My Journey from Pudgy to "Perfect": Setback and Reboot. . . Start Noom Coach

Time on current weight loss attempt: 5 days

Programs, books, helpers: Noom Coach for Android, Jorge Cruise 8-Minutes in the Morning, Wii Fit Plus, Power 90, Slim in 6, Flip the Switch Lose the Weight by Dr. Robert Cooper, Buddy Noom on Facebook ( if interested and using Noom, friend them on FB and they’ll add you to a support group)

Weight Change: 1.5 lbs. lost

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Technically I should be starting over again since it’s been 2 months since my last post in this series.  Needless to say I had a setback – emotionally and a surprisingly painful menses.  Haven’t had one like that in a long time.  Since then I rediscovered my Noom weight loss coach program that I had on my smartphone before I had to reformat it and start over again.  Thankfully, when I reinstalled it the program actually remembered me even though it’s format had drastically changed.  I’ve read that many people are not enjoying the new format, but I think progress is good and it’s acting MORE like a coach now than it was before.  Granted, to take advantage of all the bells and whistles you have to pay for the service ($4.99/month), but they are nice enough to give you the first 30 days free to try out if you like their program.  So far so good.

I’ve been more conscientious about what I eat and how much.  Trying to focus on eating foods that will keep me full longer with the least amount of calories since the coach said dieting is more effective than exercise in weight loss.  This fact alone is probably why all my other weight loss attempts have failed.  I HATE feeling hungry and deprived, I do tend to reward myself with food after a particularly strenuous workout and I have the bad habit of jumping headlong into a workout routine that is physically too strenuous for me leading to injury and setbacks.

Noom coach actually told me that my scheduled workout routine was too ambitious.  That it would be better to promise to do 5 minutes, at least something, than try to commit to 30 minutes every day (which I have failed to do at least 2 times this week already) and that if I was able to to extra that would be great. The coach’s goal is just to make me more active than I was before; to make me commit to do SOMETHING even for just 5 minutes.  Ever hear the saying, “Every little bit counts.”? Well I guess in this case I suppose that is the philosophy.  So instead of sticking with the 30 minutes of aerobics – 6 days a week I lessened it to 12 minutes of yoga 5 times a week (that’s how long it takes to do my favorite Yoga poses on the Wii Fit Plus program).  Since yesterday I didn’t have access to the TV and thus the Wii for most of the day I decided I needed to look for something else to guide me in my workout regimen.  I remembered that I had written down some of the exercises from the Jorge Cruise 8 Minutes in the Morning book and that it had yielded results the first time I tried the routine for a 6 week period (don’t know what happened then; why did I stop?).  People actually started commenting on how my look was changing and LITERALLY all I was doing was the simple exercises for 8 minutes in the morning.  Now 30 lbs. heavier and trying to watch what I eat I am hoping that it will still have some positive weight loss results.

This morning before breakfast I found my notes and did 2 exercises that I thought would be super easy since I was sitting at my desk.  The first one is called the Push Down Hold and the second one is the Lift Hold

Push Down Hold

Sit straight up in a sturdy chair (one without wheels), with your feet flat on the floor 2 feet away from a sturdy table (desk) and place your hands shoulder width apart pressing down on the table top.  Hold this position, pressing firmly, for 60 seconds.  Don’t forget to breathe.  It’s hard not to engage your abs in this move – if you don’t feel it FOCUS.

Lift Hold

Sit straight up in a sturdy chair (one without wheels), with your feet flat on the floor 2 feet away from a sturdy table (desk) and place your hands shoulder width apart under the table top lifting up.  Hold this position, lifting firmly, for 60 seconds.  Don’t forget to breathe.  Your abs still get a workout, but you do really have to focus harder.

Alternate these two exercises for 8 minutes; 4 reps each.

After I was done my arms and abs were burning! I think that is pretty awesome for only 8 minutes of work.  If you notice I did this before breakfast and there is a reason for that.  I checked the book Flip the Switch, Lose the Weight by Robert K. Cooper, PhD out from the library and started reading about how to harness the power of our metabolic thermostat.  I wanted to find a recipe for breakfast and I came across a snippit of information about how people who commit to exercise first thing in the morning are more likely to stick with the plan compared to afternoon and evening exercisers also they burn MORE fat through the day.  The morning exercise energizes you and kick starts your metabolism.  Dr. Cooper said, before or after breakfast is fine, but the exercise needs to take place within an hour of rising – as does eating breakfast – to take the best advantage of our MetaStat.  I’m still learning more about why.

Thank you for reading.  If you have any comments of encouragement or admonishment please feel free to share.  I didn’t take seriously how having support would help and I am starting to believe that is another reason why I’ve failed in the past.  If no one knows what you are doing there is no one to be accountable to or to miss your updates.  So here I am with Noom’s coaching divulging to the world my progress.