A couple weeks ago, I started Noom to lose weight. Since March 2019, I’ve lost about 30 pounds. I’ve been stuck at that weight and changing body composition. I lost fat and gained muscle slowly, but I was still looking at myself and seeing my soft stomach, arms I referred to as “baby fat,” and generally not being as fit looking as I’d wanted. I have tried other methods to increase my fat loss including counting macros. My issue was my relationship with food. I wouldn’t let myself eat enough calories to fuel my workouts and I’d feel weak and exhausted. I would diet strict and every slip would turn into a binge or into 3 meals of fast food in a row to make up for all I’d missed.
My reason for choosing Noom was that it said that it used psychology to help people change their habits. It referenced dialectical behavioral therapy as one of the methods. I signed on for a 2 week trial that ended today and I’m going to continue through the course of the program.
So far, I enjoyed cookies a couple times and it was within my acceptable calories and food types. I didn’t over indulge. I’ve lost about 5 pounds. My goal was initially to lose 30 pounds. My last body composition said that I should lose 25 pounds of fat. My body mass index stated that I need to lose about 16 pounds to be within a “normal” range.
While I’m really excited about the prospect of getting to my goal, I’m still in the early stages. I had moments where I doubted myself. I’ve gone over on calories. I ate too many fats in a day. I had to battle the voice inside that wanted me to give up and enjoy anything I wanted instead of what I needed for fuel. I had to look back on articles to find out how to deal with “I can’t ever do this.”
My husband has been supportive, but doesn’t totally understand that I can eat whatever I want to with planning. My friends that I told were not fully behind the idea of me paying for a program. I have hit a lot of walls looking for help with this for years. I joined my current gym after trying different types of cross training alongside my running for a few years. That was when I finally lost what I did, so who’s to say this won’t work?
My depression has improved. I’m not fully attributing that to dietary changes as I had the medication adjustment recently. I have been more sleepy than I’d like to be, but I’m aware that the cause is getting up at 5am after waking up a lot at night. I sure do enjoy working out at 6am, now. I feel like I have the rest of the day to get things done. The biggest thing on my mind lately is that I can’t be sure if my perception is messed up because of my mental illness or if people don’t like me, so I’m having a hard time communicating. I don’t want to annoy anyone, I suppose. That would be a talk therapy or workbook type of issue, though.
Athletically, I am probably at a plateau. I’m going to work on what I can and do my half marathon on the 25th. Then, I’ll scale back the weekend runs a little bit. I have been reading articles and saving them and I intend to work on myself and what I can fix.
Thank you for reading! I can’t wait to share progress with you. I also hope that I can bring something useful back to you from my half marathon. Please don’t hesitate to comment anything or even inbox me if you don’t want everyone to see.
Jenn's Journey 
Hi Jenn! I tried Noom too – I signed up for the year program and found it pretty helpful. I enjoyed the program and the daily reading.
I’m glad to hear that. I am pretty into it so far.
FYI – I love the dress too! You look gorgeous!
Yes, you do look good! And keep being optimistic about Noom. I find it to be so much more than just weight loss – gives you lots of things to feel good about when you hit those plateaus. They get a bit silly sometimes, but better that than boring.