Last Friday, though, my Noom coach checked in with me because I hadn’t opened the app in about 3 days. Because what’s the point if I’m not going to weigh, or food track, or step track, or read articles, or really do anything at all?????
I ignored it.
So things broke down three weeks ago and I lost pretty much 95% of all my motivation. The other 5% kept wearing my fitness tracker (although I didn’t sync it with my tracker app so it was kind of pointless) and drinking as much water as I could throughout the day (but also sodas, milk, coffee, lemonade… ouch).
Until today. Today I’m starting Week 5 (yes I know I’ve been in the program for 29 weeks now). I weighed in, synched my steps, tracked my food, and read three articles.
Continuing, continuing, continuing. Never feel shame for re-starting, un-pausing, and continuing. Just because you got behind, doesn’t mean you can’t catch up. Just because you paused, doesn’t mean you can’t un-pause. Just because you’re in a valley, doesn’t mean you can’t climb that peak.
This is what weight loss looks like. This is what taking control of your health looks like. This is what HARD looks like.
Today’s food intake SUCKED and frankly, tomorrow’s probably will, too. But that’s okay. I’ve made a new meal plan and exercise schedule and each day is a new day to follow it. My yesterday is not my today and my today is not my tomorrow.
I know it’s been a month(-ish) since my last post, but I’m going to try to continue where I left off. To reiterate from the last post, there are a lot of hard things about losing weight. Dieting is hard, not getting to eat as much as you think you want is hard, not getting to eat what you think you want is hard. Exercise is hard, planning is hard, shopping is hard. There are a lot of hard things about losing weight.
But that’s why I surround myself with as much support as I possibly can. I have the Noom app and a Noom coach, a nutrition counselor (to work out the food association issues), a psychotherapist (to work out the deeper emotional eating issues), and a psychiatrist (to work out the medicine weight-gain side effects). Not to mention my awesome friends who keep tabs on me and encourage me when I’m down.
Most recently – and changing topics a bit – I have sleep apnea. It’s mild, but it’s there. My sleep specialist has referred me to a dentist in Raleigh who specializes in apnea dental appliances. According to the specialist, the dental appliance is more effective than a CPAP machine and obviously less cumbersome. Apparently, my whole LIFE is about to get better.
With this dental appliance, I should sleep better, which in turn will allow me to have more energy, burn more sleeping calories, lessen my appetite, stop grinding my teeth, have healthier skin, decrease my anxiety and depression, and a whole host of other positive things. Who knew sleep was this kind of crazy important??
So, back to my support system, I now have all of those people two paragraphs above AND I’ll be getting a dental appliance to help with sleep.
This has been a long journey to get to this point.
I really don’t have a good segue here, so I’m just going to continue where I left off a few weeks ago and continue with the Noom #PsychTricks now.
Noom #PsychTrick #1: Add a new food to your grocery list each week. I never did the collard greens from last month so I’m keeping those on my shopping list for this week.
Noom #PsychTrick #2: Add an old fave to your repertoire (Noom article, “Apply Positive Reinforcement to Your Food Choices”). An example the app gives is yummy lasagna. It may not be in your calorie budget, but that doesn’t mean you can’t healthify it! Add tons of veggies, switch to whole-wheat noodles, use fat free cheeses or cheeses made from skim milk, use low-sodium tomato sauce, etc.
So this week, in addition to adding collard greens to the menu, I’ll also be healthifying the most basic of yummy basics: Spaghetti! I’m replacing regular pasta with half whole-wheat noodles and half squash noodles, probably a mix of zucchini, summer squash, and spaghetti squash. I’ll also be using the chunky garden vegetable sauce instead of regular pasta sauce and adding in some fresh chopped tomatoes and spinach. I actually kind of can’t wait!
To wrap up, I’ll be moving my stats updates to the bottom instead of having them loom at the top. I feel it’s important (to me) to keep posting them; it keeps me accountable and transparent in my weight-loss journey and in the future will (hopefully) keep me motivated when I’m in the valley. They just don’t need to be at the top.
This blog is about the journey. I’m so glad you’re all on it with me.
Starting
weight: 262.5
Current weight: 263.2
Pounds lost: -0.7
Next weight goal: 260.0
Starting BMI:
45.1
Current BMI: 45.2
Starting BMI designation: Morbidly obese
Current BMI designation: Morbidly obese
Next BMI goal: 44.6
Water intake: 24 oz
Weekly Step Goal: 950-3,050
Steps Today: 2,063
Brokenness in the Beauty 