Noom Elephant Dialogues—Distraction

 🐘: "Let's do [something else]!"

🕵️‍♂️:  "Look at that: my elephant/brain is generating an urge"

🏇🏼: "We aren't going to stop the Elephant from having urges. But I can choose if I want to act in accordance with that urge."

🏇🏼: "Hey Observer, let's keep a look out for this Urge. Remember that Elephant can be sneaky and may switch it up with some other distraction next time."

🕵️‍♂️: "OK, I'll tap into how it feels and if it changes over time."

🏇🏼: "Hey Elephant, thanks for sharing that Urge, we are going to stay on task for a little while. But we do have a break planned for the top of the hour. Can you look forward to that?" 

🐘: "I like breaks! (grumbles) But I'd prefer to have it now..."

Noom Elephant Dialogues—But there’s still MORE PIZZA!?

 

More or leftover pizza

🏇🏼: Did you enjoy the Pizza? Wasn’t that a nice treat. 

🐘: I love pizza!

🏇🏼: Well, let’s freeze the leftovers so we can have some another day

🐘: But there’s still MORE PIZZA!?

🕵️‍♂️: There is wanting

🏇🏼: I know, we used to eat a lot of pizza but we learned that’s a lot of calories. 

🐘: But there’s still MORE PIZZA!?

🏇🏼: Before we had the pizza we had an orange, some crunchy carrots and celery, and a nice cup of tea. Aren’t you full? 

🕵️‍♂️: There is stomach fullness, yet there is wanting

🐘: You are stuck in the past, I live in the present. 

🐘: And now THERE IS MORE PIZZA! 

🏇🏼: Remember when we used to split a pizza with Dad?
🐘: That was nice. 

🏇🏼: The pizza was nice, but what made it really special was spending time with Dad. 

🏇🏼: Food isn’t love, it’s just food. 

🐘: Hmm, but after I eat pizza I am used to eating MORE PIZZA!

🕵️‍♂️: There is habit

🏇🏼: Let’s take a deep breath

🐘: <breathe in> 

🐘: <breathe out> 

🏇🏼: We can do this. This is us putting away pizza for later. 

🐘: I will like having more pizza later. 

Noom Elephant Dialogues—We JUST had lunch

🐘: I’M HUNGRY!

🏇🏼: But, we JUST had lunch!

🐘: So? I’m still hungry.

🕵️‍♂️: There is hunger

🏇🏼: I know, but we are losing weight, so we might be a little hungry sometimes. 

🐘: If we lose too much weight we’ll die. I don’t want to die. We should eat. 

🏇🏼: You’re trying to keep us safe, but I promise we won’t lose too much weight. We have a plan. 

🐘: I’d like the plan better if it was to eat more now. 

🏇🏼: We have a snack planned in a few hours.
🐘: I like snacks!  

Noom Elephant Dialogues--Night Hunger

🐘: I’M HUNGRY!
🕵️‍♂️: There is hunger
🏇🏼: it’s late. Let’s wait for breakfast.
🐘: BREAKFAST!? I may wither away and die by breakfast.
🕵️‍♂️: There is fear
🏇🏼: Are we safe
🕵️‍♂️: we are safe
🏇🏼: We have eaten well today and we are home
🐘: I’m still hungry
🏇🏼: You’re a good elephant. We’ll have a good day tomorrow. How about some stretching.
🐘: 🙆‍♀️

