My First Shot
I don’t remember how old I was when I took my first shot of alcohol 🥃 but it’s a safe bet I was under 21. Other than that, it wasn’t a memorable moment.
But, I can tell you with certainty that I was one day shy of my 57th half-birthday when I took my first GLP-1 shot. And that day is today, 1/19/26. So far, not much more memorable. Then again, I’ve got several more to go 💉.
How did I get here? And why? Well, take a look at that picture of me and my Mom from my 1st birthday party. Look away from my ginger locks, which turned brown less than a year later. Look at my hands and face. Do you see the way I’m eating that cupcake? It’s as if my life depended on it. Those closed fists were ready to strike anyone who came close to MY food. And this was a time when I didn’t even have siblings. The five younger brothers and sisters would start entering my life less than a year after this photo was taken. 56 ½ years later, sharing is still far from my strong suit.
This past weekend, my daughter dropped by for a slumber party with my wife and me, and we watched a movie together on Netflix. The title was ‘Eternity,’ and it starred Elizabeth Olsen and Miles Teller. It was thought-provoking. No spoilers here, but the principal characters they’re portraying in the film have recently passed away, and we spend most of our time with them in the afterlife, where they have to decide where (and with whom) they want to spend, you’ve guessed it: eternity. Some time is spent on why they appear much younger and more attractive than their elderly selves who just departed the here and now; and it’s explained that they each appear as they were at the happiest time of their life on this astral plane.
This got me thinking. How would I ‘show up’ if the criteria was ‘the happiest time in my life?’ I’m going to be excruciatingly honest with you (and me) right now. Pretty much every single moment in time that came to me was based largely on how I remember looking, and feeling about how I looked. Shallow? I suppose. But honest.
In 1997 I was about to become a father for the first time. One could make a case it should’ve been among, if not THE happiest time in my life. I was thriving at work, we owned our first home, first grandchild to our own parents was imminent…and yet, all I could focus on was that (pic below) this is how I LOOKED at the time:
That’s me at my heaviest, ever. I think the medical term was “sympathetic pregnancy.” It’s when a spouse puts on weight to mimic or mirror the increase in their spouse’s pregnancy-related girth. Except of course, I wasn’t the one having a baby boy.
No, my mind went here (next pic), some 20 years later, as I was working out and dieting like a crazy person in preparation for a scheduled appearance as a judge on a cooking show called ‘All Mixed Up:’
Happier? Not dramatically. I was restless at my job, looking for things to stimulate my own engagement (hence the show). But, I wasn’t afraid to look in the mirror, which is something I can’t say has been true my whole life. *Heavy Sigh 😔. Pun intended.
Truth be told, my weight has fluctuated between 175 and 225 (okay, higher than that, but let’s round out the range to an even 50 lbs.) for most of my adult life. Today, I’m somewhere in between, but closer to the bigger than the smaller. And the secondary issue, beyond the physical, weight-related ‘stuff,’ is the psychological. My self-esteem has been inexorably tied to numbers on a scale for the better part of my life. But beyond that, the amount of time I spend THINKING about food would likely stun a ‘normal’ person, if such a thing exists. I’ve learned the term ‘food noise’ in recent months, and it really hits home. Just knowing there was a name for it, whether medical or anecdotal, has been helpful. And, I used the term when I spoke to my doctor a week ago about starting this journey.
So, here we are. First shot. Day one. Don’t worry, I’m not going to detail every aspect of this chapter in my life on Substack. Maybe… once a month? Success or fail, I’ll keep it real. Wish luck. Or not, that’s fine. Just keep the bread hidden- for now 😉.
Good luck, you got this.
Good luck!