Debra’s 6 month progress update & tips for those with only 15 lbs to lose

Eva (00:06):
You are listening to. Less of You. I'm Eva.

Kami (00:09):
My name is Kami.

Eva (00:10):
Come with us as we confront our reasons for being obese while losing weight on semaglutide and roasting our past selves. Well, I've got The Deborah standing in for Kami today because she's got the flu and have had a long day, but we're here.

The Debra (00:25):
Yes.

Eva (00:25):
We're going to get a Deborah update. So thank you for coming to tell us about where you're at. How long ago were you on the show when you started?

The Debra (00:35):
Oh, it's been months and I was only down just a few pounds and now I'm just a few pounds from my goal.

Eva (00:42):
Okay, so give me the numbers.

The Debra (00:44):
All right. So I started at 168. I'm trying to remember, did I start in September? I think it was August or September. I was at that place where I just wanted to lose the last 15 to 20 pounds. It's such a stickler to get off. And so I have moved up through the dosage over time, and I was kind of holding back to go to the highest dose that I can just because I just wanted to see if I could get that last bit off. But I decided to go to the full dose and that was great, made a difference. And so now I am at 154, give or take, and I'd like to lose, I'd like to get to 150. I originally thought maybe 145, but I don't want to go much lower than that, only because I don't like, it's the laxity in my skin's just not there anymore and I'm not doing anything to it, so I'm not going to have any procedures or anything like that. So yeah, so that's where I am. So I've got four pounds to go.

Eva (01:54):
Your episode went up on September 20th, 2024, so six months ago.

The Debra (02:01):
And I was on the shot for almost two months before I lost a pound. I was ramping. For anyone in my situation where it's just that last 20 pounds. You just really have to be patient with the process because it can take a little bit, but I'm okay with it going slow. I don't think slow is bad.

Eva (02:27):
No, I don't either.

The Debra (02:28):
Especially those last 20 pounds. Yeah. But it's been good. I have never had a single side effect, not had one gastro issue. I do take magnesium every day and that kind of keeps things moving, so to speak.

Eva (02:50):
Yeah. My friends text me when they are stuck and I'm like, why is this my life? Sorry.

The Debra (02:59):
Yeah, right. Yeah. You really need to stay consistent with the magnesium and it's good for you, it's good for your sleep and all of that. So I'm kind of in a place now where, notice that I've, I've been a little sedentary. The winter kind of has done that to me. I was hiking and stuff, so I just recently texted a friend that had a personal trainer. I'm going to go in and do some lifting because I really need to build that strength up and they say, if you don't have time for aerobics lift, because muscle mass is better.

Eva (03:40):
Yeah. I did finally get in the gym a couple of times, almost like I needed to break this spell.

The Debra (03:46):
Right.

Eva (03:47):
I haven't been back, but now I feel like I can just go. It's not some big scary thing that I have to

The Debra (03:54):
How are your numbers?

Eva (03:55):
I'm at 189. Last time I looked I'm down 93. Is that 91?

The Debra (04:03):
Oh my gosh.

Eva (04:03):
91 pounds.

The Debra (04:04):
Oh my gosh.

Eva (04:05):
My lower faces are really fallen a lot like the thing you're afraid of.

The Debra (04:10):
Yeah. That chin stuff. So do you have anything planned to celebrate on your hundredth pound?

Eva (04:19):
No.

The Debra (04:19):
Not with food, something else.

Eva (04:22):
I think that would also coincide with hitting goal, and I promised Kami I would take her to Las Vegas.

The Debra (04:27):
Oh wow. That would be fun.

Eva (04:30):
So when we both get there. So we both have to be there.

The Debra (04:32):
Right, right, right. Yeah.

Eva (04:35):
You want to come?

The Debra (04:36):
Yeah, I'd love to come. I could rent my timeshare. I could get my timeshare.

Eva (04:41):
Of course.

The Debra (04:43):
Yeah. I have really nice timeshares down there. I just came back from Tucson. I actually had lunch with my co grandparents of Kordelia, the other

Eva (04:54):
Oh, I saw that on Facebook.

The Debra (04:55):
Yeah. Justin's parents. We had lunch and saw their house. It was nice. It was really nice. It was fun. It was nice and warm. It was 78 degrees.

Eva (05:05):
Yeah. Yeah. We've been in the seventies, eighties for the last couple days, which is nice. We had a pretty long cold stretch for Austin. It was like two or three weeks of twenties, thirties.

The Debra (05:17):
Yeah, you did. It was a real cold snap, huh?

Eva (05:20):
Yeah. How long do you think it's going to take to get your last four pounds off?

