Papal Bull

An occasional blog by Iain Pope.

[iainpope73]

Week 55 / 56 ...Madrid, who you trying to kid?

A fortnight from today we will be in Madrid, and I have to say I am looking forward to it very much.

I have only been there once before but have great memories of markets, museums, splendid bars with mighty jamons dangling from rafters and, of course, beautiful people.

The culmination of the trip, after we have ticked all the tourist boxes, will be a family day at a water park. I've never been to one, i don't think anyone in the family has, but it is a treat for Child 2, more than anything. A last bit of childish fun before he goes to university.

That means I have just shy of three weeks (19 days I think) to get myself in shape for it, and it has given me focus and purpose.

So with Madrid in mind, I have been working pretty hard in the gym lately, trying to tighten up my abs and core with situps and planks as well as all the other stuff. 750 situps/crunches yesterday, the most I have done in one session in decades.

I am also at the end of the first week on 10mg of Mounjaro, stepping up from 7.5mg, and it has REALLY changed the game.

I noticed it straight off the bat on Monday, just a few hours after my Sunday night jab when I could only finish off a couple of forkfuls of a teensy packet of noodles.

My appetite all week has noticeably decreased from an already pretty low base.

The breakfast I have had over the last two days of two poached eggs on toast with two rashers of bacon has literally filled me up to the gunwhales for the rest of the day.

That means, if I am going to keep going to gym as I have been - at least one, sometimes two sessions a day - I am going to have to seriously analyse my diet to make sure I am getting everything I need.

But between the dose change and pretty full on gym bashing, I can feel the fat starting to burn off again. After months of stalling, this feels great.

I can see, tiny bit by tiny bit, definition returning to my face and upper body muscles, like a long forgotten ship's hull emerging from the parched Danube.

There have been a couple of weight loss comments this week, which I always love to receive.

But despite all the positive vibes I still haven't jumped on the scales yet, purely because I don't want to dishearten myself. I can see things are improving, I just don't want to be told I am getting ahead of myself.

So, 19 days to go before we get on the flumes, the plan is to focus on abs, to eat well, sleep more, and keep at it.

Onwards.

[iainpope73]

Week 54 - Taking it by the Scruff

It is before 7am on Sunday and I need to write now or i won't get much of a chance later.

The day is dawning bright here in central Edinburgh, everybody else, with the honourable exception of the Fat Cat wanting fed, are still in their beds.

I am chomping at the bit to get my own day going, I have an 8-10 hour pork stock to make for Tonkotsu Ramen that probably only I will eat, I need to meet two very old pals later, and I also want to squeeze in a walk in the morning sun, or a good long cardio session in the gym, maybe both.

The plan to make St John's Bakery donuts for the troops at work has already fallen by the wayside.

It has been another really strong week of gym work, and I have recorded my output properly for the first time. Should I include it here at the bottom just in case someone who reads this actually knows their shit and can give me pointers on where I am going wrong? Not sure.

Anyway, the major change this week and more generally of late, is the proper introduction of focussing on my abs and core with lots and lots of planks and situps folded into my resistance and cardio workouts. Hundreds of them. In fact, totting it up...closer to 2,000situps this week. Good darts, though I say so myself.

I have also added Creatine to my list of pills and vitamins after succumbing to the bombardment of ads via my algorithm.

This powdery elixir is meant to promote muscle growth, energy, vitality, memory, especially for the over 50s.

Blah blah. I am a tad sceptical but nothing ventured, nothing gained it won't harm me and it is cheap as chips.

The other significant change I have decided upon is to switch up from 7.5mg to 10mg of Mounjaro in a bid to get over the stalling weight loss. That means the remaining dose in my current pen will be my last at 7.5mg and from next weekend I will be on 10mg. We shall see how that goes.

There are lots of reasons for these tweaks, most pressingly I have a cardiologist appointment on Tuesday and I want to head him off at the pass and show him I am really attacking the visceral fat that stubbornly hangs around my middle aged belly. That's the stuff that will kill you.

But the real reason, I think I may have mentioned it in the last blog, is the family trip upcoming to Madrid at the turn of the month.

It is being billed as, potentially, our last proper holiday as a family, so I want to be at my best.

It is also culminating at the end of the week in a trip to a water park, my first ever, and while I don't kid myself that i will be the focus of attention, I don't want to embarrass myself either. I am vain, I admit it.

That gives me the whole month of August to go for it in the gym. I am currently walking the tightrope of doing as much as possible there, really getting into the situps while still trying to remember my age and my frailties, and that putting my back out or worse just before a foreign trip would not be clever.

The other wisdom (?) that comes with a realisation of age is the knowledge that I might not get another crack at the whip of a trip to Madrid, one of the world's great cities, so I am determined to make as much of it as I can.

For one, that means reading up and watching decoding videos of Las Meninas, Diego Velasquez' epic masterpiece painting, the jewel of the Prado Museum, that I have wanted to see for a long time.

The only other time we visited Madrid years ago and blithely rocked up to the famous gallery, hungover, expecting just to walk in, they laughed in our face when we said we didn't have a booking.

A bit more preparation this time means we have tickets booked for the Prado and the nearby Reina Sofia modern art gallery and will see me, between now and then, watch every video on the subject of Velasquez' masterpiece and Picasso's Guernica among others so that when I do get my alloted time in front of them I can understand better what I am looking at.

Doubtless I will bore any poor bastard who cares to listen on the rich symbolism I have literally just found out about from YouTube.

Likewise I will make sure I read up on the food I should eat, the music I should listen to, the walks I should go on, the architecture and the hidden stories of Madrid, so that I make the most of it.

If anyone reading this has any recommendations for things I/we should do (cheaper the better) please let me know.

Writing it down here, It strikes me that I am trying to make more out of life in general recently, and to maximise what time I have. None of us is getting out of here alive, right?

I was really conscious just before the weekend of the physical sense of wellbeing I get from completing a good gym session, or a walk, and just how addictive the feelgood endorphins that course round the body in the course of taking care of yourself actually are.

There's worse things to be addicted to, and they can cost nothing at all.

Wrapping this up, I am not including my weight this week purely because I was so utterly scunnered last week at my lack of progress (at least 'progress' as measured by weight alone) that I am still avoiding the scales.

That said, i can still feel the changes in my body, and I am definitely putting on muscle and cutting into fat. If I can keep this up, and really grab it by the scruff during August, I am absolutely convinced the dial will reflect that down the line when I muster the courage to jump back on the scales.

Onwards. Ramen awaits.

[iainpope73]

Week 53 - Big Week, but top line won't budge

The couple were standing outside their hotel on Royal Terrace, I think waiting on a taxi, when I sauntered past, whistling, to deliver some tubs of sausages my workmates had just made a few hours earlier.

When I came back out of the hotel the couple were still there, so I smiled and said 'good morning' and the man, roughly my age, looked at me, and said: "You look like you have a good, happy life. You have the right idea, my friend."

It was a lovely thing for him to say, and it made my day. We had a brief chat, and it turned out they were from Belgium, in Scotland for the first time. They were heading north and I told them to try to get to Ardnamurchan.

I have been smiling a lot of late. It seems to me that if you do, the world tends to smile back.

