Hi, my name is Ginger, and I would like to share a little with you about my weight loss journey. Just to give a little bit of my backstory, I am someone who had always been an active child, never had a problem with my weight, never had a problem with my weight throughout middle school, throughout high school. I was an athlete. After I graduated, I went to college, and from college I decided that I was going to join the U.S. Army and soldier for a while. So, needless to say, I maintained physical fitness as a part of my requirement being active duty. My weight was never a problem. After having my first child, the weight fell off very easily. After I got out of the Army, had a second child, and the weight fell off very easily, I completed grad school, never became a stress eater, never had a problem, never had a negative relationship with food at all. It wasn't until the birth of my last child at age 38 that I began to have a problem with my weight. I gained quite a bit of weight with that pregnancy because the pregnancy had a lot of complications. Thankfully, everything worked out perfectly fine. Baby was healthy. Mama made it through okay. I began to have problems with my weight after that. I lost a lot of the weight that I had gained, about two-thirds of it, and at that point, the scale started to creep up slowly. I think I didn't see it as a huge problem because, yeah, I've gained weight, but I still looked good. I never looked sloppy. I never looked obese. But there was one instance in which I went to go visit one of my physicians, and when I went into that appointment, he made the comment of, oh, you look great. How have you been? You look better than you did the last time I saw you, but you need to lose weight. And I was confused by that because I'm like, wait a minute. Those two don't even go together. What do you mean I look better than you've ever seen me look, but I need to lose weight? Make it make sense. And he said, it's not about aesthetics. It's about your health, and for your health, you need to lose weight. And so he kind of just threw some suggestions out there and just cut back, and if you lose as little as one pound a week, you know, you can just gradually make gradual changes and you'll be in a healthy range in no time. And okay, whatever. But I'm the kind of person that doesn't normally go into the doctor unless something is wrong. I haven't historically been one of those maintenance people, but now at this age, I'm becoming a maintenance person. But so I kind of slowly would, okay, intermittent fasting and an elliptical machine or, let's say, clean eating and a walk in the park or keto and a full gym membership. And it got to the point throughout the years that these things stopped working for me. My body started to respond less and less to the things that used to work for me very regularly. I came to a place to where I kind of realized, okay, well, I want to have my forever body by age 40. So let me get it together. And getting it together never fully happened because my body was just no longer responding the way that it used to. And so, okay, it didn't happen by age 40. I want to have my forever body by the time I hit 45. And 45 came and went. And so now I'm here in this place to where I was like, I want to have my forever body by age 50. Because everybody knows the older you get, the more difficult it becomes. And the forever body, I need to have it by age 50. And I'm going to be 50 this year. So I have to get it together. And so trying again, the things that used to work in the past, they just were not working. And people would say, well, everything you eat, just cut it in half and only eat half. It wasn't working. Well, try OMAD, try one meal a day. It wasn't working. Intermittent fasting was not working. All of the things that had worked before were not working for me. And so I had spoken to my endocrinologist, Dr. Addison, and she said, well, why don't you come see me? Come see me and let's talk about it and see if there's something I can do to help you. And after running the labs and after doing the body scans, she made the suggestion that I try medication if I was open to it. And I am absolutely open to it because I didn't want to be like I was. I had injuries from my time in service. I had a bad I have a bad back. I have damaged cartilage in my knees. I have plantar fasciitis. All of these problems were just flaring up more and more often. And it makes exercise painful. I mean, if it hurts to roll out of bed in the morning and take your first step, why would you want to go jog on a treadmill, walk on a treadmill? So it was always very discouraging because my body hurt. And I knew that the excess weight that I was carrying was exacerbating the issue. And so when she made the recommendation and said, we can try this, and I was very, very open to it. And at the time, as a pre-diabetic with these other issues, comorbidities that I had going on, I qualified for Ozempic at the time. And shortly thereafter, of course, I think most people know what happened with the pharmacies and the insurance companies. So as of January 2023, I'm one of the ones who's fortunate enough to