[00:00:02] Ready to lose 40 plus pounds without giving up happy hours, weekend brunches, or date nights. Then it's time to uncover the hidden link between binge eating and toxic relationships. And finally break free from both. Welcome to the Hungry for Love podcast with Jillian Scott. Y' all ready? Let's go.
[00:00:24] Hey. Hey. Welcome back.
[00:00:26] All right, so today we're going to dive into and I'm just going to share a little more behind the scenes of my experience microdosing Tirzepatide, which for many people, they look at me and they're like, why are you doing that? Why are you taking this? Because they are looking at it and looking at these peptides as a weight loss drug, but they are not. They are hormones, right? So I want you to think signaling hormone. They are just getting your body to do what it's been designed to do. I've shared a little bit of this in the past. I've alluded to it a bit, but I started microdosing myself because I also know I have some undiagnosed conditions. I was actually, I think, misdiagnosed with pcos. As I was doing some more research and reviewing more of the symptoms of an underactive thyroid, two of the things that would qualify me for PCOs are actually would fall in the hypothyroidism category. So an underactive thyroid, you could also see irregular periods and, and cysts on your ovaries. And so while they are less common symptoms associated with that type of diagnosis, I'm like, oh, you put it with the other ones that I'm experiencing, like hair loss, eyebrow loss, feeling really cold, having cold hands, numbing fingers, things like that. It's like you, you start to put it with the other symptomology that I'm experiencing and I'm like, oh, I actually think this is what it is now. I'm not sure 100%. There are still tests and things that need to be done. However, I do know that GLP1s are going to heal and address all systems of the body. They're going to address the gut, the brain, the nervous system, that vagus nerve, they're going to address insulin resistance, help your nervous system to re regulate. They are going to help your body to function better. They're going to help decrease inflammation. And I'm just looking at it from the lens of I've had these symptoms long enough that it would make sense that I at least have an underactive thyroid. It could be trending towards an autoimmune underactive thyroid, which is hashimoto's My mom has a history of that. I'm sure if we looked back generations, it may not have been diagnosed. But I guarantee my grandmother, maybe great grandmother, like other people in my family lineage, have experienced that. And because of trauma, I know that my body is going to be more prone to an autoimmune disease and condition.
[00:02:41] And what we've found with these GLP1s and with the restorative regenerative benefits of them is that if you can catch it sooner, if you can catch the symptoms before they become autoimmune now, you can actually prevent the disease from taking hold and taking effect. And so if I can stop things where it's just an underactive thyroid, if I can stop it there before it turns full blown autoimmune disease, that's actually going to be really helpful for me and my longevity, my life, my symptomology, all of those pictures. Because on one end we have Hashimoto's, but on the other side of that autoimmune rainbow, we've got cancer. There are some really big health concerns that we can actually mitigate if we address them soon enough. And this is why I am starting myself with it. It's why I'm talking to clients. It's why I'm even approaching friends and family members and other people in my life where I'm like, hey, I know this might be a slight concern for you, or maybe it's not a huge concern right now, but I'm concerned and if you can start to address it now, you can catch it before it turns into something that may evolve and become worse with time. Right? If you just keep kicking the can down the road. One of my fears was like, okay, I have been without eyebrows now for five or six years. Maybe they won't grow back. There was this thought of I may have lost my chance and my opportunity to grow them back and that might be what it is, but I don't want to keep doing that. I started a several weeks ago and I started on a very low dose again in that like 20% of the standard starting dose, I did.05 milligrams. And in really just looking at, okay, how is this going to impact me? How does it impact me physically? What do I feel energetically, sleep wise with my nervous system? And I found some really unique things and some stuff that has happened. So that first week I didn't have any nausea, no vomiting, no diarrhea, no issues there. I did start taking a probiotic that second week I started with Adrenal Support Week 3 or no, actually it was this week. So it's week four now that I'm starting with some thyroid support and desiccated thyroid. So I am starting to incorporate and add on some other components here because I don't want to make GLP1s try to work in a vacuum. I want to look at things very holistically and so bringing this on, it's a very small amount. I'm still getting hungry. I wouldn't say I have food noise. It's more of. There still might be a little desire for a snack, but it's not intense. It's not more so than I've experienced. It's like really the way I see the GLP1s with hunger is we don't want to eliminate hunger, we want to better regulate hunger. And so I felt like my hunger was already pretty well regulated. If anything, I'm just a little bit hungrier earlier in the day. So I know if I teach a morning class I may want a little bit of a snack.
