Holy fucking shit.

And just like that, I've officially lost more than 10 pounds since starting Ozempic.

Welcome to week seven of my GLP-1 diary.

You'd think I'd be celebrating an incredible week, right?

Well, I am.

But here's the confusing part.

This was also the week I started wondering whether Ozempic was still working.

The food noise that had been so beautifully quiet during my first few weeks was starting to get louder.

That delicious yogurt in my fridge? It was haunting me again.

I found myself eating more pizza than usual, finishing portions I'd previously been leaving behind, and even having a moment where I ate Doritos before breakfast, then immediately went searching for chocolate.

It wasn't how much I ate that bothered me.

It was that familiar feeling of being out of control.

And suddenly, I realized something.

Maybe food noise isn't a light switch that stays turned off.

Maybe it's more like a thermostat.

And mine was slowly turning itself back up.

So now I'm facing a decision I've been nervous about since starting this medication.

Do I increase my dose?

I'm still taking 0.25 mg, and while I'm thrilled with my weight loss, I'm terrified of bringing back the nausea and other side effects I've experienced.

But I also remember what those first few weeks felt like.

The freedom of not constantly negotiating with myself about food.

And I desperately want that feeling back.

Meanwhile, people are starting to notice changes in my body, I'm saving money by skipping unnecessary food deliveries, and my partner even noticed more definition in my tummy.

My response?

"Wow, that's where my Cheetos used to go."

But there's one more unexpected development this week.

Remember how I mentioned that Ozempic seemed to change my interest in watching porn?

Well, something interesting happened.

As my compulsive eating started returning, so did my interest in porn.

Coincidence? Maybe.

But I'm documenting it because I'm curious whether these changes are connected.

And if I increase my dose, will both behaviours change again?

I guess we'll find out.

I'm sharing additional behind-the-scenes videos and personal updates on my Substack, where you can follow along for free or become a paid subscriber to support the podcast.

So week seven ends with a major weight-loss milestone, some unsettling familiar cravings, and one big decision.

Is it time to turn the food noise back down?

I'm still holding the flashlight.

Come with me while we find out what happens next: the good, the bad and the unexpected.

AI disclosure: I used AI to write the summary of my episode based on the transcript.

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, and nothing in this video is medical advice—I’m simply sharing my personal experience. I’m not paid, sponsored, or endorsed by any medications, products, or brands mentioned.

***** Subscribe to my Substack to get behind the scenes content, additional footage and more ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://quietingthefoodnoise.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *****

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And I came home weighing LESS than when I left.

Holy fucking shit.

Welcome to week six of my GLP-1 diary.

After two weeks without weighing myself, I finally stepped on the scale.

One pound down.

Not exactly dramatic weight loss, but considering I just spent a week enjoying everything an all-inclusive resort had to offer without dieting or depriving myself?

I’ll take that fucking win.

But something else has been changing.

I’m starting to question whether I even need to weigh myself every week. My face looks thinner, I’m feeling better in my body, and I’m realizing that I don’t need a number on a scale to tell me how to feel about myself.

I’m also discovering some unexpected changes in my everyday habits.

I used to drink several cups of tea a day, partly because I wanted my stomach to feel full. Now I can barely finish a mug without forgetting about it and having to microwave it three times.

And apparently, I’m not drinking nearly enough water either.

But the biggest surprise came when I made one of my favourite childhood comfort foods.

Kraft Dinner.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been able to eat almost an entire box. Sometimes the whole thing.

This time, I made myself a bowl, enjoyed every delicious bite, and stopped when I was full.

Later, I discovered something almost unbelievable.

Holy fuck. I had leftover Kraft Dinner.

That NEVER happens.

But just when I thought Ozempic had completely changed my relationship with food, something familiar started creeping back.

The food noise.

After five weeks of feeling relatively free from compulsive eating, I suddenly found myself reaching for chocolate.

One piece.

Then another.

And another.

That familiar feeling of wanting more, even after I’d already had some.

And I caught myself thinking:

Uh-oh. I remember this feeling.

Was it because I was approaching my next injection? Was I emotionally exhausted after vacation? Or was the medication starting to feel less effective?

I genuinely don’t know.

But I’m not going to pretend every week is perfect.

Because despite the returning cravings, I still lost weight on vacation, left my favourite comfort food unfinished and started questioning the power I’ve given the scale.

This journey isn’t just about losing weight. It’s about changing my relationship with food.

I’m sharing additional behind-the-scenes diaries and footage on my Substack, where you can follow along for free or become a paid subscriber to support the podcast.

So week six ends with another pound gone, leftover macaroni and cheese, and one question:

Is the food noise coming back?

I’m still holding the flashlight.

Come with me while we find out what happens next: the good, the bad and the unexpected.

AI disclosure: I used AI to write the summary of my episode based on the transcript.

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, and nothing in this video is medical advice—I’m simply sharing my personal experience. I’m not paid, sponsored, or endorsed by any medications, products, or brands mentioned.

