Excellent Day!

I like the shirt-over-tee look.
Note the gold sneaks. First time wearing,
but I want to make sure they will be comfy 
for France.

Yesterday was my birthday, and many lucky things came together. It was sunny, and the warmest day so far this year. I spent the morning out in the garden, doing long-neglected chores. The only member of my globe-trotting family actually in town had locked in dinner and a movie with me for the evening. It stayed lovely and warm and we were able to sit outside for dinner. As it turns out, the movie Project Hail Mary was absolutely fabulous, a rare 5 stars from me. As my girl said, "competence porn and the cutest alien ever" made for a rousing end to the night. 

Prepping for my French trip is on my mind, especially how to manage eating while traveling. I used the day to experiment with some food.

 I've been really very good at eating to hit my goals. But, I live alone and mostly eat alone. That makes things way easier to control things. For my birthday, I decided to choose food first and track only after eating. I am curious - what choices will I make when I listen to my body and figure out what I really want? And, alcohol. I've been on the drug for 5 1/2 weeks, but I haven't had a drink. How would that go over?

I've noticed that I get hungrier much earlier in the day than before. With an ambitious protein target, I've started eating very early. I'm up between 6-7, and by 7:30 (or earlier) I have been eating either a cup of cottage cheese or half or a whole bottled protein shake. Then, after exercise and getting dressed, I have a second breakfast. So, on my birthday, I dutifully wolfed down a portion of cottage cheese before going off to the supermarket to replenish my fruit supply. I decided I could treat myself to a pastry, and browsed the selection. While an apple turnover has been my absolute favorite, I went with a standby - a blueberry scone. I found, when I did a gut check to see what feels good (as opposed to sounds good), the less sweet and fat but more filling alternative hit the mark. When I checked later, it turns out they are fairly even in terms of points-heavy and protein/fiber poor. 

The breakfasts kept me satisfied as I busied myself in the garden. I had lunch after noon, driven as much by the clock as hunger. I wanted to pace myself so that I would be hungry for an early dinner out. I had a simple meal of lean meat and fruit, no urge for carbs. In the late afternoon, I wanted a pick-me-up, and I had some delicious halvah. 

I picked the Irish bar based on wanting a good beer and the ability to sit outside. My poor vegan girl was stuck with side dishes, fries and spinach and mushrooms. As I went through the menu, I was sure I was hungry but equally sure I wouldn't be able to finish anything I ordered. Again, trying a gut check, imagining how I'd feel after eating anything. Fish and chips had been on my mind, but I didn't think that would work. I love their red meat entrees, beef stew and lamb stew, shepherds pie and corned beef and cabbage, but they seemed heavy for what was feeling like a summer day. So I ended up with a club sandwich, with a side salad. And a couple of my girl's fries. I didn't finish the beer (though it was wonderful) and took half the sandwich home, where it's today's lunch. 

After dinner, we stashed my leftovers in the car, and stopped at Ben and Jerry's before the movie. I got their smallest cup, chocolate fudge cake, and loved it but was satisfied before I was done. Very rare for me to toss unfinished ice cream in the trash! 

So when I tracked today, it ended up being 62 points! For reference, my daily allotment is 23 points, with roughly 20-30 points to spread over the week. So my birthday put me in the hole, I'm showing negative weekly points! But, a joy of Weight Watchers is a daily reset on the daily points (I've got another 23 today) and a weekly reset on the weekly extras. So I can't start a day or a week already behind. But, despite all the points, I made neither the protein nor fiber targets. 

What did I learn? That thinking "no rules" doesn't mean I'll go absolutely bonkers. It was just under 1600 calories. I regret nothing, except maybe the late-afternoon halvah (5 points). A tangerine or an apple would also have worked on my desire for a little sugar boost. I also noticed a real difference between what sounded good in the abstract, the kind of thing I used to really want, and how I imagined it would make me feel after I ate it. I have some data to base those imaginings on. I am pretty sure one of the reasons I didn't go bonkers is because of the sense of fullness that comes easily to me. There is a lag between eating and feeling my stomach, but my projecting forward of how I'll feel in the future is based on what's been happening recently. Also, eating slowly allows the feelings to catch up before I've gone too far.