have insurance that chose to cover obesity medications for 2023. So in January of 2023, we switched to WeGoV and I have been on it ever since. I did not have any concerns about beginning this medication. The only concern I had was whether or not I was going to have the ability to give myself a shot. Because I am one of these people who low-key panics when I have to get a shot or have to get a blood draw. Little bit of anxiety creeps in there for me. But fortunately for me, Dr. Edison had just said, well, let me show you. I'll give you your first one so you can see how easy it is. And when she revealed the needle for the first pen, I just was like, well, was that it? Because it was so small I could like my eyes were kind of slow to focus on it to even be able to see it. And then I felt absolutely nothing. So anxiety was gone. Anxiety gone. For my appointment, I left with no questions because she was so thorough in explaining everything to me. She explained to me the GLP-1 and the receptors and the antagonist and explained to me about slowing digestion and glucose and insulin. And when she scanned my body, she explained to me the visceral fat and the negative outcomes and the things that can happen when you have this high content and shrink. She explained everything. She explained everything so well so that I really left with no questions. And I felt confident that this really was the right path for me moving forward. And it wasn't because I was looking for an easy way out. But I guess I was looking for a remedy or an aid that was going to meet me where I was to do what I needed it to do. Because, I mean, I've had the gym membership. I had a gym membership until my gym closed. But if I'm honest with myself, no, I don't like exercise. And when you have a bad back and you got bad knees and then you're wearing orthotics because your feet are bad. Like, I just really kind of felt like I just need to get the first chunk off because the kind of body that I want on my 50th birthday requires exercise. And so I really did feel completely at ease and at peace with the decision to use medication going forward. I left with no questions, as I just said, because she explained everything. I knew how it was going to work. I knew it was going to slow my digestion. I knew I was going to feel fuller longer. I knew that a good idea of how it was going to work with my body. I read the pamphlets that came with it. I did a little bit of research to know what I could and should expect going into it. And I could tell that the medication was making changes with my body rather quickly. I think I was told that maybe two to three weeks, but I think it was like within a week I started to notice some differences. Because the first thing that I noticed was increased urination. And that wasn't my norm. So I said, oh my goodness, it's working. It's starting to work. Oh, this is going to be good. I don't remember how long it took for my appetite to decrease. I don't remember that. But I didn't deal with significant negative side effects. I did kind of notice that I would wake up in the mornings and it would feel kind of like last night's dinner was stuck in my throat kind of. And, you know, felt like I was full, like the food wasn't going down. But the key to that for me was to not eat so late at night. To give it time to do what it was going to do. Yeah, but I didn't have significant negative side effects. I'm not somebody who dealt with significant nausea. I didn't deal with any vomiting. Minor constipation that was easily remedied. I didn't have any problems at all. And so for me, thus far, it's really been a great experience. For my experience as a patient, I think it has really worked to my benefit that my endocrinologist is somebody who has really listened to me. And culturally, we come from a similar cultural background. I have had issues with physicians in the past where I have felt that I was dismissed. That my concerns were dismissed. I have had issues in the past. Now, not many of these episodes, but they are encounters that I have had where a doctor did not give me all the information in my report. Told me that nothing was wrong because they felt nothing significant was wrong. And then years later, I found out, wait a minute. You mean to tell me I've had this? He told me that it was only A, B, and C when it was truly A, B, C, D, E, and F. Had I known that, it would have made all the difference. So I've had issues in the past where I felt dismissed. Or that the medical professional felt like they knew what I needed to know. Rather than giving me all of the information and allowing me to decide for myself. One thing that I really, truly appreciate about my doctor is that she listens to me, she hears me, and she addresses it. She believes me. Bottom line, she believes me. And she responds accordingly. Culture can absolutely, and I personally believe, does play a role. And not necessarily saying that you have to be of the same racial or ethnic demographic as a patient. But to increase your open-mindedness. And to understand that there may be things there that you don't understand. Because for me, personally, I don't want to be