INTRO Here we go!

[Shesins]

Hi all

Honestly, I'm feeling some fear about starting this.

My mindset is science first—I've always appreciated critical evaluation and the scientific method.

Given the sheer volume of personal accounts out there, plus where I stand in life, it seems impossible to keep ignoring this.

That said, this remains a major unknown for me, and my own risk tolerance can be somewhat high.

Still, I have to go through with it. Once before, I was prescribed/tried ozempic, but the nausea was pretty terrible, so I quit.

Glad to learn from everyone here—thanks for your input and for sharing

 

[Shesins]

A few extra things about me — after going through additional intro posts, I realize my first attempt could have been stronger. I posted it late at night, haha.

39/F/5'3

I'm too embarrassed to put my weight in writing here. It horrifies me. Growing up and into my 20s I was on the thinner side. Not extremely thin, since competitive gymnastics left me with a good amount of muscle. Still, the pounds crept on gradually but consistently once I landed on a great antidepressant combination that actually worked, following years of searching for any relief from chronic depression.

Over 7 years I've moved from roughly 140/135 up into the low 200s. It's not coming off, and the approaches I've attempted aren't moving the needle. I'm the kind of person who, once I see results, pushes even harder into the routine. (To be clear, I'm not planning to blast reta — right now I feel very confident I'll remain south of 2mg for a long while.)

My job is fairly physical, but since it's contract work, some weeks I'm definitely not exercising as much as I ought to. I'm eating properly, increasing protein, removing unnecessary refined sugars.

What else?

My background is in microbiology — think undergrad major level. I don't have any lab access (and I wouldn't want to mix business with pleasure anyway), but I feel very fortunate that my skills and education let me approach this with some critical perspective. I'm also more encouraged by what I've read about best practices and procedures for compounding/bacteria. There's some solid information out there — not all of it, naturally — but I'm glad a good portion of what I'm reading aligns with my education.