wegovy, baby!

in early may, i started on wegovy. my weight has been creeping up for some years and menopause hasn't exactly helped. it seems harder than ever to those extra pounds. my mom was about my age when she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, so i was starting to think it was a good idea to shed those extra pounds. plus, a couple of my friends were trying it with great results, so i decided to try it out. 

in order to have it prescribed here in denmark, you have to go through a full physical and blood workup. you can have it if your body fat is 30% and mine was "only" 28%, but my blood test showed weirdly high cholesterol, so the doctor went ahead and prescribed it. 

in four months, i've already lost 10 kilos (22 pounds). it simply makes me eat less. i feel full more quickly and so i just don't eat as much. i've learned that i don't have to clean my plate (what a bad habit that was we were taught as children). and a nice side effect is that it also makes me drink less. i have a glass of wine while i'm making dinner and then i don't have any desire for another one. 

i've also been trying to exercise regularly. our rainy summer has gotten a bit in the way of that, but it has also helped with the weight loss.

for me, the main side effect is low grade nausea that comes and goes all day. and a positive side effect is that my nails are so much stronger! it's also positive that my clothes fit better and i just overall feel much better and more energetic. 

this morning, i was browsing instagram and came across some very vitriolic comments on emily simpson's (of real housewives of orange county fame) instagram. she's lost a lot of weight in the new season and the people in her comment section are castigating her for kickstarting her weight loss with ozempic (that's the version of the drug for diabetes). ozempic and wegovy are the same drug and both are made by danish pharmaceutical company novo nordisk but just marketed for two different purposes. 

i genuinely didn't realize that using the drug came with so much shaming. and i really don't get it. why not use all the help you can get on the road to getting healthier? it's not a miracle in and of itself, you still have to get more exercise and be sure that you eat healthy. you still have to do the work, but it just helps you along the way. why should anyone care enough about how someone else loses weight to leave nasty comments?

it feels like the world and especially the online world, has become such a nasty place. there's so much judgement and strife and a real lack of thoughtfulness and kindness.

i do recognize that i am privileged to live a place that has access to the drug - for now, it's only sold in denmark, norway, germany and the us. and it's not cheap. i've paid nearly 1300kr ($188) per month until this month, when it went up to 1800kr ($260). that's because your dose goes up each month on the regimen. i'm actually going back down to 1.0 (this month was 1.7) in september. it might slow down my weight loss, but it will also hopefully cut back on the nausea, which can be a little annoying when you're sitting in a meeting at work, trying to concentrate.

i'm happy to be using this drug and not afraid to say so. i don't know how long i'll continue and i hope that when i stop, i will have trained myself to eat less and get more exercise and it will be such a habit, that my weight will stay off. i'd like to lose 15 more kilos and then keep it off, once and for all. 

kittens in crowns!

it's that time again! time for kittens in crowns! our little mazikeen made some poor life choices and had five kittens! for a little half-kitten herself, she's doing a remarkable job and they are fast approaching peak cute. i'm enjoying them immensely, but will definitely find homes for them and then mazi's getting fixed. 

summer holiday winding down

just a day and a half left of my three week summer holiday. it's been a rainy, rather cold summer and it would have been nice to go somewhere with sunshine, but it's also been really nice and relaxing to be at home and really great to have sabin at home. we worked on the outdoor terrace, i sewed and i worked with sabin on a cactus mural wall in our bedroom. 

i'm sad my holiday is ending and i've got low grade dread going back to all the work i have to do in the next couple of weeks. and i'm sad that sabin will head back to school at the end of the week. i'll miss having her here. we've been watching real housewives of orange county and relaxing. it's been good and hopefully all the rest and relaxation will carry me through the busy autumn. 

one down, two to go

it took me most of the day to figure this out. i combined two ikea fabrics from my stash and made a reversible pillow for the new lounge area in the covered terrace that husband has built this summer. i bought a pallet cushion as the base and so this is basically a cover, though i have sewn the buttons on, so i'll have to clip them off if i want to remove it. 

i spent quite a long time fiddling with the zipper. i was pleased with myself for finding a long zipper for only 10kr. in the local secondhand shop. maybe i won't bother with the zippers in the next ones since i'm sewing the buttons on. it makes quite a difference to have them there - it keeps its shape much more nicely.

i really love how the buttons look. i don't love the sawdust that i got on the brand new cushion because i couldn't resist trying it out in position and husband was still sanding the bench in preparation for painting it. 

prepped the buttons for the next two. i'm really pleased with how they turned out. and they look cool and i think they'll be quite flat and not uncomfortable to sit on them. at least these rainy weather is good for such activities. 

perlemagi!

after years of making "perleplader" with the child and never having them really hang together, i spent yesterday playing with hama beads. i saw someone doing very creative things with them a few months ago at upcomers in vejle and bought a couple of her how-to books. she calls her technique perlemagi.

her technique involves melting them much more than we ever melted them back in the day. luckily, i saved my old iron that was spitting chalky residue on all of our clothes. turns out if you turn off the steam, it's perfect for melting little plastic beads.

i went a little nuts. and couldn't stop making them. i even made husband eat smørrebrød for dinner, because i couldn't be bothered to stop and make dinner. it's kind of magical how these geometric shapes just melt like that. and how melting them this much makes them actually stick together. 

i made these as buttons for the cushions i'm making for our new outdoor lounge area. i needed 36 of them. it was fun. i could have kept going, but i restrained myself. ok, i did make a few extra, as i have to figure out how to make holes in them so i can sew them on. it was a great activity for a rainy day.