47.2 pounds down (12 pounds since starting Ozempic)

November and December have been rough months in the weight loss department. I gained a few pounds and then have maintained when my goal was to lose. I have to be honest, my focus has not been 100% though. There has been a lot of eating out at restaurants and challenges like holidays along the way. So now that it is January I am laser focused and so excited for a fresh start. I wrote down all my resolutions, health and non-health related.

My Ozempic has plateaued at the 0.5mg dose. I noticed my appetite has come back full force and I haven’t lost any weight in over two months now. So I talked to my NP and she agreed that it was time to increase my dose. So I am going to try the 1mg this coming weekend. I was supposed to increase two weeks ago, but I thought it wouldn’t have been smart to increase my dose four days before Christmas. What if I felt super sick? What if I lost my appetite completely? I would have been so sad to have not enjoyed all the Christmas festivities. So I talked to the pharmacist and figured out how to administer 0.5mg in the 4mg pen and went from there for two doses.

I feel so happy that 2025 is over haha, it was a rough year for my mental health! But I am happy to report that I finally feel the most stable I have felt in a really long time. I made it through a wild Christmas and did not feel any hypomania at all. It’s the first Christmas in years that I have felt so grounded! I feel amazing!

I started stimulants this month and I feel great on them. They have really reduced my anxiety and made me more focused and just all around happier, and not in a hypomanic way. I feel like these drugs have changed my life for the better and I’m so excited to talk to my nurse practitioner about it.

I also stayed sober the entire holiday season! That is the first time since I was a teenager that I have been sober over Christmas and New Years. I feel incredible! I was able to be a safe ride for my husband and feel happy that I wasn’t drinking my points. I am so incredibly proud of myself. January 31st will be 1 year alcohol free. I think I am going to buy a Pandora charm to celebrate. That’s a big milestone!

I am so excited about my cooking journey as well. I bought three new cookbooks the other day as a birthday present to myself that all seem incredible. I also found a fun way to save recipes from cookbooks I find at the library which saves me some money (because I don’t have space to keep buying them). I have talked about my ReciMe app before, and I just love how I can snap a photo of a recipe and it will import it. So handy! My ReciMe library keeps growing and growing. My algorithm on TikTok is all recipes and cooking because those are all the ones I save. I’m so excited to see where my cooking journey leads me this year!

There might be a large bump in the road this year if I need to get shoulder surgery. It’s not looking good right now, because I’m still having frequent pain even after three cortisone shots. I’m nervous of what life will look like in a right arm sling for a significant period of time. I’ll be sad I won’t be able to cook! That’s probably the number one thing I will miss. And driving, too. I’ll be pretty isolated which won’t be fun. Hopefully my friends will come to visit!

As for a recipe this week, I am going to add a link to a beautiful lasagna recipe that I used for Christmas this year. It turned out wonderful and I would love to share it.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/23600/worlds-best-lasagna

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Cheers to 2026!!! From John and I.

Until next time.