7 Days into my Noom Journey
I have thoughts to share about this program, and about myself

Well, it has been one week. But it wasn't that hard. While most of the information I've learned from Noom wasn't new to me (I've been using SMART goals at work since forever), I've been able to examine some habits and think of ways to change my triggers that I haven't before. The part where you commit to doing things helps. More than anything, I hate breaking commitments. I mean, I still do (hello deadline, my old friend... I've come to push you back again...)

But I've also noticed a few positive ways that I'm already making progress, and things I'm enjoying about this program. Now, the last time I successfully lost weight, I was doing the Weight Watchers diet with a friend. She'd gotten all the materials from her mom, and we made our own tracking sheets to post on the fridge. The accountability really helped, and we served as one another's positive social triggers. Seeing her eat healthy helped me want to do just as well, and we didn't keep a lot of junk food in the house. Enter Noom. 

1. Noom pushes you to identify your triggers, both good and bad. 

In the first week, I've identified one positive social trigger (hanging out with my friend HP, because whenever we hang out, we do things like walk or hike). Identifying a positive trigger, and framing it as such in my mind, was great. It pushed me to ask my friend to go for a walk again next week. Now we have a plan, and I have something fun, healthy, and positive to look forward to.

Eventually, I fell off of the WW diet because it wasn't sustainable for me. Without my old roommate plugging along with me, I had no accountability. The multiple times I did try to restart the same diet, I was too focused on what I could and could not have, and obsessing over having this cracker, and not that one because points. The whole thing was a huge time investment. If I wanted to go out to eat, I would have to try too hard to figure out exactly what the nutrition information was, and how much I could have of any one thing. Enter Noom.

2. The calorie tracker is not perfectly exact, but... It has A LOT of foods. 

It is a lot easier than other trackers I because I can just go ahead and choose to accept their nutritional values without stressing over the exact recipe. Knowing the tracker isn't perfect, I'm not pushing myself to be perfect either. I mean, I measure my portions, and try to keep it real. But with Weight Watchers, if you only get 22 points in the day (the old model), then every single point matters a lot more than every single calorie. Enter Noom.

3. Noom color-codes foods in an easy and accessible way.

I'm not kidding about the crackers... 

Ever buy these at Costco? I have. Each different type of cracker has a different point value. It's very stressful to try and make decisions about which ones to eat when one variety has a lower points value for the crackers (due to fat and fiber, not overall calories). With Noom, rather than spend so much of my time and cognitive energy stressing about each cracker variety and its respective point value, I can just jot it down, and learn whether crackers are green, yellow or red. 

Some days, my colors aren't balanced perfectly, but part of this can be chalked up to the learning curve. For example, a Beyond Meat burger is green, a Gardenburger is yellow, and a beef burger is red... now I know, and I can plan accordingly. I can balance out my calorie intake by having more green and yellow foods, and fewer red ones. The main takeaway here is:

I now spend my time thinking about 
what I CAN have, 
and what I SHOULD have, 
than what I can't or shouldn't have.

Because #PsychologyRocks

Going a few calories over on Noom is a lot less guilt/anxiety inducing than going over 2 or 3 points on WW. With the flex point model, you carry each days failures forward, but you don't get to do the same for the successes (you don't get back points for staying under). Whenever I fared poorly following the WW model, I felt like I was a failure. 

Even though you can have anything you want with WW, I was spending way too much time parsing points (only half a point if I only have half as much, right?), and rationing my flex points (should I spread them out, or save them up for Saturday?). The flex point model was made to allow for social situations and bad days... where you are supposed to be able to forgive yourself, or treat yourself. But this does nothing to address overeating triggers or underlying emotional responses to stress, environment, and food cravings. Enter Noom.

4. Noom treats each day like a new day. 

You can even rewind your days to catch up on missed lessons . So instead of feeling like a failure, you get to keep all the hard work you did, and ditch the mistakes. Kind of like when you die in a video game, and you get to go to your last save point, instead of back to the beginning of the game. It's much more motivating than feeling like you are your failures. Motivation is the name of the game here. I've heard all sorts of silly tips and tricks in the past. Eat naked (inducing shame for overeating), don't eat while you watch TV (deprivation), pre-portion and pack your meals (extra work and deprivation). Enter Noom:

5. Noom helps you commit to responses that work for you!

Blindly following every ridiculous diet trick in the book, hoping for a miracle, can't and won't work. Instead, Noom helps you identify your own personal triggers, and then figure out a response that actually works for you!

This week, I recognized TV as a trigger. I mean, I've known this for a long time, but in the past, I've just tried to avoid the behavior (mindless grazing) not the trigger. So instead of focusing on the food part, I'm focusing on the trigger. I can watch TV while I eat dinner (when I'm away at school, not when I'm home with my husband). That way, I'm not depriving myself of this combination of activities that I enjoy. But I'm committing to going to bed on time for the next week, instead of zoning out in front of the TV for a few extra hours. I get better sleep, wake up on time more easily, and I'm not tempted to snack late at night. No trigger = no problem! 

This is a "diet trick" that can work for me, because when I make the decision to go to bed on time, I have my own personal motivations for doing it. I know the causality chains tied to that behavior for me. Now that is motivation!

I know there are many articles out there on Noom, and why it's so great. But I just wanted to share my own personal experience for me and anyone who stumbles across this page. I'm going to try to come back here and keep up on how this journey is working for me once a week. Bye!