I have also taken to having a wee stash of sweeties and doggie chews in my butcher's coat pockets for customers and their canine companions, purely becuse it is nice to be nice.

It is also summer, which helps. While we may not have had as great heat as our southern neighbours, it has been really quite pleasant in Scotland lately, and I have been trying to make the most of it, topping up on my vitamin D with half an eye on the calendar and the winter ahead.

But also, I have doubled down on my exercise routine this week in particular, in the gym every day, most days twice, really working hard to introduce more sit ups, core work and resistance, while also making sure I still do the long, slow calorie burning cardio exercises I did all winter.

So it was that I was feeling pretty damn pleased with myself all week, like the cat who got the cream, right up until the moment yesterday I jumped on the scales in the gym expecting to see at least three, maybe even five kilos gone.

No movement at all.

Totally deflated, I looked at all the stats properly, and it turns out I have not shifted any significant amount of weight since February or March.

That is thoroughly f**king depressing.

With the amount of work I am doing of late I should be seeing better returns.

But, but, but....I am not *too* dispirited.

I have read about the very real incidence of plateauing on Mounjaro, and I will ponder the question of upping my dose from 7.5mg, or alternatively, (and more wisely, I think), cutting out all alcohol and midnight snacking shite from my intake.

I am conscious that having a few glasses of wine after the gym is like drilling a hole in the bottom of a bucket.

And while I might not have shifted any top line weight recently, but I am definitely putting muscle on, and my clothes are looser.

Also, while I am sensible enough to realise it can take a while to see the top line shift, but I have noticed the sit ups, press ups and planks (the planks on the recommendation of my cousin Alasdair) I added in to my programme just in the last week alone have already had an instant return on my belly and arms.

I honestly feel like I could do 200 sit ups in a session. In fact, I might do that later.

I reckon if I keep it up throughout August there is a slim chance I could have the beginnings of stomach muscle definition by the time we go on what is being billed as the last ever family holiday in the first week in September.

Part of the planning for the trip to Madrid, as well as the 'proper' trips to the Prado and the Reina Sofia art galleries, has been, of all things, a day at a water park.

On the one hand, at 20 and 18, the kids are clearly too old for it, but on the other, I have never been to a water park in my puff, and am looking forward to it immensely.

The notion of not being embarrassed about my body, or worrying about getting stuck in a flume while everyone laughs and points, is something I feel good about.

So, as soon as this blog gets posted I am off to the gym with my sweat top to get on an exercise bike for as long as I can tolerate.

Next time I write, I hope for better news.

We press on.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 112 kilos / 17.637 stones

Weight last week: 112 kilos / 17.637 stones

Weight lost last week: zero

Starting weight: 147.3kg

Total weight loss: 35.3 kilos / 5 stones 8 pounds

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

[iainpope73]

Week 50/51/52 - A year on Mounjaro. Unfinished business

I have lost count of the weeks, but I have checked back and we are banging on the door of a year on Mounjaro.

Twelve months, or 52 weeks, was the goal I set myself, the mental finishing post to work towards all year.

On one hand it might have been a bit arbitrary to choose a year as the timeframe but, frankly, when I started I thought it would have been a bit impertinent to ask Naz, my nephew behind Cloud online pharmacy, to support my weight loss any further.

But now we are here, I realise there is a good chunk of work still to do over the Autumn and Winter ahead and I feel I am not ready to come off the medication just yet because the journey is not over. I have unfinished business.

It is now Sunday morning, before 9am, and I have had my poached eggs and coffee and have just finished seting out my pills for the week ahead.

My little seven day pill box is crammed to bursting. It has become a Sunday ritual to fill it carefully, pill by pill, and day by day.

I have no idea how I arrived at my current intake but it keeps me out of mischief, and at least makes me think I am being healthy, who knows?

The first into the pill box are the original trinity of Ramipril; Bisporolol; Amlodipine which I have been on for years, all three for the long term elevated blood pressure which was a byproduct of working in daily newspaper journalism and living wildly unhealthily for the majority of my adult life ...but which I hope can be ditched if I get my shit together and arrange the MOT my doctor keeps pressing me to arrange.

Then there is my army of daily supplements that I have gradually added to over the last 12 months - Multivitamins; Cod liver oil with vitamins A and D; Vitamin B12; Glucosamine, MSM and Chondroitin; Garlic and Vitamin B12; Vitamin D3; Magnesium and Vitamin B6.

That is ten pills a day in total, all washed down with a Berocca Vitamin C soluble tablet every morning before work.

It might all be cobblers but it has been a long while since I had a cold, and I feel good.

So why do I feel the need to go on with Mounjaro? My health has improved massively in the last year, both physically and my feeling of self-worth, but I still have that 'Dadbod'.

Yet although my weight has remained frustratingly static recently and I have bad days when I feel fat, usless and a loser for not having lost more If I take a step back, and look at it objectively, I can see that I have changed my body composition for the better. More muscle, better definition.

I can wear clothes and belt notches I could only have dreamed of a year ago, and on a clear day I can see those veiny biceps and I even fancy I make out the beginnings of an outline of a six pack. Maybe I am fooling myself.

But I am greedy, I want to take the next step and ditch the belly fat for good.

Mounjaro will not do that for me, only focussed training, proper diet (my downfall) and hard yards yomping around Edinburgh will make that happen, but what Mounjaro can certainly do, what it has done, is help me focus.

So as soon as I finish this blog I wil be in the gym completing a Sunday session of short cardio, some big weights, a lot of sit ups, and then a beautiful long soak in the steam room and jacuzzi.

I will do a variation of that every day I can for the foreseeable future, notwithstanding other time and life commitments.

The summer is here now in Edinburgh and I am determined to enjoy what remains of it before knuckling down into the Autumn and Winter to get that dial shifting again.

Onwards.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 112 kilos / 17.637 stones

Weight last week: 112 kilos / 17.637 stones

Weight lost last week: zero

Starting weight: 147.3kg

Total weight loss: 35.3 kilos / 5 stones 8 pounds

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

[iainpope73]

Week 47/48/49 - Happy Father’s Day

This blog started nearly a year ago with a story about a wedding and a sporran, and how I couldn’t get one round me.

My own kilt was a definite no no that day. Not a hope. Even the roomier kilt I had borrowed from my (formerly) well-upholstered mate Ali to attend my nephew’s nuptials was a real eye-popping pinch.

Being at that wedding last July was a sweaty, humiliating experience, and I was uncomfortable from start to finish. That was the day I spoke to my pharmacist nephew Naz about getting on Mounjaro.

On Thursday just past I said goodbye to my son, as he set off for his school leavers’ ball, after his graduation ceremony at Greyfriars Kirk - (the one made famous by the faithful wee dug Bobby, and the Covenanters too for that matter, but I digress.)

After nearly a year on Mounjaro I not only got into my own kilt, the one I got for my wedding 23 years ago, but it was, in truth a wee bit too loose. Which was gratifying.

After the ball the boy flew off yesterday to Paris to go InterRailling for a month round Europe with his pals.

Because I start work at 6am I wouldn’t see him before he set off, so, in front of his mates outside the historic church, I gave him a couple of words of fatherly advice.

