Continuing Mounjaro... Part 22

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

It's thread 22 time! As usual please fill up the previous thread before we make a start on this one.

Huge congratulations to every one who has made losses, and well done to those who have graduated the mounjaro club! We would love you to come back and share your tips for maintenance so we can all continue to learn and grow from each other.

Pointers for newbies:
Please note: Mounjaro will only be be prescribed initially if your BMI is above 30. If you have additional health conditions you can get the medication with a BMI 27. (Prediabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart problems)
Mumsnet does not allow promo codes. Please do not post any. If you want one, ask and someone will PM you a code or there are now threads on the promo page that have codes for Mounjaro link below:
Promo codes :
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/promo-codes-bargains
Linking Wallywobbles site, as theyve very kindly compiled all threads so far, pointers for newbies, weightloss tracker, links to discount codes, tips and tricks and high protein recipes.
Site with all the info :
https://wattnext.notion.site/e880d9342b7a4bab94c244b34e0e5841?v=cc1edc3f1c2b41dab3011c8d9063df0a

Miss Mounjaro UK has the most up to date price comparison charts: https://www.missmounjarouk.com/

This one's the most recent I will also post the image.

Just to copy from the previous thread as it's highly useful information:
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/carbohydrates-and-diabetes/carbs-and-cooking
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cooling-resistant-starch#TOC_TITLE_HDR_6

MabelSpan:
For those who love their carbs, I grow my own veg, including lots of potatoes so eat them most days. You can dramatically increase the amount of resistant starch, a type of fibre, in your potatoes, rice and pasta and bread simply by cooking then cooling, ideally overnight or freezing in the case of bread and then reheating or toasting in the case of bread.

Please remember to do this safely if this is something you would like to do.

In light of being in close proximity to someone who has had complications from Mounjaro, I just want to say for any newbies: We are a wonderful community of Mounjaro users with a wealth of knowledge between us, but we're not a medical service. We are all people who have acknowledged the risk to benefit ratio, and are following our clinicians advice. If you do have any serious side effects listed on the information sheet that comes with your medication, please seek medical advice.

There are no questions too silly, no loss too small to celebrate, no hurdle not worth the challenge and huge congratulations to everyone who has made it this far in their journey and once again, welcome to thread 22.

I'm one pound off losing 2 stone. I'm a size 10 and back to a 25 inch waist

Just 2 more stone to go to take me to bmi 22.5 😊

Aiming for bang in the middle of healthy weight category

I expect to be on it forever, I hope the NHS picks up the tab at some point. Got to be better than my diabetes, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis I suffered with before

I feel super hungry -5mg just hasn't been great for me.
This week I've barely managed 3hrs sleep per day. I've run out of ideas for trying. I'm not sure if it's MJ related or just me as I've always had issues with sleep.
Just wanted to say you're not alone.

@LaurieFairyCake I know you have said you are not tall but still find it hard to believe that at a size 10 and 25" waist you can lose 2 stone healthily. Do you still not feel good as you are? I would regard that as beyond my wildest dreams although I know we are all different.

I wouldn't hold your breath for the NHS to swoop in and help you. I think that will be a long time, if ever!

Yep, BMI is 28.

My recommended weight is between 6 stone 2 pounds and 8 stone 2 pounds. 😱

At 8 stone 2 pounds my BMI would be 23.8 🤷‍♀️😱🤷‍♀️

@Jimmyneutronsforehead and @MamaBearH I feel on you on the sleep issues - mine has been problematic for some time before MJ due to peri-menopause. Ive tried all the recommended supplements and lifestyle/sleep hygiene recommendations and am on HRT but nothing changes the sleep issue.

I don't know if you'd be wanting to take anything to help but my GP recommended I try Phenergan which is an old fashioned antihistamine you can buy over the counter, if I want to occasionally have something to help me sleep. The tablets are 25mg and half of one will help me get 7-8 hours. I only use it occasionally but if I'm having a run of particularly bad sleep it helps to know I have something that I know will help.

@Vamozz I'd like the Champo discount code please? I may be missing the obvious my I can't see how to DM you for it tho (I'm using the app if that makes a difference!)

