The Saxenda Sisterhood

[Saxendastarter]

Hi all,

As the last thread is filling up I thought I'd start a new one so we don't get lost.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/4788207-im-starting-saxenda-this-week

This is the follow up from "I'm starting Saxenda this week" I'm personally journaling my way to a hopefully healthier and happier life. I'm journaling what I'm eating, the weight I'm losing (and gaining) and trying to see the positives outweigh the negatives on a daily basis. I'm joined on this thread and journey by many amazing women who are all very supportive and who are also sharing as much or as little as they like.

I'm finding I'm opening this thread instead of opening the cupboards, the fridge and the food delivery app on my phone and feeling less in my struggles and frustration and writing about my days makes me realize my life isn't all bad.

I'm thankful for all the voices in this thread and feel supported by the sisterhood of women from all over facing the same body struggles as I am.

I post some pictures and photos and I really like it when others do too.

If you're new please join us if you want to and let us know how you're getting on with your Saxenda journey. Come here for compliments when you deserve them and commiseration when you need some. You're welcome whatever your age, wherever you are and if you have 1kg or 10 stone to loose.

I've been on Saxenda for 10 weeks and lost 9.2kg (1st 6.2lbs) so far. I started at over 96kg and am now 87 and a bit. I have at least another 20kg to go to be happy with how I look - but knowing that the Saxenda sisterhood is here makes the journey seem less intimidating.

Mine arrived from Rightangled but not very well packed or as cold as the ones I got from MedExpress - still just happy though that I have some! They sent out in 24 hours.

@KPops22 same for mine

This week I had my biggest challenge, and I crumbled. So as part of my job I am on call for homebirths, which means working a full day, then being on call all evening and night, before working the next day. We don't get called out loads, but it does happen. This time was the one. I got called out at 3am. Relieved by the day shift at 8am, got back in to bed at 8.45, managed to doze for a bit before getting up and going to do my afternoon antenatal clinic. By the time I finished that clinic (late out of course!) I was good for nothing. I just about managed to get a McDonald's for the kids on the way home so they would have had something to eat. Once they were in bed the OH had only just got back as he had decided (idiot) to volunteer to work the afterschool club (he's a teacher) so was later home than he would ordinarily be. He refused to cook. I refused to cook.
So pizza was ordered.
On the wins side, I ordered a 10 inch (which is their smallest). No garlic bread with cheese to go with. I also left a slice, which is again a win in my book! I had a few chips with it from OH's, but again normally I'd have my own portion of them.
I know it won't ruin my week. But it does show to me that old habits certainly do die hard. Exhaustion is an absolute trigger for me to say fuck it and eat shit.
That was on Wednesday night, and I reckon I've only just recovered. I've had a headache since then that is finally just about lifting!

@upanddownandupanddown How are you feeling ?
@ThisMustBeMyDream That's not crumbling - you're doing really really well and that sounds like a totally decent portion for a supper. Anyhow - tomorrow is another day!
@Pineapplepansy I so so understand you - I used to sometimes feel feral around food esp. buffets. The saxenda is really helping with that and the constant hunger and compulsion to eat.
@Smokeahontas Congrats on week one! How are you feeling ?

I hope @Tarragon123 and @WhiteNumen and everyone manages to find stock! I have six pens left now and fingers crossed for you all!

I'm unfortunately not in Malta this evening ... We are going tomorrow instead as, surprise surprise, a KOL had directly contacted our director about exceptionally meeting in Paris today to discuss a project and our Director had added the meeting to his diary but not to mine and FPTOMs ... cue panic call when we were in taxi to airport... ( I truly despair... what is about scientists that makes them so unorganized ...) but we decided to ditch the flight and go to the lunch meeting because the KOL in question is amazing and we'll get serious brownie points for going. But yet another weekend holiday plan sort of scampered by work 🤦‍♀️. But as we say in French "Il n'y a pas mort d'homme" no-one died!

