Working at Noom has a lot of great perks, but the one I was most excited about when I joined the company in November 2021 was starting the Noom Weight program again. I had used Noom in 2019, and liked the program so much I even wrote about it a few times at my last job. I lost more than 15 pounds and found the lessons and tracking in the app informative, useful, and sustainable. I developed some healthy habits, and actually looked forward to reading my lessons every day.
Then the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, and my life was turned upside down. Like many people, I turned to eating and drinking to cope with the stress, and ended up gaining 20 pounds. Although I’m not beating myself up over the weight gain, I am eager to develop some healthier habits around food and nutrition and lose some of the weight I gained during the past two years.
So I joined Noom again in November, and enjoyed reading (and listening to!) the lessons and getting reacquainted with the program. A lot had changed since I did the program in 2019—the content had gotten a makeover with new imagery visuals and accompanying audio, the course was broken down into several mini-courses with distinct themes, goals, and features, and if I missed an article one day, it was waiting for me in the app until I got a chance to read it. But the fundamentals were still the same: I became more introspective about my behaviors, and learned tools to make healthier choices.
While I’d like to tell you that my daily Noom habit stuck this time, life got in the way again: I was busy starting a new job and playing hostess to several guests I had in town week after week. Then Thanksgiving hit, then I visited my parents in St, Louis for the December holidays where I ate nothing but beige foods for two weeks (including Christmas cookies for breakfast with my coffee). Although I continued to read my lessons, I fell short of weighing myself every day and tracking my food. I wasn’t getting in my steps or responding to my Noom Coach, and I felt like I had fallen off the program.
Come January, I was ready to fully commit to Noom again. I love the start of a new year and the promise of new opportunities to tackle your goals. So on Monday, January 3rd, I decided to start Noom over from day 1 with a clean slate. It was as easy as going to the Settings tab in the left-hand menu in the app, clicking Curriculum, and selecting “Start Over.” That’s all I needed to be able to experience the fresh start I was looking for.
I felt like I had joined the program again for the first time, and vowed to read my lessons every day, track all my meals, and weigh in each morning. It’s been more than five weeks, and I’ve stayed pretty consistent. While sometimes I miss a morning weigh-in or forget to track a meal, starting the program over has reinvigorated my desire to adopt healthier habits and change my relationship with food. So far, my weight has fluctuated, but it’s trending in the right direction. For me, it’s more about believing in myself that I can make the program work for me, and setting a goal for myself and following through.
I’ve made using Noom a part of my daily routine. As soon as I get out of bed, I go to the bathroom and then weigh myself. After logging my weight with Noom, I read my lessons for the day before heading to the gym. I remember to log my meals throughout the day, and meal prepping on Sundays and planning ahead have helped me stay on track.
I know it will still be a long journey to meet my Super Goal, but in the meantime, I’m making progress towards my weight-loss goals by keeping my Big Picture in mind, using Noom consistently, and having faith that this time will be different. That’s the power of a fresh start.