Can I ask how long you've been using it and does it affect how your hair feels? I'm using Plantur 39 at the moment and have been for about 6 weeks. No noticeable difference yet and hair still shedding thick and fast, but it makes my hair feel and look awful - like brittle straw 😖

How tall are you @LaurieFairyCake

I am 5ft 1 and NHS says my BMI should be between 7 stone and 8 stone 7lb. I don't am to go under 9 stone though as I don't think it's realistic or maintainable. At 7 stone I'd look ill. Smart BMI is a much better and more rounded tool.

Oh I've got those for travel sickness, so at least there's something in the house.

I've got a double issue that I need sleep so I'm not groggy and slow to react because DS is autistic and a very fast runner and can get out of almost anything, but I can't take anything that is too sedating as it leaves me feeling groggy and slow to react 😭

I did actually manage to sleep last night though and it was glorious to wake up naturally with no alarm but I did have to perform a ritual last night by making sure the fan was on to cool the room but not directly at me, the curtains were closed and no light could get through, the bottom sheet knew it's place and stopped trying to shimmy, the dehumidifier was on but didn't leave the air too dry, and told everybody not to flush the toilet or I would wake up unable to go back to sleep and would not be held accountable for my actions.

I might have looked a bit crazy, but it worked and nobody quaked in their boots.

Week 17 weigh-in today, with 1.6lb off.

SW - 12st 7.0lb
CW - 10st 10.6lb
GW - 9st (interim)

Total loss so far is 24.4lbs, an average of just under 1.5lbs per week. Currently on my 6th dose of 7.5mg, which seems to be suiting me.

Snacklesswonder

At 9 stone I'd still be more than half a stone overweight. Even so, to get to 9 stone I've still got 22 pounds to go.

I'm 4, 10

Solidarity to all those finding sleep harder. It’s my least favourite side effect of Mounjaro. I stopped drinking alcohol a few years ago and was gifted the deep sleep of the righteous as a result. I’m not back to the horrendous middle of the night doom waking but am waking several times a night and find my brain is immediately switched on and thinking about things I need to do tomorrow.
I know I need to be better with sleep hygiene. My phone needs to be out of my hand for the last hour. I need to read an actual book. And I need to be switched off and going to sleep earlier. I need to get up with my alarm not doze.
I am watching caffeine. And getting outside every day. Exercising.

Past few days I don't even feel like I have been taking MJ, I'm so hungry!! I've not felt like this in months.

I will still be classed as overweight by the NHS but I can't maintain much less than that and I don't intend to stay on MJ much longer so I'm happy to sit around there! Suits my body shape anyhow, as I'm curvy (ie have big boobs 😏)

@SnacklessWonder At 5’1” the upper end of a healthy BMI is 9 stone 6 (24.9), according to the NHS calculator, so you won’t be overweight at 9 stone. I’ve checked as I’m supposedly 5’2”, but am in denial about having shrunk an inch.

I know I need better sleep hygiene. I don't know how to get better sleep hygiene. I usually sit with DS while he doses off but he doesn't go to sleep, he has to pass out, and a lot of the time I'll be drifting off while he's still bouncing all over but I'll have my phone in my hand or I'll have been sat ruminating over all the things that need to happen and how I just haven't done them and it's like waking up in the middle of the night with anxiety of the anticipation of everything that needs to get done and like you said, suddenly the energy to do it all, but at 2am, 3am, 4:30am and 6am and then feeling like death by 7am.

I wish I was little again and my mum could dunk me in the bath and read me a bedtime story before shouting GO TO BED! at me at least 50 times while I tried to creep downstairs. Never seemed to wake up groggy in those days.

@Jimmyneutronsforehead for sleep hygiene tips please check out an old client of mine website - www.theinsomniaclinic.co.uk and the charity -thesleepcharity.org.uk/information-support/adults/sleep-hygiene/ both offer some good advice.

Sounds like you know what you should be doing though @Jimmyneutronsforehead - you just need to get things actioned. 😉

@Jimmyneutronsforehead that is hard for you when you have to help someone else to sleep.
I’m looking back on this year and realise I’ve done a LOT of work on me. I’ve had talk therapy to work through relationship with food. I’ve had counselling for anxiety.
A lot of the work I’ve done on anxiety is really helpful with the night waking.

