Girl on a Diet: Week 1

Written by Claire Zeitler

Week 1

In last week's intro to the column, I shared that my weight had gone up due to the use of prednisone for my arthritis. I estimated my weight at about 185 lbs, having previously weighed 174 lbs on January 15th. You can imagine my surprise when I weighed in at 190 lbs on Sunday morning. I was mortified. My biggest fear these days is ballooning back up to 265 lbs (my all-time high). I needed to get this under control. I headed to the medicine cabinet and threw the prednisone into the trash. I knew it wasn’t helping my weight loss efforts.

I then sat down and did a cheshbon hanefesh regarding my health. I needed to go through all the different aspects of how I was feeling and tackle them one by one.

I recently started craving salty chips, and I read somewhere that craving salty snacks can mean your body is trying to tell you you are dehydrated. So I bought myself a Stanley Cup so that drinking was made fun again. (It has a cool summer stripe.)

I thought about how my gums felt swollen, but my teeth felt fine. Swelling in your gums is a known issue when you have diabetes. I do not want to return to that, so I MUST lower my sugar intake.

I made an appointment with my family doctor for Monday. I told him my concerns point-blank. I don’t think Mounjaro is working, and I’ve gained 16 lbs in a relatively short time, which concerns me. I said maybe I could go back on Ozempic. Ozempic had the most effective appetite suppressant. I hardly ate a thing. Some days, my husband would have to go to the store and get me rice cakes just so I would put something into my body at the end of a long day. I was basically eating rice cakes, drinking iced coffee, and living off that. These were not healthy decisions; I was practically starving myself, but it did help me lose the weight so I could get rid of my diabetes. So I would like to go back to that peace of mind of really not wanting to consume even a calorie. Not forever, but just til I get down to my goal weight.

My doctor informed me that I am no longer morbidly obese, so I won’t be able to get the shot at half price now that I’m at a healthier BMI. He told me that if I gained 4 lbs, he could give it to me, but I refused to gain weight to lose weight.

I left the appointment and walked straight to the fruit and vegetable store. I am taking it upon myself to eat healthier and see if it will actually make a difference. Pass the cucumbers and peppers. Cantaloupe beats sugary candy any day of the week!

I know I lost a ton of weight (85 lbs) with Ozempic and Mounjaro, and that the number one piece of advice doctors and nutritionists give to patients using a GLP-1 is the necessity of exercise and strength training. I have never really done anything with weights over 5 lbs, so I’m intimidated by the idea of going to the gym with the girls who already “get it”. But it needs to be done. There are 2 gyms in the city within walking distance of my house, so I have set up appointments to check out their inner workings and prices. I’m not gonna lie, I’m scared. But if this is the key to being stronger in my old age, then I’ll bite the bullet.

So I’ve thrown out the prednisone. I woke up one day in crazy pain in my hand joints. I went over to the trash bin in the bathroom and tried to fish out the prednisone to use it, but once I was through the disgusting journey, I realized if I take it, it’s just going to add more weight, and I’ll perpetuate the cycle. So I threw them back in the bin and resolved to try eating better foods for arthritis pain. I made my husband drive me over to the good fish store, and I bought a huge filleted salmon so I could get those anti-inflammatory properties into my system. I am staying away from nightshade vegetables (tomatoes and eggplant), and I walked over to the pharmacy to pick up some turmeric pills. all in the name of holistically getting my arthritis pain under control without the use of hard drugs.

After all of these large steps to try to change my life once again… I lost 7 lbs this week. Simply by eating protein, vegetables, and fruit in place of the salty snacks and sugary treats of last week. My doctor was right: this added 16 lbs since mid-January, which was not fat; it was likely water weight put on from the prednisone. With this kind of momentum, I’m feeling lucky to reach my goal soon, IMYH.