My Friend Noom!

If you know me at all, even just a little bit, you know I have always struggled with eating a balanced and healthy diet.  Even when I was 'dieting' I wasn't exactly healthy...it was always all or nothing.  I was either eating NO sweets, NO carbs, and all fruits and veggies or I was screwing it up and would throw in the towel and binge eat like crazy.  I would get obsessed over counting calories, or measuring portions exactly and it would drive me nuts.  When you have a disordered eating pattern/history those things can really get into your head.  I am TOTALLY not saying that counting calories is bad, or that measuring isn't a good idea, I'm just saying that it messes with MY head.  It always ends up being counterproductive to what I am trying to accomplish. 

So I have been ecstatic to discover a new app on my phone called Noom Weight Loss Coach.  (I am not getting a kickback or anything LOL I just really really like it!).  It has several areas including a workout log (tracks calories, distance, etc), a weigh-in log (gives you a chart and everything) and it turns your phone into a pedometer so you can track your steps per day (it even gives you a daily target to hit!).  Every day it gives you a couple cool articles to read about your health (either about food choices, exercise habits, vitamins, etc.) and it also gives you several goals to achieve daily and as you reach them you get points.  The more points you get the higher level you reach in the "Noom Weight Loss Coach" program.  Great motivation for me!  But the BEST part for me personally is their food tracker.  You log your meals every day but it's a totally different system then what I'm used to....it's LOOSELY by calorie and measurement but mostly by color!  All foods fall into either a red, yellow or green food category and your goal is to eat 50% green, 35% yellow and 15% red.  When you log a food it asks you how much you eat based on the size compared to, say, a ping pong ball, golf ball, tennis ball or softball.  So I don't get hung up on the EXACT measurement.  It also loosely tracks the calories depending on the color.  Obviously veggies and fruit are green, as well as FF yogurt, brown rice, beans, etc..  Lean meats, most breads and nuts, white rice etc. are yellow and high fat items are red, like beef, bacon, fried foods, full fat dressings, etc..  It is the easiest food tracker I have ever come across and it is so motivating.  It even shows your day broken down by color in a pie graph....it pumps me up to get the most green that I can!  I feel so silly getting so excited about it but I have never done this well tracking food before...not to mention since I have done this strictly for a week I have had a lot more energy than I have in a long time.  And it's nice to know I can have some red foods too...last night I had a piece of boston creme pie for dessert. :)  And I'm going to be honest...I've even had bacon a few times!!  I think anyone that struggles with an all or nothing thinking when it comes to food could definitely use this app....it has totally changed my way of viewing what I'm eating.  So awesome!!!

And here's the BEST part friends....I weighed in Sunday morning.  I was so excited to see that the scale read 226!!!!!  Six pounds in one week!  Totally not expecting that weekly (obviously...not healthy anyway) but using this app I drastically changed my eating habits (and let's face it...my eating habits over the holiday were horrible! So this has been my first focused week in a while;) and really started eating much much healthier.  And this was the result.  I think my body was in shock from all the fruits, veggies, chicken, yogurt, etc. this week haha!  Especially exciting that I accomplished this without feeling deprived or hungry.  Only 7 more pounds to hit my Valentines goal!  So excited!