Semaglutide: Week 1 Recap...

I just officially finished my first week of my Semaglutide treatment plan at my new weight loss clinic. How did it go?

It was okay. 

Overall, I experienced minimal side effects. I was told I could expect maybe some nausea and some "GI upset," but it really wasn't that bad. I did feel a little nauseated a day or two after my first semaglutide injection, but it didn't last very long.

To try and stave off any colon complications, I've started taking fiber supplements and Miralax. I wanted to find Metamucil capsules, but my local store was out...so I got the Metamucil gummies, instead. They taste alright, but the texture is definitely strange. The Miralax isn't bad, but I've only mixed it with flavored beverages, so far. 

However, I may stop taking the Miralax. I asked the ladies that work at the weight loss clinic about the Miralax. Specifically, how long and often I should take it. Surprisingly, they really didn't know what to say! (Doesn't bode well for my confidence in their program, being honest)

It was their physician's recommendation to take the Miralax, but the office ladies didn't seem to know anything about it. (They weren't just secretaries, they are the ones that take patients back to record their weight and administer the "lipo" shots)

They sold me some weird cleanse sort of supplement, which I guess I'm meant to take instead of the Miralax? I'm certainly not taking both at the same time, that would be awful, I'm sure...

So, what's the results for week 1?

+1 pound. 

Yep.

Well. I'm disappointed, but not surprised. Being honest with myself, I haven't altered my diet much at all. And I haven't been able to exercise due to my workload being insane and my HS flaring up severely.

Here's to hoping that my HS flares heal quickly so that I can get back to working out...

Starting Semaglutide...

Hey guys!!

As the title of this post says, I've recently started taking semaglutide for weight loss. I wanted to chronical the experience on my blog, for a couple reasons. First, I wanted to kind of track what all goes on...wanted to keep up with how much, if any, the medicine works and improves my overall health. I also wanted to put the experience "out there" because I know there medicines are relatively new, for weight loss, and people probably would like to know how taking this medicine works out! So, hopefully, in a few months there will be a decent bit for you all to read. 

And, finally, I wanted to keep a record of what all happened to me just in case there are negative side effects. Can't tell just the good and not any of the bad, right?

Ok.

So, where am I at in the process?

I had my first dose of semaglutide yesterday, 1/30/2024. The clinic that I'm visiting uses a "titration" method for their semaglutide doses. This means they start with a lower dose which will increase in volume and concentration, over time. The thought is, by starting with the lower dose, rather than a high one, you minimize chances of the medicines making you feel sick. 

The clinic couples its semaglutide with their "lipotrophic 4-in-1" injections. The lipotrophic injections have some "lipo" ingredient that they say helps with "melting fat" (or something like that)....and the shots also include B vitamins to help with energy. According to the employee, sometimes people starting on semaglutide experience fatigue, so the "4-in-1" shots can help to offset the tiredness. Typically, they like for you to come in to the clininc for the "4-in-1" shot on the same day that you take the semaglutide.

The semaglutide is to be administered 1x a week, on the same day every week. 

The clinic has a requirement for semaglutide patients to commit for 4 months of treatment. I haven't quite decided if that commitment is for the financial benefit of the clinic or if its because it takes a month (up to 2 months) for the semaglutide to start the weight loss process....either way, deciding to start the program is certainly not a cheap decision!

In fact, I'd say that the cost of the program is likely to be prohibitive! The clinic charges $389/month to participate in their semaglutide program (with a 4 month minimum commitment, remember?!). 

While getting started, I attributed the high cost to the medicine simply being expensive...but now, I'm not so sure! 

The medicine is some sort of generic semaglutide. Meaning, it's not ozempic or wegovy or whatever brand is being advertised. The clinic gets their medicine from a compounding pharmacy located in GA. And its actually the compounding pharmacy that I paid, not the clinic...so I'm guessing they've got some sort of paid partnership going on, because there's no way the weight loss clinic would just be the middle man and issue "4-in-1" shots for free!

So, how am I feeling?

So far, so good....I think...