The Debra (05:25):
If I get moving, maybe quicker. Yeah. But a couple months, maybe a couple months. I've already talked with TriMedX in Renton, my provider. Oh, in Tukwila, sorry.

Eva (05:39):
Just across from Nordstrom in South Center.

The Debra (05:41):
Right. And they said that there's several ways that I can, when the time comes, she said, you can just go off cold turkey. It doesn't hurt you, but most people don't like that their comes back, so I'll probably wean off and go on maintenance for a while till I feel like I can maintain it myself, but at some point I'd like to be off of it.

Eva (06:07):
Yeah. Yesterday I had a really interesting doctor on meet the doctor. His name was Dr. Jason Giles, and he was so interesting around the food and addiction topic that I'll probably take some of that episode and put it over here just because he had a lot of really interesting things to say about the scientific mechanisms around addiction and how his specialty was drugs, but our conversation had a lot of parallels to food in it. I got to ask him, he actually kind of turned the tables and asked me, what are you going to do? I was kind like, what are you going to do if you can't get it anymore? What will happen? He was trying to get me to explore why am I so afraid of being off of it. And that was the first time anyone ever got me to answer the question. And I'm afraid that I'm going to go back to being super hungry all the time, and I just don't want that. I am really afraid of what's going to happen if I can't have the medication to control those feelings.

The Debra (07:15):
I'm not afraid of it because before I got to the 168 where I just got stuck, I was strict on keto. I was over 180 when I was strict on keto. I was not super hungry because I think your glucose levels aren't doing this. You're more stable. I didn't have that afternoon lull on keto. So for me it was a good combination of food and I ate a lot of protein, so it's stayed with me. So that's kind of my thinking for me for maintenance. So I don't know. Have you ever done keto before? Strict?

Eva (07:59):
No. I did paleo and I ate mostly paleo, but I also suffer from my schedule in my life a lot. I don't want a meal plan.

The Debra (08:10):
Right. With kids, it's hard.

Eva (08:10):
And the kids eat different food than both of us. It is hard.

The Debra (08:18):
And you don't get any on keto, you don't get any fruit. I mean, you can get a handful of berries, you don't get any fruit. You don't get anything with any kind of sugar in it. And the first two weeks was really hard, really hard coming off sugar. It was like, oh my gosh. But after two weeks, it was like something clicked and I stopped craving sugar. So one of the things I noticed, and I did make a little list of some tips, I guess, for people because, well, one of 'em was be patient it time. One of the things I noticed is as I even went up higher on the dose, it was like two in the afternoon and I haven't eaten anything. I've had heavy cream in my coffee, which I think helped me. But there was a day that I said to my husband, I said, because I've dealt with depression in the past, which I don't have anymore. And I said, oh, honey, it scared me because I felt really depressed. I felt like really heavy, and that weighted depression and I'm taking a nap. So I laid down and I realized afterwards I hadn't eaten anything.

(09:39):
Then I ate dinner, it was like pouring water on a plant, perked up.

Eva (09:44):
You're like my 4-year-old Deborah. If she doesn't eat, she's a mess.

The Debra (09:50):
And they don't know that they're hungry, really. I didn't realize that. I just had, I just got involved in things, and so I'm more aware to make sure I probably eat twice a day somewhere around 11 and then around five. The other thing was I have really limited myself to any kind of late night snack, not because I don't feel like I want it. I like to have a little noch on something. But because it slows that digestive system down so much it you're fine when you're sitting up and then you lay down and it's like you felt like you ate a turkey dinner, you stuffed yourself, and now you're laying down. And so I try not to eat anything for at least three hours, if not four hours before I go to bed.

Eva (10:45):
The only times I've ever gotten in trouble were when I ate right before bed. One time it was Chinese food at 10 o'clock at night. That was one of the only times that I threw up in two years.

The Debra (10:57):
Oh, wow.

Eva (10:58):
But that was a long time ago. I think that was when I had just kind of just started first few months and I didn't know what was going to happen. And it only takes once and then you know.

The Debra (11:09):
Yeah, it only takes once. And you realize, Ooh, I ate too late. So I think that's a big deal. And it's also really good for you not to eat for a few hours before you go to bed. I think it affects your sleep too. Your body's focusing on digesting food.

Eva (11:28):
My sleep has been kind of inconsistent recently, and part of the problem is that the stupid mattress that we have, I can feel the buttons. And I am sort of wondering, did I just get so thin that now I can feel the buttons in the bed?

The Debra (11:45):
Or probably.

Eva (11:45):
Did the bed

The Debra (11:48):
Get a topper?

Eva (11:49):
I don't want a topper. I want a different mattress. This is ridiculous.

