Mounjaro / Zepbound Journey

  So Weight Update!    Today I hit the scales at 290.2 for a total loss since starting Mounjaro of 67.8 pounds (18.9% loss) …. and from my all time max weight in 2021 of 383 that is 92.8 pounds down which is 24% total body weight loss …with 25 pound weight loss being  pre-Mounjaro.  It is scary how heavy I got in 2019 and then again in 2021 and all my yo-yo dieting since then … Mounjaro really has made the huge difference in successful weight loss!

  So I did something different this week!    I was watching a video on youtube and someone suggested that if you had good appetite suppression at your mounjaro dose that your could consider stretching the dose to 9 or 10 days in between doses (instead of the usually 7 days) so that if you were paying FULL PRICE like I AM … it would save some money!!  So the math … if it costs $1045 per 4 weeks for the mounjaro but you can stretch it out to 9 days in between shots … then a one month supply would last 5 weeks instead of 4 weeks … so that would work out to $840 per month … $205 per month savings!!   Very exciting!   And if the hunger hits you can always opt to go ahead and take it it at 7 or 8 days mark instead… nothing lost for trying. So last night I made Tikka Massalla and it was the evening of Day 8 … and it was really good but I could only eat half of it … so the appetite suppression and quick to feeling full from the mounjaro was still present!  I am excited about saving some money!

  So this week had its highlights and its surprising less than stellar lights …I have restarted my weight loss after being on a plateau … presently at 293.8 pounds as of this morning for a 64.2 pound weight loss since starting January 20th!     The surprising part of this week is that I have covid and am now home bound for a few days … thankfully it has been a mild case symptom wise so far …. but it was surprising for me because I have gone this whole covid time without actually getting covid until now so it truly was a surprise for me!  I did get to start paxlovid for mild-moderate covid in people with risk factors (which I have a few) but as soon as I started it I have already felt better. The photo above was of the Eiffel Tower in September 2019 (taken by me the last time I left the country pre-Covid) when they turned off the lights in honor of the death of their former President Jacques Chirac … not a sight you will often see!     And who I am becoming with my Mounjaro success is s

  Hello.   Not too much to report today.   I relaxed my food intake this week and the week off let me know it … I was at a plateau the whole week at around 305 lbs.    Well I just have to hit and get back in the groove!   I have a doctor follow-up this week where we will discuss staying at 10mg or moving up to 12.5mg with next box.   We will see. The photo above is of the old St Petersburg Florida pier .. great photo with a storm rolling in but that pier in now long gone and the new replacement pier and area is completely unrecognizable!   I was thinking how I need to let the old me … the old habits … the memories that I think are the reality of what is going on today (which they are not) and after taking moments to think back on them to move forward … just like the storm in the photo above was a sign of the great upheaval and change that was coming!

  Sometimes we just do something because everyone else does it and sometimes we do our own thing … I wonder what the artist would have thought of their gallery of large paintings just being background for a little painting of some woman… Well my weigh in today was 306 pounds for a total of 52 pounds lost!    Doing great!    I feel good too.  Dry mouth is better on some nights and worse in others but I am not sure why.    Anyway, I am excited to keep going!

So today was my 11th shot … again at 10mg. Yesterday I weighed in at 311 pound for a 47 pound weight loss which is great... As a percentage of my starting weight though I have lost 13% of my bodyweight so I have ways to go. This week was my Eureka moment….  So according to the BMI tables I have been morbidly obese for quite some time.   Despite my great weight loss on mounjaro I am still morbidlly obese!  I reviewed the cutoffs and the reality is that I need to lose about 25% of my starting body weight to be...270# which would be obese but not morbidly obese... That would be an 88 pound weight loss. And to be just overweight and not obese … I would need to get to 210 pounds which would be a 158 pound total weight loss which is a 44% body total weight loss.  The last time I weighed around 210 pounds was in my early to mid 20s. Yeah … very sobering indeed.  I think shooting to get out of the obese category entirely will be very very difficult. So I am setting my sights on 270 for a 25% w

  So … like the picture above … it is so easy to be so set on the journey that we don’t notice big things happening around us … I just realized this morning that was happening to me!! So I have noticed that my mouth has been more dry at night … for the past month or more I go to bed with a bottled water next to my bed so I can drink some when I wake up with a parched mouth … I thought it was a side effect of my CPAP machine completely ignoring the fact that I never had that problem before going the mounjaro!!  So I did have another side effect of the the mounjaroo this whole time … DRY MOUTH!   I don’t notice it during the day much because I am drinking throughout the day but at night I literally wake up one or twice or three times with a crazy parched mouth!   I drink a whole bottle each time and get another bottle to put by my bed!     And I have started using chaptick during the day because my lips have started to chap … again I did not put two and two together … I thought maybe it

So I am really liking the 10mg dose.... I am tolerating it very well and my weigh-in this morning was 315 for a total 43 point weight loss so far.... Yippee!!  I had already added a hole in my belt and guess what … time for another hole!  I know I could buy a smaller belt but it feels so good to make the new holes!! I do wonder about all the people who are unfortunate enough to suffer from severe nausea and/or the inability to eat … I am not feeling any of that at all/.  I eat when I decide to eat but without having the starving feeling all the time in between meals I had before I started the medicine.   My energy and mood are very good.   My knees are doing so much better!   Other than the cost this has been a very positive journey so far!!   I am feeling very positive about continuing it…

So I am at 318 lb … for a 40 pound total loss. I am on the 10mg dose since the 7.5mg dose was not available … and I really like this.   I have had no significant side effects (other than the manageable constipation I take dulcolax and probiotics for) and I have no hunger at all … I can eat when I decide to eat but I have been living mostly on the Core Power shakes with occasional whipped cream as a treat.   Yesterday I had an egg and cheese bagel for breakfast, a whole grain sandwich thin ham and cheese sandwich, and I had some chicken noodle soup last night for dinner … I normally would only have soup with grilled cheese sandwiches because I would be too hungry after soup alone but no need for anything other then the soup at the present time!  Not feeling any hunger and the food goes in easily when I do decide to eat.   I like this feeling. … if this feeling persists for the whole week I may decide to stay at this dose for awhile.   

Coming to the end of the second month, Today's weigh in at 322.6 for about a 35 pound total weight loss ... pretty impressive to me!   It has not really been painful at all.   This is my last week at the 5mg dose.  I was going to go to 7.5mg next week but the 7.5mg dose is not available at all ... so after discussing it with my doctor we are going to go to the 10mg dose which is available.   I am curious to see how the jump goes ... I am hoping that I will have week long appetite suppression ... the appetite suppression has been the part of the treatment that I have enjoyed the most.   I can eat when I sit down to eat but I never feel like finishing my meal which is unusual when compared to the norm for my life.   As I think I said before ... this must be what a lot of thinner people feel like all time. I did discuss the appetite / satiety thing with a clinically diagnosed anorexic and interestingly her description to me was that she never feels hungry and when eating finds it diff