We're still blocked on Insta, and we don't care. We're Happy!

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Exempic Diaries. It is our episode 17 today. It is the 23rd of June. We are in the depth of the midwinter. Everyone's got diseases. We're all passing them around like party snacks. And I think, Charlene, you're just coming off a fresh new disease, aren't you? How are you doing? Yes, it's so great. I've had flu for, it feels like...

17 years. And I was just telling you off mic, when you cough in a public space, you get like a coughing fit. It's proper embarrassing because you just feel like you're spreading your germs in a public place. If you cough. hey, that person's probably got COVID. And if you try and suppress the cough, as you're saying, that like, hey, that person's definitely got COVID and doesn't want to let anyone know. But your fever isn't the only thing that's broken.

It's your plateau. So it's been two weeks since we last weighed in. Tell me about where you were the last time we chatted and where you are now. Remind me, you had it there by you. 73.6 is where you are. And the last time we spoke, I think it was 74.9. 74.9, yes. So I was on 74.9. That was around the 9th of June. And then… I was just hovering there for...

At first, I was hovering. The weeks prior to that, I was hovering at like 76, hovering, hovering, hovering. Finally, I got down to 74.9. I was like, yes, I broke a little. It's a little stepped out. But then this morning when I weighed, I was down even more. I'm on 73.2 kilos. Yeah, 73.6. So it's obviously just, look, I mean, I don't know. I wish somebody could explain to me how these damn things work. So now in the back of my mind, I'm like.

You drop weight and you're like, yes, I broke the plateau. But then I'm like, oh, I wasn't in the gym last week. Does that mean I've just lost muscle? But I was pleased to see this number because it's. It's under 75. And I went back to look historically what I have weighed because for the last four years, I've just kept a record of my weight. And honestly, John, now that I look at it, I haven't weighed this amount. I haven't been at this weight ever, actually.

Okay, ever. I mean, maybe when I was 19 or 20, it was 86.9, I think, 86.9 when I started on Ozempic, okay? When I went back to my fat pictures and I first started like changing habits in my life. Okay. And I compared my most recent 86.9 to. three years ago 86.9 in my most recent photos I don't look 86.9 and I realize that you don't realize how much body composition makes a difference

Because I wasn't wearing the same size pants as I was three or four years ago when I was that weight. Yes, I had a belly now at 86.9, but I looked like... super obese in like I was an incredibly overweight woman at that point because I wasn't exercising so I realized that and I mean this is logical this is a logical thing why exercise is important to you because you can, you can.

weigh a certain amount, but because you're working out, your body composition is different. You're toning your body. So you'll fit into... different size clothes. And it allows you some leeway because it's much more forgiving. So everybody that I told when I started as Zempick, I was like, no, I've gained weight.

I'm battling. Everyone's like, but you haven't gained that much weight. And when I told them the number, like close friends, they were like shocked because if I told them I gained about 15, almost 16 kilograms in the last year and a half.

they're like but Charlene I can't see it and sure okay you've put on a little bit of fluff but you if you're telling me that you weigh almost as much as you did four years ago when you were severely depressed and overweight I can't see it And I realized that this is where I need to stop looking at this number because I've done myself a huge favor.

By continuing with my training throughout, even though my perimenopause has started and I've gained weight, I've continued with my weight training and I've changed my body composition, which has given me a little bit of... it's much more forgiving in terms of how your clothes fit and what size pants you wear. And muscles heavier than fat, so you actually are objectively in better shape even though you weigh more.

That's the thing. And I never take measurements, which is so stupid. I should only take measurements. I should only just use my little measuring tape, check my… Chest, waist, hips, calves, and thighs and arms. That's it. I should just take the – Chest would be a depressing story, but yes. Not for long, not for long. But yes, that is true.

And realistically, so when Rhett asked me this morning, he's like, okay, so what number do you want to be? Like if you had to think of a number. And I remember when we ended our first three months on Ozempic, you and I were discussing, okay, where to from here? And I was like, I want to lose another 10. It might be a bit much, but I want to lose another 10. And realistically, I...

