Good News You Can Use!

Cindi Lamb Wiley is a Health Science Educator at Towson University and Harford Community College in Maryland, specializing in compassionate sexuality, drugs in our culture, and nutrition. 

Before I begin, PLEASE CONSIDER THIS:

If you are thinking about using any GLP or GIP drug, I cannot stress enough to please purchase and read "Enough: Your Health, Your Weight, and What It's Like to Be Free" By Ania M. Jastreboff M.D. Ph.D. and Oprah Winfrey. The book is written by Dr. Jastreboff with comments from Oprah concerning her weight loss and use of a GLP.

More importantly, this book contains the most recent research regarding obesity. It's really NOT in your pants; it's in your brain! I will provide a summarized review of this information soon. 

My Mom and Dad were big people.  I am a big person.  My brother Steve: slim, lithe, ate everything, gained nothing. He, and people like him, should be banished to… I don't care, but get the heck outta my face, please.

In the early ’70’s, my Mom went to her doctor to find out how to lose weight.  He prescribed her diet pills that were a mixture of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, aka: speed, aka: Black Beauties.  

She lost 100 pounds in about a year and talked incessantly on the phone with Mrs. Etty while she did the dishes, vacuumed, and ironed my Dad’s boxer shorts (we had a LONG telephone cord by then). My Mom was always a discerning homemaker and housekeeper, but during this time, she was like Rosie the Robot meets the Tasmanian Devil.  

“I don’t think you will be wearing these again,” Mom said to me, plowing through my dresser drawer. I was just waking up. “These shorts are way too small for you now, but they’ll fit me just right; you don’t care if I wear them, do you? If I take them?” she asked.

“No, not at all Mom, no problem,” I told her.  I went downstairs later, and she was wearing them.  “You look great, Mom!” I told her.  And she did look great, but it hurt my feelings.  The “these are way too small for you” comment.  Plus because my Mom and Dad were such big people, it was drilled into me that the “f” word (fat) was not to be uttered or used to describe anyone, ever.  

A few weeks later, Mom shook violently as she sat on the couch. 

“Mom! What’s wrong?” I asked, scared.

“I threw the pills away,” she said, trembling. “I don't think it was good for me to take those pills,” she said.  

Mom gained all the weight back, and even more weight, within six months.  

Years later, Mom decided to lose weight again, so she joined an diet club nearby: TOPS: Take Off Pounds Sensibly. She lost 100 pounds! But, during one of the weekly meetings after she weighed in, Mom had gained less than a half a pound.  She had to wear a pig nose and a pig necklace and sit away from the table for the whole meeting.  

That was the end of that.  Once again, Mom gained all the weight back, and even more weight, within six months.  (NOTE: TOPS is still around, and has been extremely successful for some people.  No more “pig” insignias, for sure.)

After my Dad died in 1996, Mom no longer had to make cookies and treats for the men in my Dad’s construction company, or buy ice cream and other stuff my Dad liked.  She alone was the decider of what and when she ate.  She lost 50 pounds by 1997, and another 50 pounds by 1998. 

My Mom was 70 years old when she moved to Maryland in 1998. She looked FANTASTIC! She was about 5’4” and weighed 128 pounds. I was ALWAYS jealous as hell of her, and she NEVER gained any of that weight back!  For 22 years! 

I’ve tried to lose weight four times.  I would lose 10 or 15 pounds, then gain it back, and a pound more.  I have severe rheumatoid disease and my docs made it clear: lose weight, live longer, feel MUCH better.  I, like so many other women (at first) thought that using the new weight loss drugs was “cheating” somehow, or that it was not safe.  And then there’s the cost of the drug.  

My primary doc was skeptical and didn’t want to write a prescription for me, but I convinced him.  That was about a year ago in April of 2025.  I was able to fill it  inexpensively through a compounding pharmacy in Elkton because the GLP drugs were in short supply. Since I already inject myself subcutaneously with methotrexate every week, it was no big deal to draw and inject the semaglutide (GLP1, or “Wegovy”).

I received very specific directions from the pharmacy and my doctor.  I was warned that it may make me sick, and boy did it ever.  I was advised to reduce the dose until I could get used to it.  So I did.  