In other news, my furnace broke the same time as my clothes dryer. The furnace is fixable, but four figures worth. The first couple of dryer repairmen I called told me mine is a piece of crap that they won't work on. (Word in the 'hood is most appliance repairmen are quirky curmudgeonly types. Give me a break, I respect experts in all fields, but I don't feel like catering or coddling.) I also owe taxes and have a big boatyard bill coming up. So I've decided to forego a dryer for the time being. I strung a clothesline in the back yard, and I've got a drying rack in the basement. Just a couple of blocks away is a nice lavanderia with a convenient and not terribly expense wash-and-fold service - I used that after my knee operation when I couldn't handle the basement stairs. So I'll limp along, perhaps until I get back from France.

Weirdest Day Ever!

Crazy day, but I got to wear this!

At 5 am today, my dog suggested we go out. I've learned the hard way that means either indigestion or a burglar (I've had both) and so out we went, in the dark more than two hours before sunrise. (It wasn't a burglar this time.) It was 70 degrees out! I made coffee, and the two of us stayed out enjoying the morning. The sky was surprisingly light from all the clouds. The bare tree branches were swaying and jumping in the very strong wind gusts, and there was a roaring overhead that came and went. The birds were at first silent, but were just stirring when we went in, half an hour later. It had dropped to 60 degrees.

At 7, shortly before sunrise and after first breakfast, I hustled down the block to the neighborhood rain gauge (it's a citizen-science project, I'm subbing for the vacationing principal). After posting the minimal last 24 hours rainfall, I continued on through the neighborhood and back through the park to get in a couple of miles of walking. I was rushing, because it was starting to spit rain and was forecast to pour. 

After second breakfast, it was indeed raining hard. I went back to bed (I have started to allow myself naps when I get less than 6 hours sleep)  and when I woke at noon it was blizzarding! I mean, it was sticking to grass and cars, big huge fluffy flakes, I could barely see the houses across the street! As it turns out, I was delighted for the cold and snow, because I could finally wear my new sweater. It's been too warm out and in - this is a thick wooly Norwegian one, made from happy sheep joyfully wandering the mountainsides (so the company literature asserts). I contemplated hot chocolate, to get fully in the mood, but passed.

Other highlights of the day: weekly injection, paperwork, taxes nearly ready to file, watched season finale of Pluribus (want to discuss if you've seen it!), picked up my laundry from the wash-and-fold (my dryer is broken) and my new monthly meat box. The box includes a couple of thick cod fillets, luckily frozen, so I have time to decide when and how to cook them. I like to eat fish, but I hate to cook it. I might make a chowder, since I have time to get ingredients. Also in the box, corned beef (of course), lamb chops, pork loin, and "Irish bangers". I love Irish / Scottish breakfast bangers. I have been looking for some to buy - any time I go to our local Irish bar, I get a takeout order of theirs, but no local grocery source. Until this week - there was a display at the supermarket, next to their corn beef briskets. I was excited to try the supermarket bangers, and sorely disappointed. They are nice enough pork sausages, but more brat than banger. I'm hoping these butchershop ones are more on the mark, catching that distinctive taste I associate with the bangers.

So that's my day. It'll be in the twenties out when I make tomorrow's 7 am rain gauge run, another chance to wear my sweater. And also some precip to report, for sure! 

Learning Things

At this point, I feel like making sure I'm successful on the GLP meds is my job. I'm thinking about it most of the time. I'm experimenting with foods, I'm checking in on my body, I'm getting up and moving around after I eat and the stomach is full. I'm reading everything I can find. Of course, making sure what I'm reading is from a reputable source is always an issue, especially since much of the information comes via social media or AI.

Weightless by Rocio Salas-Whalen

This book was recommended by a chat group on the WW app. It came out in December of last year, so it's quite up-to-date. I consider myself well informed about GLP meds, but I learned a lot from this book. I listened to it - 9 hours over the course of a week - as if it were a novel. I found it so useful that I've now ordered it to get a hard copy delivered. I love to listen to books, both fiction and non-fiction, but the listening format makes it very hard to go back and reference something. Even ebooks sometimes make it harder to look things up. I am a huge ebook and audio book fan, but if I'm going to be flipping back and forth through a book I prefer to have a hard copy in my hands.

