Pre-Zep: Senior Zep

Greetings, fellow old-ish people of size. 

This week, I decided to give GLP meds a go. 

I'm 61, female, 5'4", and as of this morning, 256.3 pounds. While I never thought of myself as super skinny, I weighed around 140 pounds a decade ago and wore size 6/8. Over time, this extra weight has affected my health. I tire easily, my blood pressure is high (I take Losartan), and I have frequent bouts of sciatica, carpal tunnel, and plantar fasciitis.

In the intervening years, I've tried Weight Watchers and Noom, calorie counting, macro counting, low carb, plant-based. With each method, I lost a bit of weight, but old habits crept in after a few months. It's the food noise that seems to make everything fall apart. I can do great all day, then come eveningtime, food chatter gets the better of me. I am hoping GLP-1 will quiet this. 

 I'm waiting for the meds to arrive. Since my insurance doesn't cover this, I went through Walgreens. It was very straight forward. Make a telehealth appointment ($49), answer some questions, and meet online with a nurse practitioner. She offered several options, the cheapest being the Wegovy pill ($149/month) and the most expensive--and most effective, according to studies--the ZepBound injections (($299/month to start). Not gonna lie, that's a pile of cash to fork over. But if some magical being were to offer to makes 60+ pounds disappear for a mere $4K, I know I'd find the money and pay up in a heartbeat.  

The vials and syringes are coming from LillyDirect. They say the first time takes them about a week to process. In the meantime, I've been doing research on how to maximize the weight loss while minimizing side effects (constipation and saggy skin!). Talking with the NP and scouring the internet, it seems that there are four key things that I'll need to do: 
  1. Protein intake: At least 100g a day, but aim for 120g. I eat mostly plant-based these days, and after running some numbers, I realized that this could be difficult to acheive without protein shakes or bars. So I hit up Sam's Club and stocked up.  
  2. Fiber intake: At least 35g a day. This is actually not too far off from my usual numbers, as beans and oats pack a lot of fiber. 
  3. Water intake: The NP said 8-10 cups a day (64-80 ounces), although internet wisdom leans towards about 90 ounces a day. This will be challenging for me and I will have to track it, at least at first. 
  4. Exercise: 150 minutes a week, according to the NP. Plus strength training, according to the internet. Also a challenge for me that I need to mull over and figure out a plan. I'm thinking 3 longs walks each week would knock out the 150 minutes, and some arm exercises with small weights could be a good start to the strength work. 
 My phone just pinged - the meds have shipped. I have 3 days until arrival to figure these things out!

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