What did I learn this past week? I have learned that I’m not a great “joiner”. Kudos to all of you who are great at being part of online communities!! Sadly, I have to confess I’m not really wired that way. For example, I took a membership with the weight loss program: Noom. (For all of you who are members of Noom and love it, please realize this is just weird me.) With Noom, they sell you a 3 month membership, do not sell special foods, etc. and are supposed to teach you better ways to think about your weight, health, etc. and also to supply weight loss coaching.
After about the fourth week I learned that most of my group had dropped out. Only about 14% of people continue with Noom (that’s their statistics, not mine). I think maybe part of my problem was that they insist you weigh yourself every day. I don’t know about you, but weighing myself every day doesn’t keep me motivated, it just discourages me. I discovered myself totally at the bottom of the barrel mentally when I thought it was a good idea to drink a glass of prune juice to help reduce weight before checking the numbers the next morning. Totally non-sustainable way to live.
At this stage of my life, weigh literally slowly crawls off of my body. (Sometimes, the elves come at night and stuff it back in…..) Anyway, I think you get the picture. Medications, my salt intake, the amount of fiber I took in (not to mention the prune juice) can all effect what the scale says. So, for me personally a daily weigh in is not necessarily the best mental and emotional healthy thing for me to do because of my unhealthy obsessive desire to succeed.
One of the of the guys in my Noom group decided that his weight loss was not going fast enough and he was going to cut his calories down to 800/day (I guess he had not thought of prune juice). The group coach didn’t advise us that was not necessarily the best thing to do except if one is a contestant on the Biggest Loser and there is a huge cash prize for weight loss. Problem is, a calorie range like that is not sustainable and then the winner quickly gains back all the weight in the next year.
By the way, I did some research: “Average weight before filming The Biggest Loser: 328 lb. Average weight after 30 weeks on The Biggest Loser: 199 lb. Average weight six years after final on camera weigh-in: 290 lb. This means that, on average, participants regained 70 percent of the weight they’d lost. https://www.precisionnutrition.com/the-biggest-loser-study
Out of that same article was one great pearl of wisdom: Pick one, simple health-supporting habit you want to concentrate on and put your effort towards that for 2-3 weeks before adding anything else to your list. My health supporting habit I am currently working on is finding some healthier things to eat, especially for breakfast and the main meal of the day. I am not a cook, I hate cooking, and I would rather be cleaning the bathroom than standing over the stove. So, I have been adapting to a piece of fruit with a small handful of walnuts for breakfast and making a large pot of soup which will last me through the week for my main meal. There are no great bells and whistles with this, but for me this is a great accomplishment.
What is just one health supporting habit which you think you can do for the next three weeks?