I'd been slim my whole life, right up until I turned 40 — and then it happened almost overnight. All the little adjustments that used to work (tighten up the eating, drop the sugar, add a workout) just stopped doing anything. I was gaining three or four pounds a month for no reason I could find, and it kept happening even as I worked harder than ever.
I tried everything... Intermittent fasting. Lifting heavy. More cardio. Less cardio. High Fat, Moderate Protein. High Protein, Moderate Fat. Cutting Calories. Keto. Intuitive eating. You name it- if it was recommended as something that had helped women over 40 then I tried it.
At one point I paid $4,000 for a year-long, doctor-supervised program with a nurse dietitian reviewing every bite I ate — absolutely guaranteed to work for women over 40. I followed the guidelines to a "T".
I gained weight the entire time.
Then my eye doctor found something called drusen in my eye's capillaries and told me it was a sign of insulin resistance, essentially pre-diabetic. She recommended a hardcore carnivore diet. I tested my blood sugar 8 to 12 times a day for months and lived on beef, butter, and eggs. Everything I read said that if you stay in that extreme Keto state long enough, then the insulin resistance WILL eventually resolve.
It never did.
By that point I was three years and 40 pounds into this, and I didn't recognize myself in photos anymore.
A friend of mine texted me that Caroline was going to be in town and that I needed to hear what she had to say about peptides. I didn't even know what a peptide was, but sometimes you just know you are supposed to do something. Somehow when I read that text, I knew in my gut it was what I needed. I showed up to dinner having no idea what I was signing up for, and by the end of the night I was filling out my medical intake at the table. It wasn't until I was actually placing the order that it clicked — GLP-1 itself is a peptide. I'd heard "GLP-1" a hundred times and never once realized the "P" stood for peptide. My order arrived in a day and a half: syringes, medication for nausea, alcohol wipes, clear instructions, all of it.
That was six months ago. I hoped I would finally lose the weight, but I had no idea how much I would lose along with it... in the best way. I didn't know the brain fog would clear. I didn't know my hips and knees would stop hurting in the morning. It had been devastating to have been working that hard for so many years and watch my body keep trending the wrong direction — and now it's AMAZING to walk past a mirror now and not brace for it. To live my life freely and not even worry about what I look like or if someone is taking a picture!
Last summer I only put on a bathing suit twice, and I never even swam with my kids. I spent all summer in mumu style dresses and hiding from how terrible I felt. This year I swim with my family constantly and don't give how I look a second thought!
