50 pounds gone!!!! (14.8 gone since starting Ozempic)

I feel amazing!! I finally hit my 50 pound milestone today. I hit this scale victory back in May before my mental health crisis, but I’m hitting it for good this time!

My WW coaches always ask me how I’m losing the weight and what is helping me to be successful. The truth is, I just follow the Weight Watchers program pretty strictly. I count my points and aim to be within them everyday (I’m not perfect), I drink lots of water, I exercise daily, 8 hours of sleep every night, no alcohol, no boredom snacking, daily workshops, journal my progress frequently, write goals, gratitude journal and probably other things! I just wanted to list a few! It doesn’t even feel like I’m on a diet because this is just how I am now. It’s been so long that I’ve been living this way that I don’t remember what I was like before when I was in an unhealthy life pattern. It feels great to actually be in control of my life.

I haven’t shared on here that I am also living the sober life. I gave up alcohol in January and feel great! I was not an alcoholic by any means…but my friends were doing Dry February and John and I wanted to join. Well I lost 11 pounds that month, my skin cleared up, I slept better, and my mental health improved when I quit so I just continued on and never looked back! I feel amazing! My psychiatrist has told me for years not to mix alcohol with my medications so I finally listened and wow what a difference. I feel like a completely different person. Fortunately, John doesn’t drink that much so he wasn’t affected by my choices. And it doesn’t bother me when he wants to have some beer or wine, either. I can be around it and be totally fine! I’ve never needed alcohol to have fun or be sociable. I do miss the occasional glass of red wine…that was always my favourite. But I have found some good nonalcoholic alternatives which is so awesome. Even Costco sells those Whiteclaw Zero drinks and they are incredible! Love them! And they are zero points! What a bonus.

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So we have officially increased my Ozempic to the therapeutic dose and I feel fine. Other than vomiting my night meds last night, I haven’t noticed a difference when it comes to side effects. I feel great when it comes to food noise, feeling full longer and not requiring snacks. It’s amazing how I’m not going to the kitchen every 5 minutes anymore. I just have to figure out what snack at night I can have with my medications that won’t make me sick. I’ve vomited several times now and the following day after no medications is always a nightmare for my mental health. I just don’t sleep well, which triggers some symptoms. I just have to figure out what to eat that won’t cause nausea. Cheerios were working for a while but now I think I need a more substantial snack. I was supposed to get blood work done today too to check my medication levels but I had to reschedule due to missing a dose. That’s alright! Life always throws us obstacles we need to face.

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So I made this ravioli dish last night and I can’t stop thinking about how good it turned out! It was absolutely incredible, filling, full of flavour, and was soooo incredibly easy. It’s not my personal recipe but I found it on TikTok. I couldn’t transfer the video into my ReciMe app so I took notes from the video and created a shareable recipe.

So here it is:

Crockpot Chicken Ravioli

by Matthew Bounds at Your Barefoot Neighbour

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds chicken breast

salt

pepper

onion powder

garlic powder

Italian seasoning

sun dried tomatoes

crushed red pepper flakes

24 ounces marinara sauce

1 cup heavy cream

25 ounces cheese ravioli

frozen spinach

Instructions:

1.) Season the bottom of the crock pot with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and Italian seasoning.

2.) Place the chicken breast on top of the seasonings

3.) Season the chicken with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning again

4.) Add jar of cut up sun dried tomatoes

5.) Add crushed red pepper flakes

6.) Pour in marinara sauce

7.) Add heavy cream.

8.) Cover crock pot. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours

9.) Once the chicken is done, pull it out and shred it. Put the shredded chicken back into the sauce.

10.) Stir in ravioli and frozen spinach

11.) Cover and cook on high for another hour until the ravioli is heated through. Stir.

Yummy!

We leave for Squamish on Saturday! Our anniversary is on Sunday. I cannot wait to get away and just completely relax for the weekend. I don’t even care if it rains the entire time, it will still be lovely to be away with John and Jiny. We are board game fanatics so we will be bringing lots of those to play. Then tons and tons of food. We’re looking forward to exploring different hot spots! Can’t wait!

Until next time.