Day 77

Breakfast
Water
Milky coffee x 3
Haribo strawberries ( I know... I know )

Lunch
Steak frites with salad
White wine
Iced Coffee

Supper
Rosé Piscine
Ice tea
Haribo strawberries

TL/DR non weight related ramble ahead

@Footgoose I'm not that cool ... A long long time ago I interned at a law firm that was defending undocumented and underpaid security agents/bouncers in Paris being exploited by unscrupulous companies on slavery wages ... I interviewed a lot of them for pretrial testimony. They won, back pay, paperwork the lot .... It just so happens that in Paris most security agents/bouncers come from the same west African community. Some of them remember me from back then and so it's just a game of how many degrees of separation and a couple of calls for me to be any security agents/bouncers new best friend ... I make sure not to take the piss and always help refer them to a legal clinic if needed but it's a party trick that hasn't ever failed me yet ... I never tell the people I'm with how I manage it and just smile and do the "bise" (cheek kiss) to the security guy whilst being let in so most people just look at me in awe and sort of imagine I'm some underground it girl instead of an ( admittedly cool) nerd who doubled up on internships ... On this subject if anyone is looking for a cool summer read ( @justsaxy you could read it in French ) I highly recommend "Debout Payé" by Gauz - it is short, entertaining and enlightening. Oh my god... I've just found it in English and it's shortlisted for the Booker prize this year! it's called Standing Heavy in English (sorry for the amazon link ) https://www.amazon.fr/Standing-Heavy-Gauz/dp/1529414431 but it was published years ago!!

TL/DR More non weight related rambling

Just doubling up on how excited I am that the book is shortlisted ... It came out in 2014 in French and has been a favorite book of mine since - I've given so many copies away... Here's a resume and an extract on the booker prize link

Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated by Frank Wynne (MacLehose, £12)
This inventive and very funny debut novel offers a whistle-stop, whizz-bang tour of Franco-African history through the perspective of undocumented workers from Ivory Coast, employed as security guards at a Parisian shopping centre. The title refers to “those professions that require the employee to remain standing to earn a pittance”. Via stories of a president suffering from “coup-d’étalgia” and the oil shock of the 70s, we meet generations of Black immigrants – André, Ferdinand, Ossiri, Kassoum – and hear their perspectives on capitalism and slavery, and the repeated urge to “send money back to the old country”. Between chapters runs a lively, cynical guide to consumer culture, including how the English and French pronounce Sephora differently, and the horrors of having to listen again and again to the same terrible songs on the shopping centre radio. “A curse on David Guetta and the Black Eyed Peas.”

https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/standing-heavy-extract-by-gauz-translated-by-frank-wynne

@Saxendastarter thanks. Feeling a bit better this morning, though I haven’t got out of bed yet and tried to walk around! Was getting very breathless and dizzy yesterday.

Still not sure if I’m going to restart. I’ve been pretty poorly with it. Not sure if it is worth it

Oh @Saxendastarter you really most definitely are very cool 😎 (and not old!).

Thank you for the book reccomendation, it sounds right up my street.

A full week on 1.8 and I weigh the same as I did after 4 days on 0.6 - I did indulge last night and have 3 small cans of cider (should really have stopped at 2 but it was a hot night and the cider was so tasty!) so only ate a third of my usual portion size of pasta (it was delicious, I really wanted more, I was able to stop myself without gnawing my own arm off - must be the saxenda working a bit?). Only side effect so far is exhaustion.
Moving up to 2.4 tomorrow as all I've done so far is maintain the weight I'd lost from starting HRT. My focus is to get to 91kg by mid September (this would represent a 5% loss), if I haven't achieved that then I will have to stop as cant justify the expense (assuming I can still access a supply next month, otherwise might be stopping sooner...).

Non-scale victory - was at a summer fair yesterday and one of the mums I've not seen in ages said I looked like I'd lost weight and that I looked really well for it - I know I've looked drained and washed out since I hit peri so that was a lovely compliment.

Am at a kids party over lunchtime today, so preloading with Greek yoghurt and berries to fill me up - I will not succumb to the lure of crisps!

@upanddownandupanddown Do you have a sympathetic doctor you could speak with? If you’re dehydrated, breathless and dizzy that doesn’t sound great. Do you think it could be anything else than the Saxenda ? I think in your position I would probably at least stop for a couple of weeks to get it out of my system. Sorry you’ve had such a rough time. Take care.

@Saxendastarter I am a doctor! Was seriously contemplating A&E yesterday(which is a lot; I’ve never been to A&E for myself before!!) but thought that I would fair better at home with open access to water to rehydrate then stuck in a waiting room for hours. And I think I was right in that.