“For f**k sake, please call your mother; make sure you look the other way first when you cross the road, they drive the wrong way over there; do not piss your money up a wall on day one; don’t be a clever dick in a bar or a club or someone *will* smack you; and just…take it easy.”

I think I told him I love him, that I am proud of him, I hope so.

And that is that, both of them, son now and daughter a couple of years before him, gone.

And it is very hard to think about that. Just two minutes ago they were babies in the bath together.

What happens now?

Well, one door closes and another opens. For the boy, I hope it is the summer of his life and I hope he has an adventure to remember . He will soon be at university alongside his sister and I hope he keeps there the academic focus which has seen him do so well until now.

For me? I am not so sure. I am very near the end of my year on Mounjaro, but I feel there is still lots more work to be done, kilos to cut, and muscles to build.

If truth be told I want to continue on the medication for a while longer, just so all my stats progress from red to amber to green. I am scared of sliding back to where I was. Very scared.

But I am conscious I have made progress, and that, I am probably less hard work to be around than I was. Maybe, maybe not.

I have had a couple of very productive weeks in the gym, usually two sessions a day and walking around Edinburgh at weekends, but still my fragile psychology and constant need for affirmation (exhibit A: this blog) is such that I did a very weird thing on Friday.

I did a very big workout and then a long long steam, and then I jumped on the fantoosh scales at my gym *full in the knowledge * that my heightened post-workout body heat and damp feet would trick the foot and hand sensors that the scales use into giving a false positive reading.

And so it was.

I am not sure what it says about me that I *know* not one of those results is accurate… but that I took some encouragement from it regardless.

However, much much more important than this false affirmation from shonky scales was the message my lad wrote me for Father’s Day last week.

That is real, and as you can imagine, it was pretty wild reading that, and I count myself very lucky.

So yes, the goal now is to press on, keep it all ticking over, and chisel away at myself, in every respect.

Onwards.

[iainpope73]

Week 44/45/46 …Whatever’s Comfortable

There was an advert a few years back on telly that showed a bloke with shades, porn star tache, and pronounced pot belly striding, carefree, along a beach in his budgie smugglers.

I couldn't remember what the ad was actually for until I looked it up just there and was reminded it was for Southern Comfort, (which coincidentally. is one of the very few alcoholic drinks | truly detest, largely because of a very ill-judged evening in the Star Inn in Stornoway in the summer of 1991, but that is another story).

Carefree: This the advert man, it is not me

Anyhow, the advert is called 'Whatever's Comfortable' (geddit?) and was meant, I think, to convey the message not to be ashamed or embarrassed when you ask for Southern Comfort and ...<fill in the random mixer....tomato juice?> in front of your mates.

If this middle aged man is happy in his skin with his gut out on the beach, mooching along drinking sugary alcoslurp - the pitch goes - then you should be too.

I was put in mind of the advert the other day when I, myself, was walking on a beach in Italy wearing not very much clothes.

I still have a belly, and I am working hard now to get that sorted, but, like our portly but confident pal from the advert, I can live with it. I can even lean in to it, as they say these days.

As I strode along the beach in my shorts, I thought, 'Ok I am not going to win any competitions, granted, but I probably don't need to worry about harpoons for the moment either.'

I currently don't feel like an embarrassment to myself, or to my family, and I know that any further change rests in my hands.

I have agency.

Mounjaro has helped with that.

We were in Italy to clear out Uncle Colin's holiday flat.

I detest waste, we all do in our house, so we all went through poor Uncle Colin's clothes to see what was salvageable and what had to be got rid of.

Uncle Colin was a wee guy, probably 5ft 7in at most, but, like me, had a penchant for Marks and Spencer's Blue Harbour range.

Whatever's Comfortable, right?

My 18-year-old son had first dibs and took quite a few items, probably in an ironic, taking-the-piss way I don't quite understand, but, happily, he also left me a couple of Large size never-worn, still-labelled, plain white polo shirts.

Now while these shirts would have been tents on old Uncle Colin, they are, conversely, a little snug, on me, but they are definitely do-able.

The White Brothers: Me and my new Puglian bezzie Peppe, who I met on the plane

I wore the two shirts for most of the holiday and sucked in my tummy when I needed to.

The same trip saw us visit a port town called Santa Maria de Leuca in Puglia, which is, I suppose, the Italian equivalent of Land's End, inasmuch as it is literally the end of the road, the last place at the heel of the Italian boot where the Ionian and Aegean Seas meet.

Due to it's location it has, perhaps unsurprisingly, got a very big lighthouse, which again, unsurprisingly, is at the top of a very big cliff above the port.

With nothing else to to, it seemed only right to do the tourist thing and visit this end-of-the-line lighthouse. From where we parked the car about half a mie away it wasn't clear through the heat haze if there was any kind of cable car or chairlift to this lighthouse, and none of us had done any research.

As we walked towards the foot of the cliff in the baking sun with a mounting sense of dread, it became clear there was no way to get us up from the port to the lighthouse except steps, and what seemed like an awful lot of them.

There was nothing for it except head down and press on, so I led the charge.

As we reached three quarters of the way up my son joked (i think) to my wife and said: "I wish dad was still fat so we wouldn't have to do this."

Many a true word spoken in jest, as they say. I am not saying I ran up the steps, but I know that a year ago, my son is right, I would have come up with an excuse, any excuse not to go.

View from the top

Since we have been back from out trip I have been in the gym every day, at least once, sometimes twice.

Some days, when I look at the scales I feel disheartened, because the weight is both up and down, but on the whole, I am doing OK.

I can fit in clothes I couldn't fit in before. I can see changes in my body andI feel healthier, and happier.

I am working on the rest.

[iainpope73]

Week 40/41/42/43- Dadbod

I have fallen out of the habit of writing in much the same way I have scaled back on the number of weekly gym sessions and my mammoth (for me) weekend walks.

It's a bit of a shame because I find writing is a release, in much the same way as the endorphin rush of the gym is addictive.

But real life gets in the way, and I need to be more disciplined to get to the keyboard in my spare time.

Gym has been so-so of late, from the high water mark of 10 sessions Monday to Friday I am now much less prolific, probably down to half that, which is still pretty good, upon reflection.

I could put that at the door of a wee change in my work pattern involving more driving which I think I probably covered in my last post, but in truth I am just being a bit more sensible about it.

Meanwhile I am still on the same weight plateau I think, I say I think because I have not weighed myself in weeks and weeks, but I feel good, relatively healthy for a 52-year-old, and mixing in much more resistance work is slowly but steadily changing my body composition.

That said, the last very big ring of belly fat is proving annoyingly stubborn, It is starting to piss me off when I see it in the mirror, goading me into greater efforts.

I know that if I knuckled down and spent a month hard graft on it, I could really burn a lot of it off.

We shall see.

A friend recently said I now have a 'Dadbod' and I think that perhaps I will have to learn that if that is the payoff at the end of this process of a year on Mounjaro, that that ain't too shabby either.

Better a dadbod than a dead bod.

Onwards.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 112 kilos / 17.637 stones

Weight last week: 112 kilos / 17.637 stones

Weight lost last week: zero.

