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Noom is still great after two years!

It’s been about two years since I signed up with Noom, and I feel great!

That’s not to say that I don’t fail more now than when I started. I do. For example, last night I had the equivalent of 4 servings of Barbara’s Spoonfuls, my favorite cereal. That’s 4 cups of a “red” food. Not a perfect choice.

In my defense, I had only eaten a small meal around 9am, and when I finally was able to eat again at 5pm, I was pretty hungry. Also, I added fresh blueberries, so that makes it better, right? (It does, but…)

Another plus was that I bought some walnut milk to try out, and I was able to use it on the cereal. I like it! My go-to is cashew milk, but walnut milk is definitely delicious. Only slightly nutty, and with a thick, rich texture.

So, yes, I fail, and fail often.

However, when I looked over my article from a year ago, I see that back then I was eating way too much sugar. I don’t do that any more. I got off the ice cream and cookie kick I was on.

Cutting way back on sweets, I think, has also helped the arthritis in my right index finger and right big toe, because sugar is known to encourage inflammation, so keeping my sugar levels lower as I get older is one of my goals.

Unfortunately, my sleep is still not great. I still struggle to get back to sleep after I wake in the middle of the night. I am resigned to that, although I hope someday I’ll sleep better, because those occasional nights when I make it all the way through 6.5 to 7 hours of solid sleep feel so good!

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Gaining weight during the pandemic?

I see so many people and memes commenting on social media about how they are not exercising and eating poorly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I understand. It’s tough.

The gyms are either closed or we think they’re too dangerous to visit.

If we are working from home, the little exercise we used to get going to the office, heading to meetings, walking to the coffee machine — that is gone.

It’s hard to scrape together the motivation to go for a walk through the neighborhood alone. Oh, sure, once, maybe twice a week, but…

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My life during quarantine and still losing weight with Noom … sort of

Like many other people, I am living life in virtual quarantine because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been going on for about 1.5 months officially.

I am in San Antonio, and we are pretty much opening back up tomorrow, but I’ll continue to live more safely, and that will involve staying home, not exercising as much as I used to, and doing a lot more cooking.

Oddly, during this period of inactivity and eating of what seems to be everything, I have continued to lose weight on Noom.

I used to play disc golf almost daily, easily getting in 10k-20k (sometimes more) steps daily. Now on a good day I get in maybe 8k steps.

I used to not eat a lot of ice cream and sweets. Now I am eating a lot more of that stuff.

However, I used to dine out frequently. I thought that before the COVID rules I was eating informedly and carefully most of the time, but maybe I am remembering incorrectly, because I am a little confounded by my continued weight loss.

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Living life 20 pounds lighter

I am not yet 20 pounds lighter from when I began the Noom Health and Wellness program. I’m only 15 pounds lighter since then.

However, I was hovering around 200 pounds just 6 months ago, and now I am in the 180 area.

What’s that feel like to me?

In a word, I feel healthier.

I can see how much my visceral fat — that’s the fat that covers the organs in the abdomen, and otherwise resides behind the abdominal muscles — has diminished. That stuff is gross, dangerous, and I gotta keep it away.

My blood pressure is better regulated. My readings went from a consistent 132/90 to 124/80. That’s huge, because it gets my doctor off my back about taking meds for my blood pressure, which is something I’ve resisted for many years.

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Sickness v. Fitness

I rarely get sick any more, but I’ve had a cold for a few days now. At least, I think it’s just a cold, I hope so.

Illness is bad enough, but when I’m sick and hanging at home, I tend to overeat. I mean, I eat everything in sight. So it’s a good thing that I don’t keep any really “bad” foods around the apartment.

I powered my way through the rest of my boxes of Post Shredded Wheat and Barbara’s Morning Oat Crunch cereals, both of which I love. I also polished off an older box of Nature’s Path Qi’a Superflakes – Cocoa Coconut, which is not that appealing to me, unless I’m sick, apparently.

That’s not to mention a pint of hummus and other comestibles lying about. Oh, and some delicious soup that my partner Tara made, that I think was supposed to be two servings, but I devoured in one.

I may also have bought and eaten a 3-pack of Magnum White ice cream bars last night. Okay, I did that. They were delicious.

In addition to eating a lot when I’m ill, I also tend not to be as active, and, despite the fact that I had a window of feeling well yesterday and managed to play some disc golf, that has held true. The cold, rainy weather hasn’t helped. My walking has fallen off dramatically.

Even though I’m overeating and not exercising, I’m okay. It’s all okay.

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