Well, this is a difficult one to talk about.
There seems to be a lot of stigma attached to GLP-1 weight-loss medication and, in my experience at least, there are some very mixed feelings about it.
I know people who have used it with little or no side effects. I know people who are still using it. I know people who have had fantastic results.
My feeling?
I don’t really care.
And I mean that in the nicest possible way. What somebody else chooses to do to improve their health is their business. If it works for them, they’re happier, healthier and comfortable with the decision they’ve made, then good luck to them.
What I do find interesting is the reluctance some people have to admit they’re using it. Nobody owes anybody an explanation of their medical treatment, of course, but I think the fact that some people feel they need to hide it says quite a lot about how we view weight loss.
There still seems to be this idea that there is a “proper way” to lose weight.
I bumped into someone earlier this year who I hadn’t seen for a good few years. While my weight had increased considerably since we’d last seen each other, theirs had gone in the opposite direction. They looked really well and, more importantly, they looked happy.
We chatted briefly and they joked that they’d been forced to “do it the proper way”.
I didn’t understand what they meant at first.
They’d lost their weight before GLP-1 medication became widely available. It was only a joke, but there was also clearly some pride in what they’d managed to achieve through changing their lifestyle.
And I understand that.
At the other end of the spectrum, I have a colleague who is currently using GLP-1 medication and having some great success with it.
Their perspective is really interesting. They’ve always struggled with temptation around food and they see the medication as an opportunity to retrain themselves and their habits. They’re doing well, haven’t experienced massive side effects and are getting on with a normal life while steadily losing weight.
I’ve also seen someone lose weight incredibly quickly while using it. From the outside, I actually thought they started to look unhealthy because the change happened so fast.
But they seemed happy.
And ultimately, isn’t that their journey rather than mine?
So, would I use it?
That’s where this becomes personal.
Given the years I’ve struggled with the balance between food, drink and activity—or, more accurately at times, a lack of activity—I can completely understand why somebody might decide they need some help.
There have been plenty of times when I’ve wanted to change but simply haven’t been in the position to make the changes stick.
That wasn’t through a lack of want.
Wanting something and having the capacity to actually do something about it can be two very different things.
So yes, I considered GLP-1 medication.
I got reasonably close to making an appointment to discuss it.
I’m not embarrassed to say that and I don’t think choosing to go ahead with it would have represented failure. If I’d decided that medication was the tool I needed to start changing my life, then that’s what I would have done.
But I didn’t.
Through finally finding some capacity for myself, combined with some amazing support from the people around me, I’ve managed to start this journey without medication.
And, at the moment, that’s the route I want to continue down.
Not because I think GLP-1s are cheating.
Not because I think doing it without medication somehow makes the result more worthy.
And certainly not because I think my way is the “proper way”.
It’s simply because of what I’m actually trying to achieve.
I’m not just trying to lose weight
Obviously I want the number on the scales to come down. Quite considerably, in fact.
But Shift-Spark was never supposed to be just a weight-loss diary.
I’m trying to change my normal.
My old normal gradually became too much food, too much beer and far too little activity. Exercise that had once been a routine part of my life slowly disappeared. Getting started again became harder, which made doing nothing easier, which made getting started even harder.
That’s the cycle I’m trying to break.
My new normal needs to look different.
I want controlled food intake to become normal rather than something I’m temporarily enduring because I’m “on a diet”.
I want going to the gym to become normal.
I want cycling, swimming, walking and eventually more running to become normal again.
I want choosing to move rather than choosing not to move to become normal.
And I want all of those things to become sufficiently ingrained that, eventually, maintaining my weight doesn’t require a heroic amount of willpower. It’s simply the consequence of how I live.
That’s why, for me personally, I want to try building those behaviours now, while the weight is coming off.
My concern for me with using GLP-1 medication would be getting a significant amount of weight off first and then trying to establish the activity, nutrition and self-control afterwards.
Maybe that would work brilliantly.
Maybe it wouldn’t.
But right now, I have something I haven’t had for a long time:
momentum.
And I don’t want to interfere with it.
There isn’t a medal at the end
Perhaps that’s the bit we sometimes forget when talking about weight loss.
Nobody hands out medals for suffering.
There isn’t a podium where the person who lost weight without medication stands on the top step, somebody who used GLP-1 medication stands underneath them and somebody who had bariatric surgery gets pushed off to one side.
We’re all just people trying to get somewhere better than where we started.
Different people have different circumstances, different bodies, different relationships with food and different challenges going on behind the scenes.
What works for me might be completely wrong for somebody else.
And what works for somebody else doesn’t diminish what I’m doing.
For now, my route is food control, activity, data, support and gradually building a completely different routine around myself.
Small decisions.
Repeated often.
Hopefully becoming habits.
Hopefully becoming normal.
And hopefully, eventually, becoming something I don’t even have to think about.
If somebody else decides that GLP-1 medication gives them the opportunity to achieve exactly the same thing, I genuinely wish them the very best of luck with it.
Whatever journey you’re on, keep checking in with yourself.
Pay attention to how you’re feeling physically, but also how you’re doing mentally. Use the support you’ve got around you and don’t be afraid to ask for more when you need it.
And perhaps most importantly, don’t spend too much time worrying about whether somebody else thinks you’re doing it the “proper way”.
There isn’t one.
There’s just the way that works for you.
