1.7 mg (ish)
Last Weight: 205.8 pounds
Down 63.2 pounds (23.5%)

I have finally broken free from getting stuck at the 209 pound level for several weeks. I know I shouldn’t be upset about staying stable through the holidays. That is an accomplishment of its own. I even lost a small amount. But it feels nice to be back to a normal routine where I can cut a couple pounds a week.

I feel renewed. I have big milestones right in front of me. 203 is the lowest I’ve ever been. 202 is 25% lost. Then 200. It’s hard to realize how close I am. It’s also surreal to see that my apps tell me I should hit my goal of 189 in…less than 60 days. That’s so soon. This weekend I will hit 200 days of Wegovy and calorie counting. 60 feels like nothing compared to the routine that I’ve built.

I keep seeing flashes of myself in the mirror and being surprised. This change has happened so quickly. I gained the weight through years of trauma. A crazy pregnancy. Becoming a father in the NICU. COVID-19. My wife had a stroke. My two year old having seizures. Realizing my son had autism and being unsure what that means. I’ve felt a lot of that stress melt away as the weight came off. My life is stable now. Crazy, but stable. And I love it. It’s nice to have a healthier body to go with it.

1.7 mg (ish)
Last Weight: 208.0 pounds
Down 61.0 pounds (22.7%)

24 doses down.  8 to go.  Slow and steady at this point.  It’s hard to shift mindsets from consistently losing a lot of weight for a long time.  It is a bit harder without that excitement to keep putting everything in the app.  But I’m doing it.  And Some days are better than others—just as before.  But I am slowly getting used to the slow movement downward.

I’m becoming more aware of the calories burned portion of my Google Watch.  I used to burn really high amounts without doing much because I was carrying around so much extra weight.  Without that extra weight, I am seeing the calorie deficit shrink considerably.  I’m continuing to do all I can to keep my calorie intake at a good place.  But I am trying to do more so I can burn more too.  Taking the kids to museums or the zoo.  Going to yoga.  I knew I would have to pivot to this part at some point.  It is hard to do in the middle of Winter in the Pacific Northwest with all the rain.  But I am going to push more and more.  I need it if I am going to break the 200 pound barrier. 

1.7 mg (ish)
Last Weight: 209.0 pounds
Down 60.0 pounds (22.3%)

Six months in. 60 pounds down. 23 shots in. Nine left in my fridge. I saw my doctor today and we have entered the tapering off phase of this medication. He wants to meet in three months when I am officially done taking the medication to make sure I am still doing well. I appreciate it. It helps keep me honest and on a good path. No rebounding here, please.

I was surprised to hear him talk about alternatives like Wellbutrin. To me Weight loss is a side effect of medications like Wellbutrin. Not the reason for taking it. I can decide on that when I see him next time depending on how I’m doing with the weening off. In the meantime I want to break the 200 pound barrier at the very least. Progress is slow but it is still going.

1.7 mg (ish)
Last Weight: 209.8 pounds
Down 59.2 pounds (22.0%)

I’ve lost about six pounds in the last month—one in the last week.  Yeah, I am getting frustrated.  But I am sticking to it.  I keep logging my food and keep taking my shots. I am trying to shift my mind to the mindset I will need in March: It doesn’t matter what the scale says, I just need to keep logging my food and staying aware of what I am eating.  That is the only way I will maintain a healthy weight.  

It’s hard not to see the big changes I want on the scale.  I am so close to being the smallest I have ever been.  If my memory serves me right, I was about to get to 203 when I was like 21 years old.  So breaking that barrier into the 202s is my biggest goal.  I want to get there by the end of December but I expect that’ll be a bit too fast.  

I am finding it hard to balance my diet with getting sick.  My kids are finishing up their first semester of kindergarten and preschool.  The number of illnesses they have brought into the house is ungodly and I am tired of it.  It makes it hard to focus.  But I will keep going.

1.7 mg (ish)
Last Weight: 210.8 pounds
Down 58.2 pounds (21.6%)

I have been getting frustrated by the slowness of my weight loss the last month or so. I know when I look at the numbers it’s not even that slow. It’s just hard. I got used to seeing more dramatic daily weight loss. Now I have stagnant days and days when I gain weight despite doing well the day before.

I need to internalize this as a positive thing. There is a lot less excess weight for me to loss. Before I was eating enough calories for someone at 180 pounds while weighing up to 90 pounds more than that. Now I’m eating enough calories for someone at 180 pounds while only 30 pounds above that. Of course it is going to go slower. But that doesn’t make it that much easier. I’m so close to my big goals. It’s hard to slow down now.

But I’m 167 days in. I’m not going anywhere. I may still have harder days, but I recognize it and learn from it. And I must remind myself that they are still far better than my worst days just six months ago. And they are often better than my best days six months ago. I have come a long way.