Starting weight: 147.3kg

Total weight loss: 35.3 kilos / 5 stones 8 pounds

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

[iainpope73]

Week 36/37/38/39 - Bump in the Road

It hasn't all *quite* gone to shit, but I cannot lie, I have lost my focus.

The last few weeks have been up and down and my routines have been knocked off, for lots of reasons, but principally through my own actions or inactions.

It is not like I haven't been in the gym, I have, the week before last it was seven or eight times, but just not to the same degree, and I feel like I am drifting a bit. I can feel my midriff stubbornly sticking where it has been for a couple of months.

The last few weeks have had some little successes, I can see that vein on my biceps when i am doing weights that all the muscley dudes have. I never had that in my LIFE.

Also, at a do the other night the wife of a pal who hadn't seen me in ages, said I looked 'phenomenal'..but she was phenomenally pissed, it has to be said.

I have just been...not as on it as before.

One of the main issues has been a wee tweak to my work pattern. Jimmy, our driver, has packed it in after reluctantly realising (or, I suspect, being told by family) that he is not getting any younger.

That means I have been driving in the mornings after doing a quick bit of butchery / cutting from 6am-9am.

Pootling about town and meeting customers, peeking into the kitchens of establishments that serve the city its meals is great fun - it coincides with me finally getting round to reading Anthony Bourdain's famous Kitchen Confidential, which has been very timely - and I enjoy it immensely.

But it means i don't always get back to the factory at the same time, and immeditaely sloping off to the gym for an hour when I am just back in the door seems a little bit of a liberty.

It is a poor excuse I know.

A close friend who reads this blog asked me the other day if I would advocate Mounjaro.

I had to think long and hard before I told her that while it has most certainly worked for me, I am not in a position to say it would work for everyone.

I was very *very* big before, and Mounjaro has given me the room to try to address what needed addressing in he simple input/output calorie equation, and offered me the encouragement of quick and very visible results.

The friend who asked my opinion is not big, though she thinks she is, and I suggested she try alternatives, more specifically getting more active before embarking on medication.

Why would I say that if it has worked so well for me?

Because you can't stay on the medication forever.

As my year on Mounjaro year barrels towards its conclusion I am more painfully aware of this than I ever was before. What will become of me afterwards? Will I ooze back into my blob shape?

A close friend from home (Isle of Lewis) is on Mounjaro long term via the NHS after paying for it for a year and losing five stones, and said it was relatively simple to get on it on prescription; I did read somewhere recently that GPs had been urged to prescribe it to patients more often.

Another friend, a Diabetes Nurse, when I told her what my first friend had said, shook her head ruefully and said my chances of getting on it here in Edinburgh are slim to non-existent. I don't know who is right but I suspect there is a Postcode Lottery element to it all.

Anyhow, I am just back from a week family holiday in Galloway. What a beautiful part of the world. I hardly know it all but I will be returning as soon as I can. I got to share a pint with my boy (and daughter!) to mark his recent 18th birthday, in a fantastic wee pub in Kirkcudbight called the Masonic Arms, which was a great experience. He is funny after a couple of ales, it is in the blood.

I didn't eat like I would have done pre-Mounjaro... but I didn't starve myself either. Lots of carbs and crisps and all kinds of shite. Also, the empty calories of alcohol are just a waste of time and money if you are attempting to lose weight... by any method.

So the dial has not shifted this month either. I feel bloated, a little disheartened and I need to get myself together.

As i said at the outset, it is about routines. I know it is.

Tonight is Sunday. We will have our usual roast chicken tonight, in fact I am about to pop it in brine before settling down to watch Celtic in the Cup sem-final.

No tinnies, no vino de plonko, I will get to gym afer the game, hopefully with a spring in my step.

Then I will prep my work kit for tomorrow, maybe sharpen my knives on my whetstone, then I will create my yoghurt pot for brekkie, then a tuna salad for lunch, and coffee for the morning

That way, when the alarm goes off at 4:56am tomorrow, as it does every day, I will be ready to face the day.

It is Ok to be blown off course from time to time, to hit a bump in the road, you just have to keep on keeping on.

Onwards.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 112 kilos / 17.637 stones

Weight last week: 113 kilos / 17.8 stones

Weight lost last week: zero

Starting weight: 147.3kg

Total weight loss: 35.3 kilos / 5 stones 8 pounds

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

[iainpope73]

Week 32/33/34/35 - The Scales Have Fallen From Mine Eyes

Forgive me father, it has been four weeks since my last confession.

Have I sinned in that time? Undoubtedly.

Since i last took the time to write life has been chocca. First there was Lewis to see my folks and friends with our son, then Athens as a family, then Paris with my wife and pals just last weekend.

At work things have gone from zero to ninety with a 'perfect storm' of colleague absences for one reason or another. Given we are a small family business it has put new pressure on everybody. Maybe it was what I was needing to jolt me to reality.

This pressure of work has meant I have had to cut back on the 10 gym sessions a week, partly due to time constraints (and the desire to show I am a team player) and just...fatigue.

The various upheavals have knocked a hole in my routines which I am currently trying to grapple with. I am just about back in the saddle after all the excitement, with nightly prepping my yoghurt pot breakasts and gym kit. But there are only so many hours in the day, right?

The one unifying and, it has to be said, gratifying thread over the last few weeks is the support of friends and relatives who haven't seen me in a while commenting on my weight loss.

It makes me feel I am achieving something.

I am constantly amazed how many of my friends are on their own health journey. As a wise person once said to me 'Remember, be nice, everyone has their own thing going on.'

Before we go any further I should admit at this juncture that I have not been near a set of scales in weeks. I don't know how much I weigh. If you are tuned in for that, sorry to disappoint.

I am not sure exactly why that is, probably a desire to avoid 'flatline frustration' but what I can say is I feel, in myself - and I have gotten a lot better at reading my own body in the last few months - that I am probably within a kilo or so of my last reading.

Over the course of a month a kilo off on a dose of 7.5mg of Mounjaro is hardly inspiring, I know, but I am not sweating it.

Since I last wrote the days are now noticeably longer, the crocuses and daffs are now out in Edinburgh in full bloom, and it feels like everyone is just a little bit more chipper. My wife's niece has just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, and our own kids are in good health.

I have come in yet another new notch on Uncle Colin's belt and I am really adding in more resistence training into my schedule. I can feel muscles.

I can sit on planes and not have to ask for a belt extension (yes, that happened in the past) and I can have the table down without sucking in my gut.

On the other side of the coin I am really aware I do still have a belly I need to tackle, and that the push buttons on my 2XL (the indignity) denim shirt I bought in Athens will still pop if i sit the wrong way. Sobering.

I should probably do a separate blog about the vagaries of clothes sizing, but my philiosophy these days can be summed up simply as 'if the cap fits, wear it'.

So where are we looking towards the last quarter of a year on Mounjaro? My weight loss has slowed, maybe even stalled, but I can live with that.

And the reason I can live with that is that I feel...well, and I know I have the ability to knuckle down and go up the gears.

I have just had a cooked breakfast which I intend to earn retrospectively with a good long walk around the town.

Then I am going to plop my arse in front of a telly and watch Scotland compete for the Six Nations trophy.

