Dose Seven

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0.5 mg/0.5 mL.
Last Weight: 247.8 pounds
Down 21.2 pounds (7.9%)

20 pounds down and keeping it off! I can definitely see in the numbers that the sheer speed of losing the weight is starting to slow down. That’s not a bad thing. I’ve been building strong eating habits for some 40 days now. If I can keep myself motivated and focused, I can carry this through. Yes, it gets harder here. But the Loss It app continues to tell me that I should reach my goal in February of next year. That date has barely moved. It is starting to not feel so far away

Meanwhile, I’m starting to see positive impacts. I have more stamina. I can play more with the kids. I still have side effects for a day or so after the shot….but that feels like such a small downside in comparison.

Dose Six

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0.5 mg/0.5 mL.
Last Weight: 249.6 pounds
Down 19.4 pounds (7.2%)

So I think I partially fucked up my shot today.  I flinched when it first stuck me and I could feel a little bit of liquid in the area when it was done.  It’s surprisingly demoralizing to have one go poorly considering everything I’ve done to get myself here.  But I have had a lot of the same side effects over the last four hours—so I know a good amount got into my system.  It made me look at the actual website for directions on injecting.  It said you can also do the thigh—so I am going to try that instead of the stomach next time.

I broke the 250 pound barrier that i have been above the entire 5.5+ years I have been a parent.  It feels good.  And even after a big date night dinner last night, I was able to maintain it.  It has been helpful to mentally prepare myself for larger meals by eating a bit less throughout the day.  Although I did end up having to get one of my emergency snacks out on the drive home yesterday because I may have done a bit too little throughout the day.  I’m only five weeks in and my body is still changing, so it will take time to learn exactly what my body needs.  

I am getting worried about my irritability.  I am finding myself being frustrated at my spouse or the kids more often.  I don’t know if that is due to the medicine, the weight loss, or just changes in our lives. 

I am excited to be in the 240s.  I hope to break past 20 pounds lost in the week ahead and stay there.  Then I can look forward to the next crazy milestone—27 pounds down will mark 10% of body weight.  I want to be able to maintain that within four weeks.  I think that is doable.

Dose Five

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0.5 mg/0.5 mL.
Last Weight: 251.6 pounds
Down 17.4 pounds (6.5%)

The idea that I didn’t gain weight on vacation is kind of astounding to me.  But it’s more.  I didn’t maintain either.  I lost like three pounds.  And I did it all while delaying my shot by about two days longer than I usually do.  This medicine has already helped me significantly in rewiring my brain.  I always think about portions now.  When I disregard it, my body reminds me with indigestion and a little stomach discomfort.   It is a nice physiological reminder to stay the course.  It always helps stop mediocre days into bad days and bad days into terrible days.

Now, back from vacation and a good night of rest behind me, I have injected my first .5mg dose.  As with my first dose, I am grateful that I have a day without work or kids.  I also have no work until Monday, which gives me a full four days to adjust to the new feeling.  I thought I would be nervous, but I am more excited than anything.  The .25mg dosage did its thing, but there is a lot more to go.  I am excited to get to this next phase.  

I am now a month into this adventure.  I am down 17.4 pounds, or 6.5% of my body weight. One of my first medium-term goals is starting to feel very real.  227 pounds.  That weight marks two things for me.  First, it is a return to the weight that I was able to hold for the age of 22 to 29, before kids.  Secondly, it is the barrier between obesity and being overweight.  It will still take some time to get there, but it no longer feels like a distant pipe dream.  In the meantime, I will focus on a nice short term goal—sub 250.  If I stay on track, I expect to see that before my next shot.  That will be a huge morale boost.

Dose Four

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0.25 mg/0.5 mL.
Last Weight: 254.6 pounds
Down 14.4 pounds (5.4%)

It’s hard to believe that I have already lost 5% of my body weight.  But with my goal at 30%, I’m ready for the long haul.  The Loss It app has consistently told me to expect to reach that goal in February of 2025.  That feels crazy fast if accurate—I am expecting it to take closer to a year.  

In the meantime, I take it day by day.  Some days the medicine works so well, I stop short of the calorie goal.  Some days, I do go over.  But there is a big difference between now and the other times I counted calories.  When I go over now, I go over by 100 or 200 calories.  Before, I would loss control.  Have a full extra meal and dessert, going over by hundreds and falling off the wagon entirely.  THat doesn’t happen.  Instead, I give myself grace.  

That’s part of why I weigh myself every day.  On “bad” days, I step on a scale and find that I maintained or gained half a pound—something that will be lost when I take my next great shit.  Weighing in daily isn’t for most people, but it keeps me focused.  I can see the trajectory and seeing what that means every day is extremely helpful.

