What are you doing this week that you couldn’t do before you started using WLI?

[CushionCushion]

As an antidote to the endless barrage of anti-WLI threads on MN, a thread to share how your life has changed since being on WLI (whether you are still losing weight, maintaining or have reached your goal and stopped using them).

Things I’m doing this week that I wouldn’t have been able to do before I lost 5 stone with WLI

• spend hours working in my garden enjoying the lovely weather without feeling too exhausted to continue

• being able to squat down in the garden (and then get back up again 😊)

• looking forward to choosing which of my lovely clothes to wear for a day out and going out enjoying looking nice

Shopping for clothes I like for the summer, not just clothes I can fit into

I will summarise my day…

When I wake up I get out of bed and walk downstairs instead of lying there feeling still exhausted before dragging myself downstairs. I then go for a shower every morning, pre WLI I probably managed every 5/6 days. I get dressed so bloody easily both physically and mentally. I drive into town for a coffee and breakfast which is either toast or porridge and I walk confidently into the cafe, I don’t worry about being looked at and I don’t feel anxious about where I might have to sit. Sometimes I go to work which is unreal as I work an active job walking around 6 miles a day. I was out of work for many years prior to WLI. I do take a blood pressure tablet still but I don’t need anti depressants or anxiety meds now. After work I sometimes go for a horse riding lesson or to the gym or for a run. I used to spend the vast majority of my day hiding in my house. In the evening I cook, before I bought oven ready foods and takeaways simply because I had no energy and was too depressed to make a meal. Next week I’m painting the living room - I haven’t been able to DIY since about 1996. I’m no longer tired, I have bags of energy and doing things about the house like laundry etc no longer feels like a mammoth task. My weight loss has utterly changed my life. I’m like a different person. My mental health change is by far one of the biggest, but I have also reversed type 2 diabetes and reduced my risk of actually dying in the next 10 years. People wonder why I get pissed off at the ‘what about the long term effects. What about done density’ comment and it’s because these drugs have changed my life beyond any expectation and the unknown risks are absolutely worth the gamble.

So many little things...

• Fitting comfortably in my teeny shower cubicle (it came with the house, I didn't pick it).
• Doing up my boots without feeling like I'm crushing my lungs bending over.
• Walking up the hill near my house without puffing and having to stop half way.
• Going to the GP without them blaming my symptoms on my weight before I've uttered a word.
• Not embarrassing my children in the playground by being the biggest mum there.
• Feeling normal when I walk down the street.

Agreed, no longer cover up black but nice stuff

Taking the stairs as a matter of course rather than thinking about if I am able to make it.

Not worrying about moving between tables in a small cafe in case my tummy or bum knocks something off.

Buying clothes that just fit - no squeezing in any more.

Double crossing my legs

Not thinking about food every second of the day - in fact not thinking about it at all.

Should have added - about to start a very physical volunteer role for which I had to pass a fitness test. Absolutely no way could I have dreamed of doing that before.

ohhh so much. Just today for example

opening the wardrobe and deciding what to wear not just having four or five safe outfits which I knew would fit.

walking to work and not having to stop at least three times up the hill.
not saving my filing until the end of the day so I only have to get up and walk around the office once.

got some shopping on the way home as I now have the energy to walk and carry bags.
i haven’t had having pre dinner snacks when I get home from work
going to do a couch to 5k walk/run on my way to clubbersize and walk home later.

so so much has changed and I never thought I would be where I am now.

Getting into an All Saints bikini size 12….I may actually need a size 10!

Today I:

Went for a 5k run
and then took my dog for a 2k walk
Happily squeezed into my car when someone parked too close to my door
Returned my size 12 walking trousers for a size 10
Knelt on the floor unclogging the shower trap for ages without my knees being unable to support my weight for that long
Planned my route for my next long distance walking holiday. We’ll be covering 24 miles over 3 days. Can’t wait!

It’s such a delight, isn’t it?

This is so fantastic @measuringtaep . So pleased for you 😊

I love being able to cross my legs!

Congratulations, that’s brilliant.

😊😊😊

So lovely to read everyone’s posts. Really makes me smile 😊

Last week, skiing - alone, on glaciers, to the point of exhaustion.

Today, crawled on my knees and squeezed through a tiny hidden cave that no one knows about - to reach beautiful secluded rocky swimming coves that are totally inaccessible to most….

Also today - cartwheels and (ironic) artistic/gymnastic swimming demo in a hotel pool….with a sizeable audience 😂

Walking and striding out (very, very ironically) like a supermodel along the marble floors of a super posh European hotel -having studied FB videos, and being quietly and inwardly chuffed at a LOT of secretive admiring male glances. (All the more amusing to me - I’m 70 🤣)
Cracking up.

Since reaching my target weight at the end of last year I’ve done so many things I could never have done before when I was 13 stone heavier:

kayaking
horse riding
barre classes

As well as the everyday things that still feel like such a novelty - running up and down stairs without holding the bannister/needing to stop to catch my breath, running for a bus, doing parkrun every week, crossing my legs, getting up and down off the floor with no effort at all, buying clothes from any shop I like (having gone from size 24 down to size 8/10), actually liking how I look, having the confidence to try new activities and meet new people, going hiking every few weeks and doing 15 miles of rocky/hilly terrain without issue.

I could go on all day - my life has changed beyond all recognition!

If you had all lost weight without using the drugs the effect would have been the same though? Don't really understand the point of specifying that it's WLI that's helped you feel this way, it's just WL...

I am disabled so many of the physical things mentioned by others are always going to be impossible for me but my weight loss means I can look in the mirror.

I had avoided mirrors for years, which was pretty hard considering I have huge built in mirrored wardrobes but I’d perfected automatically looking down at the floor if I was anywhere near them so as not to even catch a glimpse of myself.

Now I can look and feel fine.

The main thing though has being getting on the waiting list for new hips (which won’t cure my disability but will hopefully stop at least some of the chronic pain) because my bmi was previously too high but now I am miles below the limit.

Thank you mounjaro.

Because many of us couldn’t have achieved these things without wli.

Surely that isn’t hard to understand?

This is a thread to celebrate how wli has helped us.

If you want to criticise wli there are lots of others you can join rather than derailing this one.

I’ve walked a 20k and 13k step day and not be completely wiped out. I also went on two roller coasters, and I’ve tried on clothes in an actual shop.

Great thread.

So much I can relate to.

I think for me, it's also around having confidence and not feeling as though I need to apologise for the space that I take up. In life in general but also specific circumstances such as public transport.

I love that - not having to apologise for the space I take up.

This week, I did three gym classes back to back. Yesterday I gardened for two hours after work. Today I am planning to go to the gym again.

Yesterday I ate a mini pork pie - but it was instead of dinner as I was no longer hungry later. It is as though I am a thin person!

Swimming in a local lake at this time of the year in a Zone 3 wetsuit I got very discounted because the sizing was so weird (It's XL and I'm at most a size 12). I'm only l two stone lighter (BMI 28.9 to 25) and have gone down a dress size or two but there is a difference in confidence and to not have the aches and pains I was starting to have at 50 is great. Also running is so much easier, I am still going at no particular pace but it feels like flying without the extra kgs. And without the mounjaro, to be fair!

Yes, but I tried that for 17 years. So it was the WLI that made the difference.