The lady who I saw at the clinic, yesterday, told me that one of the most common side effects for people starting out on semaglutide is nausea. Right now, I'm hanging out at about a 1.5/10 on the nausea scale....with 10 being actively headed to the bathroom to vomit and 0 being perfectly fine.

I'm not currently hungry, which is a bit weird since I usually eat breakfast, but I'm not ready to attribute that to the medicine. I've had a lot of water this morning.

For practicality, I'll wrap up this post shortly...in the next week, I plan to write a few more posts about my thought process in deciding to start the semaglutide program, just in case anyone out there might find themselves in a similar situation!

Back, But No Promises...

Hello weary travelers!

I think I want to revisit my old blogging habits, but rather than start a brand new blog, I thought it might be easier to resume one of my previous ones. Also, there's no guarantee I'll post more than one or two entries, so why waste the time with formatting a new blog??

What's new? It's been a couple of years, so I'm sure there's plenty, but maybe it would be easier to start with what all is still the same...

- Still married ✔

- Still living in the same house ✔

- Still working as a real estate appraiser (but there are updates on this!) ✔

- Still parenting ✔

- Still nerdy ✔

Ok. 

I got a new job last year (Oct 2022). I appraise real estate, still, but I now work for one of the "big banks." Honestly, starting my own appraisal business was a good idea. And very necessary towards working on my own and no longer working for my parent's business. However, a few months into having my own business and it became very clear that obtaining clients and enough work flow was going to be a huge challenge. 

I started my LLC just as the housing market was starting to cool and there was a significantly lowered need for home appraisals. (Perfect timing, right?) Since I have a family that I need to help support, there's no way I could accept a career where my income wouldn't be predictable. Some months, you may have more work than you could feasibly do and then also have the income to go along with that workload! But the huge downside is that you will also have months when you don't have enough work and your income could be almost nothing! (Especially after software fees, membership dues for databases, and processing fees)

Accepting the appraising position with the bank was a huge positive step for me and my family. The new job came with a sizeable pay raise, health insurance, retirement benefits, and (best of all) a steady and predictable pay schedule. Plus, my job title is "Senior Valuation Specialist." How official sounding is that?! 

I've been at my new job for a little over a year now. It has its challenges, but I'm very glad that I took the chance and submitted my application back in 2022!

Other areas in my life are proceeding as one probably would expect...we celebrated our 6 year anniversary this year ^_^  My kiddo started high school and successfully completed his first year of marching band...My husband still works hard at his desk job and still maintains his "side hustle" of running his own yard maintenance business...and our cat is still adorable and has become a master at swindling me out of cat treats.

It blows my mind to realize that 2023 is nearly over. What will 2024 bring? More blog posts? Maybe!

Bento Box...

During one of my routine mindless social media feed scrollings, I came across a video very similar to this one. This lady, Jessica, makes TikTok videos of preparing the most adorable bento style lunches for her daughters. I mean, LOOK!! She makes teddy bears out of rice!

I watched the entire 4 minute video in awe...and then almost immediately looked up more bento box videos...and before the evening was over, I'd declared to my husband and kiddo that I'm going to start making bento box lunches! (Want to get me very quickly interested/obsessed with something? Make it tiny, kawaii, and edible! lol)

I did some looking around online and found a few different bento boxes that I thought would be good for beginners...though, maybe there isn't as much challenge with the boxes themselves, and all of the difficulty will come from food prep. 

This is the box I ended up selecting. Turns out, it's the same box that Jessica uses in her videos for her daughters...I wanna say that it's a happy coincidence that I chose the same box, but I'll admit that I started
off my bento box search looking for something similar to what I saw in her videos.

I wanted my box to have at least two compartments for food. I wanted the food compartments to be stackable, rather than side-by-side...I like the look of the more "slim" box, rather than one that is more wide and tray-like. I also liked that this one appeared to have a separate compartment for utensils...but, in pictures, it looks like people can put food in the top, clear compartment...and then, like, lay the utensils on top. I don't know if I'll do that, though...I feel like it would just make the utensils dirty, which would then get food on your hands, which....I just absolutely hate, to be honest!

