May Starters Thread 3 ~ Onwards & Downwards!

[SussexLass87]

Roll up, roll up...thread 3 for the loveliest bunch of losers!

"Onwards & Downwards" has become our little motto for the days when it all feels a bit tough and that wine / chocolate / cake looks a bit too bloody tempting.

Lots of love,
Lass x

Thanks @Cocotok @26dX @Mounraine and @PinkScot - I think I’ll give MFP a go but bear the others in mind.

I’m doing well without calorie counting but as I get closer to injection day I start to be more tempted, so I feel I should get into a habit of having a record of what is an appropriate amount to eat. Especially if I reach the point of maintenance and then try to go it alone.

All the doom mongerers talk about putting the weight back on once stopping WLI and I want to have the tools to stop that. It’s way off (weigh off 😂) as I still have 3 stone until GW but I did lose weight before (not via WLI) and then let it creep back up over several years until I am obese so I know I am not good at this. Is anyone else thinking about this and if so have any plans to keep the weight off?

@PandyMoanyMum i do think about this a lot and my mother dear keeps on at me about keeping it off. I think at the moment my plan is to just keep tracking my calories, so I will know if I have gone over I will need to adjust the following day or so, and hopefully my maintenance calories will be more than I’m on now. Tracking every day at the moment and it’s been relatively easy on my smart phone I’ve not missed no for six weeks, but it would be easy to relax and slack off so I think that’s the trick. My husband is naturally slim, but I have noticed over the years if he goes out for lunch for example, he doesn’t eat dinner or has a very light snack, so he naturally adapts his intake. As I can’t do that naturally I will have to track cals instead.

I’ll be honest I cannot at the moment still believe I’m going to get to my goal but once we have all done all this work to get there we should make an effort to stay there too 😝.
W5 D5
SW 15.6
CW 14.6.25
GW 12.0

• My next interim goal is ‘Onederland’ lol.

So I'm W4D2. Scales haven't really moved since last week which is frustrating but I remember a few people have said that W3 was a slow one?

I'm sticking to under 1200 calories a day. Lost about 6lb since start which I'm happy with but bit disappointed nothing really in last week.

I have no SE anymore, but food noise is creeping in. Stuck with 2.5mg next 4 weeks, but will go up to 5mg next time u think.

@PandyMoanyMum I'm still going to slimming world. I'm following their eating plan, focusing on the free food of lean meats and veg/fruit. I'm hoping that once I'm at target, I'll continue to eat this way along with the support of going to a group regularly to help. I gained weight thanks to covid and a few big life stressor, but overall, have managed to keep.a fairly healthy weight most of my adult life. It's hard though and I'm dreading food noise coming back once off MJ. It's been so lovely happily making healthy choices without the enormous amount of willpower normally needed. I'll miss that!

Hello all, I've been MIA, life has been busy but I have been reading.

I'm just about to start week 5 golden dose today as long as there is enough in the pen. If there's more than 0.6ml available I'll work out the dose amount and go for it. Would be nice to have a bridge between 2.5mg and 5mg to test the side effects.

I had very little suppression and was very hungry in week 3, however the total opposite again in week 4, making me now question my increase to 5mg. Nonetheless, I have the 5mg pen in the fridge ready so we shall see.

After a huge loss of 7.5lbs in week one, I've been steady at 2lb each week since, which I'm very happy with. I'm still running and doing a weights class at the gym, and I've noticed both are a little easier with almost a stone off.

Another 2st to go, or thereabouts. I've not been lighter than 12st7 in my adult life. 11st7 puts me in healthy BMI but as I get close to it, I'm not sure how that will look on me, so my target weight will be determined by that I think.

Hope DDog is OK @OhPolly and the knee is improving @DidILeaveTheGasOn.

Weight loss vibes to you all xx

@Cucumberinginplease does your slimming world know you’re on the injections too? I just wondered. I have a friend who is a slimming world leader, and I’m not convinced she’s pro injection. I just wondered if SW have a policy or if it’s her opinion. I haven’t told her I’m doing the MJ yet.