Carlsberg Saturdays? Let us pray.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 112 kilos / 17.637 stones

Weight last week: 113 kilos / 17.8 stones

Weight lost last week: zero

Starting weight: 147.3kg

Total weight loss: 35.3 kilos / 5 stones 8 pounds

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

[iainpope73]

Week 31 - Chance Meetings

I am a bit late with this blog. No excuses except life itself.

Things have been heading in the right direction of late. I feel better, fitter, more 'on it' than I can remember. Something must be about to go wrong, right?

I bumped into a guy i worked with very briefly in my last job. He was a chef and I liked him, he was clearly going places and was ambitious, a hard worker.

Like me, he moved on from the place we both worked pretty sharpish (I did not mind it at all btw, it's just an opportunity arose for the job I am in now which I had to take) and we hadn't seen each other since practically the week I started on Mounjaro.

Anyhow, we chatted when we met in the street, 'where you working now' etc etc and he said something that caught me off guard.

"You look well, man, like REALLY well, and....happy."

It's not the kind of thing blokes say to each other. Especially ones who were only fleetingly colleagues. We had never even been for a beer together.

It made me think.

Did i look unhappy before?

That was fine. Then I met my neighbour Barry, whose own weight loss success with Mounjaro last year spurred me into action.

He has just come off it after going up to 12.5mg and noticing side effects.

He too said i looked great as I am and that I should quit now.

And that got me thinking too.

What does success look like? When will enough be enough?

Yes I feel healthier, but we are not at the end of this journey.

Of course I have seen all the reports about how most people pile the pounds back on after Mounjaro.

While i am nervous about life after Mounjaro I am going to stick to my current 7.5mg dose and meanwhile, what I am trying to do is build habits which will survive afterwards, and more crucially, break the habits which will make me unhealthy, and unhappy.

I have got 20 weeks left and by any rational measure there is plenty of fat left to trim, plenty of goals still to be achieved.

.

The scales are still heading the right way though. I have gone from a 3XL to an L. I may even need to get my old pre-fat clothes out of the loft.

I am going to claim that as 112 kilos, or 17 stone and nine pounds. Another kilo off this week.

Eating breakfast properly after my sugar crash scare last week has really helped and I have made sure I am taking my yoghurt / oat / fruit / honey pots to work with me every day.

One pot does me for two days breakfast and, supplemented by the odd sausage here and there at work, it keeps me full until my dinner.

On the output side of things I am maintaining the ten gym sessions a week, plus weekend walks, which I am loving. I might not be losing weight at as rapid a rate as before, but I feel like by putting in more resistance and weights i can feel a definite noticeable shift from fat to muscle.

I had an appointment with the cardiologist this week to review the results of a 24 hour heart trace I had just before Christmas.

A year ago he was trying to persuade me to have a pacemaker fitted. That was perhaps the shake, or one of them, that I needed to try to change things.

This week he said my results were normal. No more pacemaker talk then, for now at least.

I have written this blog with my thumb while on the coach up north with child 2 to see his grandparents, my parents, in Stornoway.

We set off at 10am, it is 1pm now and we won't get in until after 8pm but...we get to see Scotland and I can see blue sky for what feels like the first time in months.

Onwards.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 112 kilos / 17.637 stones

Weight last week: 113 kilos / 17.8 stones

Weight lost last week: 1 kilo

Starting weight: 147.3kg

Total weight loss: 35.3 kilos / 5 stones 8 pounds

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

#dieting#men's health#lose weight#mounjaro#weight#weight loss#on the pen#gym#gymlife#walking

#men's health#lose weight#dieting#weight loss#mounjaro#weight#gym#gymlife#on the pen#walking#cancef#cancer

#men's health#lose weight#mounjaro#dieting#weight loss#gym#on the pen#weight#walking#gymlife

[iainpope73]

Week 30 - You still gotta eat, fool

As soon as I heard the massive ringing in my ears, the onset of Waltzers-style dizziness and my legs turning to jelly I knew that there was a very real danger I was going to go down.

In a room full of skeletons, random bits of dead humans and delicate glass cabinets, that prospect could have been spectacularly bad news for me, if also providing a hilarious free show for everyone else.

As I stood there swirling and shaking like a shitting dog, the black humour of a guy falling into some self-inflicted coma in the middle of Edinburgh University's Anatomical Museum was not lost on me.

But as bad as it would have been to have a hypoglaecemic incident in front of these people, I was equally as mortified that they might think I had fainted because of the gruesome nature of the exhibits.

"i need to sit down, now" I told my wife.

Instead, hand on my elbow, she led me to the cafe directly across the road where I ordered sensible food - a bowl of Greek yoghurt, oats, nuts, seeds and fruit topped with honey. Honest to God, this is my new favourite thing.

My nurse wife interrogated me on my intake over the previous days.

"What did you have for breakfast yesterday?"

"Um...two sausages I think, maybe three?"

"And what did you have for lunch yesterday?"

<<sheepish grin>>

"Nothing. Splendid. And what did you have for dinner last night?"

"Some beef jerky and rather too much gin."

"And what exercise did you do yesterday?"

"Two high intensity cardio sessions, one of 30 minutes, one of 60 minutes, plus a good whack of reasonably heavy resistance training...topped off with 30 minutes in a steam room in a sweat suit....pretty much the same workout routine I have had for the last five days."

"And what have you had to eat this morning before we walked two miles here?"

"i think I may have had a coffee?"

<<silence>>

"Right...it's not really a hard equation is it?"

No, no it is not.

I have been very stupid, and I have been given a wee fright yesterday.

The thing about crashing weight off in the way I suppose I have is it becomes addictive, both physically and psychologically.

I *like* looking in the mirror, and feeling better.

I *like* the positive comments from friends and relatives.

I *like* the way I feel when I get on the tram home after my second workout of the day; absolutely knackered but blissed out on the endorphin release.

I *like* seeing the scales and indicators all moving the way I want them.

But Jesus, one still has to eat and drnk sensibly.

The thing about Mounjaro is you really can, genuinely, forget to eat at all.

That healthy oat bowl I had yesterday was by no means massive, but by the time I had finshed it, a cup of sugary coffee, and a can of even sugarier ginger beer, I was ready to barf.

I have taken yesterday's warning as a double message:

1 - Sort out the input - proper food, properly timed, and less booze. That is going to involve prepping these oat bowls at home and taking them in to work for my breakfast / lunch.

2 - cool it with the output - ten gym sessions a week might be laudable, but it is not sensible.

So no ten mile walk yesterday, instead I watched Local Hero while sitting in my new (to me) Chesterfield chair, another potential favourite thing, and then made a beef stock and some oxtail ragu. A pretty good day all in all, except without the huge walk or gym session.

I should explain the reason we were in the Anatomical Museum at all in the first place was because of one of the other pledges I made to myself at the turn of the year, to live life better, to do more and to keep the old grey matter active. Their open days, and the talks on Burke and Hare, both free, are highly recommended.

So dialling it down next week, even keel, and press on.

I haven't done a weigh-in on my normal scales at my gym in Dalry because I haven't been there this week, I was meant to go yesterday, however the scales at my other gym in Leith are showing really positive results, with fat being converted to muscle at a good rate.

