Finally caving into Monjaro
How this midlife woman is giving it a whirl despite all the negative noise around it
A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to be introduced to Dr Ginny Ponsford who works at the Hormone Clinic (look her up if you need excellent advice on HRT and more). I had been on the same HRT for 5 years, and it didn’t seem to be working. She sorted out what I needed to take (turns out different formats to the tablet I was taking each morning), and then we started talking about weight loss jabs. To give some context, I have always been a size 14-16. Then since turning 50, I have started to feel like I’m growing rapidly into a size 18. I exercise like a goddamn maniac, don’t eat very much but nonetheless I could feel this band of fat expanding around my tummy. Clothes didn’t feel good. I felt demoralised, like when you revise for your GCSE Maths and end up getting a D despite your best efforts. I think size is a personal issue- if you’re happy as you are then good, and I had been a ‘bigger woman’ most of my life, or more accurately ‘averagely sized woman.’ However I was feeling heavy in my body, like it was difficult to run on the weekend. I was growing heavier. I was putting weight on. I was way into the unhealthy weight category for my age. However I’d always ruled out weight loss jabs. They make your hair fall out. Your face looks sad. You look tired if you take them. You look older. You look sick. You don’t look healthy. You go to far. It’s dangerous. These were just some of the comments I’d heard and read. Of course there were also positive stories, in newspapers, the before and afters so striking (always taken with a belt to cinch in the waist and demonstrate how dramatic the change had been), and also locally I was seeing mums getting steadily slimmer and slimmer. Journalists I kind of didn’t expect to do it were doing it and writing about it. I dismissed it for another 18 months. When the conversation came up I joined in with the sad face/dangerous narrative to make myself feel a bit better. Decided to just up my protein, cut out more carbs, exercise harder and then I started to feel really tired. I just wanted to be able to feel lighter and not so eternally weighty.
