Originally published in a lifestyle column for The Daily Star (www.hammondstar.com)

I have always been a big snacker. As a high-schooler and a college student, my friends all knew I was the one with an extra granola bar or bag of chips stashed away for later. On the off chance I forgot a snack to tide me over between classes, I would frantically retrieve my wallet from my backpack to grab something out of the vending machine before my uncanny “hanger” set in. 

Over the years, I’ve tried a couple different methods to lose weight — cutting out carbs for prom, swearing off sugar to squeeze into a bathing suit for a day at the beach with friends, counting calories for my wedding, and the like. I’d reach my event, and then let it all hang out once it was over. My good habits have always been short lived, and the weight has always come back.

During the quarantine months, I was eating more than I ever had, mostly because I had so much free time on my hands. I also taught myself to bake, and every new dessert or dish I learned to make seemed to require a new notch on my belt. I gained 15 pounds in just 3 months after our wedding. When I realized I had a problem, I dawdled instead of working to get the weight off, because I didn’t want to give up snacking and eating what I wanted. Then, the pace of life picked up, Caleb and I went back to work, and suddenly there wasn’t even time to exercise (or avoid it, as I had been doing). 

By the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I had put away about 60% of my wardrobe into boxes because they didn’t fit anymore. I had a handful of sweaters and t-shirts, a couple of dresses, and one pair of jeans (they were well-worn and hanging on for dear life) left that I could wear. I knew I didn’t want to replace over half of my wardrobe, but I didn’t feel like sacrificing all of the delicious holiday foods coming our way. So, instead of making a change, I dawdled some more.

On a rainy day off before Christmas, I had some errands to run before we went out of town, including a trip to the bank. I put on my hanging-on-for-dear-life jeans, a shirt, and my rain jacket and got in the car. I pulled out of the driveway and turned on the AC in the car, which alerted me to something horrifying: I felt a cool breeze on my leg. I looked down to find that my poor old jeans had finally given up, and a Great Divide had occurred along the inseam. My flesh forced its way through, seeming to be telling me, “Time’s up!” While it is funny now (I hope you can laugh at my humiliation), I was panicking in the moment. Instead of going to the bank first, I drove to the Hammond Square Mall and ran — with knees together — into Target for a new pair. 

Still, instead of getting a wake up call from the Great Denim Divide, I once again dawdled. It wasn’t until I hit the 20-pounds-gained mark — the heaviest I’ve ever been — that I decided to put an end to the dawdling. I felt sluggish, unhealthy, and uncomfortable, and I wanted it to stop, so I joined Noom.

Noom is an app and weight loss course that educates you about your eating habits, instead of restricting them. It focuses less on “good” and “bad” foods, and more on eating larger quantities of foods with low caloric density (like vegetables and whole grains). I am in my third week using Noom, and I have already been fortunate enough to see results with a loss of nine pounds. It takes a good bit of effort and planning, but I’ve been successful by setting aside time each day to plan out my meals and snacks and log them to make sure I am eating plenty of foods with low caloric density and only small portions of foods with a high caloric density. 

The paid version of Noom comes with a lot of other features besides the food tracker: recipes, a goal specialist to help you identify and track your achievements, a group of other Noom users to keep you accountable and offer support, and plenty of good reading material to educate you on the psychology behind why you eat what you eat. 

Noom has been so helpful to me as I work towards my health goals. I still love to snack throughout the day, but I’ve come to realize my snacking habits are really a stress-eating issue, and I’m finding a way to snack healthier and eat those calorie-dense snacks I love in moderation. It was difficult at first to make the effort, but now it hardly feels like work at all — and I don’t feel like I am giving much up when it comes to what I eat.

Besides the weight loss, I simply just feel more in control of my eating habits, and I feel confident that I am going to fully meet my goal because of what I am learning. As the saying goes, knowledge is power!