Plodders Club 🐌

[PlodAlongPolly]

Hi,

Anyone on WLI and in the slow lane v. welcome here for a bit of plodding supportive chat!

Plodders, bobbers, plateau-ers, stallers and stuck ducks come on in! Would be great to chat with others who are in the same boat, ie travelling at the speed of snails on their WL journey.

I have a mountain to move (nearly 5 st), am not ready to give up on Mounjaro yet and would love a bit of company here on this long haul to reach a healthy BMI. 🦥 🐌 🏔️

Come join me if you have a long way to go (either due to slow losses or amount to lose) and would like some peer support to keep going when the scales are being stubborn. It’s hard being on WLI when it’s not working as well for you and progress is slow or stalled. This is a safe space to share anything, the good, the bad and the side effecty. Anything positive (scale or non scale related) as well as freedom to vent and grumble as much as you want

If you taking WLI and trucking along nicely or nearly at your goal weight that is fantastic but please post on a different thread.

@Doggymummar thank you.

I've been low carb since May which is now fine. But bloody inconvenient for everyone else! I still enjoy wine too much.

I was on Ozempic for 6 months initially and didn't loose (6kg) much but did loose my taste for wine! Doc wasn't keen for me to stay on it. I'm in France which has its own challenges.

I'm on 15mg MJ now but still just finished off a Sunday dinner- mind you apart from a protein yoghurt at lunchtime that was all I had today.

Have booked in to exercise classes each weekday this week in an attempt to move more, even if they are things like aqua aerobics and beginners aerobics classes, the sports centre is a good walk away as well which will add to it.

Hi @Orangesandlemons77 👋 ah that’s a really good plan for booking classes in, I love a bit of aqua aerobics 😊 how is it going so far?

Are you finding 15mg is doing much or is suppression quite light? Hopefully you’ve had some losses on your journey up the doses

Hi @Doggymummar I think I read that Ozempic does have a time limit on how long they are happy for you to stay on it but I believe it’s longer for Mounjaro.

How is the low carbing going?

Low carb is fine. Not great if you are on a budget. If my husband cooks I might just find myself with only meat!

Well as long as he cooks you something decent like a good steak! 😆

Am too carby at the moment and need to lower them and up the protein of our meals. I don’t know if this is an effect of the WLI and if anyone else has had the same, but my interest in cooking has really dropped since being on MJ! Am finding it hard to get motivated as feel v tired a lot (also thyroid related I think).

For both cooking/ food and exercise, and life in general really. Am hoping for a spring re-boot of some kind! 🌷🪺☀️

I think I am a plodder so am going to come join

Yeah I no longer cook anymore. I have protein shakes and puddings in the fridge for dinner and lunch is soup and. Toast. I can't remember when I last ate a vegetable. I bought an aspirational pack of rocket this week and had it on a sandwich last night. Tonight I have half a pizza express 7 inch pizza I couldn't finish on Sunday. Food has no joy anymore

It's going well with the classes, I also did yoga this week.

Yes I have gone from around 16 to 13 stone since last Sep which is fab but I am quite short (5ft 2) so ideally need to lose about the same again. And it is really slow since around Christmas.

I'm still able to eat Ok on 15mg in a way it feels the same as say 5mg did, but at least the side effects are minimal which is good.

Hello @timeformetolose! Welcome on board 😊

Yes, this is me too! I still have to cook for the kids but completely lost interest in meal prep and cooking. DH does our main meals at the moment but feel v unbothered for it, veg has particularly lost its appeal and loved my veg before! Strong flavours and anything saucy too. I’ve done v similar and had half a pizza and had left overs later but not because I wanted it more because had no energy/ inclination to cook anything else! A bowl of cereal has become a default choice in place of a proper evening meal. Like you said food has no joy. We are meant to be improving our nutrition and getting in extra protein too (not less) is quite a clash.

Funny I also got an aspirational packet of watercress a couple of weeks back (had on a cream cheese bagel) was fine but could have taken it or left it and before MJ it was always a treat to get watercress.

I’m glad I’m not the only one experiencing this stuff.

Any ideas for how we can make it work for us?

