Mounjaro / Zepbound Journey

  So as I begin Year 2 … I am at a plateau with today’s weight being 238.4 but my outlook for the year is very good.   It has brought me great joy sharing this weight loss journey with others and hearing their stories.  Ultimately the most important thing in life is connection and sharing these stories has been a great way to feel connection with others and the realization that so many other people totally understand and relate to where I started and how far I have come. So here are the experiences that so many people on this journey can relate to prior to their successful journey: - commonly having food at meal times stain your shirt (or dresses or sweaters or jackets etc) because everything falls down onto our stomach area (or breast area for women) and it is harder to bite something over our plates with our stomach area in the way when we bend forward with messy food. - having been asked to get off a roller coaster before it started or not even allowed to get on board because you we

So in two days it will be exactly one year since I started tirzepatide!!   It has been a crazy year … there has been joy, happiness, anger, frustration, disappointments, accomplishments, and for me even betrayal!  Most of that was independent of my weight loss but my weight loss is my single greatest achievement this past year.   It is unfortunate that my great year of weight loss did not extend greatness to all other parts of my life but it reinforces for me the fact that your health although very important is just one aspect of your whole being. The photos above are from my Florida trip to see my sister (I just got back today) … That is the Skyway Bridge and the moon shot is on St Pete Beach … it was the view from my AirBnB. So since my knees are doing better and I have lost all that weight (about 120 pounds this past year) I decided to try jogging again…I started the None To Run program and I just finished my first week.   I have a limited goal for this year … I would like to do a 5

  The Self Made Man by Victor Pina Happy New Year to All!   Thank you for the positive responses to my blog.   I printed a copy of that sculpture and taped it to my wall for motivation! I had my new life insurance physical and I weighed in right at 237 pounds which was a great feeling! Now a run down on things from this past month.   So I had been paying close to $1000 per month since I was using Mounjaro for weight loss and the coupon did not help since I am a non-diabetic.   (There was one month where I got it for $550 mentioned in a previous blog but it turned out to be a fluke so I went back to $1000 per month). When Zepbound came out with a new coupon for weight loss I was so excited … I went to the pharmacy to fill my new prescription and when it came time to pay it cost $1000 … I was like “…wait!  that can’t. be right…” but no matter how they ran it the total came out to $1000 for the refill. So since my insurance did not cover Mounjaro and I did not qualify for that coupon  I w

  So additional info from yeaterday’s post… Above is a photo from this morning and the last post had a photo at the bottom of me at my maximum weight!  My food plan: Mostly CorePower Chocolate Shakes (mixed with Fairlife chocolate shakes and CorePower Vanilla and Strawberry Banana shakes) One meal per day at home on work days … mostly Sloppy Joe’s made with ground turkey and keto buns with either side salad or fruit cups (no sugar added mandarin oranges or pineapple) and a 1/4 pint of ice cream (Hagan-Daz or Breyers).  Mix it up with chicken Tikka Masala or Ground Turkey tacos on keto friendly soft tortillas.   Those are with side salad or the fruit and possibly also the ice cream at the end. One weekends when I am being social I allow myself two regular meals without paying too much attention  to what I am eating (whatever is served) or something appealing at a restaurant … I do tend towards poultry and fish or vegetarian and avoid any heavy servings of red meat because I don’t  seem

  Hello!   So today I weighed in at 237.6 which is awesome!      Here is a summary of my weight loss journey for the past 5 1/2 years … it shows my attempts before Mounjaro and although some success with gargantuan efforts it was completely unsustainable for me and very yo-yo like … my maximum recorded weight is in the middle of the chart so a couple of years in I weighed more than my first day!   The last downslope is the past year on tirzepatide / mounjaro / abound … Crazy!!   And now with sustained manageable  total daily healthy eating this past year  I have hit body  weights that I never honestly believed I would ever see again!  And I now believe I can lose even more … crazy but in a good way.   A complete mental reset. Here is the same graph but by BMI: The BMI of 53.4 and 52.2 were in the extremely obese (morbidly obese) category. My present BMI of 33.1 is still considered obese. I need to hit a BMI of 29 to no longer be considered obese .. a BMI of 29 would categorize me as OV

  Merry Christmas!! I am so excited!!  Today I hit the weight scale at 239.8... I know I barely broke 240 .:: but I did!!  That is a BMI of 33 for me… crazy! Drum roll please … that is a 118.2 pound weight loss since starting tirzepatide in January 2023. .. a 30.6% weight loss.  ( I am down 37.8% from my maximum weight … 143 pounds down total.).  I have dated many women who weighed less than 143 pounds!

  How do you like my reading glasses?   I made a trip to Denver to see my daughter … the photo is at Breckenridge. So I am stagnant at 246 now for about 5 weeks.   I feel good and have started working out more to see if that will help with some further weight loss!   Obviously my body has reached a point where calories in and out are balanced so I need to increase the calorie burn and decrease my intake some more.  I got my Zepbound coupon and now just waiting for the zepbound to actually become available at the pharmacy so I can use the coupon!  My insurance does not cover it which is too bad but the coupon will cut my monthly expense in half so that is exciting!  If the coupon works out I may go ahead and stay on the medication through the end of 2024.   I would love to lose more weight before trying to come off the medicine.

  I am so excited!  The FDA approved tirzepatide for weight loss yesterday!!!!  The new name will Zepbound … odd name but I am sure it will grow on me… The really good news is that there will be a coupon coming out that I will qualify for!!  Whoop! Whoop!  My insurance won’t cover it but the $500 price break will be so welcome!!   I may continue using them for all of 2024 with the coupon … I am so crazy excited!! I am at 244 so I lost another 2 pounds since last week!   I am thrilled with it all !! I wanted to share this … that is me now and me last October … I lost some weight before starting Mounjaro in January. so this is 139 lb difference … 25 pound before Mounjaro and 114 lb since January …. I am so thankful…

 So I finally went below 250 pounds!!!  I am at 246 lb this morning which puts me at 112 lb down (31.3% weight loss!) from January... Whoop Whoop!  I am so unbelievably thrilled!  Now I am looking for my next goal… I am tempted to shoot for BMI of <30 which would take me fully out of the obesity range... But that would be 210 pounds... 36 more pounds... Could I do it????  I worry about that maybe being a Bridge Too Far..  Wow... I NEVER thought I would ever be a position to being thinking about a goal like that... WOW!!  Also on the negative front, the loose skin is pretty dramatic.… I may need to think about wearing shirts when I swim in the summer!   I had not been lifting because that was slowing my weight loss... But I think I will need to start lifting weights in time for next summer. I told myself I would do Mounjaro for one year and then try to come off of it... That will be in January... I don’t think I can get to 210 pounds by January so I may stay on longer…  So I will sho

  So still at a plateau between 252-258 pounds but feeling good.   I do want to lose 10 pounds now so i can renegotiate my term life insurance which would give me dramatically better rates.   Knees are doing well.       Dating has been rough.   I get some dates but no passion so far in any of them.   I really am at the point in my life where I just want that one person for a long term relationship but there has to be passion between us … not a long list of requirements but an important one for me.      Besides household projects that I am slowly working through I am also looking at finding a physical goal to aim for  … not something that will kill my knees but that will show me at even age 59 yo with bad knees that I can still accomplish things I never expected to do again!   I never expected to lose all this weight so now I am looking at my other limitation expectations…