The Debra (11:53):
Oh, get a Tempur-Pedic mattress, the memory foam and get the one that adjusts so you can sit up. It's really nice.

Eva (12:01):
Yeah. Well, I've misfired on two mattresses in a row now this year, so I'm going to have to be really careful what I do now. They took the first one back because it was so bad. And then they tell you, you can't do this again. So you have to be really sure. And I thought I was, and it turns out I was not. So yeah, we need a mattress sponsor for the podcast now.

The Debra (12:22):
Right. That's so funny. Now you're feeling the buttons.

Eva (12:27):
Yeah. Isn't that weird?

The Debra (12:28):
The princess and the Pea.

Eva (12:29):
Yes. That's me.

The Debra (12:31):
I think I have another tip.

Eva (12:33):
Oh, good.

The Debra (12:34):
I feel better on the medicine when I eat high protein.

Eva (12:38):
Oh, yeah.

The Debra (12:38):
t's easy to, you can fill up on carbs because you can fill up so fast that I really focus on high protein. I think that's good too, so you're feeding your muscle mass. I thought I would say as a tip, if you're getting ready to go on the medicine, be careful who you share with because there's things out there that are derogatory, which I think is a bunch of fear mongering that personally I do, and I mean, this medicine's been around for years and years and years, and so I just caution people to just, there's going to come a time when people are going to say, wow, you've been losing weight. What are you doing? And you'll have to have an answer for that. Because I didn't have to lose that much. It wasn't super noticeable to the people around me. One friend said, oh yeah, you've lost weight. I wore a dress that was a little more form fitting and they could see it then. And so not like you'd hide it, but pick those people you share it with closely. Yeah. Don't you think, I mean, you're out there now.

Eva (13:52):
Well, there's nobody who knows me who wouldn't be like, what happened to you?

The Debra (13:56):
Right. I know you're before and after, so awesome. I love it. That would be a tip I would have. See, did I put anything else down?

Eva (14:07):
I wouldn't have thought of that one because I've just been making a podcast about it, so I kind of decided I didn't care who knew.

The Debra (14:16):
Right.

Eva (14:16):
But when I started, I didn't tell anybody. I think it's funny how no one noticed for a really long time, and sometimes I'll be reading online and see someone like, I've lost 50 pounds and nobody can see it. And you can kind of see it in the picture, but that's a mental thing. You feel so much better when you've lost 50 pounds, but if that was your starting point, you'd still be really large. And so no one's going to come along and be like, oh, look how great you look. You still, that would be telling me at 250 that I look amazing. Maybe compared to 280, but if I had never been 280 and I started at two 50, I don't know. You can do all kinds of mental gymnastics with yourself.

The Debra (15:04):
Right. Well, the other thing I think about when you're sharing with people is then they want to know how much it costs, and then you can come under some kind of criticism or condemnation. You're spending that much money?Yeah, but what you don't realize is, I never eat my whole meal. I go out to lunch and I eat it for dinner. So you do save when it comes to your food intake. Especially eating out, because eating out is like big portions. You never can eat at all, so you get two meals out of it. They don't.

Eva (15:42):
At least.

The Debra (15:42):
At least.

Eva (15:43):
Any other tips?

The Debra (15:44):
Don't get rid of your thin clothes. Hang on to your thin clothes. No, that's about it for me. I am looking forward to being at goal and being able to wean off and see how that, that'll be an interesting time to see what that feels like. But by the spring probably I'll be good and that's great. Then I can get outside. It's not so dang cold and windy.

Eva (16:08):
Right.

The Debra (16:10):
I like to hike. We have a great hiking right, I mean five blocks from my house. Great hiking trail.

Eva (16:15):
Okay. Thank you for joining us today, Debra. Thank you for the update. I'm sorry Kami couldn't make it.

The Debra (16:21):
Yeah, me too. I hope they get better quick. Thank you, it was fun.

Eva (16:24):
When your last four pounds, you can come to Vegas with us.

The Debra (16:27):
Yeah, right.

Eva (16:29):
But we have to stay at the Encore. You can stay at your timeshare.

The Debra (16:33):
Oh, I see, the Encore. Lovely.

Eva (16:35):
Yeah. The best. Okay. Love you.

The Debra (16:38):
Love you.

Eva (16:40):
Follow us on Instagram @LessofYoupodcast. Are you confronting the same challenges and have a story to tell? I'd love to hear your story on our Skinny Shot Stories podcast. Contact me for more details at skinnyshotstories.com. If you're a doctor and would like to learn more about sponsoring this or any of our cosmetic surgery and weight loss podcasts, go to lessofyou.com. Less of You is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.