with y’all, how it’s going for me.
First I’d like to say that I’m not being compensated for this in anyway. I pay for my own blog and I write from my own experience. I currently do not have any advertisement or sponsors for this blog & my only hope in sharing is that someone else may benefit as well 🙂
So far, so good! I like it! I’ve picked up a few new tools for my health box, began a new relationship with my “on demand coach”, and even lost 3lbs (on purpose). A little background…but first (again)…
Being in the middle of a pandemic as we are (in my state we are very, very slowly opening back up for business) I certainly miss being around people in person. Yes we have a Zoom, telephone and 6 feet apart but that’s nothing like a community that I got to experience with my people prior to all of this. So needless to say, being all cooped up (aside from my doctors, pharmacy & shopping trips) now is the best time for me to do something extra to keep motivation alive. Can you relate? (I will share some of my thoughts on this entire “season” on another blog post…)
Ok – back to the background!
Well after all these years with Ulcerative Colitis and after my surgery especially, I fell into a trap. I’ve been on a “low residue” diet (mostly slow moving foods that are mainly high calorie carbs but easy on the gut) and can’t eat a lot of the foods most folks see as healthy – because I’ve needed to be careful not to eat too much fiber, grains, veggies & fruits (no nuts) etc…but in light of my recent visit with my cardiologist…I took the leap of faith into Noom. I had been checking it out for a while now but knew last Sunday that it was the day.
My thoughts? I am loving the encouragement and accountability that’s without judgment. No food is “bad” and it is NOT a diet. What? Yup. It’s AWOL (a way of life).
Speaking of AWOL, being in recovery for so many years, I do have extensive familiarity with various ways the brain is affected by ingrained habits & habits being hard to break (but never impossible), especially with regards to simple carbs & processed sugars so since I’m actually retaining nutrients now, we need a change of direction somehow and thankfully, I know when to ask for help.
Last year, I was doing well with intermittent fasting (really just not eating after 8pm and breaking the fast at breakfast LOL) but then had to treat the cdiff return last fall which was around-the-clock antibiotics – which for me – means take with food and BAM, off track and it’s been super hard to get that routine back. I needed some extra help.
Add having a super acidic GI system to that and inflammation – it’s really a vicious cycle (thankfully my GI doc and I came up with a plan for that this week).
Enter Noom.
Noom provides the psychology factor – in fact – education is the focus, but they make it light when it needs to be, and the best part is – and I’m all about connecting in community, having a personal “on demand” coach IN the app to personally encourage and explain whenever I need it makes it. Out of the blue she’ll “high five” me as well (virtually of course). There’s also a group support feature available in the app too.
And here’s the best thing – it’s not about “Noom-dependence”. Meaning, they don’t want you on their program for the rest of your life – they want you to learn what you need to learn, reach your goals, and keep moving forward (using what they’ve taught for a lifetime of success). Build better habits for a lifetime – choices on what I put into my body, choices on how I respond to those choices, choices on giving my body the exercise that it can handle and that it needs, and taking care of my mental health as well.
It’s just day 7, of a five-month plan for me, but it isn’t all about the scale. For me, it’s about retraining my brain and getting into better habits formed – for good, ODAT.
I’m glad that I’m forcing myself to take some chances and see what my diet can be now and so far, Ripley (my stoma) is behaving with my choices. Each ostomate is unique – what one may be able to do, another might not and vice versa. I’m ready to challenge her & the rest of me (& hope I can keep my goal of never having a blockage with the changes). I am taking it slow as a turtle especially with the environment as it is right now. The last place I want to spend any kind of time is a hospital but I will not let the fear of that dictate my decisions either.
Have any of y’all done Noom? I’d love to hear your thoughts if so. I’ll keep y’all posted on mine 🙂. And always – thank you for joining me on the journey 💜
Journal of a Warrior's Journey 