[00:05:28] Some days I might go and I just have coffee in the morning and I feel really good. So I'm just gonna go teach. Some days I'm gonna want a snack. Some days I might want a light breakfast if I teach at noon or 1pm So I am noticing that I'm starting to eat a little bit earlier, even if it is just something small is starting to play more with allowing my body to better regulate blood sugars. And one of the things that as I was researching, cause I've never really been super hungry in the morning. Like I'm typically not hungry for breakfast, even exercising in the morning. And one of the signs or one as I was reading some different information like that is a sign of high cortisol levels too. And so I was like, oh, that might not actually be a great thing.
[00:06:07] And again, we don't want to just paint one thing with this one color, right? This is not a paint by numbers. It is very nuanced, very individualized, which is why I love this compound pharmacy that I'm going through. I got what they considered a three month supply that I am now going to make last nine months.
[00:06:24] So to me that's amazing. I'm going to get these regenerative benefits and I'm going to start to see other signs and things in my body as well. So I want to walk you through just what my experience has been and some of the cool things that I noticed. My first dose, I did it on a Monday evening and then on Tuesday, my son had this full on meltdown for about 10 minutes. And y', all, I was so calm. I was as cool as a cucumber. I didn't feel disregulated, I didn't feel stressed, my body didn't feel tense. I felt so calm. And I was able to handle his meltdown to still hold the boundary, but to just say, you can cry, but we're not doing that. Like, we're not going. I think he wanted to go and buy like a new treat because his, like the chocolate fell off of his or something like that. It was something where I was like, no, buddy, we can get more this week, but we're not going out tonight. It's eight o'. Clock. No.
[00:07:15] And I just let him have his meltdown and I didn't get dysregulated by his dysregulation. And I think that was maybe one of the first times ever, like especially to that extent, for him to have a pretty long period of dysregulation and then to get regulated. I don't think I've ever experienced that level of calm and cool. And the only thing that was different was the GLP one. I want to be mindful around what I attribute things to, but. But that was the only thing that has changed. And so just that ability to stay calm in a high stress or high anxiety state like that to me was huge. So mind blowing. That was day two. It was the day after my dose. And then later in the week I also noticed I could start to feel my stress levels increase a little bit. So I could also tell that with that low of a dose, while I was seeing some benefits, it almost felt like it was maybe wearing off a little bit towards the end.
[00:08:10] So that was one of those mental notes that I made. Okay, I'm starting really slow. I wanna be really mindful of what I'm doing. That way I can also just address it properly and make sure that I am getting some benefits and not overdoing it. That week. I also noticed I was waking up at like between 2:30 and 3 in the morning almost every night. And that is not uncommon for me. But it seemed to be a little excessive. This seemed to be beyond my control. And so as I was doing some research, I started noticing that one, it could be stress and adrenals, it could be blood sugar and your blood sugar dipping. And so it could be this perfect storm of like blood sugar dipping with high stress levels coming in and your body is now just trying to re regulate and find its Balance find its groove. That's part of what got me to get the adrenal support. And I also was looking at maybe eating a little bit of carbs or eating a little bit of something later in the evening, making sure that I had enough carbs in my meals at lunch and especially though at dinner, and then maybe even having a light snack that had some carbs in it. And again, we're talking like a nutrigrain bar. Not a lot of food, just something very small that I could have maybe 30 minutes before bed. And I typically recommend that you don't eat two hours before bed. That's usually my line. But this is where I'm now starting to play with. Okay, what does my body need? I also got a magnesium supplement and so I am starting to play with some different things of what is going to help my body. And then I noticed last week, because this has been like a consistent thing, it started to get better as the dose wore off. Then when I did my second dose, I felt like it came back on. So I definitely felt like this was tied to the GLPs I'm looking at, okay, what else is going to help me with sleep? And like part of it is getting in enough salts, enough electrolytes, making sure I'm not waking up to pee. And now it's like everything just wakes up. But it's really starting to address some of bigger, larger things. But that was a big concern for me at first because I was like, oh my gosh, if I'm not sleeping through the night, if I'm up between 2:30 and 4:30 or 5 every morning and I have a really hard time falling back to sleep, I don't know that this is worth it. I don't know if I can do this. Last week I ran out of my allergy medicine, which I take Claritin D for just like seasonal allergies. And so one night I didn't take it. And I also noticed that my sleep was a little bit better and I was able to fall back to sleep faster. And so I think there are a couple of factors. So right now it's like that has been one of the kind of the primary thing I've been solving for. So looking at can I get my adrenals under control, can I help to support the thyroid as well and getting that functioning well? What might be happening insulin wise and blood sugar wise, the magnesium in the sleep and helping me to stay asleep. The other thing that I was learning was that low estrogen can also be linked to not being able to stay asleep. So for me, usually it's stress, but I was like, if there's a little bit of stress, plus maybe a little bit of low blood sugar, plus maybe a little bit of low estrogen, it could be this perfect storm coupled with the decongestant in the Claritin. It's like it could just be this little perfect mixture.
