My Mounjaro Journey Week 2 - Calorie Counting Is Good

Hi everyone.

Part of the programme I've signed up to means that I have to check in weekly with the SheMed team.  This is on the day of the injection.  I have to confirm my details and the dosage I'm on before weighing myself and showing the reading of the scales to the person on the end of the phone. This time they talked me through prepping the pen and left me to it.

What a disaster.

It's recommended that you inject a different site each week so I decided on my my thigh for this one.  Heavens knows why but I thought I'd do it standing up.  As I explained in my last blog, you have to twist the bottom of the pen until the number '1' appears in the little window.  This pushes the bottom of the pen out to about two centimetres which is the part you push down to release the dose. It's quite tricky holding the pen with your thumb on the 'plunger' whilst pinching your skin. As I pushed down, my thumb slipped so I ended up letting go of my skin and using both hands. The upshot is that I managed to push down to hard and bent the needle.

I had no idea whether I'd actually managed to get the full dosage in and spent a couple of days convinced that I hadn't. Luckily for me, though, a wonderful person on the SheMed Facebook group put a picture on the page of four pens showing how they look after each injection has been administered.  Mine looked just like it should which was a huge relief.

I've had no side effects at all this week, but I've still had food noise; not as much as normal but it's still there. I've read that a lot of people don't notice a real difference until they get onto a higher dose so maybe that'll be my experience.

It's important that you track what you eat to ensure you don't eat too many calories. There are plenty of apps to use; some free, some paid for.  My Fitness Pal is good for tracking food and exercise and I've used it in the past but my app of choice at the moment is attached to my Fitbit.  I simply add everything I eat throughout the day and it lets me know if I've got a calorie deficit based on the amount of calories I've burnt.  

One of the things I'm really struggling with is protein.  Almost every post I read is about making sure you eat enough protein and people recommending protein shakes or snacks.  I believe this is to ensure that you don't lose muscle whilst dropping pounds but, to be honest, I'd rather do resistance training and walk at least 20 minutes each day then force protein shakes down my throat.  I try to have the following:

Breakfast: 150 - 200 calories
Lunch: 200 - 300 calories
Dinner: 600 - 800 calories
Drinks (tea, coffee): 100 calories
Snacks: 100 calories

I average between 1200 to 1500 calories per day and generally burn 2000 to 2500 calories depending on how active I am.

I've signed up to Hello Fresh which is saving me money in wasted food.  It comes with exactly the right amount of  ingredients for a delicious, balanced meal. It takes the hassle out of trying to decide what to cook in the evenings and the portion sizes are exactly right so there's no danger of over eating, even if you wanted to.  

The other thing I struggle with is the amount of water I'm supposed to drink.  Apparently, 3 litres is the aim.  I've never drunk very much.  Work colleagues often complain that I don't get a brew in but that's because I can't drink a cuppa every hour like they do.  I drink three cups of tea a day and 3 glasses of water or squash. Even then I'm constantly on the toilet!

Despite the medication not having the food aversion impact I was expecting, I'm still losing weight:

Weight - 15st 11lbs
Mounjaro dose - 2.5mg
BMI - 42
Loss - 4lbs

It might not seem a great deal but I'm on this journey for a year.  If I only manage to lose 1lb a week that'll be a 3st 7lb loss, which is a huge amount of weight. 

Have a great week everyone.


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