So I can report back that while MJ is temporarily paused until after my GA on Tuesday, the hunger has definitely ramped up.

I've never had huge food noise but without the medication my hunger has definitely increased so I'm exerting alot of willpower at the moment!

I've resigned myself to not losing anything this week and injecting mid week is going to throw my schedule a bit as I usually inject on a Friday evening but such is life.

@Sallycinnamum how long before GA do you have to stop? I’m having one in 2 weeks!

WK6D1 and I've lost another 2lbs.

SW 17 stone 2lbs / 240lbs
CW 15 stone 13lbs / 223lbs
GW 10 stone

That's 17lbs lost in 5 weeks.

The next three stone are a grey, unknown area to me. I was 13 stone something in 2023 and I made a few attempts to deal with my drinking, but I found it impossible to go one night without a drink. The pain in my hip was really starting to worsen too, so I couldn't go on my long walks anymore. I think I just... gave up. I didn't weigh myself until January this year. I bought one pair of size 16 jeans in that time.

As I drop weight I'm going to be confronted by numbers I didn't see on the way up, and if I get down to a size 16 I'll have one pair of trousers.

I need to deal with the drinking, I think. There's still a fairly vocal inner voice that wants to get trashed every day. I don't think it's particularly deep - (my kids have started saying, 'it's not that deep bro' about anything and it's driving me nuts) - I'm living with anxiety and have been for a long time, I have a stressful job and whilst I need downtime to destress I'm actually quite bored in my spare time.

I think I need to put things in place so that when I come off mj, I don't immediately get shitfaced every night and put the weight back on.

Anyone else finding that good habits seem to breed other good habits. The jabs have helped me kick start a healthier life. I am going swimming for the first time in ages, I went for a brisk walk this morning, I body brushed and fully moisturised the last few days, I’ve stopped biting my nails, I’ve hardly drunk any alcohol since I started, I’ve been looking after my face skincare and doing mini workouts with dumbbells every day. This never would have happened before. Just everything about my self care has improved. Everything is just all little things really to try and get some good habits but I just didn’t have it in me to take better care of myself before. I think the skin on my face is looking better and my clothes are starting to feel a bit looser but I’ve a way to go to drop a size but I just feel so much more positive.

@lifetheuniverseandeverything42 my bad habits have crept back in but I’m definitely feeling more energy and more positive. I wonder how much of my menopausal “depression” has been caused by the inflammation of obesity?

@Fatrosrhun no, they don't. I have no intention of telling them either! I'll keep my own council in the same way I keep it when they talk about making SW friendly "harribo" and eating as muchnas you want of free food (I mean, really 500g of pasta for a snack will absolutely affect weight loss fgs!) all that sort of rubbish! I like the ability to track things on the app to help keep on top of things rather than using MFP or nutracheck. Logging everything that passes my lips is too much for me.

@DidILeaveTheGasOn, well done for recognising that you want to do something about the drinking 💐Have you any thoughts on going about that?

@lifetheuniverseandeverything42 I've found that I have the energy and head space for those things alot more now. I think I underestimated the amount of energy used mentally thinking of and dealing with food issues. It's so lovely having that gone. I'll miss it when MJ is not part of my life!

No loss for me in week 4. Not sure if that's a normal plateau or because I have been splitting my doses in an attempt to lessen the SE. Tbh, I haven't been menu planning too carefully so I need to get back on that this week.

@PersonaNonFatta originally they said it was fine to continue as long as I ate very lightly the day before but now they've said I need four clear days off it before the GA.

She did mention its because I now have a healthy BMI so it might depend on that.

@lifetheuniverseandeverything42 I'm finding it easier to shower regularly and I have a full skincare routine now with multipeptides and retinol, whatever that means.
Pre mj I was so unhappy with myself that showering had become difficult, I didn't want to face myself without a baggy hoodie on.
I've also stopped picking at the skin on my bottom lip.
I've started having my nails done regularly and got my legs waxed for the first time. I feel much better mentally.

