Friday 10 May 2024 – The journey begins

The journey begins. Well nearly. I placed my order on Asda Doctor Online a week ago, and following their approval process, my order has finally been released. Now I just have to wait for it to be delivered and the delivery window is 4 days long. I have already shown extreme patience. It’s been 3 whole weeks since I made the decision to ask for weight loss medication. This meant a 2 week wait for a doctor’s appointment. Then that resulted in the news that I need to be referred to a weight loss specialist and the wait was ‘not too long’ but to start with I’d need a blood test and, guess what, that appointment will be in two weeks. I decided I couldn’t wait . My order for Mounjaro was already sitting in my basket on my Asda online account. I hit go.

I have been reassured by the doctor that starting with a private prescription will not impact my eligibility to switch over to the NHS when I get the opportunity.

I know myself too well and I know every trick in my own book. Knowing that the new weight loss drug is ‘on the horizon’ naturally means that this is my ‘last chance’ to eat without thinking. So, for the last three weeks I have been eating like a girl who is about to start a diet! I could not risk carrying on like that while waiting to get to the top of the waiting list.

And I am so excited.

I feel like this is finally going to be it. The solution. The answer. And endorsed by The NHS and seemingly backed up by clinical trials. It will not be my first foray into weight loss meds. Back in the early 90s I had a brief fling with a ‘clinic’ where the ‘doctor’ handed over amphetamines as I handed over the cheque. It worked. But I know it wasn’t a safe solution for the long term. I quit them when I could feel the blood running up and down my arms. I realised that you should not be aware of your blood in your veins. It was time to stop.

I am so excited.

My weight has been a problem since I was fifteen years old. I’m now fifty-four, so wow, it’s been my whole life. Through every up and every down, it has been my ever-present companion. It has sucked the joy from so many events in my life. I’m a positive, happy person. I do not let my weight stop me doing things. (Except maybe go to the Maldives.)

I go swimming with my nieces and nephew, I go to the beach, I stand up in front of large groups and deliver training sessions, I cannot think of anything that I have not done because of my weight. Except The Maldives. For some reason it seems to me like a place for people who look good in a swimsuit, and it will be full of happy slim honeymooners. I cannot seem to picture myself there in this body.

What would my life be like slim? I genuinely do not know. What will change? I have always maintained that I know that I will still be me. My life will not change, I will just get to wear smaller clothes. But maybe it will. I would love to wear shorts. I would love to own a pair of regular wellies, not the ones specially made for fat legs, or the little ankle high ones I wear because they do not need to fit over my calves. I would love to go for a run without following it with 10 days of knee pain, and to go to Dance Fit, without having to mentally prepare myself for the looks that I imagine I will get, even if it is only in my imagination.

If you would like to follow me on this journey into the unknown, then my intention is to document this process. These meds are really new, and I looked to see if someone else had documented their experience so I could hear first-hand how it had been for them, and I couldn’t find anything. So, I want to help anyone else who is considering trying this route, to hear from someone who has gone before. I will share symptoms, in a much detail as I think is appropriate, I will share how I am feeling, how easy it is to get the medication, how easy it is to take, and I bloody well hope, I will get to share my weight loss milestones.

I’ll write again when my prescription arrives, and the story begins.