BY MARY LEUTHAUSER, AS TOLD TO EMILY SHIFFER
My name is Mary Leuthauser , and I’m 30 years old and live in upstate New York as a mortgage account rep. I lost 40 pounds after discovering the Noom program.
I struggled the most with my weight after I had my first son. I started eating whatever was convenient (prepackaged foods, fast food, take out, etc.) instead of balanced and healthy meals. The weight piled on, and I continued that type of eating throughout my second pregnancy and postpartum.
I would also crash diet from time to time. Sure, I’d lose some weight, but I’d gain it back and then some once I got sick of the food restriction those diets always involved.
My turning point was about eight months after having my second son. I was avoiding (and deleting) all photos of myself with my kids.
I had zero energy to keep up with anyone or anything. I was not feeling like myself at all. So in December 2018, I signed up for Noom—an app that focuses on making behavioral changes surrounding dieting and weight loss—almost as a last-ditch effort. I felt like I had tried so many different things by that point that I just thought, why not try this too?
Around this same time, I was listening to a podcast by author and motivational speaker Rachel Hollis in which she talked about her own weight-loss journey. She talked about how she would quit one bad habit for 30 days—and that anyone could do anything for 30 days. So I picked a habit and I did it. Seeing myself make one small change at a time gave me the confidence to really push forward and keep going with other habits, too.
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