Oh, every bit of this is a hard no for me, haha. I have some food limitations that make absolutely no sense, but here we are. For instance, tuna salad yes, chicken salad no, turkey salad I’ve never tried it’s such a complete and utter no for me. Avocado as guacamole with chips and salsa yes, avocado in cobb salad grudgingly tolerated, avocado for its own sake no.
It’s not as easy being me as it probably looks, lol.
Monday, June 23
Weight 152.4
CG Max day 8/50 - sumo squats, staggered RDL, bridges, diamond presses, upright rows, rear delt rows - easy 2 mile walk. We’re having a big ol’ muggy heat wave, so took it slow today.
Thursday, June 26
CG Max day 9/50 - fwd tilt bulgarian lunges, rotational rows, yoga ball rollouts, pushups, banded hip thrusts, hammer presses, supine rows - 5 minute cardio warmup.
Another after-work workout in the books. There may be hope for me yet!
Friday, June 27
Weight 152.7
CG Max day 10/50 - ab work, rotational curls, skull crushers, heel elevated squats, rear delt flies, diagonal raises - all of which constituted “a wee fun day,” I’m told. Warmed up with a couple mile hike, which had enough elevation to get my heart rate up a bit, but not enough to make me feel like I’d already worked out.
Good day so far!
Sunday, June 29
Weight up, but didn’t track it
GC Max day 11/50 - RDL, chest presses, banded bridges, pullovers, lunges, Arnold presses - warmup 2 mile walk, which for some reason was nicely zone 2. I generally don’t get my heart rate up with the dog unless we add some running in. Today we seemed to be stopping less and moving along at a nice clip. He spent yesterday and last night at the kennel because we were out of town. I’d have thought that would slow him down, but apparently not.
Monday, June 30
Weight 152.1
CG Max day 12/50 “higher reps are just a lot of fun” - sumo squats, sweeps, stability ball roll out, lateral raise, step-ups, single arm row - two mile walk with the dog.
So this may have been my favorite workout since I started Girvan last year, and honestly for a long time altogether - probably going back to my serious running days, when I was getting faster and faster and more and more able to just keep going forever.
It wasn’t the workout itself, I don’t think. It just…every bit of it hit right, and I felt strong. I also found myself synced with CG for most of it in terms of sets (I’m at about half her weight), so when I found myself having to pause through the burn, much of the time she was right there with me, making the same “oof” face I was.
I don’t know. I’m babbling. I just loved it so much.
Wednesday, July 2
CG Max day 13/50 - diamond press, hip thrust, upright row, curtsey lunge, flies - with a two mile morning walk/run (maybe half and half at this point, though I decided I wasn’t going to run anymore period over the weekend because it’s really bothering my foot. But here we are. Maybe I’ll see how today goes and see if I can do it once a week.
I love this program as much as I did Iron, and will almost certainly repeat it.
Thursday, July 3
Weight 153.2
Two mile walk with the dog, though that’s not what I came to report. (I generally don’t report walks unless I also train that day.)
I came to report that I increased my retatrutide this morning. Weight has been holding steady, and I haven’t noticed any decrease in hunger. I do notice more self-control with bad things, maybe, but I’m not sure that’s the medication.
I was feeling perpetually over-caffeinated there for a bit - jittery, nauseous, little headachy - but I had a particularly stressful couple of weeks at work and it may have been that. Probably more likely as it hasn’t been an issue the whole time - it came and went sort of randomly after 2.5 weeks. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if it’s a side effect for me.
Also, after I leave here today I’m off for two weeks. Yay!
It could be, but in a roundabout way. It’s kinda like how, if we PAY for a program/diet, we’re more inclined to adhere to it, whereas if we get it for free, we tend to be more willing to deviate.
In taking the medicine, you have more buy-in to the process at whole, which may be subconsciously altering your decision making processes.
You could be right, though I would think for me it would be something closer to placebo effect than any real investment in the investment. Like…oh, what is that? am I experiencing non-hunger because I’ve started this medication? maybe! wait, yes, I think I am! Which = self-fulfilling prophesy.
The stress I mentioned and the anxious knot in my stomach may also have been the change. My major insurer - 2/3 of my income - hadn’t yet paid me 3 months into the start of my practice. There were very sad things going on with my clients, too. I can handle up to two fresh heartbreakingly dire situations a week, anything more makes it difficult to leave work at the office and causes me sleep difficulties. There were several over the past couple of weeks.
Happily the payor has started dumping money into my account and I had another several hundred dollars in my mailbox when I got home tonight, so that’s eased. I’ve caught up on my paychecks and will put money toward my IRA this weekend, which were also stressors.
Now if I could just ease back on my eating a bit! (While I go on vacation Sunday, haha.)
Friday, July 4
Weight 151.7 (!)
