In March, I talked to my doctor out of desperation. My weight was out of control, and I had no motivation to do anything about it. When I told her my fears about developing weight-related health issues like a lot of my family, she said, “I think you should try a GLP-1.” I was horrified. I responded, “That’s cheating.” She fired back, “Well, that is one way to look at it, but you aren’t going to make your goal weight with just a GLP-1. How about you look at it as the motivation you need?” I was skeptical at best. She said, “Just give me four weeks.” I gave in and told her to write the prescription.
For the next four weeks while I waited for insurance to approve the prescription, I started doing research. I read literally everything I could find. Nothing changed my mind that I was going to be cheating, but I felt a little better about it all. When it was finally approved, it still took four days for me to do the first injection. Week one was weird. I felt very different, but about halfway through I decided that I would add a goal each week to take my mind off how weird I felt.
Week 1 Goal – Exercise 3 times for 30 minutes. Accomplished!
Week 2 Goal – Exercise every day for at least 30 minutes. I walked 89,458 steps. Accomplished!
Week 3 Goal – Walk more than the week before. I walked 96,103 steps. Accomplished!
Week 4 Goal – Get 70,000 steps and ride my bike twice. Accomplished!
I stepped on the scale on Monday to realize that I had lost 10 pounds. Then, I checked my activities on both Strava and FitBit and realized that I had exercised 21 days in a row. I sent my doctor a message with my weight check-ins and activity level. I mentioned I was also drinking at least 80 ounces of water a day and tracking my meals. She wrote back, “Can you give me four more weeks?” I responded, “No. I’ll give myself four more weeks.” She said, “That’s better.”
Today, I had a bad day at work and the urge to pop open a bottle of wine was in my head by 3:00. However, on the way home, I thought, “The bike would be a better choice.” So, I loaded up my bike and headed to the trail. Two miles in, I was already starting to feel better. By the time I reached the Big Tree, I was smiling because I was literally riding away my bad day. On the way back, I realized my doctor had been right. The GLP-1 was just the motivation I needed to kick me into gear. I know this will be a long journey and there will be a lot of hard work along the way, but in the end, it’s just four more weeks.
