It wasn\u2019t all plain sailing: one day, Alison caught me eating fish and chips at the pub. The difference was that I only ate about a third of my usual portion because I simply wasn\u2019t hungry. For someone who spent years treating a large packet of crisps as an acceptable dinner, that was a big change.<\/p>\n
I lost 9lb in the first week, although I knew that not all of that would have been fat. I became more conscious of maintaining my muscle mass, so I bought a pedal exerciser that let me cycle while watching television \u2013 it was surprisingly addictive and I found myself keen to keep pedalling even once my programme had finished. Weirdly, even though I\u2019m eating less, I have far more energy than I had previously.<\/p>\n
Weight at end of week one: 13st 10lb<\/p>\n
Week twoAlison<\/p>\n
This week was a reminder that real life doesn\u2019t stop just because you\u2019re trying to lose weight. Between the grandchildren, caring for my mum and the relentless heatwave, hitting my usual 7,500-step target became unrealistic, so I lowered it to 6,500.<\/p>\n
Because Steve and I were now eating significantly less, I started to worry that we weren\u2019t getting enough protein and fibre. My lack of appetite was becoming something of a mental block \u2013 I didn\u2019t necessarily feel like eating, but I knew my body still needed the nourishment. I\u2019ve seen people become weak and malnourished while using weight-loss jabs, and I\u2019m determined that won\u2019t happen to us, especially as we\u2019re getting older.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, we can ask questions and track our food on a coaching app, which tells us whether we are doing well or if we should be adding more protein, fibre or carbohydrates to our meals. Now, I\u2019m optimising our meals to be as nutritious as possible \u2013 often adding nuts and seeds to Greek yogurt or an extra portion of veg with dinner.<\/p>\n
The initial drop in weight slowed down and I lost just 2lb. It\u2019s a useful reminder that this isn\u2019t going to be a quick fix.<\/p>\n
Weight at end of week two: 11st 1lb<\/p>\n
Steve<\/p>\n
I used to be such a regular at my local Indian takeaway that they named a curry after me \u2013 the \u201cSteve Special\u201d. When Alison wasn\u2019t cooking, I\u2019d usually end up there or at the local chippy. Two weeks into taking the tablets, I haven\u2019t visited either once. Instead, I noticed my cravings changing and found myself eager to go shopping with Alison and help her stock up on fish, chicken, vegetables and fruit.<\/p>\n
I lost another 2lb this week and, for the first time in years, I can comfortably wear T-shirts that used to stretch tightly across my stomach.<\/p>\n
Weight at end of week two: 13st 8lb<\/p>\n
Week threeAlison<\/p>\n
At the weekend, Steve and I attended our niece\u2019s wedding. It was a wonderful day, but it was also our first real test. We had already been honest with our loved ones about taking the tablets, so we didn\u2019t feel awkward about hiding it, but how would we cope when we couldn\u2019t control our portions and were surrounded by wine and wedding cake?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t all plain sailing: one day, Alison caught me eating fish and chips at the pub. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[166,163,536,85,46,482,11556,543,3477,4514,2865,152693,591],"class_list":["post-611463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-diet","tag-health","tag-health-and-fitness","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-medication","tag-menopause","tag-nutrition","tag-obesity","tag-ozempic","tag-standard","tag-us-content","tag-weight-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}