Week 8

 Week 8

January 24th

Wegovy shot #9 - 1.00 mg

Starting Weight - 272.2

Current Weight - 259.8

Weight lost - 12.4

Where have I been?

So here's the thing... 

I got discouraged. I didn't feel like Wegovy was working for me. I still craved the sweets and wasn't having the side effects so many others were describing on the support group pages. 

I wasn't feeling sick all the time and I definitely wasn't losing 25 pounds in two months. I kept taking the shots because a few people said the 1mg when the medicine kicked in for them. So, I figured what is there to write in the mean time?

I didn't really weigh myself and carried through the four weeks of .5mg feeling... not much - if anything. 

Then it was time for the 1mg. I was nervous because so many people reported feeling sick all the time and many had to quit because they couldn't take the nausea. 

I even delayed my usual Sunday morning shot to Monday night. I was in a "what the hell, just go for it" mood. 

I got through Monday night and into Tuesday afternoon feeling pretty normal. Then about 3pm on Tuesday I started to feel tired. I wanted to nap. When I finally logged off my computer for the day, I laid down and fell asleep. Only to wake up about 9PM needing to vomit. Yuck! I don't mind telling you that Chick-fil-A is not something you want to be vomiting up. It was awful. I threw up until my stomach was empty. I cleaned myself up and went back to bed. Aha! It works because it makes you bulimic -  now I get it! /sarcasm

Wednesday morning I was super cautious about what I ate. I was scared. Toast for breakfast and a homemade flatbread pizza for lunch. It all went fine and I've been fine since. No more episodes of feeling nauseas (though, today is only Thursday). 

So, if the worst thing I can expect is to throw up about 24 hours after the dose, I'll deal with it. 

The thing is, I AM losing weight. Not 20 pounds in a month (or even ten), but I stepped on the scale and I am losing much to my surprise. 

I haven't been tracking my calories or anything like that. If I had, I bet I'd be much further along in my progress. Unfortunately, I'm in "all in or all out" kind of girl. I wish I weren't like that. 

Going Forward

To quote Nellie Bertram "what if you just full ass it?". Meaning, what if I really dove in and drunk the water and tracked my calories down to the minute detail? Yes, it would work. And, also yes, I want to be that person. I vow to be that person tomorrow every single night. 

I'm a flawed human being. It's hard to do the right thing (especially in the face of Girl Scout cookie season!) even when you know it's the ONE SINGLE THING that could change your life. 

And yes, I do mean life. Because being unhealthy and looking unhealthy is just draining. Maybe not for everyone, but it is for me. 

Today I have tracked my food (though drinking water is still my Everest to climb) and I hope I can lean into this and continue.

But, I am still wondering... where is Wegovy fitting into all this?  It's not curbing my appetite the way others have mentioned. Though, it seems for quite a lot of them, the nauseas is so often and lasts so long just the idea of eating makes them go green. I don't want to be like that either. 

As I've said all along, there is a psychological component here because a food addict will eat. And I am a food addict. Being hungry was never a precursor to eating for me. The taste of the ooey gooey goodness was/is my motivation 

I have three more does of 1mg to go, then I move to four weeks of 1.7mg before ending on the maintenance dose of 2.4. 

I still have high hopes that I'm just a late bloomer on this medication. 

Week 2

Week 2

December 12th

Wegovy shot #3 - .25 mg

Starting Weight - 272.2

Current Weight - 266.0

Weight lost - 6.2

What's changed?

Well, to start with - my weight obviously. Though, I haven't felt that part yet. My relationship with Wegovy has been cordial so far, if not a little suspect (on my part).  But, that might have more to do with the support group (more on that later).

The effects of the drug I'm just a little unsure about. I do stop eating when I feel full. Twice I've not finished a meal because of that "full" feeling you usually get after you've already finished eating. I was able to walk away from unfinished meals which is not usual for me. I am definitely a "it tastes so good I'm going to eat every last bite even if I feel sick after" type of person. 

The medication is supposed to make you feel full for longer and also hit the brain receptors that tell you your hungry. 

I don't know if that's happening here. As mentioned before, I know that weight lost is a mental journey as much as it is a physical journey. Do I still want my 2PM sugar snack? Yep. Is that habit or does the drug not have that effect on me? I just don't know. Though, I admit I'm better at ignoring it than I was before. 

I'm still using the Lose It! app to track my calories and I even stepped up to a slightly more rigorous plan. That decreased my daily allotted calories. That's helping the weight loss too, of course. So all in all, I wonder if my weight loss would be the same with or without the Wegovy right now. 

Support Groups

In my last post, I gave myself the assignment of finding a support group. I joined two on facebook. I have a love/hate relationship with these groups. 

I did a poll asking on what dosage people started to see significant weight loss. Most people said .25. I'm reading about people who lost 15-20 pounds just the first month. That's not been my experience and that can be discouraging. 