The author has been a long term specialist in obesity medicine. This book is soup to nuts, from the history of obesity treatments and the development of GLP meds, to current options, what to expect, how to handle issues, and what to expect and options for handling maintenance. And like every self-improvement book you've ever read, individual stories:  "Carol was frustrated. She came to me because....".

She frames how to think about being on the meds as "creating a helpful environment for you to make the changes that will sustain you for the long term". In other words, the drugs don't do it, you do. And that takes work.

Here are some things that stuck out for me as I listened, that I want to go back and read more and study more. She is a fanatic on preserving muscle by eating protein and working out. She wants people to think of what we are doing is less about weight loss and more about "body recomposition". By this she means shifting the ratio of fat to muscle in our bodies. In her view, body composition analysis is how to determine if the process has been successful for you, not the scale readings. 

She writes about resistance and weight training, which I'm on top of. But she sets really high targets for the daily protein intake - for everybody, all ages and sexes, an absolute bare minimum of 100 grams of protein a day. This is significantly higher than the 83 gram minimum WW sets for me. I am close to that WW minimum almost every day, but raising it to 100 grams will be really hard. She is a big fan of whey protein powder, which I'm not ready to embrace. She suggests the best way to make the protein target is to add whey powder to everything, from your morning coffee (not gonna happen) to sprinkling on other meals, and also a shake/smoothie. (I'm not sure why I'm so reluctant to try the whey powder - I think besides my aversion to frankenfoods I'm afraid of aftertastes. But maybe I should experiment. At Whole Foods, I found an entire section full of different kinds of whey powder. So maybe? But not in my sacred morning black coffee!)

She also asserts that our bodies generally don't absorb more than 30 grams of protein at a single meal, and so making the 100 gram target would require three hefty meals and a hefty snack, or some pattern of spreading it out through the day. I have a long history of not feeling hungry in the morning, and working out first thing on an empty stomach. But if I'm going to get all the right eating in, I need to start early. I have to eat smaller meals, and I want to finish big eating a few hours before bedtime. So I've tried grabbing a lowfat cottage cheese (19 grams protein) directly I get up. I've tried to restrict myself to only a couple of (plant-based) protein shakes a week, so far after working out, because they are definitely a frankenfood (ultra-processed). But they are very convenient, from 20-30 grams of protein, and fairly palatable. I have been adding some ground flaxseed to meals where it is easily disguised - tasteless to me, not gummy like chia seeds, but some impact on texture and looks. I cook my rice and pasta in bone broth. My latest try - using my girl's vegan hack for parmesan - nutritional yeast, found next to whey protein in the supplements aisle. (I read the label for plant-based "parmesan" in the vegan case at the store - 0 grams protein and 0 grams fiber. Must be made from petroleum?) Results are not yet assessed on the nutritional yeast.

The one disturbing (to me) thread throughout the book is how the author assumes losing weight is everyone's goal. (Though only with preserving muscle, not skinny only.)  If she talks about body positivity, inclusiveness, and health at every size (HAES), I missed it or it didn't stick with me (another reason to have a hard copy to look at). Intuitive eating didn't work for me, but I've spent years coming to terms with how I look and feel. I don't hate my body now. I am quite healthy, and don't have co-morbidities from my obesity. But still, HAES is about being as healthy as you can in the body you have now. There are health impacts from obesity, and losing weight fixes many of them. But there are even more social impacts, and I hate that that is true and I think it's wrong. But still, I would like to look better in nice clothes. 

I've thought about this, and the fact that no everyone who wants it actually has access to the drugs is not a reason for me to not take them. My not doing this, as an individual action, helps no-one. The fact not everyone wants to, or can, take them is also not a reason for me to stay away. I support those who are happy with the way things are, or choose a different path for whatever reason. But I'm still doing it.

Check-In - How are things?

