When No One is Watching Review and A New Recipe

 

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An excellent thriller! As I read I could not see any way out for Sydney and Theo--I had to keep reading to see where this story was going to go. I appreciated the history lessons interspersed in this fictional version of Brooklyn, I was very glad to see that Alyssa Cole included sources for more information on Weeksville, New Yor because I did not know of Weeksville and now I would like to learn more about its story.

The story was loaded with tension, the two Point-of-view characters were slowly unveiled as their lives were unraveling, and history lessons are shared with the readers who probably didn't learn any of this in school.

I'd love to see HBO make this book a limited series.

View all my reviews

This was my first time cooking Spaghetti Squash in the slow cooker. This recipe was easy to follow. I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. I added fresh basil, a couple extra garlic cloves and a tablespoon of Italian blend seasoning. I also added a pinch of sugar to offset the acidity of the tomatoes and I cooked tomato paste before adding it to the pot.  Here is a link to the recipe from Real Simple magazine: Slow-Cooker Ragu with Spaghetti Squash.

We will definitely have this again because the husband bought three spaghetti squash when they were on sale.  

Noom was the best app I ever bought

If you listen to podcasts or watch TV you've probably seen ads for the app Noom. Last year their ad campaign was basically, Noom is not your mom's Weight Watchers.  I have news for you Noom, my mom never did Weight Watchers, but I  did after Anna was born and it worked short term. 

By March of 2019, I was ready to make a change in my diet but I wasn't sure which way to go.  I knew that in the past a diet that makes some foods forbidden never worked  out for me past the first two weeks of food restriction. I knew a keto diet, which seems to have been very popular with people on my social media, wasn't going to work for me. I also didn't want to do Weight Watchers again because in my experience I was good at cheating the system. This was obviously stupid and hurt no one but me, but that's the reality of it.

I did some research, read some reviews and completed Noom's online evaluation. Noom gave me a price for 4 months of their program and I decided the price was decent, but I wanted to line up my two week free trial with my paycheck. So I waited another week and then I joined.   Because I am someone who likes to get my money's worth from goods and services I purchase, I followed every step of the program. I weighed myself daily, I logged all my food, I read all the articles, and followed all the instructions therein.

And it worked. I lost 43 pounds over five months and I have kept it off for five months. Theses days I am in the healthy BMI range. 

But wait there is more to the story!

You have to consider that I started Noom in March and then in May I found out I had cancer. Now I had a serious reason to continue Noom or a great excuse to throw in the the towel. I decided to stick with Noom and now my goal was not about feeling better about wearing a swim suit. Now I needed to get down to healthy BMI before starting chemo.  According to the research I read, a healthy weight and regular exercise and the best things you can do to avoid cancer. Among the stress of shitty diagnosis and a major surgery, I reached my goal, and again I was at a turning point.

 Food and chemo don't really mix.  Either your taste buds have gone on strike or you a flirting with vomiting.  Eat healthy? exercise?  Ha!  A great time to give up on using Noom- or a really good time to use Noom as a major tool in my arsenal to slay chemo.  I chose to slay. :-)

 I completed chemotherapy without gaining weight and I exercised,either walking, running or riding a stationery bike,  almost every single day ( I skipped about 7 days over five months). The gentle nagging of my notifications and the curriculum  Noom provided was a life saver for me in 2019.

I didn't know what I was in for last year, and I am very glad I had Noom to help me get through some very turbulent times.

Want to check out Noom?  This is my referral link.