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Mounjaro Journey, 23 weeks, 7.5mg

flidfit Media, Mounjaro, Recipes

Another week has flashed past — honestly, where does the time go?

Our building work has been going full steam ahead, and thankfully, the weather has been kind to us. It’s been mild and mostly dry, which has worked in the builders’ favour. The team arrive every morning around 7.30am, breaks for their early lunch at 10.30am (yes, really!), and finishes up by 3.30pm — just as it’s starting to get dark. It’s a good routine and doesn’t interfere too much with our evenings.

This week I took my jab as a split dose — 5mg on Thursday and 7.5mg on Sunday — because the appetite suppression was starting to wear off. It’s such a weird feeling when those old thoughts about food and eating start to return. It always reminds me just how much I don’t miss them!

Me, as a baby (about 18 months)

Away from all the drilling and dust, I’ve been working on something much more creative — a new YouTube series! I’m planning a collection of short videos that narrate and illustrate my 13-year weight-loss journey. The first one went live yesterday and looks back over my childhood, exploring how my impairment shaped my relationship with food and body image. It covers the period from my birth right through to 2012 — the first fifty years of my life!

Future videos will dive deeper into specific topics such as calorie counting, life events that could have easily derailed me (but didn’t!), exercise, and my experience of excess skin removal.

I’d love it if you could take a look at the video, leave me a comment on YouTube, and give it a thumbs-up if you enjoy it. Your feedback really means a lot — and it helps me know what you’d like to see next.

Meanwhile, on the Mounjaro front, things are still moving in the right direction. I’m continuing to fine-tune my doses and listen carefully to my body. It’s fascinating to see how my long-term journey – from years of calorie counting to now – is evolving with this new chapter. Every week feels like a small but meaningful step forward.

Weight progress chart

 

Weight this week:  59.3kg (about 9st 4.7lbs)

Last week 59.5kg (about 9st 5.2lbs)Loss: 200g (about half a pound)

Weight to lose: 2.3kg (about 5lbs)

 

 

Mounjaro Journey, 21 weeks, 7.5mg

flidfit Disability, Media, Mounjaro, Uncategorized

The car is fixed!  And what’s more…. and what’s more, it didn’t cost me a single penny….

We drove the 30 minutes to Maidenhead on Tuesday to visit the adaptation specialist’s home. He’s semi-retired but still maintains some of his clients, which has worked in my favour. The drive was enjoyable, with lovely autumn colours. Upon arrival, he simply fetched a couple of screwdrivers, removed the steering column housing, adjusted some connections and wiring, and then reassembled everything. It took him about 10 minutes!

I’d made and taken a packed lunch since the appointment was at 12.30 pm. We had planned to walk the short distance to Boulter’s Lock if it took a while to resolve the problem. However, it was raining, so instead we drove home (I was driving!) and ate our lunch there. This was the first time I’d driven the car in about a month because, although it was safe to drive, the steering was just too stiff for me to handle safely.

Sam and I have been working hard to begin clearing one end of our kitchen and dining room. In just over a week, we will start some building work—replacing two large windows and a French door with a large glass sliding door. The new “glass wall” will be nearly 4 metres wide and will provide easier (step-free) access to the garden, as well as offering a better view. Of course, to achieve my “vision”, we will need to endure some disruption and mess, which should last about a month.

Food prep this week has been a large batch of what I call “pizza sauce”, although it’s never used for making pizza!  Tinned and fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs and tomato puree.  The sauce is now portioned up in the freezer (16 portions) to be used in recipes in the future.  The freezer is full.   No more batch cooking until next year.

Mounjaro: I have taken a 7.5mg injection from a 10mg pen, which seems to have suppressed my appetite sufficiently over the week.

I’ve uploaded a short video with extra weight-loss tips I have found helpful during my weight-loss journey, especially while using Mounjaro. Feel free to watch it and consider subscribing to my YouTube channel.

Weight:  59.7kg – 700g off (about 3/4 lb)

Weight to lose:  2.7kg  (about 6lbs)

Total weight loss on Mounjaro:  11.7kg (about 25lbs, or 1 stone 11lbs)

Total weight loss since the start of my journey (February 2012): 29.2kg (4 stone 8lbs)

 

Mounjaro Journey – 19 weeks, 7.5mg

flidfit Disability, Emotional well being, Exercise, Media, Mounjaro

A productive and productive week.  I’ve sorted and made space in my freezer and then promptly got to work filling it again!  Both soups made 10 portions, so the freezer is now nearly at capacity.  As the weather gets cooler, I’ve been making batches of homemade soup.