 I inject my Wegovy once per week.  My initial directions were to reach a maximum dose of 60 units within 6-8 weeks, starting at 10 units and increasing by 10 units each week.  It took me almost five months to reach the maximum dose before my stomach stopped hurting and I no longer felt nauseated.  I almost quit taking it because I am not a patient person. 

I lost weight consistently through this slow process, from about a half pound to a pound per week, which is exactly how to lose weight and keep it off: do it slowly! And no more than one to two pounds per week.  The faster a person loses weight, the more likely they are to regain it, and also gain an extra  5-10% more of the original body weight.  

Then the weight started to come off.  I couldn’t believe it! I still don’t believe it!  It will be a year in April and I’m hoping, for the first time since 1991, I will be under 200 pounds, which is 10 pounds more than my birthweight!

I weighed 210 when I married Gordon 16 years ago and today, for the first time since that day (November 26, 2009), I put on my wedding outfit, and it fit like a glove! I had gained 45 pounds in 16 years.  Good lovin’ makes me hungry! - HA!

Do I feel better? Yes, and no.  I really thought that if I lost 40 pounds, the rheumatoid disease would miraculously disappear; that I wouldn’t have flares that confine me to bed for days or there would be no more hand pain that feels like I smashed my fingers in a car door.  

That’s still happening, BUT! I can lift my legs higher, and I can get in and out of my car without the preemptive “UGH!” grunt.  I can roll over with ease in bed, go in and out of the chicken coop and the camper without effort, pain, and without grabbing the railings with a white-knuckle death grip. And I feel a LOT better about myself when we engage in connubial bliss. 

I would like to lose maybe another 25 or 30 pounds, but I am not interested in a particular pant size or losing a certain number of pounds.  I think I’ll know when I’m done.  But I do plan on taking this drug for the rest of my life.  I pay out of pocket for it through HERS.  And if I have to go back to pole dancing to make enough money to pay for it, I will.  I still have my old pasties and G-string!! HAHAHA!!

Here are two ways that Wegovy makes me feel about food:

1. Nothing.  It makes me feel nothing about food.  I don’t think about it, crave it, plan on what I will eat next and when, count calories in an app, on paper, or in my head, or feel guilty all the time about whatever I ate. 

All of that stopped and that is miraculous for me.  The “food noise” in my head has disappeared.  Sometimes I’ll have a slice of my homemade bread with my coffee in the morning, and forget to eat anything until about 4 PM! I used to get hunger pangs every three or four hours, but not anymore.  I still get hunger pangs, but not like I used to.  

But I have no appetite.  There’s a big difference between the two: hunger and appetite.  Hunger pangs mean your stomach sensors are telling you that it’s empty and needs something to eat NOW! 

Appetite is when you see food or smell food or think about food, and you want it, even though you just ate a turkey dinner.  Even though you know you’re not really hungry, but your mouth is lonely and would like some good food company. 

I have to say, I actually grieved the loss of my appetite for about three weeks or maybe longer.  Eating something sumptuous brings joy and comfort and can be very soothing.  I really miss my appetite for food, still. But the joy I get from being grunt-free getting off the couch or out of the car supercedes the loss of my appetite.  

2. Whenever and whatever I eat, I get full on way less food.  When I do eat, I eat half as much as I used to eat and feel twice as full.  And if I keep stuffing my face, even after my stomach tells me I’ve had enough, it almost makes me sick, like I’m going to puke.  And that’s a really uncomfortable feeling.  

So that’s it: no more constant food noise, no appetite, and I feel satiated on way less food. 

Gordon is a smart man, a very smart man.  He has NEVER commented on my weight, never.  He has never said I was too big, or that he was “worried about my health” bullshit, and he doesn’t say anything about my weight loss, unless I bring it up, like “Look! I can wear these three sweatshirts again!” or “I lost another two pounds!” And then he says “Congratulations!” 

But he’s way to smart to say things like “I’m so glad you’re losing weight because you look so much better” or "I don’t care what size you are; I love, every bit of you,” or even “keep it up! Me like!” or some other dumb assery remark, because he knows that I could gain it all back.  And he knows that whatever he says about my weight or my size, it will most likely culminate in a serious stink-o-rama, tense angst, and eventually, hurt feelings. 

He just says “I love you more than anything, and when you're happy, I'm happy.” And he hugs me good and tight.  

He’s so feakin’ smart.