1.7 mg (ish)
Last Weight: 213.6 pounds
Down 55.4 pounds (20.6%)

So with the last three doses, I have puked at some point in the days following injection.  That is why I had started spacing the injections two weeks apart.  But even with that my body isn’t happy.  So I’m trying something new.  With today’s 2.4 mg injection, I only injected somewhere around two-thirds of it.  That should get me close to the 1.7 mg that my body seemed more comfortable with.

If this works, I will do weekly injections the same way.  After today, I will have 12 doses left (so long as I can fill it one last time at the end of the year).  If all goes according to plan, that would make my last dose February 25.  My weight and diet apps have me hitting goal in early march and have barely moved, so I think that works perfectly.  I just need to keep focused.  It has been hard with the holidays.  But with this new plan, I Just need to keep focused for three more months and I can hit that goal.

2.4 mg
Last Weight: 215.2 pounds
Down 53.8 pounds (20.0%)

One-fifth of my body weight is gone in less than five months.  It’s pretty hard to believe.  I shaved off my beard for the first time in nine years last week and now I barely recognize myself when I look in the mirror.  I can see the weight loss in my cheeks.  And the crazy part is I still have 25 pounds to go.  And I still believe I can get there.

After today’s dosage I have 9 left.  I won’t be getting any more due to insurance.  I’ve already moved to taking it every other week.  That will allow me to spread these out to about March, which is when I should reach 189 goals anyway.  Then I will enter a new stage of these where I try to maintain without the medication.  I believe I can do it so long as I continue calorie counting.  And I’ve built that habit strong—145 days in a row!

The last two time I took a dose, I got pretty sick.  So I am worried.  But I also knew that sickness was going around.  So I just took it despite seriously contemplating coming off cold turkey.  I want to be able to ease off over the coming months on my own terms.  And I really want to hit the big goals I set out to hit.  

The next big goal now that I’ve hit 20% is going sub-200.  I want to get there by the end of the year and think that is a very realistic goal.  I just got to keep this up through the holidays.  That is a tall order, but I’ve made it through everything else without faltering.  I can do this.

2.4 mg
Last Weight: 218 pounds
Down 51 pounds (19.0%)

I am moving to taking the dosage every other week to start to elongate the remaining doses. I expect I will only get ten more doses. I have 6 in my fridge and expect to get four more in December. If I take them every other week, my last dose will go in 3/25/25. Right now my goal is expected to be attained early March. That means this spring will be more about trying to maintain with h continued calorie counting.

It’s insane to see myself fly past 50 pounds loss and inching toward 20% lost. I am now at the weight that I had to work toward even in my twenties. The thing is, it’s not like it has gotten n harder. I just need to keep on my current path and by my 36th birthday I will be at a not nap weight for the first time in my life. I’m already feeling so much healthier. It’s crazy to think it can still get better.

I wish I didn’t have to come off it so quickly. But I am excited to try as hard as I can to hit the goal first.

2.4 mg
Last Weight: 223 pounds
Down 46 pounds (17.1%)

The night before I was supposed to take the first 2.4 dose…I ended up puking my guts out.  What made it worse (or better?) is that I knew it was coming.  I watched all weekend as the sickness made its way through my children and spouse.  I knew there was no way it was going to skip me.  Between rushing a four year old out of bed as he projectile vomited and trying to help Sofia through the roughest part, there was no way I was going to avoid the virus.

But it passed quickly.  I now feel comfortable enough to actually take the dose.  It feels like a big moment.  Four months in.  46 pounds down.  And I finally am on the full dosage.  I still worry about the future and whether or not I will be able to continue taking this medication into 2025.  But I still have at least this dose and 11 more doses to go.  Even if I don’t figure it out, I am going to be surprised if I don’t get under 210—or even as far as 200.

My perspective is already shifting to: maintain.  Whether I continue to get Wegovy into 2025 or not, I need to figure out how to maintain this new weight.  I know that will involve me continuing to use the calorie counter app.  It has been core to my success.  But I can’t let myself backslide.

1.7 mg
Last Weight: 227 pounds
Down 42 pounds (15.6%)

Down only a pound in a week.  It’s frustrating. I think knowing this journey might come to a sudden stop due to insurance has created a sense of urgency that probably isn’t helping.  The urgency causes stress and the stress makes me want to eat.  Instead, I need to just stay on the path I have been carving for the last 15 weeks.  I can make plenty more progress by the end of the year.

Plus this was my last dose at 1.7 mg.  Starting next week I will be at the full dosage of 2.4 mg.  I am excited to finally be there and see how helpful it is alongside the habits I have created in these four months.  With it, I think I can reach my miniature goal of being at 220 pounds by the time I leave for Amsterdam.  That is 7 pounds in four weeks, which is well within the healthy range.  So I think it is a great goal.

As for the long term—I have a month until the Health Insurance Open Season starts.  I am going to be looking into a lot of options for health insurance.  It does appear there could be good alternatives so I can continue to take the medication.  It’ll be a hard balance though—because this is the insurance for my whole family so I need to make sure it doesn’t mess up anything for them if I change it.