10 pounds in 4 weeks on Noom

I just finished my 4th week on the Noom program, and I’m down 10 pounds.

That’s pretty phenomenal.

And it’s not the result of starving myself. I was talking to my friend Lex the other day, and I said that exact thing — I don’t starve myself. If I’m hungry, I eat, even when it takes me over my calorie budget.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going hog wild and pig crazy! But that’s another part of Noom: changing habits.

Where I would previously have potato chips, I have carrots and hummus. Where I would previously have a grilled cheese sandwich, I have a Boca Burger on sprouted whole grain bread. Those are both better choices for my current fitness goals, because the foods I’m choosing now have a lower caloric density than my old choices (Green or Yellow on the Noom color scale), and, from a hunger standpoint, that is more satisfying than those old Red foods.

Plus, I like those new choices. They are foods I ate before, but now I just eat more of them.

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My relationship with ice cream

I love ice cream.

I don’t think that puts me in the minority of humans. What’s not to love about ice cream? It’s creamy. It’s sweet. It’s delicious!

I’m including gelato under the “ice cream” label, even though I like it more than ice cream. It’s smoother, and usually not as sweet, which I would imagine is true because it’s retaining its European roots, and it seems to me that Americans prefer their foods too sweet.

My father was in the US Air Force, so I spent more than half of my school years living in Europe. England when I was very young, for first and second grades, and Germany when I was older, junior high (what’s usually called “middle school” now) and high school.

Because of all the time I spent in Europe as a youth, I developed less of a sweet tooth than other people I know, because, when I was a kid, anyway, Europeans made their sweet pastries with a lot less sugar than Americans do. A German cake, for example, was very enjoyable to me, because ingredients other than sugar shone through.

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Evaluation of Noom after one week on the program

I’ve been involved with the Noom program for a week now, so let me give you my first impressions.

On the plus side:

  1. I like the psychology behind the program. It’s geared to help me change my habits. There are no banned foods, nothing I can’t eat, but all my foods are classified as Green, Yellow, and Red, based on caloric density. Green foods are best with low caloric density. Red are highest in caloric density. Learning that, embedding that into my mind, will help me as I make future dietary decisions.
  2. Along those same lines, Noom is designed to train me and let me go. No lifetime commitment. That makes me think that once I’m done with Noom, I may be able to maintain a healthy diet. It’s not like other plans I’ve been on where I was essentially told what to eat, but once I was done with the plan, I was left hanging, and I inevitably went back to my old eating patterns.
  3. There are no mealplans, no boxes of food to subscribe to. Noom is all about training and coaching. I get some kind of knowledge sharing each day, and periodic coaching. This means the program is more affordable, because the cost is only for the electronic infrastructure. No food or supplement purchases are involved.
  4. The app is pretty easy to use. It doesn’t sync with my Letsfit fitness tracker, but it’s easy enough to manually enter my steps each day.
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I’m pushing myself with walking as my primary exercise

This morning, as part of my Noom program, I walked 3 miles in 54 minutes.

That seemed really fast to me, so I doubted the reading on my Letsfit fitness tracker, but I mapped my route with Google, and the distance was actually a bit more than that, so I went with 3 miles.

At almost 60 years old, I feel really good about that. That’s a brisk walk, and I never felt pressured physically. Well, a little weirdness in my left ankle, but that’s normal. I must have hurt it at some point in my life.

This is part of the positive influence that these electronic devices and the Noom program has had on me: they allow me to document and understand that I am really doing something, not just going for a stroll. I truly had no idea I was walking that fast.

Walking is an excellent form of exercise for us older folks. It helps improve heart health, lowering the risk of heart attack and stroke. That’s important.

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Yesterday I hit my 10k steps and ate like a pig

Yesterday I hit 10,000 steps for the first time in quite a while. I’m not sure how long it’s been, because I don’t track my steps, but that really doesn’t matter, does it?

My Noom Goal Specialist, Kyle, bumped me to set an exercise goal, so I chose a 30-minute daily walk. That’s good for starters, and should be workable, as I already walk a lot, and I enjoy it.

I prefer to have a destination when I walk, but yesterday I wandered aimlessly, circling the neighborhood, just trying to get in my 30 minutes. And that resulted in my eventually hitting 10k steps. But before that happened…

I was doing great with regard to food yesterday. Well, pretty good. Corn Chex, a Red food — Noom has Red, Yellow, and Green foods, based on caloric density, and Red foods have high caloric density, which make them the worst choices — was my breakfast, with unsweetened cashew milk (a GREEN FOOD!)

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