As I'm starting up a weight loss journey (again) I had had a false understanding of how my body would handle a lot of vegetables.
I've had GI tract issues in the past, and though it's under control now, I had attributed the occasional bouts of “angry gut” (a euphemism for explosive diarrhea) to consuming even a modest amount of salad. It's hard to tell, really, what the true cause for it was, but it was a convenient excuse.
And that made me leery when the Noom app started resetting my diet to include a lot of “green foods.” (A green food, in Noom parlance, means a food that is low in calorie density. These foods fill you up without blowing your calorie budget. By coincidence, a lot of green foods are green in color.)
I can eat celery! Yay!
One food that I thought would have been especially troublesome gut-wise was celery.
I'm glad that this didn't turn out to be the case. It actually hasn't turned out to be the case for most of the fruits and vegetables I've consumed this past week. And I consumed (for me) a lot of them.
What's great about celery in particular, for me, is the following:
- It agrees with me. That was a revelation to me this week. It sucks when you like a particular food but it doesn't like you back, and I'm glad this isn't the case.
- The taste is fine. Any new tastes may take some getting used to. But this is something that I can eat plain, without drowning it in dip or something else caloric like that.
- A whole stalk is a mere eight calories. (See here.) I can eat a full handful of the stuff, feel unusually full afterward, and barely dent my calorie budget for the day. I ate three stalks this afternoon as part of my snack.
- It's super-crunchy. On this front, celery is very satisfying to eat. Everyone in earshot knows you're eating it, and it has a snap to it that makes you feel like you're accomplishing something good with each bite.
Changing habits takes time
Learning to reach for vegetables and fruits instead of high-density foods is one of the habits that I'm learning.
Noom promised me that my enthusiasm for making these new habits will ebb and flow. I'm in the “honeymoon” period for using the service. Everything's new and exciting, I'm seeing results, and I'm pumped up.
But just like real honeymoons, the excitement doesn't last forever. To push through the dips and get past the valleys, I'll need different kinds of refocusing to keep going. My family is supportive of this, so that helps a lot.
But, like Noom keeps reminding me: “You gotta believe it will work.”