@cucumberinginplease my drinking became a problem during divorce when I went from seeing my gorgeous children every day to 50/50. It's been a few years now and I need to put things in my week on my non-kid days. Swimming, yoga (although scared of farting), something social that doesn't involve drinking.

I feel like mj has lifted me out of a pretty dark place and making positive changes is now possible.

I feel that for all the positive side effects (more energy, more self care, less brain fogs, more confidence) just for this i would take MJ. I am very worried about stopping!
how does it works once we reach our goal weight? For how long a provider will keep us on their books with a small dose?

I am still doing 2.5mg every 9 days and whenever i eat i feel really full really fast. Next week i will have to order my third pen and i am unsure whether to go for the 5mg (and do 3.75mg for a couple of weeks as a transition) or to stay on the 2.5mg for a third month… i will always have the option of taking 2.5mg every 7 days if i find that by day 8-9 the effects have worn off (they havent so far)

@DidILeaveTheGasOn I'm just through a divorce and only seeing DC 50/50 so I know how grim it is, particularly in the early days. I enrolled in an evening class, did yoga another evening and found a walking group for the weekends they aren't home. It's taken a few years, but the time when they're not here is ok now. Obviously, I'd stop all my hobbies instantly if the DC were here full time, but I'm no longer sitting in the dark rocking backwards and forwards.
I had stopped drinking before the divorce for medical reasons, which I think helped.
You'll get through this.

Thanks @Sallycinnamum

I don’t yet have a healthy BMI unfortunately!

@DidILeaveTheGasOn I’m really pleased that you’ve found such positive side effects from taking MJ too. I haven’t ventured to a salon but I have painted my own nails and it does give me a bit of joy looking at them now. I think you should feel very proud of yourself.

i’m now shattered after my swim but in a good way and feel slightly smug.

Sorry I’m jumping in, but Slimming World definitely have a policy in place to support members who are taking WLI

That’s interesting. About six years ago, when peri menopause was in full flow, I did a JERF diet for six months (just eating real food, no processed food, no refined sugar). And I noticed a big decline in peri symptoms. I fell off that wagon when my husband was seriously ill in hospital for 10 weeks, then more so when I opened my cafe and had to learn to bake (I literally cook by taste). I’m pretty much doing the same eating plan now. I really like it.

It’s definitely interesting @Fatrosrhun!

Going back a bit, I’m also thinking about maintenance. I reckon I’m going to need top ups of MJ some months. Not ideal, but I really don’t want to regain the weight. And as with any weight loss method that feels almost inevitable.

I am nowhere near goal or having to really think about maintenance, but I’m hoping that by then I’ll b feeling so much better and able to do something like couch to 5k etc to counter attack. I’m also thinking that I’d like to keep suppression to the minimum, like I’m getting on 2.5, so I have to cope a little with food noise all the way through. It might mean it’s not such a shock at the end? And I wonder how long this “rush of food noise” will last? Surely the body will adjust again if you can use willpower for a while? I really don’t want to be taking medication forever if I can help it. And surely yo-yo ing at 10-11 stones can’t be as bad as at 16-17? I won’t hate my body image as much… Just my ponders.

I am having exactly the same thoughts! I’m nowhere near maintenance, I have about another 50lbs to go. But I’m thinking surely if/when I get there I could set a range I’m happy in and when I start approaching the upper areas then cut back again? I’ve never been a Healy weight other than when I sailed past it in my teens so no idea how one stays at a healthy weight.

like you I’m hoping that shuttling between 10-11 stone would be less self hatred fuelled than 15-16?! We’re right, right?!?!

to this end I’m trying to get there as quick as I can, just finishing my first 2.5 pen and my pharmacist has suggested going straight to 5 on Weds. Wish me luck!

You’re about the same stage as me then, I do my next jab Tuesday and should be going to 5, but I’m going to do the golden dregs jab because I’m too stingy to throw it away!

I’m too scared to try and get the golden dose! Look forward to hearing how it goes for you! I will jab on Weds - already writing off Thursday and Friday for SE!