To inject or not to inject, that is my question

I’m going to start this week’s Substack with a question: has anyone reading this tried one of the weight loss injections currently turning everyone skinny like a modern day Invasion of the Body Snatchers  - or should that be the Fat Snatchers? Because I’m thinking about it. And I’d really like to poll some opinion first.

Now, firstly, I hate  needles. I avoid them like the plague (if that isn’t mixing medical metaphors).  I’m even a simpering wimp when I have to have blood taken and usually a nurse has to hold my hand. So I’m already a little on the fence about the practicalities of it all – but, hopefully, the whole pen injector thing would make the process easier.

But mainly I worry that it’s cheating.  If I want to lose weight, and I’ve gained weight largely through overeating – my emotional/stress eating has been much documented – shouldn’t I really be figuring that stuff out at a deeper level rather than jumping to an easy solution? Isn’t it more important to work on my impulses, to figure out triggers, than just bypass the tricky stuff?  Or is that just some kind of purist, perfectionist thinking that in the long run could keep me stuck in the same place for ages? Does it need to be hard to matter? Why does easy make me feel as though I’d be cheating? Does being hard really make it more worthy? Or is taking the long slog actually all part of the problem, part of procrastination?

I don’t think I’d even consider these injections if it weren’t for the fact that two of my good friends in the space of about a month suggested that I try it. So I know things must be bad and I also know they only have my best interests at heart. And I’m pretty tired of feeling – and being – overweight. Now, I know that I’m not going to ever get back to being as thin as I have been at times in my youth. And I realise I may never be able to fit back into all of my clothes but if I could get back into some of them I’d be overwhelmingly happy. But frankly even I could just make a sizeable shift I’d be pretty content. To feel less self-conscious, to feel that my size is all anyone sees, would be a major victory.

So what do do? After a year that started and ended with a bad fall which damaged the same knee I’m finally largely pain free – though I still can’t kneel on it so certain exercises will be hard to do. But essentially there’s no reason not to start getting back to the gym (other than my own mental self-sabotage at feeling too self concious so it can be hard to cross the threshold). And now that I’m no longer working in a toxic environment I’m certainly barely stress eating, and consistently make an effort to clean up my diet.

So do I go the traditional route, start back on some exercise, remember that I am what I eat (and I shouldn’t want to be overly processed foodstuffs) and see where I am in 6 more months? Do I do both of things but throw in some Ozempic or Mounjaro (which I always want to call Manchego) and see if that supercharges things?  It’s expensive though – and a lot more expensive than just summoning up good old-fashioned self-discipline.

But I caught up with a friend recently who has been using Mounjaro for most of this year and looked incredible. And didn’t just look it but emanated it too. He’d had a few friends who’d also been on it and all of them were happy (even the one who hadn’t realised she had to take the protection cap off the needle so hadn’t actually been injecting anything for the first month – but still managed to lose weight….. (can anyone explain that?).

So I’m as confused as I was at the start of this piece? To inject or not to inject, that is my question. And I’d really really like to know what people think. So, please, if you’ve tried it - or know someone who has - please let me know how you\they found it. And, possibly even more importantly, how were things when the injections stopped? Had eating habits changed forever? Did the weight stay off or did it pile back on? Does anyone have any regrets? Or was the only regret that they didn’t start sooner – and stopped looking for the hard way out and just opened the door right in front of them instead?