[00:11:11] So I decided I was gonna wait four to six weeks. I was gonna see does this get better? Because sometimes when we are on the path to healing, sometimes things feel like they might be getting a little bit worse before they get better. When you have a scab and then it gets itchy, right? And it's like this itches. This is really uncomfortable. But it's actually a sign of healing, right? If we can just leave it alone, it's actually going to heal and get better. So that's my take on this. I'll keep you updated on how that goes. But that has been getting progressively better. And I'm looking at, okay, how else can I support my body? So I think this is where when you start it too. We also want to look at it from this troubleshooting method and this way of just looking at, if there are challenges, there are obstacles coming up, how do we solve them? And so one of my thoughts was like, maybe tirzepatide isn't the right fit for me. Maybe I need to do the semaglutide. Maybe I need a different one.
[00:11:59] Maybe my body is just not going to be able to handle this, just being open and curious. I'm very much handling this the way that I would handle my emotional eating or binge eating back when I was really first starting to solve that. It's how me be really compassionate and really curious. And I would say my sleep is getting better. I'm now also, I think, starting to address more of the hormonal pieces to where the GLP1s are starting to activate that and activate those pathways. But I could see how if that is starting to activate some things, if there are other problems, maybe it's bringing some of that up to the surface a little bit. So that's really what I experienced for week one, and there were no other issues or problems that I had. And so week two, I went up to 1.0 milligrams and that was probably a little too much for my body. Looking back, I'm like, oh, probably should have done half an increase. I should have gone up to 0.75 and then gone up to 1. But it's fine. But then I was able to notice I dosed on Sunday because I wasn't teaching that day. And so I was just experimenting with it and ended up with some fatigue that Sunday. That and I just noticed I was also feeling irritable. But then that night I took a bath and brought in my book and I was like, oh, this is really nice. I'm really enjoying this. Like, I actually feel calm and relaxed. The tools that I would typically use or recommend for decreasing stress or regulating your nervous system seem to be working better now. Those tools seem to be more effective. So that was really cool. And then that week I noticed just a little bit more very light and sporadic nausea. I think I noticed a little bit maybe Monday or Tuesday. I noticed a little bit Thursday.
[00:13:33] Wednesday night my boyfriend and I went to a concert. And so I ended up having three drinks while we were out over the course of 4ish hours.
[00:13:42] So it wasn't an abnormal amount, but it was more than what I think my body needed or wanted. And so the next day I was feeling nauseous, but I think it was just tied to. I just drank too much Wednesday night for what my body could handle on the tirzepatide. So that was also very interesting. And then Saturday I had a piece of pizza because I taught a class. And then we went straight to Caleb's friend's birthday party. And so I had a little piece of pepperoni pizza just to have something in my stomach. But I also didn't feel great that afternoon. I just felt a little yucky. And really I think it was just my body being a little more sensitive to the alcohol, greasy food, fried food, things like that. So this again, I think is more emphasis of you will decrease the side effects with the better food choices that you make. Then that's where I realized too, I think this dose was a little too high. Let me come down.
