My new year’s resolution is to stick with the Noom Health and Wellness program. But let me give you some background that led me to that decision.
The holidays and illness knocked me out of my total fitness program for a while.
That’s fine, because the time away allowed me to reassess my physical activities, which, I now know, had become overwhelming for me.
My physical activity started about 11 weeks ago when I began the Noom program, which includes a daily step count goal that adjusts based on the number of steps I actually take every day. Since I’d been maximizing my steps — I’m in a program, right, might as well go all in — after a few weeks my daily goal had gone up to around 11,000.
That’s great, and maybe I should have stuck with just that. But I didn’t.
I added a 30-minute daily targeted walk as “exercise”. That was great for a while. After all, Noom has a daily steps goal for me, so my walks were adding into that, but upon further review, what was the point, really?
Then I added pushups.
Not a lot of pushups, but at first once, then twice daily. They take literally 30 seconds per session. Did I need the pushups? Actually, yes, because they are great for total body and particularly upper body tone and strength.
Even though I would skip the pushups somewhat often, I did them frequently enough that I felt good about that part of my fitness regimen.
Then I added disc golf.
I didn’t realize what an obsession disc golf would become. I planned to play or practice a couple times a week. Now it’s almost daily, though, sometimes twice a day. Do I need to disc golf that much. NO!
I was still doing okay, though. I was mostly fitting everything in.
Then I added 15 minutes of juggling, and that is what killed me.
15 minutes of juggling may not seem like a lot, but when I added that to my regular Noom walking, my 30-minute targetted walk, pushups, and disc golfing, I got overloaded. Severely.
So I dropped the juggling, and the domino effect took the rest.
The only physical activity I kept was disc golf, which, as I said, had become a bit of an obsession.
Interestingly, though, what I noticed throughout the angst and anxiety about doing all the physical activities I had planned, I was still able to remain mindful of my Noom caloric budget.
That is not to say that I stayed under that budget every day. I didn’t. But my budget was always on my mind, and when I went over budget — like when we went out for gelato on December 28 — I was aware of what I was doing, and I was okay with it.
Being mindful and okay with what I’m eating. That’s key. And to me that’s Noom in a nutshell.
I feel like the goal of the Noom Health and Wellness program is to help me internalize my caloric intake goals. To normalize them, really, so they run automatically, behind the scenes of my life.
I’ve created new habits with the help of Noom.
Did some of the physical habits I tried to create not take hold? Sure. But the fact is that, while exercise is important for overall fitness, diet is by far the most critical factor in keeping the fat off.
So, on New Year’s Day, about 3 weeks after my physical activity meltdown had started, I resolved to get back to it, but in a manageable way.
I also resolved to stick with Noom.
My final hurdle was whether or not to weigh in that day. After all, if my weight was way up, I risked injuring myself psychologically, ending up lost again in my world of yo-yo dieting, searching for the next answer.
But, when I assessed how I felt physically, I thought I was in pretty good shape. I thought maybe I’d put on two or three pounds. Four at the most. Not bad for the holidays, right?
I stepped on the scale, and … I was down 1.2 pounds! 181.4!
I chatted with my Noom coach, Kyle, about it, and I told him that I think this psychological approach Noom uses seems to be really working for me. He wrote back, “What an awesome moment to realize how well your habits are being put into place.”
Yup. Pretty awesome. Thanks, Noom.