I actually am good where I am now. I'm happy. I'm comfortable. I don't mind the number because I like the way I feel. My clothes fit nice. When I look at myself, I, I mean, and then I started looking at these fitness influences and cause it's just the algorithm sends it to me.

And I noticed more and more when they disclose women who train at least three times a week and they do weight training and they try and follow a balanced diet. When they disclose the number on the scale, and I'm talking about women who are not like... like body builders or athletes, when they're on the odd occasion that they do disclose the number on the scale, I was like, I weigh that.

And I consider this woman to be thin. So when is it going to end my mind? When's that switch going to flick for me? And I am forcing it to click now. This is it. I'm going to. That's great. I'm going to actively be mindful of flicking that switch in my brain because I am now a thin person. Now I need to just maintain to be a strong, thin person.

This is not useful for the audio listeners, but look at your trapezius muscles on your shoulders, like connecting to your neck there. You've got like definition. You've got like proper like delts and traps on your upper body there. It's crazy. Yeah, and it's such a nice feeling. It's such a nice feeling to see the work, you know, because you always equate the work.

to the number on the scale, you're like, okay, the number's moving, the number's moving, I'm getting thin, I'm getting thin. But for me at the moment, I feel so happy in my body because I can see my muscles. I can see the little lines and sure, there's always going to be more work. I've got cellulite and I've still got little rolls. And I mean, I don't look like a... fitness athlete that's not the goal that's not the goal I just want to be able to

comfortably walk, comfortably pick things up, comfortably run up and down the stairs, play with my kids. Like if there's like on Friday, they had the inter-house athletics at the school. And I'm always game for like the parents race every year. I ran it last year and I, you know, I think I came fourth or something, which isn't bad. And I didn't fall because parents always fall at these bloody races. It's so bad. haven't sprinted in like five years.

This is the thing. You don't sprint. So, I mean, I run. So I was like, I'll do it. You know, long distance is way different to sprinting. But anyway, at least my body knows the movements. You know, it's not like completely fumbling and stupid. But this year I had this chest infection and I couldn't go. And my kids were just like, mom, you're not running the parents race. Why? And I was like, you know what?

I am proud of that. That makes me proud. That makes me happy that my kids look at their parents and they're like, We're fit. We're a family who move our bodies. And it's like when I don't do the race to them, it's bizarre, as opposed to, oh, my God, Mom, you're going to run. Yeah, they expect you to compete and to succeed.

and like be and physically perform on a in a race i mean that's amazing that's what i've been trying to do you know for ben as well is just you know for the first three years of his life like

he would just run away and I could kind of lumber after him, but he never saw me run, you know? And then like a few months ago, you know, we were going for a walk or something and we raced back to the... to the house and he was like wow you're super fast like he'd never seen me run before and um and now as he gets he's now turned into a five-year-old tornado of mania so now i need to

And he's off his training wheels and he can ride his bike at 4,000 kilometers an hour. So I need to actually be able to catch up with him. So it's after him, yeah. I get you. Okay. So tell me, how has it been going? It's been a good space. Yeah, no, I'm in a good space. When you break a plateau, it's a good thing. You can hear the positive vibes just from the side of the microphone. But I mean, even if I plateau here at this place now.

I feel I'm in a good place to kind of embark on a maintenance.

journey. And so my prescription was till the end of July and I'm going to start tapering off now where we're at the end of the month of June. So from next week, I'm going to start tapering off. with lowering the dose. I guess I'll do two weeks because I'm on 0.5, so I'll have to do like... Maybe one more week of 0.5 and then depending on what's left in the pen, I'll go 0.25, 0.25, 0.25 until the pen is done.

And then, yeah, then I'll see how I do for maintenance. And I'm very nervous about that, especially because I'm so happy in the place that I am. And I'm so scared. putting it all back on. And I've read, I've read things and I've seen things on social media with people that I follow who decided to stop and just, especially women who just put it all back on. And so I am really scared. I am really scared about that. But your journey has given me some hope because you were able to maintain.

I'm trying to hold on to that. And also worst case scenario, if I struggle, I can sit down with my doctor and be like, doc. What does a maintenance dose or a microdose look like? What is the possibility of that? If financially I can afford it, then that is what I will do. This isn't a death sentence. I just need to learn a different strategy.