The first one was a chicken and vegetable soup, with added lentils.  The second was a spicy tomato and lentil soup made with the huge glut of tomatoes harvested throughout the summer months.

Both were easy to make, but the tomato-based soup required sweating the tomatoes down to create a really sweet and concentrated passata.

This week, with the assistance of my excellent personal assistant Sam, I completed another job: sorting out all the freezer drawers and updating my inventory.  The freezer is stored in the garage and is about 2 metres tall with seven drawers.  We roughly keep things organised together – meat, bread products, fish, etc.  I know it’s time to update my list when things have been jumbled up into different freezer drawers, so when I ask someone to retrieve something, it’s nowhere to be found!  Anyway, despite being full, the freezer is now totally organised, and we can concentrate on eating some of the items that I know have been in there for a while.

This week, the issue with the car’s steering was identified, but unfortunately, it was not fixed.  I’m waiting for a call from my modification/adaptation guy, and hopefully, he’ll come to take a look since it involves some of the work he did on the car when it was new.  Due to my shortened arms, some wiring and switches needed to be moved from the side of the seat into a box on the steering column, allowing me to adjust my seat position safely. It’s that wiring that appears to be impacting the power steering.  Hopefully, something that can be easily resolved and not too expensive.  I’ve not been charged by either of the two garages that have been involved so far.

On Saturday morning, we participated in a litter pick of our local area with neighbours.  This is something I organise regularly.  Not only do we make the area look cleaner, but we also use the opportunity to socialise afterwards in a local café.  I thought I’d try bubble tea for the first time and chose a “brown sugar bubble tea”.  It was very nice (a bit like a watery milkshake with large gelatinous pearls that add interest, texture, but no flavour.  When I returned home, I checked the calorie content of a bubble tea and was horrified to learn it could have been between 300 and 600 calories!  It was nice, but not THAT nice.

On Sunday, we were invited to a friend’s for afternoon drinks and socialising.  Mounjaro has meant that I’m not particularly enjoying alcohol now.  I’m not a big drinker anyway – those days are far behind me!  I bought and tried a bottle of Tanqueray Alcohol Free Spirit.  It most definitely doesn’t taste of gin but has a pleasant botanical juniper and citrus combination.

Oh!  I phoned in to LBC London radio on Sunday morning.  The discussion was about 1 in 20 people in this country now being on weight loss medication…  You can hear me on the radio (this morning) at 02:26:03 into the programme. Talking about my weight loss journey 😁

And I’ve also uploaded a little video onto YouTube.  What’s been your experience of using weight loss drugs and other people’s attitudes towards that?  Do you share openly or do you only share with those you trust to support you and not to be critical of your choice?  I’ve got a very tough skin, but I hate bullying in any form and don’t tolerate it. I’ll call it out when I can, but the power of social media and those keyboard warriors do sometimes serve to defeat me!  Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel to receive notifications of new posts.

Measurements!  As promised, I’ve done my body measurements and am pleased to share the results here.I’m pleased that the centimetres are going from those places that I want them to.  I’m always astonished by the change, but I am feeling it in my clothes.    I’ve been buying a few new tops (t-shirts) on Vinted.  I’m steering away from my usual patterned blouses – new shape, new style!

Weight:  60.5kg – 500g off (about 1lb)

Weight to lose:  3.5kg  (about half a stone/7lbs)

 

 

 

 

Thalidomide – The fifty year fight

flidfit Disability, Media, Uncategorized

I am in a BBC documentary programme next week (and my pictures in the TV Times too apparently!).

It’s a programme about Thalidomide (the drug which caused my impairment), and not told from the “usual perspective”.

It features interviews with individuals whose lives have been impacted upon as a result of Thalidomide, as well as some of the historical stuff surrounding the manufacture and marketing of the drug (possibly how it’s being used today also?)

BBC2, Thursday 15th May at 9pm.

(This is no longer available via the BBC, but you can access it at this link).

It’s called “Thalidomide: The 50 year fight”

I think my Mum may be in it too. She did take part in the filming.

I’ll send out another reminder next week!