Noom Elephant Dialogues--Peanut Butter Pumpkins

🐘: I WANT Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins 🥜🍫🎃😋
🕵️‍♂️: There is craving
🏇: Remember we wanted to start eating healthy?
🐘: We eat healthy tomorrow. I WANT Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins 🥜🍫🎃😋
🕵️‍♂️: There is rationalization
🏇: How about we plan to have a Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkin 🥜🍫🎃 on Halloween as a special treat? That will give us something to look forward to.
🐘: Is Halloween tomorrow? 🤔
🏇: Not quite. But we can get a nice healthful snack tonight. And maybe some stretching or a walk.
🐘: I WANT Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins 🥜🍫🎃 NOW!😦
🕵️‍♂️: There is frustration
🏇: I get that you are frustrated. That is real and valid. You like something that you aren't having right now. Can we take a deep breath and touch base with how are we feeling?
🐘: 🙏
🕵️‍♂️: There is calm
🐘: I still want it. 🙁
🏇: I know you do. Let's find something sweet that will also be filling. 🍓🍒🍇🍉🍌🍐
🐘: 🍓🍒🍇🍉🍌🍐I feel better now. 😊
‍🏇: What a good elephant. How about that walk now?
🐘: 🚶‍♀️

Noom: Elephant Dialogues--RUN or RAMPAGE

RUN or RAMPAGE

🐘: RUN!? or RAMPAGE?! 😫
🏇: One second. ... Deep Breath.
🕵️‍♂️: Nope, we're all ok.
🏇: Easy there elephant. We're fine. We'll get through this just breathe.
🐘: Don't run? Don't fight? 😟
🏇: No. we are fine. Let's just do the next thing.
🐘: Is the next thing curl up in a ball? Or EAT.ALL.THE.THINGS? 😋
🏇: Let's just scrub the next veggie. 
🐘: 🍠

Noom has helped me deal with my anxiety when it flares up. 
 Noom has helped me deal with my depression when it flares up. 
 But some days, when they both flare up, are quite a challenge. 
I lean hard into the system. I've noticed several times when I was at the cusp of a panic attack I was able to find the mindfulness to take a deep breath and check in with my observer to see if I was in any actual danger.
That helped. 

Noom: Elephant Dialogues--Fried Chicken

Fried Chicken

🏇Rider: Hey, Elephant? We get to have Fried Chicken!
🐘 Elephant: Mm. I.Love.Fried.Chicken! 😋
🏇I know you do. That will be nice
🐘 Do we get a whole bucket? 🤭
🏇We get to choose how much we can eat. To meet our goals, let's have some great sides: corn on the cob, tortilla soup, and Coleslaw.
🐘 All that with a BUCKET OF FRIED CHICKEN? 😋
🏇Well, the first bite is the best. Let's just have one piece, and plan to really make the most of it.
🐘 But, I.LOVE.FRIED.CHICKEN! 😬
🕵️‍♀️ Observer: There is anxiety.
🏇I know you do. Isn't it great that with Noom we can have some?
🐘I guess so 🤔
🏇How about I let you pick if you want to start with the chicken, or end with it.
🐘Hmm 🤔
🏇While you think about it, let's go for a walk.
🐘🚶‍♀️

Inspired by a post by Molly: I’m making homemade fried chicken at the request of my visiting son.
My inner elephant is soooo excited! (It loves fried chicken!) I’ll have coleslaw and corn on the cob on the side. And I have some homemade tortilla soup to have alongside to take the edge off my hunger.
Ideas for how chat with the elephant?

Noom: Elephant Dialogues--Depression

Depression


🐘: I don't want to workout. I'm TIRED. 😶
🕵️‍♂️: There is depression
🏇: You’ll feel better after you work out.
🐘: I don't want to feel better. I ruined everything. I ate bad. I am bad. 😟
🕵️‍♂️: There is black & white thinking
🏇: We made the list of things to do so we will be healthier. You don't have to feel like it or even want to do it. We just need to do it because it is on the list.
🐘: It’s hard. 😶
🏇: Let’s just start. We'll do one set. Let's trust the system.
🐘: 🏋️‍♀️