[00:14:34] So the third dose I dosed Monday evening because I teach class Sunday afternoon and then Monday morning. And so Sunday evening I don't teach anything until Wednesday afternoon. So it gives me like a full two days. And so I did my third dose. I felt way better. So even starting week one, I was noticing my joints were feeling better, felt decreased inflammation that continued to get better. Week two, week three, last week I really noticed it with week three, less joint pain, inflammation seemed to be lower. This kind of like little bit of puffiness that I was feeling, not quite bloating, but just a little extra puffiness, extra water weight that was coming down and so My starting weight, I think I was 125.5 when I started, and then I weighed in today. So at the end of those three weeks, I was at 121.5, roughly. So it's come down, but I think a lot of that was more just puffiness. It's just sometimes that's tied to autoimmune conditions.
[00:15:32] But I feel a little slimmer. I feel better in my body. I'm wearing a pencil skirt today. I have an event tonight, and so I've got this fitted top that feels really good on. I've got this pencil skirt that's stretchy, but I haven't worn it in a long time, maybe even a couple years, and it fits great. This is a skirt that actually I got when I had my very first internship in D.C. in 2008.
[00:15:57] So this was right after I graduated college. I went to D.C. for an internship and I got some new work clothes, if you will. This is one of the OG skirts that I have from that time, from that era. It's super cute and it fits. It hasn't fit this well in a while now. I would say this is not something that I try on often, but I feel amazing in it right now. And so just being able to notice a little bit of that kind of water weight puffiness, just extra bloat to have that come down. That's amazing. So I am seeing some changes in terms of body composition and how I'm feeling. Overall, my energy has been pretty good. My sleep has been getting better. It's not so disrupted. And then I'm looking at, okay, what else can I do?
[00:16:41] And guess what? Last week, this was only after about maybe two and a half weeks. There is a little patch of my eyebrows going back, like the outer side. The outer part of my right eyebrow is starting to grow back. There's five or six hairs. There's a lot. It's not just one.
[00:16:58] Like, I was looking at the left and I was like, oh, I see one, I see two. There's some coming. But I turned and I looked at the other side of my face, and I was like, holy bananas. I'm actually starting to grow them back. And that is wild. And so it's usually the outer third that you lose first. And so I'm curious if they come back. Maybe it's the outer third that come back first, and then maybe it goes in. I don't know. I'm not sure what to expect here. I'm not using anything else other than I've done a Couple days of this thyroid support now and then the tirzepatide, I feel better. My sciatica has been getting better. My right hip was really sore and painful. And even for the first week or two, I noticed that was really bothering me. But that has been so much better over the last week. That has gotten a lot better to the point where as I'm talking and I'm sharing some things, I'm like, oh, yeah, that was even bothering me last week. And now it feels really good, really looking at how can I adjust things that I'm doing. So I look at, like, my squat depth and how much weight I'm using. So I've been making sure with body pump that I'm going a little bit heavier. I don't want to go quite so low. I don't want to strain that range of motion too much. But looking at what kind of adjustments can I make and can I do? And it's been really amazing. As I was talking with B today, I was telling him, I feel more like myself. I feel better in my body. I feel more comfortable. I just feel more like me. And when you find the right dose and you start to put these pieces of the puzzle together, that's what you end up creating, is that you find that you are more like yourself, more relaxed, less stressed, less tense and anxious. I think this is starting to expand and help my nervous system to grow to repair. I had my son for about 10 days in a row, so a little bit longer than normal. And by that day 10, I was like, yep, I'm feeling it. Feeling a little stressed, little overwhelmed, but it was also still very manageable. It wasn't overwhelming. It wasn't like, oh, dear God, you have got to go to your dad's. You know, like, it was still very much, yep. This is what it's like with a young kid right now and really working with him around, creating the same habits that he has at his dad's house and bringing them here. He's not allowed to be mean. He's not allowed to say mean things and just be hurtful. There are certain things that I think he does to act out. And I don't know if it's attention seeking, but there's some things that I'm looking at and playing with in that regard because I know that I'm going to be his safe space. I know that this is where he's going to feel more emotions than he's allowed to, but there have to be boundaries. And I think where I can improve is Getting better at having consequences when he crosses the line because he's smart enough to know and to put it together. So, yeah, just my side note of parenting and just where I'm at there. But overall, like feeling a lot better with things. So, yeah, I would say those have been like, some key improvements after two doses. So I did the third dose last week and then I started my period and my period came in 30 days.
