I don’t even know where to begin. 

I started this journey January 7th. Of this year. I weighed 276 pounds. 

A couple years ago, I had “tried” dieting and exercise. I say it that way because I had absolutely no understanding of dieting, and I was just throwing myself into the gym and hoping the weight would come off, accelerated by my recent sobriety. (Two years sober as of May 19th) 

Well, it didn’t and I quickly became disillusioned with everything. Within six months every pound I had lost was regained. When I got sober, I was 280. I got down to 250, and then rebounded to the aforementioned 276. 

Being 38, I have been more conscious of my own mortality lately so I had been going to the doctor. Among my comorbidities was my psoriasis, high blood pressure, and prediabetes. So after my last check up I asked about Ozempic, which he shook his head at saying he couldn’t prescribe it without actually being diabetic and it not costing a fortune. 

Then he mentioned Zepbound. I kind of sat on my hands with it for a couple months. Then, after the new year, I decided that it was this or being fat forever, and I didn’t want that. 

So I got started. On 2.5mg I certainly noticed a dulling of my appetite. And overtly greasy things were a chore to eat. Fast food wasn’t an option. So I ate cleaner. I was committed to not looking at a scale for at least a month. Just wanted to see what would happen. 

About two weeks into that, I noticed I my belly didn’t really protrude the way it normally did. I stepped on the scale and I had lost 11 pounds. From there I realized I had a powerful tool at my disposal. And if I wanted to maximize its utility, I needed to streamline everything else. 

I downloaded a calorie counting app, Cal AI. Holy shit has that app been so helpful in this journey. I have logged every single meal, every single day, since then. I think I’m on a 140+ day streak? It’s seriously such a great tool. 

I started going back to the gym. I got on Claude and asked it to create me a four-day split, and I stuck to it. Some weeks I went five days. A few weeks I only went three. But the point is I fucking went even if I didn’t feel like it. Hot tip; if you get in there, you’ll feel better when you leave. 

So that was my new lifestyle. I started with a cut of 1800 calories daily, regardless of if I went to the gym or not. My macros were 150g of protein, 170g carbs, 54g fat, 25g fiber. I tried to hit the fiber every day because buddy the constipation was very real. A couple weeks there I did the magnesium citrate route. With a BMR around 2300 I figured that was a good deficit. 

And the weight just fell off. I’m titrated up to 10mg now. Since I began I have retained 90% of my lean body muscle mass. I have gone from almost 40% body fat, to 22%. My gains in the gym are more retainers than anything, I quickly learned there was no bulking in the deficit I was in. So holding onto the weights I was lifting was my goal. I consider myself a chunk of marble to be whittled away. 

But perhaps the most important thing is the change mentally I have undergone in the past six months. The rewriting of my mind’s code, my relationship with food and how I view it has changed entirely. My new habits have not only begun to influence my decisions but those decisions now influence the lifestyle I aspire toward. That’s the difference this journey has taught me. We are not our words but our actions, our actions influence choices, and those choices become our identity. You want to be Ronnie Coleman? You better start acting like it. Because the only way to get from here to there is start choosing the things and ways someone like that does. 

This is getting philosophical but at the heart of it all is a desire for improvement and today I fully realized one goal I’ve had in my mind for years and years. As I’ve learned more about nutrition and my functional gym literacy has increased, my goals now are different. 15% body fat, which at my height and weight and lean mass means 183 pounds. 

If you’ve made it this far, I commend you. But that also means you’re probably trying to figure out if something like Zepbound is for you. I approve of anyone using it with the caveat that you see it as a tool, as something to assist you. It won’t lift the weights for you, it won’t make you happy inside when you’re trying to sleep. 

But it will give you a chance to give those things to yourself. Thanks for reading! God bless.

I made it to One-derland today (with pics and a long note)