Also, a whole lot of people are complaining about side effects on the higher doses and that has me very nervous. Nausea, vomiting - feeling sick all day long. I'm still on the lowest dose with no real side effects that I've noticed. I guess we'll see. 

I'm committed to moving forward. I have one more .25 shot left before moving on to a month on .50. I wonder if I'll notice a bigger change then. 

I'm lucky that this drug is only costing me $25/month because my insurance is paying for it. That's not the case with a lot of people in the support groups and this medication is extremely expensive ($1300/month). If your insurance doesn't cover it, it's just not affordable for the average person. 

I'm not great at writing conclusions so I'll just say this; see you next week!

Week 1

Week 1

December 5th

Wegovy shot #2 - .25 mg

Starting Weight - 272.2

Current Weight - 270.0

Weight lost - 2.2

What I've noticed so far

One thing I learned about Wegovy is it works by slowing down your digestion so you feel full longer, as well as working on your brain to regulate appetite. It's the first drug that can make this claim which is why it's been considered such a huge breakthrough. 

I definitely notice slow digestion. If I eat late than usual and go to bed at my normal time, I'll feel uncomfortably full when I lay down. I will also experience indigestion, but maybe that's coincidental, not sure. So, I've learned to make sure I eat by 6PM so by the time I go to bed, my body is well into the digestion process. 

My brain though... No medication that I'm aware of can cure a sugar/food/diet soda addiction. That's something you have to take willpower to get through. Like, maybe I'm not feeling hungry on Wegovy, but I still have the addiction cravings. Or maybe it's the craving of the routine? The truth is, you have to do mental work when it comes to weight loss, too. You just have to. 

How do I feel about my mental preparedness? 

So-so to be honest. As I said, this is as much of a mental journey. I need to do better at controlling urges and actually listen to my body and eat only when I feel hungry. Not because it's mid-morning and that's when I usually have a snack. That's a hard habit to break!

I'm using the weight loss app Lose It! (which I do love by the way) and it has a social portion where you can join groups. I looked for one about Wegovy and nothing was there so I created one. So far one person has joined and responded to my message. He/She had taken his first dose around the time I took mine. He/She said so far they have very little appetite. I had so many questions to that! Is this person better than I am about listening to the cues their body sends out and only eating when hungry? I don't know anything about where they are in their weight loss journey and I want to know more. I want to talk to people who are doing this, too. I want to hear about others experiences. I did respond with some questions, but no answers yet. I need to do more research on support groups. Come to think of it, I haven't checked facebook, I bet there is a group there. That's my assignment for the week, to find a support group. 

See you next week!

Day 1 - My Wegovy Journey

Day 1

November 28th

Wegovy shot #1  - .25 mg

Starting Weight - 272.2

A little about me

Married mom of an 11yo boy and a 6yo girl. I'm also a full time employee in the accounting field who now (thanks to Covid) works from home full time. I also do a lot of volunteer work at my kids schools. 

I'm also a diet soda addict and... this is embarrassing to admit, a Mt Dew addict. I drink multiple diet sodas a day, but can usually limit my Mt Dew consumption to a couple a week or even a couple a month if we don't have them in the house. 

How I got here

Well, I suppose it's a myriad of factors, but the most recent history is Covid. 

Being sent home to work and having 24 hour access to my refrigerator and I suppose no accountability (ie: seeing co-workers daily) put me on a really bad course. 

At my most recent endocrinologist appointment (I have a thyroid disease of which I take medication) I blurted out that I'm so tired of carrying around this weight, but have yet to find the motivation needed to change. 

She suggested a try a new drug Wegovy. 

Actually, she suggested I take home reading material about it and let her know at my next appointment in three months if I wanted to try it. 

I basically said "What's to think about? Let's do it". Two days later Costco called to say I could pick up the prescription. 

Now you're caught up to today. I took the first shot at 10AM which will now be my weekly schedule. After c-sections, I have no feeling in the area below my belly button so that's where I did the shot. I can't be truthful about whether or not it's painful because, as I said, no feeling in that area. 

So far I haven't had any of the side effects mentioned like nausea, constipation or diarrhea (knock on wood). 

What else am I doing besides Wegovy?

I've started using the LoseIt! app on my phone and the goal is to stay in the assigned daily metrics set for me by the app. 

I really need to increase my exercise. However, it's gotten so cold outside now and I hate being outside in the cold. But, I'll make an effort as best as I can. 

Why start a blog about this?

The truth is, this blog is for me. I don't know if anyone else will ever read it. I've only told two people about starting this medication and I have no plans to share the link to the blog at this time. I'm not keeping it private because I'm embarrassed - it's really because I don't need people surreptitiously monitoring me. That's a lot of pressure! 

Wegovy is so new (approved this year) so, maybe other people looking into starting Wegovy will stumble across this blog and find it helpful.  Nearly everything I could find when I googled it were news stories and clinical trials information. I wanted to read real person reviews and couldn't find much. So, I'll be the real person review myself. 

Wish me luck!