u/LatteLover4444

I need your best & most creative ground meat seasonings/recipes for ground chicken, turkey & beef. I am already locked in on taco and teriyaki, need inspo please!

So I’ve lost my first 40 lbs. SW 345, CW 304. Not quite ready to treat myself to a new pair of pants, I’m almost there, and have some older clothes in my closet waiting to be worn again that I’m a tad too big for still. I’m in an “in between” place. I got a “buckleless belt” from Amazon and it’s saving the day and way better than a bulky buckle belt. It basically acts like a snug elastic waistband and keeps my pants up nicely for now. I like it better than a buckle belt. Would love to know any hacks you all have for getting by with clothing that’s getting bigger and look cute until you can kiss some of the bigger clothes goodbye!

Hi! I’m curious for those of use who are trying to loose more than 100, what has your medication journey looked like so far? Any commentary/reflections welcome. I’m just needing to hear your stories. It keeps me motivated, keeps my head in the game, keeps me doing the work to keep making progress to habits and choices. Anyone else like that? I know we are all different.
Here’s my stats: SW 345. CW 305.
On Zepbound since Jan.
4 weeks at 2.5mg
15 weeks at 5mg
8 weeks at 7mg got another month supply. I’ll take tomorrow still on 7mg.
My last month of 5mg was a stall and I had a lot of food noise. I had kinda had a binge-y day or two in that last month. Leaned into my new habits I’ve established so far and did not gain though. 7mg took me out of the stall.
I just told a friend this weekend, I got a long way to go yet, but I’m so thankful for what I’ve lost so far & enjoy the little improvements in how I feel thus far. It’s been worth every penny and constipation or fatigue day I have had post shot day. Thanks for reading!

I log my weight every Tuesday morning. SW in January I weighed 345. Today I am 305.5. This evening that is really sinking in. I think I'm in shock. I take my 8th dose of 7.5 tonight. I check in with my NP in 4 weeks. I may or may not be under 300 at that appointment, but if I'm not, I know I'll be super close. Slow and steady... I think the last time I was under 300 was 2018/2019. Not sure. How did you celebrate or did you do anything for yourself when you hit what was a really important goal to you? Getting F out of the 300s is mine. It's so close. I would love to hear your first important to you goal you hit, what was that like, how did you feel, what were you NSV when you got there? In the past couple weeks, I've had a big NSV. I was so heavy that I developed "meuralgia parenthetic" which is basically a compressed nerve causing numbness in my thigh when standing a while or walking. In the past weeks, I've noticed I'm not experiencing this hardly anymore at all, and if I did, it's very faint and few and far between. It started when I hit the 300s and it feels so good to feel it fade away as I am near the exit from 300s. Thanks for listening!

I’ve been feeling so good about losing about 37 pounds now. SW 345 in January, CW 307.3 and enjoying little wins like less winded, improved blood pressure. I’m 5’6” tall and nobody has noticed I’ve lost any weight. I’m not looking for it, but I feel like here I am 29th week making so many habit changes & really trying hard, staying slow & steady, but still looking the same. I saw myself on my Ring video yesterday and I look the same, except I think my gait is less “fat-waddle”. I feel discouraged yet thankful all at once I lost what I have so far. Anybody else feel like it is taking forever for their loss to be noticeable? I’m feeling like I will never look less fat than I am. And why can’t I be more happy about my loss so far?

I feel like sharing where I'm at. I just had my 6 week check in with my NP today. My blood pressure is the lowest it's been in 8 years at 115/70! I started in January, SW345. Today I'm at 308.2. My BMI dropped from 55.78 to 49.77. Something about seeing that BMI drop below 50 felt amazing! (Ok, I know just barely in the 40s with BMI but still!) and I just realized it's quite possible by my next 6 week check in with my NP, I may drop below 300 lbs or come close. Overall I've averaged 1.2 lbs lost a week. Today I take my 6th dose of 7.5mg. I had a big 4-5 week stall on my last month of 5mg and had to just finish up my 5mg doses as insurance wouldn't let me bump up until that was done. And that was okay. I leaned into some of my new eating habits and sort of just stayed the same weight for a while despite food noise creeping back in - which is a win to me honestly, to just to not gain. That stall was a good learning experience for me to keep building on and improving my habits. I can say this week was the first week I actually noticed a visual change in my appearance. I have been feeling my clothing getting looser and feeling less winded walking, but today was the first day I saw that I looked a little smaller. It's subtle, but it's really there. I have a long way to go yet. My first goal is to lose 52 pounds this year (1 lb a week), and the same each year after until I get to what seems about right. I haven't set an actual goal weight. I'll think more about that after I reach 100 lb loss. For now, I'm officially 15 pounds away from reaching 52 lb goal and I just can't believe that. It's such a relief. To drop 15 lbs to reach my first goal seems very doable with 27 weeks left in the year, thanks to Zepbound! I feel thankful and happy today. Hitting 299 is near. Blood pressure is down. Starting to see my belly look a bit smaller. Fit into some pants I couldn't zip up a month ago. Feeling more motivated to exercise more now that walking is starting to get easier and I'm close to getting below 300. I'm starting to let myself feel more hope for my fat situation. This time last year I was just miserable and hopeless in my failed attempts to loose weight. Now I see progress. Thanks for listening!