So that's that for me. I think that you have such good habits ingrained now that you've got a very good chance. Besides the curse of womanly hormones, I think that you would be totally fine. But it's just hard to tell where you are in your life. And the fact that you have like the food noise thing rather than unconscious eating like I do, it might come back loudly. So who knows? But either way, like now that you've made this progress.

And as expensive as it is, if you look, I mean like 0.5 dose, I think that it's not cheap, but it's worth it.

If you're trying to maintain with a one milligram dose, that's so expensive. That's really, really hard. So I don't know whether that's even possible. But yeah, I have... the high hopes that you'll you'll stabilize what's weird now is that kind of i went off spent a month off and now i'm back up to like one last night i took one milligram and now you're going to start kind of uh tapering off

So now we're going opposite directions again. But yeah, 73.6 is amazing. And I think you said your final goal was going to be something like 68. You want to lose another 10 and you were already on 78 or something, right? Yeah, so I wanted to be somewhere between 68 and 70 for me was the number that I had in my mind because I was like, if you have two or so kilograms to play with, if you go on holiday, you know.

where you put on one and a half or two, then you're still not out of that bracket. But I've realized also that I... I am weight training, so I could still drop that if I really increased my intensity on my weight training or I added just a little bit of extra cardio into my week. I could still, those three kilograms, three or four kilograms to get me into that window, I could still very easily, easily do. Right. Okay, cool. Yes. So...

On my side then, I'm up to a one milligram dose, and it'll be interesting to be back on that. The last time I had kind of mild headaches in the afternoon from one milligram, and I wasn't on one milligram that long. But now I've got actually like two or three pens in my prescription. Look, I'm not sure if I'll use them all. Right now I'm at 86.7. I'm very happy with where I've gotten to. Here, listeners, have a listen to...

to Charlene's response to a photograph I took quite a few weeks ago, actually. That is insane. Yeah, so that's quite a bit different from where I was. Yeah, yeah. How do you feel? Yeah, amazing. You look so good. You know, there's two kinds of being in shape. There's in shape in clothes and in shape out of clothes. I've gotten to in shape in clothes. In fact, I'm the same.

Yeah, there's still work to be done. But as for clothes, I feel very good, comfortable. I'm moving down into like medium sizes instead of, you know, extra large is where I started. Yeah, I'm very happy. And I also feel like I've extended my life for like 20 years now. um and yeah so it's all i've lost a kilo since the last time we chatted so uh it was i was 87.7 on my 45th birthday and i'm 86.7 two weeks later so

I've got this holiday coming up to Zanzibar in September. So that's what I'm working towards to get down to about 82 is my goal, like four kilos in three months or so should be durable. And yeah, we'll see.

I feel like this is healthy. I hope people listening to this don't go, wow, these people are crazy. Like they're both basically bulimic or they're both basically like body dysmorphic in the worst way possible. We were unhappy with where we were, both from a health perspective, how we felt in our clothes, how we felt in our body. And now where we are is much, much happier. And to the point where, as you say as well, like if I stop now. I would still feel like I've got some way to go. But...

But I am much, much, much happier with where I am. And I'm hoping that once I get down to 82 or like 80 or whatever it is, I'm not going to have gone crazy and being, I need to weigh 60 kilograms. I don't think that's going to be the case. Like, I don't feel like I'm about to go nuts in some strange way. Living life is just so much more comfortable. You don't have to think about these things that were hard before.

And it might seem, okay, we've got body dysmorphia. And if that is your opinion, cool. And maybe that is the case. But I will tell you that living my life currently is... such a pleasure compared to where it was four or five months ago. I feel good and I won't change that for anything in the world.

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, on that note, dear listeners, we are going to take another week off and then we'll see you in two weeks. In the meantime, the WhatsApp community is... moderately active our instagram account is still blocked and i don't care anymore so sorry if you do follow us on instagram and you've been expecting something but i appealed the thing in fact you know what i'll do it right now i'll see if they've unblocked it

Well, now it seems to be completely gone. So double don't care. So yeah, we'll post some pics in the WhatsApp community and look forward to checking in in another two weeks and we'll see how we're going. But yeah. Okay, see you then. Good luck.