skinny. And culturally, as a black American female, I don't want to be skinny. My body carries a lot of muscle naturally. I have always had the look of somebody athletic, even when I wasn't actively working out. And my body carries weight differently than a lot of other bodies do. And I just think that it is important to have a physician that understands that and respects that. I don't want to be skinny. And my goal is not to be skinny. I want to look fit. I want to look healthy. And so I think that that's something that really is important for people to recognize. That just because you may not understand it, doesn't invalidate what the patient is saying. And again, I am speaking from past experience, years ago, of even within the weight loss realm. Because you just want somebody who gets it. You know, understands what you want for yourself, but then is able to bring in the expertise of a medical professional and telling you when you are trying to make decisions that are going to harm yourself versus making decisions that are healthy for yourself. And if there is a way for me to achieve health by also looking the way that I want to look in a way that is celebrated by the people who like me and love me. You know, if there's a way that we can do this together, help me do that. You know? Yeah, so there's that. One thing that I wish I had known before I started is to stay away from those Facebook groups. I am someone who joined an Ozempic We Go V Facebook group rather early on because I wanted to know what other people's experiences were. And even though I was not negatively affected by that, I see so many people, so many patients are negatively affected by these groups. Because people are afraid that someone else's experience is going to be theirs. And there are people out there that are experiencing negative side effects for whatever reason. The extreme nausea, and, oh, I can't eat, and, oh, and what do I do for constipation? I haven't gone in 10 days, and, oh, you need to go to the ER. I see it all, I read it all. But people need to understand that their journey is their own. I even see people afraid to take their first injection. Because they're afraid of the nausea that they're going to experience. Not understanding that that's not everybody's testimony. And so maybe consider advising people to stay away from the Facebook groups until they begin their journey and have an experience of their own. Because there is a lot of fear. Because there is a lot of fear. People want to lose the weight, but they don't want to feel sick. People want to lose the weight, but they don't want the negative side effects. But not everyone is going to incur those negative side effects. Because my side effects were very, very mild. Very mild. I wish that when my doctor told me to exercise at every single appointment, I wish I had started listening to her and adopting that by appointment too. Because I was just so happy to be losing weight without sweating that I was not the least bit bothered. Now I regret that I wasted all this time not exercising. Another thing that I think that I had minimized was the necessity to drink water, drink water, drink water. My appetite has been suppressed in a way to where there are times that I don't want anything in my mouth including water. Pushing past that to drink the water is so important. Because if you're not drinking water, how do you know if your headache is a dehydration headache or if it's something else? If you're not drinking water, how do you know if your constipation is due to dehydration or something else? The water, water, water is a big deal. The protein is a big deal. And I also think that people need to come to a place to where they're not so comfortable not eating. Because I have also experienced where my appetite has been so suppressed at times that I don't eat. Now, it's not good for that to become a habit. And I think that people who want to lose weight, like myself, could just be so happy to not be hungry that we're not bothered, that we're not eating. Until you get up too fast in the morning and you fall out on the bed because you're lightheaded. Wait a minute. Let me get some sugar in me. Let me go eat breakfast. So that's the other thing. That's the other thing. I do have co-workers and friends who we all have the same insurance, so it's covered for us. And I have co-workers who have said to me, you know, my wife said that I need to eat. If I don't start eating more, she's going to make me stop this medication. I'm like, dude, but like the doctor on TV said, you've already eaten a year's worth of food in advance. It's okay that you don't eat four times today. You'll be okay. But my weight loss journey has been swell. It's been great. I really am appreciative of this medication, and I feel like it has done exactly what I have wanted and needed it to do. And I am so, so fortunate to have the support of the doctor that I have. She's been great. She's been great. And I feel like a valued patient with this relationship that I have with my doctor. I wouldn't change anything. Thanks.

weight loss journey

medication

endocrinologist

pregnancy

positive impact

support