A Quiet Week, in the Best Way
Three weeks in, and this is starting to feel like a routine rather than an experiment. No side effects this week. The mild dizziness from earlier is gone. The sweet cravings haven't come back. Snacking impulses don't even register anymore.
It's strange how something that felt like a constant battle for years — the kitchen visits, the after-dinner sugar hunt, the mindless eating in front of the TV — can just… turn off. I'm not pretending this is willpower. The medication is doing real work. But the protocol is what's making sure that work translates into the right kind of body composition.
Sticking to the Plan
The discipline now is the same as week one: protein first at every meal, then everything else. On days where dinner ends up lower in protein than I'd like, I add a shake before bed. It's not glamorous, but it's how I'm staying on target without obsessing over it.
I eat the protein source on my plate before I touch anything else. If appetite cuts out halfway through the meal, I've already won the part that matters. This single habit has done more for my consistency than any tracking app.
New Training Toys
I picked up two pieces of equipment this week: a 24 kg (53 lbs) kettlebell, and a trap bar. The kettlebell adds variety — swings, goblet squats, single-arm presses, farmer carries — and the trap bar lets me pull heavy without putting my lower back in the awkward position a barbell deadlift demands. For someone training alone at home, the trap bar is one of the safest ways to load real weight.
The walks have started feeling almost too easy. I bumped the treadmill incline up another notch this week to make the 30 minutes count again. Funny how quickly the body adapts when the weight starts coming off.
The Scale Settles into a Real Pace
Sunday's weigh-in showed about 1 kg down for the week. That's the more honest number now — the early big drops were mostly water, and from here on I expect to land somewhere between 0.5 and 1 kg per week. That's the range associated with sustainable fat loss without major muscle compromise, and it's exactly where I want to be.
Slow weight loss is good weight loss. The temptation with GLP-1 medication is to want it faster, but faster usually means more muscle going with the fat. I'd rather take 12 months and arrive in good shape than 6 months and arrive frail.
Why I'm Staying at 2.5 mg
Tonight is dose number four, and the prescription protocol calls for moving up to 5 mg at this point. I had a conversation with my doctor and we agreed to keep me on 2.5 mg for another four weeks before reassessing.
The reasoning is simple: it's working. Side effects are minimal. Hunger and cravings are controlled. Weight loss is steady. Training is going well. There's no clinical reason to push the dose harder when the lower dose is delivering everything I came here for. If the effect plateaus or my appetite returns, we'll titrate up. Until then, less medication for the same result is the better deal.
The default escalation schedule isn't sacred. If 2.5 mg gives you what you need, talk to your doctor about staying there. Lower dose, fewer side effect risks, same outcome. The medication is a tool, not a target — you don't have to "use the whole box" if a quarter does the job.
Next entry: Week 4 — one month in. Time to look at the bigger picture.