My journey with Noom has been a very long one - since starting my blog I have written two reviews  (1 & 2) for Noom and joined the guys at a launch event in London a while back! The app has had a bit of a makeover lately and the awesome people at Noom asked me to have a nosey around again. As Noom was the app that really got my weight loss journey started, I was more than excited about the opportunity!


The basic structure of the app has remained the same - complete daily tasks and track meals and exercise. This is the main frame for every fitness app around nowadays, but Noom does it with a great twist. The visual structure of the home screen gives you an instant glance of what you've been up to during the day, making everything hassle free and flowing. Pressing the do more- button also gives you an option to track your weight, start a workout or log your blood pressure or glucose levels (logging equipment not included). Keeping your health in check has never been so easy!


The major new update to Noom is the extra features you can purchase to aid you on your journey. Noom has scapped the original Pro- feature, and replaced it with live coaching by a small group of fully qualified coaches. When opting for one of the coaching programs you fill out a simple questionnaire about your goals and once matched to a coach, your coach will arrange a phone call (or Skype if outside the US!) to get everything going. Having the advise and support of a professional available when needed can be an absolute blessing to people who are still new to the whole healthy living business, and being able to chat to someone can mean the difference between a success story and giving up! 


While I didn't really take advantage of the coaching (sorry coach Pete!!), I think it's a fantastic resource from Noom. It is definitely something I haven't seen offered by any other weight loss app, giving Noom a certain edge over all the competition out on the market. I think the new features Noom has come up with are definitely worth a look, even if you're an old user looking to get reaquainted with the app after being away for a while!

The one downside to the revamp is that the database for food seems to be a bit restricted at the moment, especially on items only sold in the UK. While it is quite easy to add things into the database, it's so tempting to just skip tracking something in a rush instead of sitting down for a couple of minutes to write everything down from the ingredients list on the packaging. I'm sure it will fill up very rapidly with everyone adding their favourite go to- meals into the database!

Noom has definitely refreshed their look to their advantage, and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a nice and easy way to track their healthy living choices!

I've seen so many guides for this shirt lately and I've been dying to make one of my own! I've just been waiting for the perfect shirt to come along and I finally found it - my brand new Noom shirt! Absolutely no excuse to skip gym now! ;)


This shirt really doesn't need to look perfect, and isn't that kinda what DIY is all about? All you need for this is a T-shirt of your choosing (maybe less wrinkled than mine, don't ask haha!) and a pair of scissors. No needles, thread or a sewing machine needed. :)


You start off by cutting off the sleeves, bottom of the shirt and the collar if desired. I actually left it intact to begin with as the neckline was quite deep already, but I did get rid of it in the end as the strap kinda pulls it in a little bit. Turn the shirt around and cut a V shaped piece out from the back of the shirt. Don't worry if it doesn't look smooth or even, as the strap will cover it anyways.



Take the piece you cut off from the bottom of the shirt and turn it into a single piece of fabric. Then loop it through the straps at the top, tie a knot and start wrapping one end of the strip around the back piece of your shirt. Leave roughly an inch of fabric loose at the bottom and repeat the same process with the other end. Then all you need to do is tie another knot and your shirt is done!





The shirt was actually just slightly too big for me before all this, but now that I've pulled it in a little bit with this trick it fits perfectly. :)

So today was really exciting for me. I'm still kinda trying to assemble my thoughts about everything, but hopefully it'll all start flowing in my head as I write this!

My day started as early as 5am today. The event was scheduled to start at 8.30, so I needed to be ready and out of the flat by 5.45. I must admit, I feel sorry for the people who do this five times a week. I don't think I could do this kind of commuting for longer periods of time, it must be so draining to sit on the train for three hours a day on top of working full days!

Saying that, an odd day like this was quite refreshing in a way. It was quiet, the sun hadn't come up yet, the air was really fresh and it was just slightly foggy. One day I will get up that early on my day off and go for a walk with my camera! The train route passes lots of pastures full of cows and horses, and the fog just made the entire scenery so beautiful. That is definitely something worth taking pictures of.



As I knew that the event would have a breakfast buffet, I didn't actually eat anything at home. I really wish I had taken something with me, though. I was absolutely starving by the time I got to Oxford Street haha! The event was held in the Debenhams Bistro, such a pretty little venue. It was really cozy and welcoming, it really made me feel like I was just going to go meet up with a bunch of friends.

I'm quite a typical introvert, so this event did honestly frighten me a little bit. I'm not a conversation starter and being surrounded by people I don't know is always quite a big thing for me, but my wonderful Noomily (Noom family ;)) was so welcoming and made me feel so relaxed right from the beginning. It was also so great to actually meet people in person I have been emailing for quite some time, nice to actually place a face on the name!

Now, I'm not allowed to talk about the main bit of the event yet, but I'll make sure you guys get informed about it when it's time! ;)



I also got the pleasure of meeting TheModelFoodie author Bailee today (check out her blog, it's amazing for dinner ideas!). Her contribution to our wonderful breakfast were goji berry breakfast bars, and oh my goodness they were the best thing ever! I will post the recipe soon, once I've had the chance to make a batch myself! :) All natural ingredients, very tasty and most of all - good for you. Goji berries are packed with all the good nutrients your body needs, and Bailee also added some extra protein powder in there to really bump up the nutritional values.