Hi, just wanted to share this. I have Blue Shield covering my Zepbound. Went to CVS to pic up my order and it was full price rather than my usual $120 copay. I thought, maybe I'm due for a re-authorization from Blue Shield as I knew after 6 months I would need to do that & it's been about that long. So, had my doc submit a continuation of coverage to Blue Shield, it was approved. Go to CVS again, they say it's still coming up not covered, Blue Shield says it is. After much going back and forth, Blue Shield tells me they now will only be covering the single Kwikpen version of Zepbound, not the 4 single auto injectors. CVS says, we don't carry Kwikpen & we don't know when we will - see ya! Ugh. So I go to Safeway pharmacy to see if they carry Kwikpen. Night and day customer service. They don't carry the Kwikpen either, but said let us check if we can order it for you. They can & they will order it when the prescription comes in. So, had my doctor move all my scripts to Safeway. CVS was charging me $160 a month total for all my meds. Safeway is charging me $95 for Zepbound, and the charge for all my meds each month will be $110 vs. CVS's $160. That's a $50 a month savings. I had no idea I was sleeping on Safeway pharmacy for so long. My point of sharing this is, it might be worth the effort to shop around and see if changing your pharmacy saves you money. Wishing good luck to everyone trying to pay for their Zepbound, I feel lucky mine is only $95. I realize many people pay more or have no coverage, and are really trying to manage obesity.

I just wanted to share where I'm currently at for those who are interested or those who can relate. I know it's helped me a lot reading all of your posts as various points in your journey, not just the goal achieved parts. So thank you to everyone who has been sharing their "somewhere in the middle" stories. They have been keeping me going and helpful when the end goal seems out of reach, so far away.

Dec 15, 2025, HW: 345

JAN 7, 2026, SW: 338

MAY 12, 2026, CW: 315

I started at 2.5mg on Jan 7th for 4 weeks. I've been on 5mg since Feb 3rd. The past 4 weeks the food noise has been coming back, but I had to just finish my 5mg doses until insurance would cover my next month's subscription. I've only lost 2 pounds in the last 6 weeks and the last 4 weeks were hard feeling the drug not as well anymore, but I leaned into my new habits that aren't perfect, but progressing and getting established, and did not gain any weight and still kept that last 2 lbs off. Honestly, I was ping-ponging up and down for the past month with those 2 lbs, but just leaned into the new habits I've been building and figuring out as much as I could while the food noise dial was turning each week. Today was my 6 week check in with my NP. We looked at my overall picture since starting and I got a little emotional. I've average 1.5ish lbs lost a week averaged over start date to current date. Some weeks I lost 3 lbs, some weeks I lost barely half a pound. I did 4 weeks at 2.5 and 14 weeks at 5mg. I've lost 30 freaking pounds! My BMI is down 5% and I've lost 9% body weight. When I looked at it like that, I was blown away. And I was blown away that I made it through these last 4 weeks on the drug not working as well without gaining. Now I feel gratitude for the 5mg giving me 14 weeks of progress. Tonight I start my first 7.5mg shot. Any tips? What can I expect? My only symptoms have been weeks 1 and 2 of 2.5mg, I was super exhausted the first two days after the shot. Same for the first couple weeks of 5mg. So I guess I should expect the same transitioning to 7.5mg?

Here are my non scale wins:

1. Feeling a bit less winded when I walk now. It takes longer before I get winded. I can't tell you how much I love this feeling of progress and look forward to it getting better and better.
2. My bath towel is wrapping around me a bit more.
3. Clothes stuff. My clothing is getting looser. I fit into some pants I hadn't been able to get into since 2022. I threw away a few pairs of yoga pants that I called my "fat pants" that got loose enough are obviously no longer my size, baggy in a bad way. I felt so good to throw those worn out tired fat pants in the trash. I never want to go back to them ever again. I bought a 2x sweatshirt that fit great. I have only barely been able to squeeze into a 3x hoodie for the last 5 years. I know it's only one size down, but that feeling when I put it on and it fit just right was so impactful. My bra band around my torso part isn't squeezing and cutting into me like crazy anymore.
4. For the first time in a very long time I feel hope that I will slowly but surely get healthier and lighter, and that helped me get through these last 4 weeks of 5mg knowing it was time to go up to 7.5mg.

Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear your somewhere in the middle of the path stories.