#noom challenge

[noomhq]

“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” -Confucius

by Betina Evancha

It’s the third week of my 30-day challenge to log all of my food, and things are starting to get hard. If you remember, I’m not trying to lose weight, just be a little more accountable to myself about the things I eat. This means that I don’t get the positive feedback associated with weight loss, and just hear the truth about what I’ve logged.

So sometimes logging feels like reporting to my mom. What my mom says:

"You really shouldn’t be drinking whole milk, you know." I do know. Sometimes it’s the only thing left at the office, and I really love my granola. Hearing this over and over has made me reach the extra few inches for the skim when it’s available though.

"Fried food is bad for you." But Mom, it was falafel! And there was lettuce involved.

"There’s a reason I don’t keep sweets in the house." But what if your office is throwing a SpaceTeam tournament and there’s candy all over the place? I haven’t had Twizzlers in over a year, so I can probably have one or two (or five) now. Plus, it’s exhausting to be on the championship team.

"You really should go for a walk after all that mac and cheese." I was going to grab a beer until I saw that calorie count. Yikes! Guess I’m lacing up my shoes.

"Start your day with a good breakfast." Turns out that this is gospel. I’m much less likely to reach for the Twizzlers on days that I’ve had some healthy cereal early on.

It’s been eye-opening to log everything I eat, and sometimes outright demoralizing. I love sweets and carbs, and writing down how much of them I eat makes me wonder why my body hasn’t evicted me yet. On the other hand, my goal was not to eat perfectly, or even to improve my food habits over the course of a month. I want only to see the truth of what I’m eating.

Of course, it’s the truth that’s the problem. That’s why I’ve started this week’s update with the quote from Confucius — it feels like it was made for someone on the third week of a 30-day challenge! The key now is not to try to accelerate or change my intentions, but instead to plod along at whatever pace I can sustain. Here's to slow and steady!

Til next week,

Betina

[noomhq]

Strategies for Success

by Betina Evancha

It's week 2 of my 30 Day Challenge! I'm happy to report that I've successfully logged all of the food I've eaten. It's been an adjustment -- I'm used to eating pretty much what I want, when I want. But the experience of writing down what I eat (or in this case, recording it in Noom) has made me much more conscious of what I'm putting into my body. No more late-night ice cream for me!

Noom makes logging my food pretty easy, but I still have to remember to do it! It's been hard to get into the habit of logging every time I eat, but here are some of my strategies for remembering. Hopefully some of these will be helpful to others trying to develop a healthy habit.

Use visual reminders. I put my floss near my toothpaste. Important work reminders become my desktop background. Post-it notes, tying a string around your finger, writing it on your body… whatever works.

Use digital reminders. I set phone alarms or calendar events to remember to do things. The Lift app is also really helpful— you check into a habit, and if you don’t, the app will remind you just when you were going to skip it.

Do the work when it’s easy. It's hard to remember your healthy habit when you're in the middle of living your life. Make it easier for yourself by shifting some of the effort to calmer moments. If it's going to be a crazy day, I'll plan out my meals in the morning and log them ahead of time, so that I don't have to think about it when other things are on my mind.

Commit money. I use GymPact as a workout motivator: if I don’t work out 3 times a week, it takes $5 out of my bank account. That doesn’t break the bank, but I’ve done many end-of-week workouts to avoid the psychological pain of throwing money away! You could bet a friend that you’ll succeed at logging your meals instead — you’ll hate the idea of paying up.

Commit your reputation. Tell everyone what you’re going to do — friends, significant others, even strangers. That way when you’re tempted to quit, they can keep you on track. Editor's note: I've been asking Betina all week whether she's been logging, so I can attest that this one works!

Reward yourself for success. You’ll feel great about yourself at the end of your 30 days, but what about all of the days before that? Make sure to reward yourself for doing well. You could check off days on a calendar or put a dollar in a jar for a treat down the road.

Piggyback on an existing routine. This is the most powerful way to build a habit that I've found so far. You're already doing something automatically, maybe brushing your teeth at night, so just add the habit you're working on. Soon, it's a part of how you do things.

Hope these help! See you next week.

[noomhq]

The Noom Halloween Challenge: Week 2

Welcome back to the Halloween Challenge! If you haven't been following along with the Challenge so far, you can read more about it here. It’s not too late to join in!

For those who have been chipping away at a big October goal, now’s a great time to check in on your status. Is your overall goal still attainable and relevant? If it is, awesome! (If not, that’s OK, too; go ahead and reassess now.) To keep you excited and motivated, we’ve got a new focus for this week that’ll fit into your bigger month-long goal. Your focus? Food. In addition to your bigger, overall goal, think of away to eat just a bit healthier this week. That'll prevent you from getting too focused on other aspects of the challenge (and keep you from hitting a plateau). Some ideas to amp it up this week:

Log every meal or log one more meal than usual every day

Snack only on fruits and veggies

Eat 50 percent green foods at every meal

Cut out a diet-busting food like meat or alcohol (just for this week!)

Remember, food logging may seem like a small thing, but studies have repeatedly show that it makes a big difference! Just logging the foods you already eat keeps you more cognizant of your habits, and may encourage you to subconsciously cut back. And Noom makes logging quick and easy — logging all your meals for the day doesn't have to take more than about two minutes. So this week, choose one of the goals above or pick your own food-based weekly goal to keep the Halloween Challenge goin' strong. Check in with us on the Noom forums, Facebook, and Twitter to share your progress and tell us about your mini-goal for this week. (Plus, look out for a giveaway this Tuesday.)

[willnoomtest-blog]

The Noom Halloween Challenge: Week 2

Welcome back to the Halloween Challenge! If you haven't been following along with the Challenge so far, you can read more about it here. It’s not too late to join in!

For those who have been chipping away at a big October goal, now’s a great time to check in on your status. Is your overall goal still attainable and relevant? If it is, awesome! (If not, that’s OK, too; go ahead and reassess now.) To keep you excited and motivated, we’ve got a new focus for this week that’ll fit into your bigger month-long goal. Your focus? Food. In addition to your bigger, overall goal, think of away to eat just a bit healthier this week. That'll prevent you from getting too focused on other aspects of the challenge (and keep you from hitting a plateau). Some ideas to amp it up this week:

Log every meal or log one more meal than usual every day

Snack only on fruits and veggies

Eat 50 percent green foods at every meal

Cut out a diet-busting food like meat or alcohol (just for this week!)

Remember, food logging may seem like a small thing, but studies have repeatedly show that it makes a big difference! Just logging the foods you already eat keeps you more cognizant of your habits, and may encourage you to subconsciously cut back. And Noom makes logging quick and easy — logging all your meals for the day doesn't have to take more than about two minutes. So this week, choose one of the goals above or pick your own food-based weekly goal to keep the Halloween Challenge goin' strong. Check in with us on the Noom forums, Facebook, and Twitter to share your progress and tell us about your mini-goal for this week. (Plus, look out for a giveaway this Tuesday.)