Suggestions from me to consider and taken on board or reject as suits you.
Whilst you’re with your DS put on a podcast or audiobook in earphones (or just one so you can hear him but he can’t hear the book) and leave your phone across the room. I guarantee you’re not doing anything useful on your phone in that time
For the middle of the night wakings have a phrase you say in your head when you’re doom spiralling. Mine is “thank you. I’m not doing that now. It’s not the right time. Back to sleep”
Then in the morning I have worry time (also do this with my kids) and go through the worries from previous 24 hours.
hypothetical - not actually something that can be solved no point in expending any energy on it
immediate - on to to do list to be resolved today
future - can anything be done today? Yes - to do list No - hypothetical until such time as can be worked on.

I think I'm either going to move DS toniebox upstairs or splurge on a second one so we have one downstairs and one upstairs because we both love listening to his toniebox and just cuddling up. It sounds so daft but I just always forget it's portable and I can take it upstairs and downstairs. I must think at least once a week "why didn't I do that?"

Do you have any recommendations for a provider for therapy surrounding food? I don't really consider myself an emotional eater but I definitely need to increase my awareness of food. There are lots of times where DS will pass me leftovers and I won't even think I'll just eat them. Then I'll wonder why I'm suddenly very full, and it'll click that I've just eaten the crumbs from a packet of crisps half a milbona chocolate cake, the remains of a leftover ice lolly and so on. I also need to unlearn some things. My brother who is 10 years younger had arfid, and now my son has arfid, and it's sort of always been ingrained to show we can eat food without making a fuss of it and it's good to model it. Well if you've not got an eating disorder eating is easy but stopping the eating is really hard and I need to get out of that mindset. So I never considered that I do need food related therapy before but I probably do actually.

My son has tried Phenegran as one of his sleep meds but it never worked. Neither has melatonin or anything else we've tried. I think we're just wired to not sleep -well at least the sleep clinic discharged him & said he clearly isn't wired for sleep.

I love this post! It sounds just like me. I've a 10yr old beside me in bed who can't sleep so she's trying to loudly count sheep "one sheep, two sheep, three sheep"

I've been on Mounjaro for 4 months exactly today (started on the 27th June) and I've lost 57.40lbs or 4st 1lbs.

SW: 240.8lbs (17st 2lbs)
CW: 183.4lbs (13st 1lbs)

The difference in my life is incredible and I'm so grateful to this injection and to my hairdresser who told me she was using it. Which in hindsight was super brave seeing some of the reactions some people have.

Just another 29.4lbs to go until GW. And for the first time ever, it actually seems achievable.

That is absolutely incredible weight loss. You deserve a huge CONGRATULATIONS! 🥂🥂🥂🥂

Weigh day.

Sw 7th aug 17 st 5lb
Today. 14st

BMI was 39.2. , today it's 33.6.

While I'm loving it, feeling great etc, I feel I need to be honest.

I've just had to sit down and ask my DH to make sure I'm eating at least one meal a day. yesterday I ate one slice of wafer thin ham and that's it. I am increasingly enjoying the empty/hollow feeling and seeing the scales going down and I'm a little concerned. I do have an addictive personality so I need to be aware of that. Funny as I actually did a lol when I filled in the first questionnaire for med express asking if I had a history of eating disorders. But I am now, for the first time in my life, seeing how easy it would be to go from one extreme to the other.

I've just had some toast and marmite. Going to have a take away later and I'm going to do my best to eat a blanched diet this week even if it means reducing my jab dosage.

That should say today I am 14st 12lb!!

You really can’t starve yourself So asking your husband to help you is good, but it needs to be more than one meal a day, you need to aim for a thousand calories min, or you will make yourself very ill indeed. It appears you’re developing anorexia, and if you can’t resolve this you need to speak to your gp; as the impacts on your body from malnutrion will be huge. You will lose hair, muscl mass, teeth, and become ill. Be careful , I don’t know how old you are, but it is also going to be worse as we age.

i eat, for breakfast a selection of dried fruits, I get the whitworth packages, I can’t believe how sweet they taste, I have prunes, figs, apricots, cranberries, mixed berries, mango, whatever I fancy, and have a good couple of handfuls. For mid morning breakfast.

i then have for lunch a protein, ie chicken slices and either veg, or salad,

i then have a dinner, last night was chicken kebabs and mixed veg.

and if I feel like a snack I have some more dried fruit. I’m probably averaging a thousand to 1200 calories a day, and am losing up to 3 pounds a week.

its really important to do this in a healthy manner, as otherwise, you will cause yourself significant health problems.