On that basis I am going to be conservative and claim 113 kilos, the same as last week.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 113 kilos / 17.8 stones

Weight last week: 113 kilos / 17.8 stones

Weight lost last week: zero

Starting weight: 147.3kg

Total weight loss: 34.3 kilos / 5 stones 6 pounds

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

#dieting#men's health#lose weight#mounjaro#weight#weight loss#on the pen#gym#gymlife#walking

#men's health#lose weight#dieting#weight loss#mounjaro#weight#gym#gymlife#on the pen#walking#cancef#cancer

[iainpope73]

Week 28 & 29 - My heid is mince

Truth be told I have been a wee bit all over the shop since before Christmas.

With one thing and another it has felt a bit of a roller coaster few weeks, and the death of my dear old chum Uisdean has really knocked me for six.

Added to that I have other very close pals who are going through their own serious health issues.

Behind all of that was having to wait for my own biopsy results over the festive period.

That was the unspoken sword hanging over the whole house, and while I have tried not to dwell on it, or even talk or think about it except when well meaning pals asked me about it, I suppose it must have been preying on my subconscious.

Anyhow, the biopsy results letter arrived yesterday, and I knew instantly what it was as it sat on the kitchen counter.

You can tell an NHS letter from the colour of the paper they use, it is slightly grey, because they use recycled paper. When you see a sliver of grey paper in the wee plastic window in the envelope, it is from the hospital. Good for the environment, bad for those of an avoidant disposition like me.

I opened the envelope without actually considering what I would do if it was bad news.

I am clear. Breathe.

I went for a walk and had a wee blub, a mix of emotions. Relief, guilt that I don't have cancer while people I love might. Grief for my mate. All of the above.

Yet while my heid has been mince over the last while, the one constant has been my gym routine, I haven't let thst slide one bit.

Five days a week, twice a day, first session 30 minutes on the bike, second session 60 minutes on the bike and some weights.

The day I heard of Uisdean's death I dealt with it by going straight to the gym and beasting it for hours. It has gotten to the point now that I am increasing my calorie burn every week, and I feel cheated if I cannot get my endorphin craving sated.

While the weight has been frustratingly slow in coming off I can feel changes in my body composition. More muscle, less fat. Cheekbones reappearing, chins disappearing.

When I was home for Uisdean's funeral I was so glad to be with my friends and family as we stood in unity with Uisdean's family.

One of his pals who had never been to a Lewis funeral spoke to me of how moved he was by he experience, how the men all take a lift of the coffin between church and graveside how the community unites. shows solidarity.

I have been away from home for a long time, but I felt a sense of belonging on that trip that I have not felt in years. I am so so glad I went.

It was also heartening to see that I am less of a worry to my own folks in that I have taken control of my health a bit more. Five stone less of me is a real step in the right direction.

I took my gym kit with me to Lewis and I managed to get in a couple of sessions in the time I was there, as well as walks in my village, Branahuie. Again, a very emotional journey.

But reality has a way of pinching your bum when you think you are winning.

I bought some new clobber, including an XL size retro football top for Sao Paolo team Palmeiras for no other reason than I like the design.

It was sobering to realise it was, if not pinching, then snug around my stubborn tummy.

Likewise when I saw a photo of many of Uisdean's close friends when we convened for dinner in his memory I was horrified to see my middle age spread almost flopping on to the table.

So I would say I have got myself from a Shipping Hazard to a Dad Bod situation. Still got plenty of blubber, still far too many markers in the red zone, and still plenty of hard work to do, but I am heading the right way.

Hard to believe we are nearly out of January already. I am looking forward to Spring more now than I have in years.

Anyway. Onwards.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 113 kilos / 17.8 stones

Weight last week: 115.5 kilos / 18.2 stones

Weight lost last week: 2.5 kilos / 0.4 stones

Starting weight: 147.3kg

Total weight loss: 34.3 kilos / 5 stones 6 pounds

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

#dieting#men's health#lose weight#mounjaro#weight#weight loss#on the pen#gym#gymlife#walking

[iainpope73]

Week 27 - Goodbye, dear friend

This last week has been tough. We have lost a dear friend completely out of the blue, and it has knocked us all for six.

It seems a wee bit perverse to talk about in what is meant to be a weight loss blog, but frankly trying to talk about anything else right now, kilos and pounds, would feel crass.

Uisdean Murray was, will alway be, part of our crew. A key part of it. A constant part of it, and he was as good a friend as anyone could wish for.

He was found dead last week in his flat in Glasgow, at the age of 52, and it has devastated his family and his very many pals.

I have known Uisdean for nearly 40 years. It feels strange to count it. He came to the Nicolson Institute, our secondary school in Stornoway, to start third year from Back School, like all the kids from out of town. There were just three days between us in age.

I can't actually remember the first time I met him, I think it would probably have been through either Ali Martin or Donald Carmichael who knew him from a very young age.

With our othe core group of muckers Donald Macarthur, Allan Macdonald, Gavin Simmons, Joan Martin and Ishbel Mackenzie, we kind of grew closer as we got older in the school, and while there have been many years pass by since, we have all kept up with each other to a greater or lesser extent, usually around 'hub' friends who bring us all together, like Ali Martin. I haven't seen Ali yet, but I know he is hurting.

Uisdean was from North Tolsta, a beautiul village at the end of the road that reaches up the east coast of Lewis from Stornoway and both his parents, Donald and Rhoda taught at the Nicolson. His family is the kind you would want as neighbours, good upright people who always worked hard and have achieved and contributed much to their village and the island.

Uisdean was quite simply the best of us. A quiet cove, who always ALWAYS considered his response before he gave it. When he did, finally, offer any opinion it was either measured, right or funny, often all three. I should have taken his example more often.

He was never flashy and if a camera was around he would likely make himself scarce or be in the corner of the frame.

I have hunted high and low for a decent photo of him and the only one I could find was from the night of our Sixth Year dance, taken in Donald Carmichael's front room in Garden Road, just before we set off out into the night to the Seaforth Hotel, but I can't bring myself to post it.

Instead I have borrowed this lovely photo from Uisdean's sister, Erica, with her permission and it shows Uisdean on the far right, with all his siblings - Erica, Ann and Murdo. I think you can see his pride and happiness. All of our thoughts are with them and Donald, his father.

Uisdean and I went to the same university, Glasgow, and shared a flat. I remember we would go regularly to Hubbard's on Great Western Road, just beneath Clatty Pat's nightclub. He was a creature of habit.

Uisdean always stood his round, and made sure if you needed to get home that you got home. His phone number was engrained in my memory, 945 - 5154 I think, (i might be wrong in the mist of time), in the event I needed to crash if i missed the last train. He would never shun a 2am phone call and he would do it for any of his mates.

More recently we went on holiday together and he took joy in our kids. I hadn't actually appreciated how important his own family and his friends were to him until I visited his flat a few years ago and saw his mantelpiece brimming with photos of his siblings and many nephews and nieces, and of course ourselves from a school reunion.

