My 7-Mile Day (Thank You, GLP-1s!)

I’ve had the weirdest couple of days. I’ve had an odd week, but we’ll just stick to these few days.

Two days ago, I got up at 1am, which is a little early for me. Then weighed myself; 132 and holding (yay!) I usually wake up without an alarm between 3:30am and 4:00am. . I finished the post above this one. Then got dressed to walk to the gym and work out. 

Because it’s been arctic outside, even in sunny Florida, I wore a long-sleeved shirt, a zipper hoodie, a thick denim jacket, a beanie hat, and lovely gloves. Everything but the gloves have Mickey on them. I am still in my Disney phase. I hadn’t been able to wear anything but earrings from Disney in decades and I’m thrilled I can wear anything now. I am one of those scary Disneyphiles. Beware! 🤣

I was out of the house by 3:30am.

Gym Time

I have these cool pants with pockets I wear so I don’t have to carry a fanny pack to the gym. One less thing is always good, right? I have a rhythm now to packing the pockets: IDs (including health insurance card in case something happens), lock for locker at the gym, earbud case, a couple of dollars, and some tissues are on my left and the right is reserved for my phone. I haven’t worn anything with pockets in over 3 decades, so I’m still fascinated by them. If you are like me, unused to pockets, when you take the pants off, remember to take the tisses out before throwing them into the wash! Wet tissues are not fun in a load of wet clothes.

I have been walking around city blocks between 4.5 and 5 miles every morning. Some days 6. But I am not even tired anymore doing that. I was going to lower my cardio some because I am in maintenance and don’t want to lose anymore. My daughter Meghann, who was recently interviewed on “The Downsized,” suggested I get on the treadmill and walk up hills. I asked, “Isn’t that going to burn even more calories?” She said, “Mom, you’ll gain leg muscles!” I’d been doing the weight machines for awhile and my arms and lower legs are feeling more muscle-y, but she said to work on my thighs, too.

So I started doing treadmill inclines, up a small hill, down a bit. Up a higher hill, then higher, then lower again. I’ve been doing that for a couple of weeks and already I am building muscles in my thighs! They feel great and I love the contour I’m getting there.

I’ve always had fat thighs, but my legs are pretty bony now. I mean, I have a gap in my legs when I put them together! Not a thigh gap, though, because my thigh skin is in the way. When I was fat and dropped something on my lap, it messed up my clothes. Now, if I drop something like a pen in my lap, it falls through to the floor! It is still shocking that happens. Whose legs are these, anyway?

I walked on my hilly treadmill for an hour, then left to go to Walmart another block away. I grabbed the things I needed, then walked, with my groceries, back home. I was there by 7am.

An aside: Watching myself walking towards windows, I see I am quite bowlegged now. I first noticed it in the Disney video, when I was walking into EPCOT, but thought I was just walking funny because I was excited. Nope, I am bowlegged. I believe it is because my thighs have been so huge for so long (my whole life) that the bones have adjusted and will not change back now. Oh, well.

This was yesterday morning as I am reflected into a window. That shirt is a medium. How funny is that?! Those pants are too, and a tad baggy.

Pedicure Time!

Once home and groceries put away, I pondered for a minute and thought, “I need a pedicure.” So I headed back out into the cold, walking to the Salon.

This is the same salon that four years ago asked me not to return because they thought I would break their salon chair. It was a struggle to even get my 380+ lbs self into it the electronic vibrating chair at all. My legs were so fat it was incredibly difficult, and often painful, to try to keep my thighs together and my feet on the pad the woman was using to do the pedicure. By the time I headed out an hour later, I was so sore from the weird positioning I was trying to keep, it seemed I wouldn’t feel unkinked for days. 

Back then, I did not walk up there. I couldn’t have dreamt I ever would, much less just going out and walking to where I wanted to go without a second thought.

So, yeah, I was asked, quietly, not to return and I cried in Uber all the way home.

You see, I couldn’t reach my toes. I have not been able to reach my feet for most of my life. When the kids were little, I would pay them to put lotion on my feet. They hated that job, but they could use gloves, so why was that so bad? They couldn’t understand at that age that mama needed help. And sitting here writing this, I am so sad I needed that help from my young kids.

Therefore, for three years after I was asked not to return, I had to go to the podiatrist to cut my toenails. True story. An appointment just to get my nails cut. They always gave me awesome ointments to put on my cracking and sometimes bleeding heels. Injuries on the feet are a crucial issue for a diabetic, but I couldn’t even do the basic care like putting on the ointment, then socks, so my feet could heal. I couldn’t reach.

You’d think that I wouldn’t patronize that salon’s space again after that humiliation, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could sit in those chairs again and that they would not ask me to leave. I returned one year ago today weighing 220 lbs. It was a triumph for me.