My doctor-sense tells me that I would be better not going back on it. That is what I would tell a patient. But I also know I have five pens in the fridge that I have paid a lot of money for that I don’t want to go to waste.

I have lost 4-5 days of my life in the house, missing out on things with my friends and family because of this. Is it really worth it?

@upanddownandupanddown - smiles! Well - I think you have to see it as a sunken cost fallacy unfortunately. And if as a doctor you were thinking of A&E … I think you should probably stop pronto, our A&E system here is slightly better than in the UK and I’ve honestly seen doctor friends perform things akin to self amputation before considering A&E as a viable solution. Treat yourself like you would treat a farmer who told you they were thinking of A&E! But do take care and stay around with us. Here’s a pic of « my » hospital campus - if you want to play guess the Parisian hospital.

I don't know what your full story is but I was really ill the first time I started it on 0.6. Was in bed with awful nausea and liquid diarrhoea for about 3 days. I stopped as was going on a week's break ( all was good) and restarted when I came back. It was much better second time around and I only moved up gradually. I am still only at 1.0 after 2 weeks and likely to stay here currently. It helps me stay focused. However the last 2 days I have had bad diarrhoea but not sure if that is to do with something I have eaten as I also have Bile Acid Malabsorption so sometimes something will set me off. I suspect my wonderful carrot and coriander soup. I am going to give it a few more days as Liraglutide helps with the BAM as delays stomach emptying etc. I am counteracting with some Immodium currently but that is my life anyway even on binders. Hopefully it is the carrots and pak choi that did me in. It's such a balancing act.

First weigh in for me and I have lost 2kg in one week. I’d sum up my first week as a week of two halves

1st Half - feeling full to the point that food was really hard to get down.

2nd Half - more of just a normal full / satiated feeling.

I went to a local butcher who does a whole range of lean & low cal burgers / sausages and what not. They’re really great, so I bought a weeks worth of those and then plenty of veg in Lidl.

@upanddownandupanddown I was very nauseous to start with. I didn’t increase my dose until it was under control. I changed the time of my injection from 9pm to 9am. Things settled down after that.

@Smokeahontas well done!! You must be delighted!

Just wondered whether any of you knew of anywhere with Saxenda still in stock? I got mine from MedExpress and they are out. I’m losing plenty of weight quite quickly so I’m really keen to stay on it if I can. TIA.

Waiting to board finally! Got my Saxenda pen through security no problem but wasn’t too worried as I have FPOTM with me anyway. Having an airport lunch at Exki ( not sure it exists in the UK) and having the exact meal I used to have when I had one next to my office years ago - a slice of spinach and tofu quiche, an almond milk chai latté, à rhubarb and coconut chia pot … realizing how much I’ve been over eating these last few years … I would have added an extra salad and bread at the very least!

@Smokeahontas Go you! Well done, I hope this is the start of amazing journey for you.

As @Tarragon123 says - I do mornings and the nausea subsided in a few days for me - I did have a memorable being sick in a litter bin on the pavement having made it out of the bus by the skin of my teeth moment though …

Sorry @Vinvertebrate I have no idea as I’m not in the UK - but I’m sure that someone will be along soon with suggestions.

@Smokeahontas , well done, that’s a great result !

@upanddownandupanddown , your side effects continue to be horrendous . You have pointed out yourself you are losing days to being stuck in doors . Doesn’t sound worth it . I’m gutted for you that’s it’s not working for you like others . X

@Saxendastarter , I’ll have a go. Hôtel Dieu ?

@ThisMustBeMyDream , that doesn’t sound to bad to me . Pretty controlled given the circumstances .

@Footgoose Perdu! Hôtel Dieu has nicer arches!

I suppose as I've been totally able to resist, and had no desire really for it at all. In all other times when I'd have resorted to take away I have been able to just get on with it and cook the meal. I suppose this upset me as I felt I had this under control and it showed me that it is never really far away.
First day on 1.8 today. I went up to 1.5 last week.

How long does a pen last when you are on the lowest dosage?

30 days.
15 days at 1.2
10 days at 1.8
7.5 days at 2.4
6 days at 3.

Thanks @ThisMustBeMyDream, only want to buy 1 in case it doesn't agree with me but wanted to make sure it last enough time.

#enfin!