If he seemed shy to the point of painful silence, especially in his youth, by God he could sing after a dram or two. I never knew the song The Kishorn Commandos until he sang it word for word. There are more verses than you'd think. He loved to laugh, and it was one of my favourite pasttimes trying to get him to do so, either through tomfoolery or a joke.

It was pointless playing him at chess, he was literally a genius on that front and in all matters mathematical, but he never shouted about any of that either.

When we were young we spent a lot of time driving around our island, and we would often decide, on the long summer nights, to drive over from east to west coast to catch the sunset at Dalbeg. I can't even begin to explain that place to anybody who does not know it. The next visit there will be very painful.

But in truth, Uisdean was such a Mister Magoo that God alone knows how he passed the driving test. Being next to him in his Mini Metro was an experience.

He never married, and I never enquired about his private life. He was private and that was fine by me. I do know he would have made someone a stalwart, faithful partner. It is a profound sadness that that never, to my knowledge at least, came to pass.

The cruel irony of all of this terrible news, is that Uisdean was in the best physical shape of all of us. I am pretty sure he was still playing five-a-side football, and I know he did a lot of resistance training at home. He was tough as teak.

The other cruelty is that he always appeared, to me at least, the most 'together' out of us all. He never moaned, he seemed genuinely happy and content in his work at Strathclyde University where he had been since Moses was a boy, and he just got on with it all. He was so laid back he was horizontal.

I remember when we talked of retirement he confided that his game plan, his ultimate dream, was to sell the flat and go back up the road, to Tolsta, and to buy a wee boat and just potter around with some nets.

Uisdean's family croft stretches right down the Traigh Mhor, (literally Big Beach in Gaelic) and on most days you can see across the Minch to the hills of Sutherland. We used to walk it regularly. I don't want to euologise about that place too much because I like it fine and dandy the way it is in my mind's eye, empty.

It has been a while since I was there, and none of us know yet what Uisdean's funeral arrangements will be, but I do know that Tolsta cemetery looks over the same beach. There can be few more wonderful resting places.

My friend Donald Macarthur was the one who told me of Uisdean's passing. They were out together in Stornoway for a pint just last weekend and Donald told me Uisdean was in grand form in every respect.

In the days since, as we swapped anecdotes, Donald sent me this text. I hadn't known Uisdean was following this blog, but it does not surprise me.

"On Saturday Uisdean was talking about how well you've been doing with the weight loss while at the same time he was worried in case it was too quick and that you were looking after yourself. Genuinely thinking and hoping the best for his mate. I am sure you are, but it really sums up the man how he cared."

So, Uisdean, my friend, I promise you I won't leave anything on the pitch, and that I will live a true life with whatever time I have left.

Gus am bris an latha.

[iainpope73]

Week 24/25/26 Weigh-in - No weigh-in, weigh-in. Happy New Year

It's been far too long since I checked in, and the main reason for that is just not finding the time among work and life in general.

That is me, I think, on week 26, so exactly halfway through this year on Mounjaro, and also at the beginning of another calendar year; a perfect time to take stock of 2025, recalibrate my goals, and try to analyse where I want to go next for 2026.

Before I continue, I should say that I haven't weighed myself since the last time I blogged, which feels like an age ago, largely because the gym, and hence the regular scales i use, has been closed over the festive season.

But added to that, I wanted to give myself a break, both physically and mentally over Christmas. It is easy to get just a bit too wound up in the weekly weigh-in.

So I have eaten and drunk well over the last three weeks, (if nowehere near as much as I would have done if I weren't on Mounjaro), and not beaten myself up over it.

On the other side of the coin I have not let my fitness slide completely while the gym has been closed. I have been walking pretty long distances, for me, every day, usually between 10k and 10 miles. I am not really counting but I reckon I must have walked nearly 100k in the last few weeks, which pleases me no end. My body feels like it is, at the very least, in the same ballpark as before the festivities. In fact my ass feels like two hard-boiled eggs.

So, at a guess I am going to claim I am the same weight as the last time I checked. I have made a decision I will not hop on the scales until this time next week, after a good few hard days back in the gym. And if it is bad it is bad, I know I can change it.

Work before Christmas was, as expected, full-on, but fun. I broke my routine of nipping to gym at lunchtimes because I wanted to muck in with colleagues and show willing at our busiest time of the year. It didn't feel like any kind of chore at all to be part of a team pulling together.

I somehow fitted in an operation in the middle of the week before Christmas and was back at work the next day. When I came round in the hospital bed from general anaesthetic I had to ask a nurse if I had actually had an operation at all, as I felt no discomfort.

Although I am still waiting on definitive results, the hospital experience was much more positive than I could have expected. The doctors were all very happy with my vital stats like weight, heart rate and blood pressure, and I know that would have been a very different story before Mounjaro heled me make changes.

So 26 weeks gone, 26 to go. Five stone gone, and how many to go?

I really don't know, maybe three stone, maybe four? I want to tone up my body now, so I think I will introduce some callisthenics into my routine from tomorrow (Monday).

I would love to return to Lochend Boxing Club for some circuit training at some point...but I can remember how much an hour of intense cardio training there could hurt when I was 15 years younger, so that is something I need to consider carefully before diving in.

But there are other markers in life apart from scales.

It seems a lifetime ago that I asked my pharmacist nephew Naz if he could help me change, and I remember his confidence that Mounjaro would work.

Well, he was right. Mounjaro has helped me change my life beyond the measure of scales. I feel healthier, happier, and more ready to enjoy the present and the future.

The other changes I want to make, and have already made really, in 2026 are more fundamental.

I started 2025 as a supermarket delivery driver and ended it as a qualified butcher working for one of the most prestigious butchery shops in the city. My bosses have understandable high standards that they have developed over generations and it is my duty to learn them, emulate them and repeat them day in day out, and maybe even pass them on to next generations. That is a work in progress.

Outside of work I want to discover more new music, I think I already mentioned I want to learn to dance properly, but I also want to take up the drums again and go back to playing in a pipe band, (if I can find one that will have me), and similarly to take up photography properly again. Maybe even have my own litte bathroom darkroom for the first time in 30 years.

I want to kep my mind active by going to university and Royal Society talks, to maybe get a licence to drive minibuses so I can have the flexibility to be a tour guide on the side, to try new things like skiing and distance swimming, to increase and maintain my health, to take care of the way I look and what I wear for the first time in years, and generally to be an all round better person both for myself and for those I love. That is the hardest part.

Anyway. Onwards.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 115.5 kilos / 18.2 stones.

Weight last week: 115.5 kilos / 18.2 stones.

Starting weight: 147.1kg

Total weight loss: 31.6 kilos / 5 stones

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

[iainpope73]

Update - Week 23 Weigh-in...better than I thought, five stones gone

I realised yesterday that my previous weigh-in was actually a few days old, and i figured that after a weekend of workouts, frankly silly long saunas and two 10km walks...the needle might have shifted a tiny bit.

But I never thought it would be quite as big a shift as this.

I am going to claim that as 115.5 kilos, a loss of 3.5 kilos.

I just worrked out, as i sit here on the exercise bike qorking up a sweat again, that that takes my weight loss to 31.8 kilos in total. Bang on five stones.

I have a few caveats around this before I congratulate myself.