Some of you might get all suspicious of these beauties, but trust me, they taste like carrot cake! So if you're into that kinda thing, you will love these babies even more. Maybe I could fool some of my friends by turning these bars into a cake and just tell them that it's carrot.. Hah.



And just because being spoilt with good food wasn't enough, we also had the very lovely Jenni Falconer present to talk about the new A&W XPG fitness wear collection. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to chat to her personally (too many interesting people to talk to!!), but I managed to get a really good look at the new collection. It's all really affordable prices, cute details and fantastic fabric. I also really like the overall colour scheme, might have to do a bit of online shopping soon.. ;)


I was going to wait until I got home to start rummaging through my bag, but I just couldn't resist the temptation and the goji berry bar didn't even make it out of London! Seriously, these things are addictive.

The full contents of the bag: goji berry breakfast bar, a shirt from the XPG collection, a Noom shirt, a fantastic phone holder for exercise (this was such a great surprise, I've had one before that was too tight for me so stopped using it) and a face mask by Sanctuary Spa. I shall let the pictures do all the talking. :)

 







I'm really looking forward to being able to spill the beans about all this new stuff coming up! Sit tight!

I got a little pressie from Noom today! Thank you Sarah for the super awesome shirt, I love it! It'll be the perfect workout top in this heat, it's nice and light and the colour is so awesome (by the way, matches the new Noom look!). I also got a balloon, it has been a good source of entertainment for both me and my other half all afternoon.. :D

Also feeling very Dutch wearing all this orange haha!



I've had a very relaxed two days off from work. As I do work insanely hard, I just don't rush at all when I do get some time to myself. I'm still trying to recover from this stupid flu as well, so I didn't even bother going out for a walk. I've actually been doing quite a bit of drawing and painting again, one of the pieces being this World of Warcraft fanart piece I started last September and never finished!

We've also had this huge canvas just sitting in the lounge ever since we moved into this flat. I wanted to paint something and hang it on the wall above our dining table, but I just never quite had the inspiration for anything worth painting. I finally found some inspiration and I currently have half a painting drying on the dining table! Hopefully the other half will materialise soon enough so I can show you guys what I've been up to!



Painting is quite a therapeutic thing. It always lets me process some thoughts, just think about general stuff going on in my life and try and find answers to things that have puzzled me for ages. Today I was just thinking about motivation and how I keep it up weight loss wise. I actually surround myself with things that motivate me - pictures of healthy food and fit people, use apps that show me my progress, take pictures of myself and compare them to some older ones and most of all just talk to people about my goals and dreams! It's so great to chat to someone who knows what you're going through and can give some advice, it just gives that extra boost of motivation to keep going (especially when things are tough)!

I'm quite involved with social media, and I try to include all these fitness related things to my feeds. I follow several fitness pages on Facebook / Instagram / Twitter, I'm building a health & fitness board on Pinterest, I read fitness and weight loss related blogs and so on!

Do you have any motivational boosters?

My review of Noom is probably the most popular article on my blog right now, and lately I've had the chance to have a look at the features Noom Pro offers - and so far I haven't been disappointed!


The biggest feature Pro offers is the chance to join a Noom group. The idea of these groups is to get the chance to share your progress with a small group of likeminded people - before you join a group you get to influence what kind of people you want to group up with, based on their age, location, sex and so on.


Over the few weeks I've been a part of my group I've really grown fond of the people I get to chat with! Most of the time I just hover in the background, but when I feel like I can really share my knowledge with everyone I just love being a part of it all. You can share anything you want - pictures of meals, workouts, thoughts about weight loss and most importantly, you get to ask weight loss related questions and get answers very quickly! My phone alerts me every time someone posts in the group, so the response time is really quick if everyone in the group is by their phones (and I most likely will be as my phone is always somewhere close, hah!).


Pro also gives you the opportunity to use the app's own database of recipes, which can be extremely useful for people just starting with their lifestyle change. It counts the calories for you and gives incredibly detailed instructions for every dish, there's just no way you can get the dish wrong with all this guidance! It will make cooking so accessible for even novice cooks. And even I find myself browsing the recipe database for inspiration when I don't know what to cook for dinner! I'm actually really dying to get a microwave to our office at work so I could make all those delicious soups and take them to work with me to have for lunch. Yum!

So to answer the question a lot of people are asking - is Noom Pro worth the sub? Yes, yes it is. Just put the price into perspective for a second - the sub for a month costs roughly the same as a takeaway dinner would. Cut down on one takeaway and you'll be able to afford Noom Pro.

It's probably really obvious to most of you that I've kinda fallen off the wagon since before Easter. Deadlines and work left me with not a lot of spare time to exercise, and junk food became my friend again. It's incredible how easy it is to pick the bad but quick option instead of thinking about the choices you make when buying lunch.

