So everyone usually creates New Year’s resolutions to help them create new habits or make changes in their life. This year, my New Year’s resolution is to lose 50 pounds.
Yes, you read that right. I am putting it out there right now that I am going to lose 50 pounds this year. Or as many pounds as it will take me to feel all sorts of healthy this year! (So if that means I stop at 45 pounds, I’m not going to punish myself!)
My Journey
When I met my husband in 2013, I was at the lowest weight that I have ever weighed. (Well, since I’ve been in high school.) I weighed more than 50 pounds less than I do now. Over the six years of our relationship, my desire for exercise decreased, and my urge to eat healthily came to a screeching halt.
The saying, “happy and fat” when you get in a relationship was the path I took.
But it wasn’t until 2019 that I started to feel unhealthy, and my confidence hit an all-time low with my body.
Now I know you are probably thinking, “how is that possible, I’ve read your About Me section.”
Its because now I can’t even cover up the areas that I feel self-conscious about with a pair of jeans and a baggy T-shirt. Even wearing my husband’s shirts wouldn’t do the job I hoped they would.
So after we went to the Roaring 20s themed New Years’ party and my husband sent me this picture, I knew I had to make a change. I had to make a change in my diet and my activity level.
Starting with Noom
You may have seen all the Facebook ads about this weirdly named weight loss company. I know I did! And one night, as I was scrolling on Facebook, I saw an ad that spoke to me.
I knew it was time to make the change that I wanted to for so long.
I read all the perks I would get with my membership. I would have a tracker for my food and exercise, access to new recipes that would help me reach my goals, a Goal Specialist Coach to help me each week, and a group of people wanting the same thing that I wanted to help me be accountable, plus more. And so I jumped.
And that’s why I am writing this right now. To hold myself accountable to keep up with the changes in my life to help the weight come off and stay off. (It’s not easy to write an article like this. Here is me, stepping outside my comfort zone *gasp*)
Nooming Along
At the point of me putting all this scariness out there, I’ve dropped 5.8 pounds. This initial weight-loss has provided me with so much motivation to keep going.
One thing that gets me in the right mindset to reach my goals every day is the psychology steps they provide that make Noom so unique. Every morning, I can open the Noom app, and I’m presented with tips and tricks to help me understand why I have made food choices in the past, how to set goals that stick, and how to make the changes that I want to, to make life long changes. Because Noom believes that the changes required to lose weight should be lifestyle changes and not just a fad diet that people would stop once they have reached their weight goals.
More Than Weight Loss
Now while I am starting this journey with a goal that I will lose 50 pounds this year, what I really want from this journey is so much more.
I want to feel confident. Each person should be able to live a life that doesn’t involve hating their body. While most people have a hard time with this concept, it is something worth trying to work through. And I am working through that now. I want to be able to wear this adorable flapper dress and feel sexy in it, not that I need to sit on the couch all night so I can keep my stomach covered up.
I want to feel healthy. I was an athlete for almost half of my life on this earth. And during that time, I felt like I could do anything. I could play things I love, like basketball and soccer, without worrying about not being able to keep up. And while I realize that I was an athlete at a time in my life when I was younger, I would love to be able to climb a set of stairs without getting out of breath.
I want to sleep better. My insomnia has become so hard to deal with as I’ve gotten older. And one thing that I’ve realized is that when I was eating better and exercising more regularly, I slept. I slept well. Well, for the most part. As somebody who has dealt with insomnia since I was little, I have always had spells that sleep would escape me, but now as someone in their 30s, it has become the worse than it has ever been. So I would like to sleep. And sleep well.
I want to give myself a better chance at a long life. A few years ago, I got on a health kick. But like everyone else before, it was a diet and not a lifestyle. I got on the kick after going to my doctor and finding out that my hypoglycemia had gotten worse, and I was becoming pre-diabetic. While my family has a history of diabetes, it was something that I was not ready to deal with myself. I made some changes that improved my pre-diabetic state, which was great! But now I’ve noticed that my blood pressure that averaged as 95/56 was now averaging at 110/78. While that is still in a good range, it is the start of what was coming. So I want to prevent conditions that might end my life earlier than my goal of joining the 100-years-old club.
And that’s why if I don’t lose the full 50 pounds, that’s okay. My bigger goals are more important to me than my weight. Weight is based on gravity, after all. It’s not really important to me that the earth thinks I’m lighter.
But if losing 50 pounds will help me reach my health goals, then this year, I’m losing 50 pounds. With the help of Noom.