[00:19:52] And I would say over the last three years, it has never been at 30 days. It's always more than that. Usually it's 36 or higher. Recently it's been 46 to 52 days. Like, it's been much, much higher, more like every other month. And this was my first regular period in a long time, possibly since Caleb was born. But that was really cool to see how in a very short amount of time my body now is starting to better regulate. So still early for that. I wanna be really mindful about what I'm attributing to what. But that was one of the key things that changed was this Tirzepatide. I had done a full two weeks and then it was after that third dose, much, much better in terms of keeping my hormone cycling and at play. Because that's the other piece. When your cycle is longer, you now have a longer period where you are low estrogen, low progesterone, and so that can impact sleep, it impacts mood, it impacts all these other pieces. I was already starting to be aware of not just mood, but sleep dysregulation due to my cycle. With better understanding our hormones and how they're working, starting to put that together and recognizing, oh, it's not just one week that I'm in this phase, or four to five days I'm in this. It's actually more like two weeks I'm in this phase. And that's why every other month I'm struggling with sleep in some ways.
[00:21:14] So this is where it's like, we want to just start to look at what are some other factors, what else is playing into it. But four doses in and I feel really good. So I'm going to stay at this current dose for several more weeks, potentially a couple months, because I'm really doing it for the health, healing, regenerative benefits. That's what this is really about. And even from a weight loss standpoint, that's how I want you to be thinking about. This is like healing your metabolism, healing your nervous system from the inside out. We want to actually do what we can and let science lead us, let the GLPs do their work and activate and trigger the body the way that it's supposed to. And it's been super easy, too, because it's one dose once a week. I'm not thinking about it all week long. And when the side effects are so low and so minimal and very manageable, it's just not something that you have to think about or worry about. It's been pretty great. It's not a daily thing, if anything, the supplements are daily and vitamins are daily, the probiotics, stuff like that. So that's. The other piece is you want to make sure you have some adrenal support, most likely some thyroid support, just because I think a lot of women, especially coming out of trauma, are probably very low. Having some gut support is also going to be really important. So probiotic, prebiotic, maybe some greens, something like that, those are all going to be really important. And then it's like the way I see this is GLP1s are the starting point. Later this year, maybe next year, I'll start to layer in more of a overarching hormonal panel. But I'm really curious to see how this may change and impact hormones. And maybe I don't need any additional support for a while. So, yeah, and this is where I've heard other people who have used it for a couple of months, then they found that they could decrease their thyroid dose. They didn't need so much testosterone or progesterone. The other hormones in their bodies were shifting naturally because of the GLP1s and the impact on their systems, on their bodies. So, yeah, there's just so much that is cool and amazing here. I have some more fun stories to share, other case studies of clients and a few colleagues who have been so gracious to share their experience here. But one client, I'll just give you a little sneak peek. Even starting, she was like, the very next day after her first dose, she was like, the food noise is nearly gone. The overthinking, it's amazing. And you can create these amazing results, too. This is not about a weight loss drug. It's not a get skinny quick fix, okay? This is about steady, sustainable healing. With the healing, then comes weight loss. Because I think a lot of times weight is just a symptom of other dysregulated dysfunction in the body. So if we think of it as carrying extra weight, it's a symptom of something else within the body that is not right.
[00:23:58] The GLP1s can come in and start to address that and the way we do that in a systematic way where you don't need to be on them for life, you don't have really bad side effects while you're on them, you don't get thrown into a tailspin when you come off is to stay low. And to use this microdosing strategy that I outlined and was talking about last week is to like, this is how you have success. You won't need them forever, but you may need a year, maybe two years at a very low dose to help restore and repair the internal work so that you can come off and maintain your weight, maintain the habits, maintain your systems and the body. And the body now is maintaining its systems.
[00:24:39] So that's the other thing here is making sure you get in enough protein and fiber. For me, it's also making sure I have enough carbs in the evening and then strength training, getting sunlight, walking every day. It's following the same things that I would be doing otherwise. It's now just adding this to it. This is where over time you start to build in those habits and really make them long term as well.
[00:25:03] All right, that's it for now. I may add that to this later, but I think once a month I'll just do a monthly update, monthly recap. But that's where I'm at so far. If you wanna learn more about how to really create lasting weight loss, how to end emotional eating and binge eating habits, how to restore your metabolic health, I would love to chat more so you can schedule a free
[email protected] forward slash schedule.
[00:25:28] All right, y' all have a great week. Here's to creating the life and body you crave.
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