Noom: Elephant Dialogues--Negotiation

Negotiating with your elephant:
🐘: HUNGRY! 😟
🏇: Good morning Elephant. We just had breakfast
🐘: STILL HUNGRY! 😟
🏇: Are you still upset about just getting a bite of enchiladas?
🐘: Barely a bit. Enchiladas are SOOOO good! 😋
🕵️‍♂️: There is craving
🏇: Let’s get some water. Maybe you're thirsty?
🐘: Thirsty for ENCHILADAS! 😋
🏇: Very funny. How about some gum. That will give your mouth something to do.
🐘: 😶
🏇: That’s a good elephant. Now let's go for a walk
🐘: 🚶‍♀️

Noom: Elephant Dialogues--Anxiety

🐘 Elephant: We blew it! Weight loss is hard. We should give up. 😔
🕵️‍♀️ Observer: There is anxiety.
🏇 Rider: Take a deep breath, we know how to deal with anxiety, and we know how to burn off the weight, we've done it before.
🐘: But I RUINED it! ☹️
🕵️‍♀️: There is sadness.
🏇: It's no big deal. You can be sad, you liked having burned all the weight. Now we get to do some more.
🐘: We should EAT. ALL. THE. THINGS. today. We already blew it. 😟
🕵️‍♀️: There is all-or-nothing thinking.
🏇: How about we stick with the things that worked for us before?
🐘: OK. Let's skip eating, and go for a double-long walk. 😬
🕵️‍♀️: There is all-or-nothing thinking.
🏇: I like your spirit, but let's do the simple things we do every morning. Time to do Tai Chi.
🐘: OK. But we got up late. The morning is ruined. ☹️
🕵️‍♀️: There is catastrophizing.
🏇: We don't need to fix everything all at once. We just need to do the next thing on the list. What's the next thing we do every morning?
🐘: Weigh in. I don't want to know. It's going to be bad. I AM BAD. 😬
🕵️‍♀️: There is fortune-telling.
🏇: It is just a number. It will tell us where we are. And we get to update the graph.
🐘: ⚖️ ACK! We are up, A LOT. We ruined our goal. 😟
🕵️‍♀️: There is blame and shame.
🏇: Remember, we anticipated this. We know how to Noom. We got this!
🐘: What's for breakfast? 😋
🏇: We can have a breakfast sausage, eggs, carrots, and potatoes. We need to do a good job logging today. How does that sound?
🐘: Mm. Sausage. 😋
🏇: Great. Now let's meditate and do our yoga, then we can go make breakfast.
🐘: I don't feel like sitting. 😐
🏇: That's ok. You don't need to feel like it. You just need to do it.
🐘: 🧘‍♂️


Backstory: The previous day was an "oops". After walking 16K steps for a thing downtown, I got home hungry, and did my weekly big cook which got me in a cycle or cook a little, eat a little, cook a little, eat a little, .... 
But I still had meals and dessert. 
Then I stayed up late (6 hours later than usual) to watch a live event. I kept snacking on dark chocolate that was my go-to treat for this sort of event.
Good news: I only had one block—‒at a time (3 is a serving). 
Bad news: over six hours I had six blocks. 
So today, I was up (after getting up late) above my 50-pound milestone weight. I could feel the anxiety come on.

Noom: Elephant Dialogues--Pizza Day

🐘: Could we have more pizza? 🍕
🏇: We've had our pizza. Wasn't it good?
🐘: It was yummy! 😋
🐘: Could we have more pizza? 🍕
🏇: We can have more tomorrow. Why don't we go brush our tusks so they are nice and clean?
🐘: But that will get rid of the yummy pizza taste. 🍕
🏇: Exactly! Then we get to lift weights.
🐘: That sounds hard. Why not just eat more pizza?🍕
🏇: Did you feel good the last time we finished lifting weights?
🐘: Yeah, it was better once we got started. ☺️
🏇: Good observation. What a good Elephant you are.
🐘: 🏋️‍♂️

Fun fact: a serving of a Papa Murphy’s Family Stuffed Pizza is a One Sixteenth slice — 450 calories

PreNoom I’d have had 8 servings in an evening.