I'm not positive that I'll love it, but I'll be sure to let y'all know if I like it or not!

Re-Boot...

 

This picture was posted by one of my social media friends this morning. I saw it, grinned wryly, gave it a like, and continued to scroll through my feed. A couple of hours later, I found myself randomly thinking about this picture...for some reason, it really seemed to resonate with me. (I mean, I guess it must have if I was still thinking about it, hours later!)

So, that's how you end up writing a new post on a long abandoned blog!

I checked, it looks like it's been nearly two years since my last post. TWO YEARS. Wow...

There's been a good deal of change in two years, that's for sure! What kind of change? Mostly good, I think...

 

-     We became home owners!! This is definitely one of the most notable events in the last two years, in my opinion. A couple of months after my previous post, my husband decided to reach out to the realtor that his father used when he sold his house...He told me he reached out to her "just in case" and wanted to kind of get a feel for what houses were available at the time. Well. I don't know if you're familiar with realtors...but, from my experience, they don't typically leave things at "just in case." Before we knew it, we had put in an offer on a house. But it must not have been meant to be, because our offer wasn't accepted.....so, the realtor talked us into putting another offer on a different house! Which! Also wasn't selected. (If you haven't heard, the housing market had been, and still is, absolutely nuts!) After our two offers were passed over, my husband and I were ready to pump the breaks on the buying process. But there was one house that I kept feeling drawn to for some reason, even though it wasn't either of our first choices...we went and toured it for a third time and finally decided to place an offer on the house. It was a really solid offer (I'm a real estate appraiser, just in case you've forgotten ^_^), and before we knew it, we were signing a sales contract and talking to our apartment leasing office about terminating our lease early. Crazy, right? So, yeah. August 2019, we signed our lives away, and now belong to an HOA. Exciting stuff...

-     We became a family with a middle schooler! The kiddo is now in the 6th grade and is doing pretty great at crushing the beast known as middle school...I can't believe he's going to be an official teenager this fall. I get all sorts of melancholy and existential when I think about that, so, let's move on!

-     We added a critter companion to our party! My husband finally relented to our pleas for a pet. The kiddo and I were angling for a small, hypoallergenic breed dog...so, naturally, we got a cat. (Of course!) I've always loved cats, but was never able to have one due to being allergic...but my allergies are weird, apparently, and there are some cats that I have no reaction to, at all! I remembered this, and crossed my fingers that this would be the case when we picked out our little furball. (I was prepared to take allergy medicines and even get shots, if I needed to!) At the time, the kiddo was HUGE into Fortnite...especially the toon Meowscles (giant, muscly cat/man). Meowscles happens to have calico coloration, so the kiddo insisted that we find a calico kitty. We found the perfect little cat at a local cat cafe and brought her home the next day. We named her Marshmello (after the DJ, not the food, per the kiddo), but she pretty much only responds to Kitty. She's pretty great...it turns out I'm definitely a cat person!

-     I finally got my full-fledged appraiser's license! And we, my husband and I, started our own appraisal business! Well, we own an LLC that says we do, anyway. I'm still working with my family for their appraisal business full-time, but now, I can do some additional work for myself in my "off time." Eventually, I plan to transition fully to my own business, but I'll have to wait until my parents decide to mostly retire before that happens. So, within the next 5 years or so. But hey, I think it still sounds pretty darn nice to be able to say that I'm an official business owner, and I'm under 40! (Shut up, YouTubers and influencers...nobody asked you!)

I think those might be the biggest updates...a lot of things are still relatively the same. Some aspects of our daily lives have changed, as have everyone else's due to the stupid 'rona. But I suppose there's no getting around that...

It's odd...I actually started this post with a specific, singular, topic to write about...but now I'm several paragraphs in, and haven't even come close to touching said subject! I guess maybe I've missed blogging more than I realized...it's a lot like being reunited with a friend that I haven't spoken to in ages. I think this is good...I think I needed to re-discover writing this blog...hopefully it'll become a habitual thing, and there'll be posts fairly often.

