Would I take Ozempic?
First, could you use a coach right about now?
If you
need steady, skillful support right now
are getting ready to begin an important project or make a major change
want to create a big life upgrade
are being called to alchemize the old sh*t that keeps you from moving your life forward
or just need a smart and wise person to give you their full attention, best suggestions and kindest encouragement on a regular or semi-regular basis
then I am here for you. There’s 8 billion people on the planet! We’re not meant to figure it out all by ourselves.
We don’t see much movement when we tell our same story over and over to our same friends and they give us the same advice, and we don’t take it. (Even if it’s good. Which lol it often isn’t.)
Let’s try something that really works. My clients have broken destructive habits, secured big raises and new jobs, quit binge eating, lost we*ght, completed large creative projects, and built whole new lives honestly.
How it works.
We’ll meet weekly or fortnightly for 50-60 minutes, usually for a couple months. (You can of course keep going if you like, and many do.) Meetings are available Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. My rate is $135/session.
Hit Reply if you’re interested or have questions. If cost is an issue right now, reach out and we’ll talk.
“Would you take Ozempic?“
This is a question that I get from many people. And the answer is:
Oh, honey. FER SURE. If I could take it, I absolutely would.
I can’t because 1. not heavy enough or pre-diabetic enough to qualify for insurance and 2. weak digestive system (“bottom 5%!!” —my health care provider)
But there are two reasons I would take Ozempic or similar if I qualified:
my weight fluctuates up and down and all around and well outside my favorite wardrobe items. About 15 lbs worth, which is a lot on 5’3”, whatever Sir Mix-a-Lot thinks.
I have a LOT of neurology devoted to thinking about food and eating, too much. If you stretched out those neurons, you could probably get to Pluto and back.
Food noise.
Food noise: You’ve heard of it. You’ve HEARD it. You probably like it as much as I do, which is not at all.
I’m not referring to thinking about food in a life-giving way, like planning a complicated dish that I’m excited to cook. Or looking forward to a special night out when I’m going to let the chef completely have her way with me.
I’m talking about that grinding repetitive nagging style of thinking that responds to neither pleasure nor hunger, it’s just an urgency machine. It’s just shitty neurology.
It’s the same kind of “thinking” that makes someone wash their hands for the 34th time this morning. It can hardly be called thinking at all.
It’s more like a lifeless parasite, jamming the signal of more creative thought.
But just because it’s lifeless doesn’t mean it’s not real.
Food noise is deemed Not A Thing by a number of anti-diet folks. “Food noise” for them is just another word for fatphobia and diet culture.
Both of which are real and terrible. But just because there is diet culture doesn’t mean there isn’t food noise.
I know this because I have recovered from a decades-long, very serious eating disorder, and I mean RECOVERED. BED is behind me, praise!
But the food noise has stayed on.
Except for when I was enlightened that one time.
My enlightenment experience was incomplete. I floated in it for about a week, during which I felt utter peace and joy.
I did not overeat or think much about food or alcohol or buying cute things. I even sat with my back to the room as if it was nothing, feeling perfectly safe.
(Obviously what we are talking about has an important nervous system component as well.)
Within 10 days my enlightenment was a memory. But a BIG one, as it remains by far the best I have ever felt in my life.
Of course I would want to feel that all the time.
Which is why Ozempic.
I have friends, colleagues, clients and mentors on these drugs.
One of my friends reports: “It gives me choice! My thinking is clear. I get shit done, and not in a gross “productivity” way. The food noise is turned OFF.”
In other words, freedom.
This is so much deeper than overeating. This is a delete key for all kinds of destructive habitual zombie thinking. All the things that have craving or grasping at their root, like drinking spending gambling etc.
I was able to hit that delete key for binge eating without a drug, but it was hard, and the work of years. I would have appreciated the short cut.
And then there’s the comfort eating.
My binging has stopped, but the "comfort" eating has remained as a ghost limb.
I eat more than I need more often than I want to, and I think about food honestly too much.
And it bears repeating: it is okay to think about food! It's our human patrimony, and it is fine to care about the best Dubai chocolate bars and whatever.
But only if it feels good. You know when it does, and when it doesn't.
And for me, that panicky quality of needing more of something I already have PLENTY of never feels good. Its absence is ecstasy.
So, yeah, I would totally take Ozempic.
What about you? Are you taking it? If so, what is your experience? Are you wishing to take it but can’t? Did you take it and hate it? Tell me! Just hit Reply.
RECOMMENDING.
writing.
Reader Carolyn F. reminded me of What to Say to Yourself in the Middle of the Night, a piece I wrote for Modern Daily Knitting a few years ago. It was written by a SPOOKY PRECOG Max Daniels, about how I would wake up worried that I would get dumped. LOL I have great advice for Future Me! (It’s useful for any kind of worry that keeps you up, not just fear of abandonment.)
attending.
I got to see Maria Bamford and Jackie Kashian and Margaret Cho this month! If you can see any of these performers live, what JOY.
I also got to see Los Lobos, more than 50 years into their career. There were kids in the audience, but also a ton of people with canes and I even saw someone using a walker. That’s a dedicated following and this was the best 🎯 live show I’ve been to in years.
Then I took the Megabus to Brooklyn and back in a day just to have a drink with Catherine Liu and friends and it was so cold and so much fun. Next I turned right around and went back to Brooklyn (on Amtrak this time, nicer!) to get a tattoo and see my friend Deanna and her kids.
I’ve been thinking about why I’m going out 10x as much as I ever did when married, and the answers aren’t great, but also, SO WHAT ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ HELLO WORLD!
eating. (oh the irony! yes let’s talk about food some more.)
Taquitos, made with the tinga I usually have on hand. Taquitos to me have always been something you get frozen at the store, but it turns out homemade is just fine. (This tip comes to you from Adam Ragusea.)
Here’s how I do it:
get 3 Thincredibles (because better filling to tortilla ratio than regular thick tortillas, which means fewer carb calories and more protein calories) (let’s talk about calories soon, eh?)
grate 1oz of cheese (any you like that melts) and divide amongst the tortillas
divide 4oz of tinga/your protein among the tortillas, on top of the grated cheese
heat a cast iron skillet and swirl 1tsp of olive or other oil on it (yes, that’s enough)
roll up your taquitos pretty tight (the tortilla will tell you which way to go) and put them on the hot pan seam side down
flip when crispy on the bottom and crisp the tops (no need to do the sides)
I would serve this with greens and shaved or pickled shallots. You can also make a vegetarian or vegan filling, or use cheese and shrimp, or anything else you like
If you improve on this, lmk!
watching.
Mo, on Netflix, a heartbreaking comedy about a Palestinian family in Houston in their third decade of trying to secure political asylum while working under the table. Never trivial or dumb. Episodes are 20-28 minutes, so. Easy to try it!
Well that’s the week! I’ll be answering more of your questions soon. Ask them here. Meanwhile,
👊 respect!
💗 adore!
🙏 and thank you for reading.