I was wondering about doing Slimfast again (done previously) as at least the shakes are nutritionally balanced. So a couple shakes a day and one regular meal plus a couple 100 cal snacks. Might give it a go for a few days and report back!

(As in work in our favour).

Thinking and writing about it this morning has helped bring it into a clearer focus. I think the lack of food motivation and joy has crept up over the last couple of months, wasn’t like this at the start of MJ. I just didn’t ‘notice’ it with busy family life and feeling tired. Has been informing my choices though, with easy grab stuff rather than prep and/ or cooking healthier foods.

Ok. On the plus side am not ravenously hungry like pre-WLI and no compulsion to graze all day like before. Cravings not gone but def dialled down. Sugar cravings less and more easily satisfied. These are all good benefits. Can use these things to start losing again and move on I think. Thinking back to other diets and how hard (and miserable) the battle was with hunger and cravings, relentless really, and the sense of failure when falling off the wagon etc. This is a much better situation, even in a WL stall.

I think I need a simple structure to follow with plain easy (v low prep) simple meals for a simple daily routine. Am going to start back on Slimfast today and have main meal either at lunch or dinner, which ever is easiest to fit around my DC. Have HUEL shakes in the cupboard too so will interchange them. For the 100 cals snacks will do things like a banana, apple, cheese on a fibre cracker, couple spoons of Greek yoghurt, couple breadsticks or carrot sticks in houmous, handful of cashews, grapes and a babybel etc.

Breakfast shake done 👍 starting on 2nd pint of water

Thanks for being my sounding board this morning! Any thoughts welcome and would love to know how your day to day relationship with food/ eating/ meals/ motivation /experience is going.

Am going to pick one ‘Hero’ food each week.

This week will be a chicken to roast.

(posting for accountability so I actually go and pick one up later! 😅)

Ah that’s great @Orangesandlemons77 well done on your losses so far! That’s amazing progress and the exercise will be doing a world of good 🌟 Are you stuck or moving at all at the moment?

That’s interesting to know the 15mg feels the same as 5mg. I guess the body and brain have done a lot of the adjusting/ acclimatising to the meds moving up the doses, so maybe we feel it less (?) , great about the minimal side effects too, makes it easier to keep going :)

It is a bit of a journey of discovery this WLI lark isn’t it?

Thanks Polly yes so, I have hovered around the same weight since Christmas but overall I feel much better which is great and I'm definitely exercising and getting out more, I'm going to not worry about it. I was thinking I will stay on MJ for maintenance anyway so maybe it doesn't matter as long as it is not going back up!

I have also noticed a real improvement in sleep / snoring, which is great for obit me and DH! It had been causing arguments and I had been sleeping in the lounge some nights! So I am keeping in mind other benefits apart from just weight / BMI. Taking the focus off weighing for a while.

It definitely is a journey of discovery, I agree!

Hello @PlodAlongPollyand other folks - I can only remember one person to tag at once #MenopauseBrain …:

I talk about my relationship with food as being disordered these days. A protein shake for breakfast at some point in the morning. Another for lunch. And then if I am wfh the grazing starts. Apples. Carb hunting. Sometimes cereal. And then dinner and more apples.

Today I have had a small fish and chips for dinner. Didn’t eat all of it. I am so sad that food doesn’t bring me the joy it used to. So sad. If anything I feel sad around it. I’ve started therapy. I feel there is lots to unpick and reprogramme…

Onwards folks, one day at a time.
Plodders unite.

Absolutely, second that - one day at a time. Plodders unite! ✊

Just off to bed but will reply to you and @Orangesandlemons77 tomorrow. Thanks for your replies, is so great to have fellow plodders to plod along together with on this journey :)

I know I should be better, and I'm so glad I've found a few people that understand. Some of the other boards have had me in tears telling me off for the way I'm eating. I'm 55 FFS, I know it's not normal. It's just how it is right now. We had a chippy tea last night. I had a child's cod and chips. I ate six chips and two fork fulls of fish and I was full. I'd not eaten anything else all day.