Taking Myself to Lunch

I’ve eaten in a restaurant five times since April 2022, three of which were at the wonderful Mexican restaurant right by my house. After my pedicure, I walked to the Mexican restaurant and smiled knowing I wouldn’t eat nearly as much as I used to before GLP-1s. 

When I looked at the menu, I was delighted to see a new aperitivo, appetizer: Aguacates Rellenos… stuffed avocados. I’d never heard of such a thing, but it sounded delicious as well as the perfect size for my mild hunger. 

The two halves of the avocado were “stuffed” (filled) with grilled chopped chicken with a drizzle of chipotle sauce and a side of cilantro rice. No cheese. Nothing extraneous. Just what you see below. I loved it! I ate one whole one and just left a bit behind on the second one. Look how delicious!

 

By the end of the day, I had walked just at seven miles. Woo hoo!

Dexcom & GLP-1 Mishaps

A couple of the sucky things that happened this week.

I wear a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). It’s inserted with a teensy needle into the upper layers of the skin, reading my blood glucoses every five minutes. This gives me great feedback on how my body reacts to the food I put in my mouth. This CGM is replaced every 10 days. After removing the old one, I put my new Dexcom G6 on my upper arm and I think it went into a muscle. It hurt like holy hell. I babied it for a day, but the next morning, it still hurt lots. Dr. Google (and Dexcom’s site) told me to remove it. 

Mind you, these are prescribed to me, so there was no getting a replacement for the one I messed up. It’s hard to find a squishy spot now of where to put the CGM. My stomach, one of the proper places to insert it, is all skin, no fat anymore. My upper arm is more hanging skin than anything, and where there isn’t hanging skin, it’s my bone. I was unhappy I wasted one, but sucked it up and put the last one I had on my other upper arm, being very careful to get it in a decent spot. It didn’t hurt. Yay!

An annoying quirk of CGMs is the propensity to have compression lows. When we sleep, it isn’t unusual to switch sides. With a CGM on the arm, if the machine is pressed into the bed, a blanket, or the pillow, it gives off a false reading of having a low blood glucose episode. When that happens a lovely alarm rings. Over and over until you answer it by clicking the “I checked my BG with a fingerstick and I’m fine” spot on the CGM app on the phone. Well, once I put the new one on, that night, I had a series of compression lows that would not shut up. Half-asleep, instead of finding the way to turn off the alarm itself, I frustratingly turned off the CGM with the intent to restart it in the morning.

Morning came and I learned one cannot simply restart a CGM. Once it’s off, it’s dead unless you jerry-rig the needle, the patch, blah blah blah. I wasn’t going to do that. So, there was Dexcom number two wasted. I have to wait 20 more days before I can get the next “dose” of Dexcoms. Erg.

The last, and probably the most frustrating thing of all was when I had to give myself my Mounjaro shot. I was recently prescribed 12.5 to see if I can titrate down a bit for maintenance, but I still had a couple of 15mg. ones, too. I got the 12.5 out of the fridge and let it warm up for 15 minutes. 

I have been putting the injections in the sides of my thighs (ex-saddlebag area) because, again, I have no fat on my stomach anymore… which was my go-to injection spot for over 2.5 years. I washed my hands, then got the alcohol wipe ready, pinched my thigh, wiped my thigh with the wipe, and got ready to inject the site. I have to keep my eye on where I cleaned so I, with one hand, took off the plastic tip, then momentarily moved my hand off my thigh, while still staring at the freckle I was aiming for, to unlock the pen.

I held the pen in my right hand and regrabbed my thigh right where the freckle I was staring at was, then the pen fell out of my hand and onto the floor, clicking the freakin’ pen and leaving the dribble of tirzepatide on the floor. 

After the two Dexcom incidents and now this, I sat down on my bed and cried. Wasting a GLP-1 pen is like pouring liquid gold down the drain.

Once I got control of myself, I went and got one of the last two pens I have, both 15mg., and re-did the whole cleaning ritual. This time, I was VERY careful what I was doing and decided on paying more attention to the pen than the spot I was poking into. I got it in and sighed with relief.

I keep the newly used pens on my shelf with my Queen Funko Pops watching over them.

When I take the next injection, I take the one on the shelf and put it into a lucite turntable thingie. I have kept every pen since starting Mounjaro in August, 2023. I only have a couple of Trulicity pens, the GLP-1 I took before Mounjaro. I even have the Ozempic pens that were a debacle in my system. As you can see, I also have the vials of compounded tirzepatide I needed during the major parts of the shortages.

I’m weird, I know.

There you have it. My odd couple of days!

If you have thoughts or comments, please holler down in the comments. Thanks for reading this long piece!