So, anyway...the topic I'd initially picked to write about: bento box lunches!

That's the topic up for the next post. There'll be lots of tales of Pinterest fails soon, I promise!

Stalemate...

Ah, well, decided to write another post!

Not exactly sure why, though. Especially now that Google+ is gone, there's virtually no way for anyone to stumble across this blog...not unless I start spamming my posts on my personal social media. Which, I could! But that would mean bringing several posts about my struggles with weight and HS to 'real life' people that I know...as brave as I consider myself to be, I don't really want that. Not right now, anyway. [Probably not ever, if I'm being honest]

No real changes in the day-to-day life we've got going on.

I'm getting ready to take a 'big' step in my job, and quite nervous about it. Been dragging my feet for far too long, though. And, being frank, my family needs me to do this so that I can potentially increase my income. It's probably the only way we'll ever make real strides towards 'doing better.' At least to the degree that I'd like!

I'm still waiting on Monday to start my diet [haha]. It needs to happen though. I'm delusional enough to think I can maintain my crappy eating habits and lifestyle and just magically lose weight. But let's face it: eating is just so much better than exercising. Well, it's easier.

I think that being much thinner would have so many positive effects in my life...most of them revolving around self-esteem, which I could use almost desperately.

So then, what am I waiting for?

I dunno.

Ha. And I wonder why I haven't done anything with my adult life.

Setbacks and Baby Steps...

So...what's been going on these past few months?

Well.

Somewhere around the beginning of February, I fell off of the AIP wagon pretty hard....and have made no real attempts to get back on. Shameful, I know.

I've got the willpower of a wet noodle...

I was/am frustrated with seeing no real, consistent results with my HS and decided that it didn't seem worth the trouble to maintain an AIP diet. Now, truthfully, I did lose some weight on the diet...somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-18 lbs, which is fantastic for a month. Since stopping the diet, I can tell that I've gained some of it back [going off of how my jeans feel, tbh], but I don't think I've gained it all back....maybe. I dunno. I got fed up with my horrible bathroom scale [it never gave a consistent reading...it would vary as much as 5 lbs within minutes!] and the one I got to replace it was even worse. I'm currently on the lookout for a reliable, affordable bathroom scale...any recommendations?

Sad thing is, since Februrary, I've been making weak-hearted declarative statements of getting back on a modified AIP diet, but always 'starting on Monday.' Aaaand several Mondays have come and gone, and here I sit, still considering starting a 'serious' diet again. On Monday.

A smidge of good news, though! This week, the kiddo and I have made a great effort to become more active! I've started going on evening walks with him...we're starting slow, walking about 15-20 minutes around our apartment complex. Might seem like virtually nothing to most people, but it's a good first step for us! [We've been shamefully sedentary for way too long, so I feel like easing into an exercise routine is probably the safest bet...I think if we immediately stepped into something too grueling, we'd both be put off by it and would probably quit!]

What else...*ponders*

I'm making progress at work. I'm thiiiiiiis close to wrapping up some personal goals! I'll consider writing about it once it's all said and done.

Oh! In the last month or so, my husband and I decided to do some 'financial restructuring.' Even though we've been married for almost a year and a half, we never made the transition, financially. We finally went and created a joint checking account for 'family finances' and came up with a concrete savings plan, and I'm so glad! If I'm being honest, it was getting more than tedious to constantly be sending each other money for bills and such....or to be standing at the cash register and have to tell the cashier that we're splitting the grocery total...it was fine for while we were dating, but I thought that it was probably odd for a married couple. So yeah, that's changed! It's our first month fully joining accounts. I figure it will probably take a good 3-4 months for everything to 'normalize' and for joint finances not to feel so foreign...but I think its' a good change, right?

Aside from that, I don't think there's really been much going on.

My hidradenitis is still terrible and persistent, but I don't think it's getting much worse. [Definitely not any better, though]

Yeah. I guess that's about it!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I will try not to be such a stranger anymore ^_^