I actually got on the scales this morning, only to see a 4kg gain since I slipped. Quite depressing in a way, but so expectable. I've not treated my body the way it deserves lately, and this is definitely its way of saying that this is enough. And for the past week I've really done all I can to get back to the healthy train, and having a bit of discipline is finally starting to show results.


I suppose it was just so easy to think, that because I walk to work and stand up pretty much all day, I don't need to exercise. But at the same time I've upped my food intake slightly to be able to cope with the long work hours I do. It's just not a match made in heaven, is it?

In a way it feels odd, I've gained weight but at the same time someone I know keeps saying that I just keep getting thinner and thinner everytime he sees me. I know it's not true and it does stab me in the heart a bit, because I've not followed the healthy lifestyle I've been working so hard towards since last year. 


But you know what? Dwelling in it is not going to fix things, I need to be the one to decide to be good again. Since starting to use my UP band again two weeks ago, I've hit my step target nearly every day and also actually gone for walks again. The weather being amazing definitely helps, as I just can't sit indoors when the sun is shining and it's so warm that you don't need a hoodie anymore.


I also made a promise to myself to stop buying Coke when I'm at work. I've actually ordered a new stainless steel water bottle and I'm going to start using that at work, instead of constantly buying bottles of water or juice. I'm cautious of both BPA in the bottles and the amount of sugar in bottled juices, so going for a stainless steel bottle will definitely make me feel better about myself.

This doesn't mean a complete ban to everything that isn't a vegetable or source of protein, of course. I've never been one to follow strict diets and I don't believe in denying guilty pleasures completely, as it's about a lifestyle, not just a quick fix.


There's so many things I need to catch up with (a few reviews and such), and hopefully I will start having more time for my precious blog. It has after all given me so many good things over the 1,5 years I've been doing this. One of the latest being an invite to become a part of the Noom community as a guest writer! I'm really excited about this opportunity, as I do love the app and being a writer for such a bit community will be so rewarding for me! :)

I think I will actually do a proper progress check on Sunday as well, being the first Sunday of the month and my usual progress check day. I'm really not looking forward to it, but it's exactly what I need for that final kick to the butt to start working towards a healthier me again.

Looking for a review of Noom Pro? Click here!

Apologies for the delay in starting my fitness app series, but better late than never!


Noom was the very first fitness app I ever downloaded last year. Since then the app has developed leaps and bounds and I feel like my old review really doesn't do it any justice!

There's no escaping the fact that I'm a graphic designer and I want my apps to be aesthetically pleasing. On top of that something that stands out from the crowd makes me feel very tingly, and Noom really has succeeded with that. The vibrant green and purple colour theme is fresh and bright without it being too overbearing on the eyes.


The setup is very simple, the app asks you some basic health related questions and does all the nutritional and activity calculations based on it. It also gives you a BMI reading for your target weight, so do make sure you give the app accurate measurements!



The thing that bothered me the most with the app a year ago was the fact that it didn't have an accurate calorie tracker. You could only pick approximate sizes (tennis ball, soft ball, golf ball, handful..) when adding your meals in and it really made me feel like I'm eating too much or way too little. On top of that it's quite hard to try and imagine the sizes when you're looking at your meal - and in my cases I'd usually track my meal after I finished eating so trying to guess it all was a bit difficult.

And it was such a nice surprise to find a good and accurate tracker! You can still swap to the simple tracker if you want to but I do strongly recommend this one. They currently only list UK, US and Australian supermarket foods in their tracker but it's a good start! You also get to pick exactly how much food you had, making it easier to stay on track of everything you've had during the day.

The tracker also has a barcode scanner!


On top of just being a food tracker, Noom gives you interesting articles to read and tasks to complete during the day. They are a bit limited, as some of the articles are premium features you can subscribe to. I never tried the pro- feature but I was really tempted. The only thing that stopped me from trying it out was the fact that I was poor back then, hah!

The articles are really useful for people who are only starting on their weight loss journey. It can be very overwhelming trying to browse through hundreds of internet articles in order to try and find some information about nutrition and exercise, but Noom does it all for you. I think it's good for beginners to focus their source of information in one place, as different studies and professionals have completely opposite views of what's good and what's bad exercise and diet wise. Noom provides the user with the very staple information about healthy living and as the user gets more comfortable with it all they can expand their knowledge as they go on.

Noom has plenty of different features to keep you going. The most important thing for me by far is the logbook - it gives you the vital details of your progress on one handy page. For peer support you also have access to Noom's forums through the app so you really get the feeling that you're not alone on your journey.


On top of being a calorie tracker Noom also lets you fill in your workouts. You can simply use it to track your workouts as you go or actually plan it all ahead with reminders. I believe that planning your workouts in advance will really help you stick to them and with the app actually reminding you to get on with it will give you that extra boost of motivation. 


Since first reviewing the app I am positively surprised about all the changes. The app has more features and looks far more pleasing to the eye than it did a year ago. I'm still very curious about all the premium features Noom offers, but as I've still got nine apps to test I better not go too mad. ;)

Noom is available for iPhone and Android.