TL;DR: I'm fine

I've finished three complete weeks on my GLP meds. So far, my side effects are only gas and some often present minor queasiness. I treat that with ginger hard candies. I also am often cold and when I'm not moving, huddling under blankets. I'm tracking my food meticulously through the WW app (interestingly, it gets easier the more you track, because it offers up choices you have used before). I am now doing a pre-plan in the morning, to make sure it's going to reach my protein and fiber targets. It's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle - do I need to fit a different piece into lunch because it's not adding up? It's surprisingly difficult!

I lost some weight very quickly, so quickly it started to make me nervous. WW discourages looking at calories but I was shocked to see a couple of days were less than 1,000 calories! No bueno! I was eating to hunger, but I don't want my body to shut down into starvation mode. Now, I'm eating more by the clock. But still, I plan out my day with plenty of food, and then find I can't finish everything on my plate. Mostly, I put it aside and try to come back in an hour or two. Overall, I'm back to eating much more normal totals for the day. Generally I'm having two hefty snacks, one in the afternoon and one later in evening. The snacks may be leftovers, or they may be dried and salted beans (edamame or garbanzos, this week) or Wasa rye crisp with flavored nut butter, and fruit - mandarins and apples.

I need to rely on convenience foods or foods I will prepare in bulk for leftovers - I'm not cooking three meals a day for myself. My girl recommended a brand of bottled protein shake loaded with protein and fiber both - Koia - and I'll have one of those for breakfast after working out. I do have to have something afterwards, because while it's good, it does still have a bit of an aftertaste. My favorite brand of canned tuna, Wild Planet, makes a couple of tinned ready-to-eat salads, tuna and beans, loaded with protein and fiber. I have a good selection of lentil and bean canned soups, ready to heat up. I often add some shredded rotisserie chicken to them, to make sure I'm getting to the protein numbers. The craving for sweets has seriously diminished. I have usually just a single square of chocolate in the evening, and feel satisfied with that.

I did my first prescription renewal; it was pro-forma. I'm staying on the same dose for another 4 weeks at least.  I requested the refill via app, updated some vitals stats, later that day my clinician approved it, and sent it to the pharmacy. They acknowledged receipt still on that first day. Three working days later, (the outside of how long  they said it should take), I got a text telling me to pay. I did that immediately, and got a status update it had shipped and should be delivered the next day. But UPS didn't come through, the package took a detour, and it showed up a day later. With the weekend, it took exactly one week - I requested on Wednesday and it showed up on  the next Wednesday. I can't count on the one-week delivery, I think - I'll continue requesting the renewal around the time of my third dose, so I'll have two weeks for approval and delivery.

 I'm already thinking ahead on how to handle my next trip. I'm going to France! Did I tell you guys that? In five weeks! As it turns out, my trip departs on a Thursday, injection day, so that's easily dealt with at home. I return 8 days later, Friday afternoon. I'm really thinking I don't want to travel with my syringe and vial, worrying about refrigeration, sharps disposal, etc., and I should just postpone my shot until I get home. Then, I can either do the following dose back on my Thursday schedule or else switch to Fridays. I read that adjusting by a day is generally ok - it's 3-4 days that get complicated. 

 

So to address the big question, how's my weight? It's fine. Using start day to today, I've lost 3.5 pounds in three weeks. The past few days, the loss has stalled, but it's way too soon to worry about that. It makes sense my body will adjust after the big woosh at the beginning. I would like to lose around a pound a week max, so I'm on track for that. I'm working with my trainer to lift heavier than before (I just got new 25 lb dumbbells, woohoo, moving up from the 20s!) and I'm hoping my focus on protein and that will keep me strong.

My smart scale purports to track fat vs. muscle besides weight, but these readings are notoriously inaccurate. Still, looking at the trend, it thinks I'm losing a mix of fat and muscle, but losing the fat at twice the rate of muscle. I was heartened to read an article in the NYTimes this week that says while every weight loss will lead to some reduced muscle, there is no evidence that using the GLP meds leads to more muscle loss than any other form of weight reduction. 

I kept up my cardio on my inside machines throughout February on days I don't lift. I intend to keep to that. But I rarely left the house in February for walks due to weather, and I've got to get back into that before my next trip. 

But so far, so good!