I try to eat at least 800 cals a day but most often get nowhere near. I could go days without eating, I don't, I always force something down. It was the same on Keto too my appetite just goes. I have the ufit protein drinks and puddings as I feel this is the most important macro for me at my life stage. 2 of those a day gives me 100g of protein and approx 500 cals. I take an all inclusive multivitamin that has 100pc RDA of all the important stuff. Cod liver oil for joints, vitamins D and K as I was deficient. At night I take magnesium Citrate for sleep and to keep me regular. You would think weight would drop off. But nope. I've lost 4lb this year. I can't lower my calories anymore and and I have PTSD so going out the house myself is mentally challenging. I had to go to a city 4 hours away this week for work and I walked 10000 steps and I haven't been able to move for the rest of the week!!

Yeah I hear you @Doggymummar I wanted this to be a safe judgement free space where we can congregate, dip in and out and share without being told off or made to feel bad about our diet/ what we’re doing, slow pace etc. I dislike those threads where you get ranted at and scolded from other posters! I wanted this to be a different space that’s friendly, where us slowbies can be free and honest as we like to post about what we want without judgement.

We had fish and chips the other night! Is good protein and fibre though, like you I couldn’t manage a big portion which is a definite difference from being on MJ as would have polished off a massive plate of it before drenched in ketchup 😁

Well done for keeping going despite the slow progress and am inspired by your supplement routine. 4lbs is still 4lbs off in the right direction, you can do it, keep plodding! 🐌🌟

Hi @Orangesandlemons77 I am just going to quote you here;
‘overall I feel much better which is great and I'm definitely exercising and getting out more, I'm going to not worry about it….I have also noticed a real improvement in sleep / snoring’.

Wow honestly these are all great things! Including the choice not worry and positive DH relationship knock-on effects! I have noticed non-scale changes (benefits) too and I think we should celebrate stuff like this! It’s honestly not all about the scales (as we know losses slow and can halt at times) but quality of life and overall health/ wellbeing.

I’ve also chosen to take my focus off weight loss for now and look at the things that are better :)

Hi @ChristmasLightsLover I’m sorry you’re feeling sad and things aren’t sitting in a good place. I hope the therapy helps and gives you a space to process and unpick. Food relationship is such a complex thing.

I don’t know if it helps or not, but I’ve also gone back to protein shakes (2 a day) and a main meal (slimfast plan for a while) just for simplicity really and try to work with the lack of interest in cooking and meal prep. Was also worried I wasn’t getting enough vits/ nutrients so at least the shakes have a good balance of these and protein. Is not what I want to do long term but if it works for now I’m ok with that.

Sorry I’ve got to dash as my LO’s are beckoning mummy, mummeeeee! 😅 Hope you all have a good weekend and will check in later x

Hello again everyone :-). Quick update from me.

I’m still plodding 🐌 ! 11 lbs loss in 16 weeks! (and 4 lbs of that was in the first week!)

I did get a bit excited last week as I suddenly lost a few pounds after being at a stalemate for 5 weeks! It seemed to occur after a couple of days of really lowering calories - I just wasn’t hungry. Maybe ate 600-800 calories at most. I had slightly raised my dosage (I do it gradually via number of clicks).

However, I was also very nauseous - the first time in over 3 months. Felt horrible. Had to spend weekend afternoons in bed 😮.

However the following weekend I was away and I put those pounds back on 😠. I was in a group and didn’t even eat that much (I noticed much less than others), probably up to 1200-1400 at most. I need to get back to a c. 1000.

I do feel my calorie intake has to be ridiculously low - if not every day then at least 2 to 3 days per week - for any weight loss 🤷‍♀️.

I still have an appetite at times and am still enjoying my food, just less of it.

Finally have had a couple of big social events planned around now, so am reluctant to go up a dose in case of side effects. Plus a holiday in early April and don’t want to feel ill on holiday.

I’m 13 st 5 lbs. Total weight loss in 16 weeks has been 11 pounds. What can I say? Is this a 🐌 record? I had visions of being around goal by early Summer, but can see it being late Summer.

If I make it then I might treat myself to something then in celebration, maybe a holiday, if I have any 💰 left!!

Hope everyone else is doing well.

PS. Not raising my Mounjara dose right now IS also going to slow me down for the next month but I want to enjoy my holiday so that’s what I need to do.