My biggest issue seem to be on shot day.  For a few hours I get a stomach ache and need to rest more.  The rest of the week is fine.  I will have to watch that as I go up in dosage.  When I get back from vacation next week, I take my first .5mg dosage—a full doubling.  Luckily I will take that on a day when Sofia works and the kids will be in daycare.  Much like by first dose, three weeks ago, I will take advantage of being on my own and listening to my body.

I will make this work.  This is starting to truly feel like the opportunity of a lifetime.

Dose Three

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0.25 mg/0.5 mL.
Last Weight: 257.8 pounds
Down 11.2 pounds (4.2%)

Not including day one, my pace of weight loss has been 3.5 pounds a week.  That is half a pound a day on average.  More Importantly, I am still feeling the impact on my appetite.  We went out for sushi today.  Sofia and I split our normal three rolls.  By the end, we were very slow and nearly didn’t finish it.  More and more I have been leaving plates with food on them where I never would have before.  Some days the getting to the calorie goal is difficult.  Other days, I know I’ll go over—but it’s hard to go over by much and not feel physically ill.

The thing that is really surprising to me, is that I am at the lowest dose.  I am supposed to step every month until month five, where I will be kept indefinitely.  If I am feeling the impacts at this level, I am excited to know that it will only become stronger.  I want this kind of ally on my side long term.  It has only been two weeks and it feels life changing. 

Dose Two

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0.25 mg/0.5 mL.
Last Weight: 260.8 pounds
Down 8.2 pounds (3.0%)

Well, it’s working.  8.2 pounds in a week is, frankly, too fast.  But I recognize that I needed a starting weight last week and stepped on a scale before taking the first shot.  Now I have been stepping on the scale every morning before I eat.  So that is part of it.  But there is no denying that this is working, and working very well.  The numbers don’t lie and show daily progress.

But the biggest difference is in how I feel and think.  I had never heard the concept of “food noise” before I heard of Wegovy.  Now, a week in, it’s amazing that I had never heard of such a thing.  I guess having food noise in my brain my whole life makes it normal.  Now, without it, there’s this emptiness that I can name.  Food noise.  The thing that makes me open the fridge door when I’m bored.  The thing that makes me absentmindedly eat the rest of dinner that my toddler didn’t want.  Without that noise, I can make conscious decisions.  And it is a hell of a lot easier to make decisions for my health when all of this food isn’t reaching out for me to take it.

I met with my doctor last week.  He said he wants to up my dose one month at a time.  So I only have two more of the 0.25 mg/.5mL.  That will get me through the vacation to Colorado.  Then I will up to the 0.5 mg/.5mL for a month.  If that goes well, he will push me to the 1 mg/.5mL. It’s exciting to have a doctor who is so ready to help me do this.  I want to show him that I am getting big results so that he will keep me on it.  If I am perfectly honest, I will stay on this for the rest of my life if there are no significant side effects.  This will easily help me move from obese to overweight.  But, with time, I think it could help me move from overweight to healthy.

Dose One

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0.25 mg/0.5 mL.
Last Weight: 269 pounds

I took my first dose three ago. I was so excited when I got word that my insurance covered it.  I immediately called my pharmacy to ask what was next.  I was expecting them to have not heard from the insurance to tell me they have a shortage.  Instead, they said it was ready.  I ran over to the pharmacy and waited in a decent line.  But 30 minutes later, I had my first four doses in hand.  It was very unexpected after thinking my insurance wouldn’t cover anything.  

I’ve made the initial push to lose weight since having kids.  But it feels like something always distracts me.  I did a good job of losing and maintaining weight before kids.  But with my busy life now, the things that worked before aren’t working.  This is what drove me to start looking for that little extra help.  I was extremely demoralized when I looked into it, thought my insurance would cover Monjouro, and then had the claim rejected.  Seems like no one took the extra step to say, “but we can approve Wegovy.”  After hearing that my insurance has to cover at least one for weight loss, I tried.  And, holy shit, it worked.

Now I’m sitting here three days past my first injection.  I’m at my spouse’s cafe, trying to eat my standard waffle.  I used to be able to eat this whole thing no problem.  Now I am slowing down after the first quarter and struggling to eat half of it.  This is the kind of support I need.  Something that doesn’t tell me what to eat, but how much to eat.  It has only been three days at the lowest dosage and it feels like it has been weeks.  I feel my goals that I thought were too far are now within reach.  My fears of dying before retirement are starting to fade as well.  I have a real chance of making this work.  I feel like this is the best shot I am going to get.  I have to give it my all.

