Another long walk

Today, Gracie and I conquered another 4.6 miles of cart path, enjoying the cool, although sadly cloudy weather. I love overcast days myself, but they make for lackluster photographs, particularly of the autumn, which needs direct sunlight to sell its superiority over summer and spring to misguided lovers of those seasons.

Would be even prettier with a blue sky, preferably dotted
with fluffy clouds.

Rockspray Park is actually not one of the best. It needs some lovin' from somebody. I don't know who...but it's still nice after walking for an hour on trails behind people's houses.

The best part is the bridge (not pictured), but even that needs a spit-polish. I wish I had had more time to walk around the pond, but that's something for another day. Right?

Gracie had a very nice time today, but instead of still having energy at the end of the day, she was completely exhausted. I wonder what makes the difference? We walked over six miles last time. Today, not even five. She carried less weight today too.

Oh, I also encountered my first lost person in the path system today. I use my phone for path maps, so I'm forever checking it in new territory. I actually gave the person decent enough directions for them to reach the Kroger - spotted them there when we got back to the car. Hee!

More on Noom App

Quick refresher: Noom is a weight loss app with both free and premium versions. I tried the premium, because I had a spark of hope that this might be the thing that helped me conquer my plateau. Let's start with the positive:

Cost. I paid $24.99 for a lifetime Noom subscription. Supposedly, it is refundable. I just put in my request this morning. Considering how expensive some of the monthly subscription apps are, this is a pretty good deal, if you're willing to buy apps for your phone. I tend not to do so. I've been playing the free version of Triple Town for over a year now. Just FYI.

Functionality. Noom will not let you down or give you up. No, seriously now, the app itself is well-designed, functional, reliable, and unobtrusive. It does not crash, hang-up, or drain my phone battery. These are all good things, ne? Overall, it is enjoyable to use and in the beginning, even kind of fun, although that wears off a little bit.

Now more the negative:

Philosophy. Noom bases its dieting philosophy on Volumetrics, a fairly ancient and hoopty method of weight loss that may not be suitable for many people. To be fair, a person over 300 lbs who is just beginning to try to eat differently would almost certainly benefit from this (and all other) means of weight loss that's based on calories restriction. It just makes sense. But for other groups it is likely to be needlessly frustrating and harmful. If a person basically has their dieting ducks in a row, but still can't lose that last 10 to 20 lbs, I seriously doubt this would help them in any way.

Additionally, Noom is likely to cause severe harm to anyone with a slew of preexisting conditions who uses their diet, which is extremely carbohydrate heavy and allergy-unfriendly. I'm a Type I diabetic. If I ate as they recommend, I would either gain weight or die from complications from high blood sugar. I would also die fuzzy-headed, cranky, and emotionally detached because of the excessive amount of grains (gluten) touted by this diet. People with celiac's...I think it could cause them severe harm too, but I'll let them speak to that one.

Noom goes through a lot of trouble to try and smear people who use low-carb or low-glycemic diets. It is actually pretty damn disgusting the amount of misinformation they are willing to spread on this topic. I lost all respect for their system once I started reading their anti-Atkins articles.

Partnerships. If you knew that your dieting app was in bed with a homophobic organization, would you keep the app? I have a pretty unflinching moral compass when it comes to groups that participate in anti-gay hate-speech. I marched in college. I gave in my twenties. I will again someday. So help me.

That's why I find Noom's partnership with Curves so utterly unbearable. I naively used the gym in my area...no, tell you what we're naming names here. I used the Curves in Fayetteville, Georgia. They routinely played homophobic music, mostly about murdering gay people - yes, I'm serious here. I mentioned that I thought it wasn't cool. OMG...snide. I quit going. Also, no, it didn't help me get into shape.

Not cool, Noom, not cool.

So that's it in a nutshell right there. I just requested my refund a little while ago. I will let you know if they don't cough up, like they advertise they will.

That was farther than I thought

I had the day off on use-it-or-lose-it leave today, so I decided to take my puppy on a nice long walk on the cart paths. We decided to hit the path system at its eastern-most point, because I had other errands to run, few of which got done. Unfortunately, construction blocked the intended route and instead of walking about 1.5 miles, maybe closer to 2 miles, Gracie and I walked 4.58 miles according to my Fitbit, including 33 stories in upward elevation change.

Needless to say, she's asleep right now, twitching in front of the roaring fireplace. I'm reaching for the Aleeve myself.

I just couldn't double-back. I guess it's a form of navigational stubbornness, similar to men not asking directions, but I can't retrace my steps on a walk. I have to make a circle. And what a circle that was!

I wish I had pictures, but the scenery was mostly horrible, except for the enormous houses, and it would have been creepy to photograph those.

Next time, I think I'll plan my route more carefully, to avoid construction, and to avoid constantly using my phone to navigate. I'm sure I looked like a tool checking it every half-mile or so.

Tomorrow, we may go to the park and walk the trail, which is a one-mile loop. :)

Do you Noom?

I'm trying out a new weight-loss app for my phone - Noom. It's available in a free version from the Google Play Store, as well as premium - $24.99 lifetime, on sale now. I tested the free version for a few days and enjoy the interface, although I'm not sure how well this style of ... coaching (?) will work to meet my needs.

The app is actually pretty sophisticated in terms of tracking food and steps (pedometer), but not as wonderful as the Fitbit, which I've probably mentioned before. The app mechanics are nice - extremely intuitive and interactive. In some ways, it's like Spark People and Fitbit had a baby, because Noom provides reading material and other perks too.

The calorie goals are more realistic, and unlike FB, Noom totally judges what I consume, although not necessarily by a criteria that meshes (at all) well with my South Beach (lost 30) and Primal Blueprint (lost 34) background. FB gives me a daily max of about 1600 calories. Noom holds me to 1200, which in modern thinking is much more realistic for moderate weight loss.

Noom doesn't focus on hardcore exercise, but more on moving around more. Given the news articles I've read lately supporting this view, I am not calling this a bad thing at all.

I'm still exploring the app and will update with periodic progress reports. If it doesn't help me break on through (read: get under 150 lbs), I plan to get a refund and try something else.