CG Max day 14/50 - shoulder presses, static lunges, pullovers, heel elevated squats, pushups, staggered RDLs. Today’s pace was slower than I’ve gotten used to with this program, which was nice. It enabled me to see how far I’ve come - with the weights, but also in terms of my form and general competence with the process. My subscription to the app renews on the 19th, so I’m very close to being one year in with this programming. My strength, aesthetics, and balance have all improved. I love this coach so much.
Also a two mile walk with the dog, and I expect there will be a hike later. High today is scheduled to be 70. Perfect!
Happy Independence Day to those of you here in the States, and happy weekend to everyone else!
Saturday, July 5
Weight 152.4
CG Max day 15/50 - full body as always, but almost no weight and very limited rest for circuits that include various ab tucks and crunches, lateral raises, rear felt flies, band walks and hip thrusts, palm up, hammer, and rotational curls, diamond and tricep cobra pushups - with 15 minute/1 mile cardio warmup. This moved very quickly and felt pretty good.
So as to the burning question of why I haven’t been able to tell whether the retatrutide is working, we have an answer. It looks like I’ve been taking only .25mg/week, which has not given me the kind of “I couldn’t even look at food” @Andrewgen_Receptors, @doogie, and @s.gentz described and @throwawayfitness has modeled so beautifully. (Can remove this if you’d like, Throwaway.) So user error. I suppose I’m lucky I didn’t kill myself, so I’m cup-half-full-ing on that score.
Took 1mg today. I’m a tiny bit anxious because we leave in the morning for Martha’s Vineyard and have company next week, and I would have liked to have already familiarized myself with the effects, but eh, I suppose it’ll be fine one way or the other. I’ll either gain or lose and then adjust.
Which puts me back in a super excited to see what happens mindframe.
I don’t know how retatrutide doses equate to semaglutide, but I didn’t really feel a whole lot until I got to the second month (which was twice the first month’s dosage). I have a few more weeks of semaglutide left and then I’m switching to retatrutide (due to availability issues). I’m curious to see how you’ll do on this dose.
1mg is the lowest dose. I was surprised to read that @Andrewgen_Receptors (I hope it’s okay to discuss this, please let me know if not) had to back off at 2.5mg (I think) to be able to eat enough.
It’s all really interesting.
1mg/wk reta had a noticeable effect.
I wanted to smash my blood glucose down so planned to run 5mg/wk, but could barely manage 2.5mg weekly, so i stayed there.
Coach wants me to back down to 2mg/wk split dose so i can actually eat my food, and thats what I’m doing now, but I’ve only just started.
I have seen no measurable change in my blood glucose at 2.5mg.
Bowel movements first week of reta were slow, but they normalized by week 2. Just drink extra water and walk after you eat. Avoid higher fat meals if you can… makes an already slowed digestion process even slower.
I’m happy at 2mg weekly. 1mg would have been fine but 2mg keeps compliance on point. Hard to eat my food as it is, nevermind going over.
Discuss/ask anything you want. I’m an open book.
Thanks! I think now it’s just wait and see for me. I was ravenous again last night, but my food was all quality.
I guess one question I have is how long for a dose increase to become noticeable.
So the bikes are on the car, and we’re all set to go. We drop the dog at 7 and head to the coast. I’m hoping to ride a lot this year. Last time we went we were pretty lazy about longer rides, I’m not sure why. Two years ago…I guess that was when I was deciding whether or not to let myself stop chasing athleticism or whatever it is I’m chasing.
There was quite a bit happening then though. Like, multi directional crossroads.
Just have fun, see where you’re at, and go with it. If you’re invigorated, awesome. If you’re chill, also awesome!
Have fun! 
For my first dose, i noticed it around day 2, i think.
For everything after, i notice it taking effect the next day and wearing off on the 6th day (pin sunday, wearing off by saturday). This is partially why i decided to split dose so it wasn’t a feast or famine thing… gotta be able to eat, but not be so hungry i want to eat everything.
Friday, July11
Weight 155.8
Vacation was fun, haha. 
CG Max day 16/50 - sumo squats, alternating chest presses, bridges, supine rows, paused bulgarian lunges, arnold presses, rotational rows - with a 1.5 mile hike to warm up. This workout felt GREAT. Maybe it was the 3.5 lbs worth of fuel I stocked up during the vacation/deload, but whatever it was, it really hit the spot. The hike sucked. It’s 80° with 85% humidity and horse flies or some other big, aggressive horror were in the woods along with the usual mosquitos and ticks, which I can tolerate (only just).
The coast was awesome. Rode the bikes a lot, walked a lot, slept a lot, ate a lot.
It was great to get home to Louie. Now I just need to pull myself back together. Horse camp and husband’s birthday are next week, so another week-long company and party scene (with kids going to horse camp during the day and grownups doing more eating and drinking and playing stuff). I’m going to try to keep my shit together, but it’s summer, and that only comes once a year, with its coasts and horse camps and tubing and camping and such, so I’m not going to stress overly about it.
In other news, I think I’ve got a visible delt.
