Wegovy Wednesday

 I was prescribed Wegovy (Ozempic) for weight loss three weeks ago. I took my fourth shot yesterday. This is about healing my relationship with food and living a healthier and longer life having lived with heart disease for almost four years and obesity for half of my adult life.

Last dose of this box with injector pen cap off

I've read the literature and done much independent research into Wegovy and what it is and does. It's a peptide we create in our bodies that helps control cravings and appetite.

Inside injector pen with cap off. As you can see, the sides are spring-loaded. That gray part plunges down releasing the little needle. This is an under-the-skin injection, it doesn't go deep and I have yet to see blood after an injection. The spring locks after injection are dispensed and taken away, so there are no accidental jabs.

I have made it a point in my notes to tell my doctor when I see her on the 9th for check-in/weigh-in that I want to stay on the lowest dose because I don't believe I need a higher dose. Why would I want to lose more of my appetite? I barely have one now. Besides, most people start experiencing negative side effects at higher doses, and I certainly don't want to put myself through those.

The most common side effects of Wegovy may include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, stomach (abdomen) pain, headache, tiredness (fatigue), upset stomach, dizziness, feeling bloated, belching, low blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, gas, stomach flu, heartburn, and runny nose or sore throat.

I haven't experienced any except nausea when I overeat which rarely happens anymore.

Thanks to a friend's suggestion, I bought some chia seeds that I'm adding to my morning smoothies. Soaking them before blending helps a lot, and raises that fiber and protein I'm getting every morning. So, between the chia seeds and nonfat Greek yogurt, I'm getting 22 g of protein in the morning, and that's not counting the veggies with protein I put in there.

By filling up with healthy protein and fiber in the morning, I rarely become hungry again until about one in the afternoon Sat-Mon. Remember, I don't feel hungry at all for the first four days after taking the injection and have to set reminders on my phone to eat.

This week, I gave up on experimenting with whether or not I'd still like the taste of unhealthy food. Almost the entirety of what I ate this last week would be considered a "whole food", meaning it was minimally processed.

The biggest caveat would be that I totally missed ranch dressing. I'm not the biggest fan of vinegar-based dressings. So, I bought a powder packet of ranch dressing mix and mixed a little of it with some nonfat Greek yogurt thinned with water. This is what I use to dress all salads now.

I ate much less brown rice, whole wheat bread, and farro this week and focused more on eating lentils, veggies, fruits, and other protein sources. Not to be too TMI, but this hasn't affected my bowel habits negatively. I'm getting plenty of fiber from the fruits, nuts, seeds, and veggies.

To be clear, I'm not weighing foods and tracking calories. I can tell I'm eating at a calorie deficit simply because I'm not eating a lot of food, period.

However, I did kind of keep track of one day, so I can give a good example of what I'm eating on the latter days of the week when I actually feel hungry.

Monday's menu:

Smoothie with blueberries, mulberries, kale, papaya, moringa, peas, spinach, chia seeds, and nonfat Greek yogurt. 3/4 coffee cup full.

Four pieces of thinly sliced home-roasted organic chicken breast, about a fist-sized serving of raw baby spinach, shredded carrot, shredded cabbage, lettuce, green onion, tomatoes, and sugar snap peas topped with pickled veggies and some lentils.

Half an apple with cinnamon

Handful of nuts.

A fist-sized amount of lentil salad made with peas, lentils, baby spinach, radish, peppers, green onion, garlic chive, tomatoes, and dinosaur kale sprinkled with parmesan.

Fist-sized amount of stir fry with lentils, a few slices of thinly sliced chicken, onions, ginger, garlic, peppers, carrots, spinach, and peas topped with sesame seeds and green onion.

About a cup of Mulberries. (It pays to have a mulberry tree)

Nonfat Greek yogurt dressing, dark miso, low sodium soy sauce, sesame oil, and olive oil are the condiments/oils I used in small amounts.

That's it, folks.

Another big change I've noticed beyond the energy I now have (Shoot, I used to nap almost every day. I no longer need a nap.), is in my joint pain. People, my joints are definitely less stiff. Way less stiff. It has to be the diet change. There's no way I lost enough weight to be feeling this much difference in my joints.

Because I'm so short (Shout out to all my shorties out there) and can barely touch the ground when sitting in many chairs, you could often find me sitting cross-legged in a chair or crisscross applesauce as I used to call it when I was a kid.

It's been over a year since I was able to do so.

I can now.

I have found a gym nearby and begun strength training. It's going slow, but slow and steady will win the race in this instance. I don't want to push myself too hard and injure my back more. Low weight, high reps, thirty minutes, five days a week.

I'm not doing cardio and though I know that sounds counterintuitive, please understand that my back limits me greatly. Any cardio I do couldn't be sustained for longer than ten minutes before I'd be in tears. If the doctor can get my back under control, I'll be revisiting the cardio decision. Plus, summer is upon us, soon I'll be in the pool able to do laps without the extra stress. Having access to a private pool in Florida is awesome, let me tell you.

Wegovy has made it easier for me to focus on eating healthy and using food as fuel rather than for comfort or reward. It cuts down on the "food noise". You know, like driving down the street and seeing tons of fast food and restaurants when you're hungry and won't be home for a while. Or, grocery shopping and seeing all the options. Hell, even a trip to the pharmacy could have resulted in a junk food purchase in the past. All that noise is gone, I see it but it doesn't register as a food option the way it used to before taking this peptide.

It's helping me heal a decades-long battle between my intellectual and emotional thoughts surrounding food. I've long known I was eating the wrong things for the wrong reasons, I just couldn't seem to break myself free from doing so.