My Noom Experience

I'm at 192.5 again.  It's the third time I've seen that number in the past 7 days.  Is this a plateau or not.  Feels like I'm stuck here. Guess what?  I'm not! This is probably a thought distortion and my spreadsheet shows me that I'm still trending downwards.  I was actually at a gentle plateau a couple weeks ago, but somehow I didn't notice it. I keep a rolling average of the past 7 days weight and compare it with the present.  I also subtract yesterday's 7 day average from today's average and it's best to keep that number between -0.50 and -0.01.  Too far negative and I'm losing too quickly.  If it is zero or positive, I'm not working at it well enough. Data never lies.  It says I'm doing well.

 I was invited into the Noom group yesterday.  I gave some help and good feelings to some others.  I'm also still doing well with this plan. You might have noticed that I skipped a day, and that will happen.  I'm not paid to write daily since there is no money in blogging.  So if it's a boring day and I don't feel like making something up, I just won't write. Remember this? Calgon, Take me AWAY! Except for me, it's not Calgon but instead Little Debbie.

Take a look at this!   Spreadsheet of seven day average. This is a graphic of my weights, the seven day average and the difference between this average and present weight.  This is a data smoothing strategy to level off the outliers.   Did you  notice something with the fourth column? Yes, they're all negative.  That means my weight is consistently dropping.  This is a trend averaged across seven days.  This is numerical proof of progress!

 I went over yesterday. Today, I went under, way under.  Much more than 250 calories, so maybe I needed that boost?  Doesn't make sense, but wow, I'll take that bonus. I had steel cut oats this morning since I ran out of oatmeal and fruit while on travel.  I had a Subway Black Forest Ham footlong that split between lunch and dinner.  That is it, wow! So I'm prepared to be hungrier tomorrow morning.  I actually went up half a pound today, but no worries, it will go down.

 It was a cooking accident.  I had a partial jar of ALDI red pesto mix and after consuming 67g the other day, I decided to finish the container.  The problem was that it wasn't 1/2 used but was actually closer to only 1/3 used.  After eating, I totaled the calories and found out I was 250 calories over!  Admittedly, from a nutritional standpoint, it was a pretty powerful move because I felt an exciting kind of energy for the entire day.  I made up for it by performing a 600 calorie workout.  I listened to my lessons while walking and ironically, the lesson "Let it go" when you go over calories played.  Coincidence or AI? This tiny jar actually holds 190g!   So, I discovered that steps counted in Pacer do not necessarily import into Noom.  I'm not sure why, but the main thing is that I'm recording the activity somewhere and remembering to carry my phone more (I've gone entire days with <500 steps because the phone stays on a desk)....

So, I have this up as a evanescent blog that will likely not exist in a year's time, but is a place to share my Noom experience with others, but I do not, and will not reveal the surprises that are part of how Noom works (psychology requires an element of surprise to be effective) This is actually my 16th day at it and I've crossed 10.5 pounds lost since I started.  Admittedly, I was artificially high in weight before I started, so a lot was lost the first week and has slowed to a more consistent rate of about half a pound per day. With programs like this, there is a phase of enthusiasm that would be the "Honeymoon" where everything is exciting and new.  I am still well within that, but I have a tendency to place a lot of faith into institutions I believe in.  Some of the science behind Noom is no stranger to me, because I've also been a follower of the brilliant Dr. Roy Baumeister whose findings reflect the methodology of portions of Noom's science.   I'm...