2023 in Review

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2023 was probably the busiest year of our life (so far).  With Sofia taking over ownership of the café, both boys in preschool, and Richard balancing school and work, we had very little downtime.  We spent most of our time in Tacoma: at mama’s café, at the glass museum, at the beach, or just taking the light rail for a joy ride.  

Noah had his third birthday on June 2nd.  He has turned into a full fledged toddler this year.  He is still attached to mama and papa and notices immediately when we leave the room.  He asks questions all the time, and has perfected his angry face when we say no.  Noah learned the word Friend this year and will often remind us that Henry is his Best Friend.  They maintain a friendship that has its own hilarious games and often devolves into screaming and crying.  

Henry turned five on December 27th.  He has become absolutely obsessed with trains—from the Brio tracks running all around our living room to the light rail that he asks to ride every single day.  Henry has blossomed in the last year—quickly building an expansive vocabulary.  He is independent and know what he wants.  He rides the bus to and from school every day and loves it.  He is excited and ready to start Kindergarten next year.

Sofia became a business owner!  She bought the first half of Red Elm Cafe on January 1, 2023.  She will become sole owner on January 1, 2024.  The cafe has about ten employees and sits at the center of the Hilltop Business District.  Sofia spent a good deal of the year learning the ropes and preparing for the role of sole owner.  Sofia has quickly become a recognizable face in the neighborhood and often will run into people she knows from the cafe.  

Richard balanced his job as the Assistant District Manager at Social Security with taking classes at Tacoma Community College.  He is currently on track to graduate with an Associates in Accounting in March of 2024.  He took over the bookkeeping for Red Elm Cafe in September 2023.  In October he spent a week in Colorado for his father’s surgery and returned in November for the first round of chemotherapy.  

Flying Home

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It was not exactly possible to digest the reality
of the situation 
when I was in the middle of it

Now
as I fly back 
I can start to

But imagining 
my father 
going through chemo 
Is not something i am able to
imagine

I want to be there. 
I want to be as far away as I can. 
But I also have this life that I’ve built up
I can’t keep leaving

I must strike a balance between being there for the family I have built
and 
being there for my parents as they go through the most difficult season of their life. 

2022 in Review

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2022 was the year that we settled into our new life in Tacoma, Washington.  We killed most of the grass in our front yard and turned it into a place where we could experiment with a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.  Sofia became the garden master, but the boys loved to help.  We spent most of our time at Red Elm Cafe and Owen Beach. 

Noah had his second birthday on June 2nd.  Noah became a toddler this year and started daycare in January.  As a pandemic baby, he was part of a group of kids who never got the experience of a pre-Covid world.  It wasn’t until halfway through the year that he even saw his teacher’s faces.  Nonetheless, he prospered in his new environment.  He went from a handful of words to too many to count.  In fact, it is now difficult to get him to stay quiet.  He is an incredibly playful child who loves cars, dinosaurs, and ice cream above all else.

Henry turned four on December 27th.  Henry blossomed so much this year.  At the beginning of the year, Henry had near zero words in his vocabulary.  Today he has hundreds (you just have to pry them out of him at times).  He started daycare and preschool in January. He moved to a more inclusive preschool in September.  He loves it.  He is known as the captain of circle time—ensuring it is never missed and sometimes taking over as the one reading to the other kids.  He loves to ride the bus, going to Owen Beach, and hang out at “Mama’s Cafe.”

Sofia celebrated the big 3-0 on January 17th.   Throughout the year Sofia transitioned from stay at home mom, to community college student, to barista.  She powered through some of the hardest classes in her Sonography prerequisites (like organic chemistry).  With only a few classes left until she could apply for the full program, she came across an opportunity she could not turn down.  The cafe where she had been doing Sunday barista shifts went up for sale.  She jumped at the opportunity and dropped out of community college.  On December 22nd, she signed the purchase agreement to take over 50% ownership.  As of the first of the year, she will be a small business owner of a cafe with six employees (Red Elm Cafe).

Richard completed his first full year as Assistant District Manager of the Olympia, Washington Social Security Administration.  He was lucky enough to start teleworking from home two days a week, making the 35-40 minute commute much easier to sustain.  He spent a good part of the year waiting for his Steam Deck as he ceded control of the Switch over to the boys.  He spends his evenings and weekends trying to turn his boys into nerds and hanging out at “Mama’s Cafe” and Owen Beach.  In January, he will take over the role of community college student from Sofia as he works towards his bookkeeping certificate.