1. I don't trust these scales.

2. Even if it is correct, most of that loss will be sauna water weight, which i predict will go back on this week as easy as it comes off. If I put too much faith in this reading I will only be disappointed next week when the needle goes up.

But i will take it regardless.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 115.5 kilos / 18.2 stones.

Weight last week: 119kg / 18.74 stones

Starting weight: 147.1kg / 23.15 stones.

Weight Loss:

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

[iainpope73]

Week 22 and 23 weigh-in - Dancing Queen

Legend has it that when ABBA's Benny Andersson excitedly rushed home from his Stockholm recording studio one night in 1975 to play his wife, fellow ABBA band member Anni-frid Lyngstad, the embryonic backing track of the song that would later become Dancing Queen, she broke down in tears at its beauty.

That was just the melody and backing lines mind you, long before Ann-frid and Agnetha had even laid down a single word of their own magical chemistry on top of Benny and Bjorn's melody.

Once the completed masterpiece was given to the world in 1976 it had been further polished by the band and their manager and co-writer Stig Andersson ao perfectly that it is still, 50 years later, the perfect pop song.

I've been listening to and watching the video of Dancing Queen a lot recently during my gym sessions and I have tried to analyse what makes it so epic a tune, but I am afraid my musical knowledge is scant. I know I love it but I can't adequtely explain why I love it, but I can try.

From the initial punch in your guts of Benny's trill right along the piano, the backing singers 'ha, ha, haaaa-ing' the catch, and then Agnetha and Ann-frid straight into the second half of the 'you can dance, you can jive' chorus, before any verse has even been allowed to set the scene, Dancing Queen does not waste one breath, one moment of its near four minutes of divinity.

I think it is that straight-out-the-gates, in your face, instantly recognisable Phil Specter-esque burst of noise that makes kids rush to the dance floor as soon as it comes on, often performing ill-advised slide attempts on varnished floors to herald their arrival.

I love everything about it, it's joy and zest, but mostly probably because it has been part of the soundtrack of my life, for all my life.

Dancing Queen and I are almost direct contemporaries, and It has always been there.

Nobody of my vintage has ever had to try to learn the words or the tune to Dancing Queen, you just inherently know them, they are in your DNA.

It is the sum of its parts, the marriage of Roger Palm's driving drum beat and Rutger Gunnarsson's bass line which stops the strings and the vocals from climbing away up to heaven altogether in ecstasy.

Even on its own terms, taken at face value, it would remain the perfect pop song.

But I read a very interesting piece by a writer called Angus Harrison Titled "Why Abba's Dancing Queen is the Saddest Record Ever Made" where he delved a little deeper.

He writes:

"The basic point – the important point – here is this: you have spent your entire life believing “Dancing Queen” is a song about a 17-year-old girl, dancing. And to a point, it is. Yet, have you ever thought about the song’s vantage point?

You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life See that girl, watch that scene, digging the Dancing Queen

Make no mistake. This song is about the dancing queen, but it is most definitely not sung by her. Herein lies the tragedy. Our narrator has realised that she is no longer the Dancing Queen. She is no longer young, no longer sweet, no longer 17.

Now, instead, she watches from the bar; the dancefloor a maelstrom of lost faith, memories and missed opportunities. She was once 17, and as such was totally oblivious that the moment would ever end."

That analysis works for me only up to a point, and even if it was spot on I don't think it quite qualifies Dancing Queen for the title of Saddest Record Ever Made. ( Willie Nelson? Dolly Parton? even ABBA themselves with another of their classics, The Winner Takes it All?)

And what if the narrator, like me, takes joy, rather than wistful pain out watching people enjoy themselves?

One of the things I wanted to do throughout this year of taking Mounjaro was to move things in my life ledger from the 'never again/ too fat' column to 'give it a go' column.

Dancing was one of them.

It has taken me up till now to must the courage to go back to a nighclub, and to get on a dance floor.

Luckily my mate Brian has exactly the kind of 'safe space for oldies' club night in the basement of a pub in Marchmont where greying Fred Perry Northern Soul afficionados rub shoulders with mostly posh, mostly studenty youngsters, and they all enjoy soul classics together.

So it was that I found myself there with Brian's partner Jo and her friend Linda last Friday, and I had a total blast.

I may not have had the moves like Jagger, but not caring what anyone thinks of my moves is one of the benefits of age, and I loved seeing a younger generation really getting into Brian's great selection of tracks.

And anyway I am thinking of upping my game in the new year by getting myself along to DanceBase, Scotland's National Centre for Dance for someproper lessonsearly in the New Year. Why the hell not?

I will write more about my ever evolving gym n walk music playlists, and if anyone has any recommends, please do punt them my way.

The last two weeks have been good and steady in the gym, with 8-10 sessions a week topped up with my 10km weekend walks. I am putting in some big efforts, am feeling more energy and am able to burn more calories in every workout.

I am also now paying attention to a few other metrics rather than solely weight. Which is just as well as the scales have barely budged in the last fortnight.

But every other measurement on the Boditrax scales at the gym seems to be going well.

So, not great in terms of weight loss, in fact I am going to call it a nearly zero loss over the fortnight, but I can live with that this time, given the general postive direction of travel.

This week ahead is promising to be the most rewarding of the year work-wise, and we will be busy at the butchers preparing the centre-piece for hundreds of Christmas dinners across the city, whether that is rib roasts, turkeys, or the all-important trimmings. It is high end butchery and I will need to be on my game. Mounjaro has definitely helped me with concentration and focus in my daily work environment.

As corny as it sounds, it honestly feels like a privilege to be trusted with so many Christmas dinners for families I will never know. In fact, if you are reading this before the 16th you still have a chance to grab a piece of that action here.

Anyway, onwards.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 119kg / 18.74 stones.

Weight last week: 119.7kg / 18.85 stones

Starting weight: 147.1kg / 23.15 stones.

Weight Loss: 28.1 Kg / 4.424 stones

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

[iainpope73]

Week 21 Weigh-in - Slow progress

This is just a quick check in post as i am, frankly, jiggered.

I have wanted to write for quite some time about music and how important it is to me, especially for motivating me in the gym but i just don't have the energy, not tonight.

I am going to claim this week's weight loss as just a pound or so. Not bad, but not great, especially given the work i have been putting in.

On a more positive note other health indicators have been good, such as the metabolism age recorded by the fancy Boditrax body measurement scales in the gym. I am 52, so this reading below pleased me highly.

I went to a party at the weekend and let's just say i enjoyed the hosts' excellent hospitality to the full. My stats would probably have been better if it wasn't for that. But we have to live, right?

Anyway, as i said, a quick post tonight. Tomorrow is another day.

Mounjaro dose: 7.5mg

Weight today: 119.7kg / 18.85 stones.

Weight last week: 120.5kg / 18.97 stones

Starting weight: 147.1kg / 23.15 stones.

Weight Loss: 27.4 Kg / 4.31 stones

Mounjaro is once weekly injection and must be taken correctly alongside a balanced diet and excercise.

You should seek medical advice before starting a course of weight loss medication.

I am receiving my Mounjaro from Cloud Pharmacy.

Cloud Pharmacy is a registered pharmacy, licensed and governed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)