***** Subscribe to my Substack to get behind the scenes content, additional footage and more ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://quietingthefoodnoise.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *****

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unlimited food. Unlimited opportunities to overeat. And the almost guaranteed feeling that I'd come home heavier than when I left.

But this time, I brought something different to Jamaica.

Ozempic.

And apparently, even an all-inclusive buffet is no match for a brain that isn't obsessed with food anymore.

Welcome to week five of my GLP-1 diary.

This week, I'm recording from Jamaica, where I'm surrounded by buffets, restaurants, sugary drinks and more delicious food than I could possibly eat.

Normally, this would be a recipe for disaster.

But something very strange is happening.

I'm eating slower.

Not because I'm trying to.

Not because I'm counting calories or forcing myself to put my fork down between bites.

My body is just naturally slowing down.

I used to be someone who practically inhaled food. If something delicious was sitting in front of me, there was this urgency to eat it.

Almost like food was a scarce resource and I needed to get as much of it into my body as possible.

But now?

I cut my food slower.

I bring my fork to my mouth slower.

I actually think about whether I want another bite.

And the most incredible part?

I'm not doing any of this intentionally.

It's like my brain has finally figured out that food isn't an emergency.

And that realization has been absolutely fascinating.

Even at the resort's teppanyaki restaurant, where I was served a beautiful plate of food, I simply stopped eating when I was full.

I left about a quarter of my dinner behind.

No panic.

No disappointment.

No desperate need to squeeze in a few more bites.

I just stopped.

The old Sarah would never have believed this was possible.

And it gets better.

Before leaving for Jamaica, I went for my usual vacation preparations, including getting a Brazilian wax.

While chatting with my esthetician, I mentioned that I'd started Ozempic.

And she said something I wasn't expecting.

She could see that I'd lost weight.

In my hips.

Now, considering this woman has a pretty unobstructed view of my body, I figured she probably knew what she was talking about.

But still.

I've only lost about six or seven pounds.

Could it really be noticeable already?

Apparently, yes.

And then something happened on vacation that made me emotional.

My partner and I were taking some photos together.

Normally, when I look at photos of myself, I'm immediately looking for everything I don't like.

My double chin.

My round face.

The camera angle.

I'm usually telling my partner to hold the camera higher so I don't look as big.

But this time, I looked at the photos and thought:

Holy fuck. My face is thinner.

My jawline was showing.

My face looked less round.

And for the first time in a long time, I wasn't cringing at photos of myself.

I was actually happy with what I saw.

I've been walking around this resort in a bikini, feeling comfortable in my body.

Not because I've suddenly lost a massive amount of weight.

But because I can finally see something changing.

And perhaps more importantly, I can feel something changing.

I feel less big.

It's difficult to explain how emotional that is.

After years of struggling with my weight, feeling like every pound was a battle, I'm finally experiencing something that feels almost effortless.

And I actually said something this week that I never imagined I'd say about losing weight.

This is fucking easy.

But before you think it's all sunshine, bikinis and buffets, there's another side to this story.

The anxiety.

Oh, the fucking anxiety.

I've always been a bit of an anxious traveler.

I like my home. I like my routines. I like knowing where everything is.

And when I'm away from those comforts, my brain sometimes decides that we're obviously in some kind of emergency.

This week, I've been waking up at four or six in the morning with waves of anxiety.

Racing heart.

That horrible shaking feeling inside.

And nausea.

Lots of nausea.

There have been several moments where I've genuinely been trying not to throw up.

And now I'm left wondering:

Is Ozempic making my anxiety worse, or is the nausea from Ozempic triggering my anxiety?

Because here's the problem.

When I'm anxious, I feel sick.

And when I feel sick, I get anxious.

It's a wonderful little circle of bullshit.

Thankfully, I've found ways to manage those moments while I'm here, including using cannabis to help calm my anxiety.

But it's definitely something I'm paying attention to.

Especially because I brought my Ozempic pen with me and I'm continuing my injections while on vacation.

At one point, I even accidentally called it my anxiety pen.

Freudian slip, anyone?

And yet, despite the nausea and anxiety, I wouldn't trade what I'm experiencing with food right now.

Because here's the biggest revelation of this entire vacation.

Food doesn't have power over me anymore.

I can walk past a buffet.

I can see a beautiful dessert.

I can imagine melted brie spilling over the side of a toasted baguette.

And instead of feeling hypnotized by the need to eat it, I can simply think:

That looks delicious.

Maybe later.

Or maybe not.

That freedom is something I genuinely didn't know was possible.

Last year, I went on vacation to Punta Cana while trying to lose weight on my own.

I'd been making progress.

But vacation meant eating more, drinking more and eventually coming home feeling bigger.

And somehow, I never really got back on track.

This year feels different.

For the first time, I'm not spending my vacation worrying that I'm going to ruin my progress.

I'm just living.

I'm enjoying myself.

And food is no longer running the show.

I also attended an interesting workshop here in Jamaica about peptides and some of the treatments people are exploring to manage the physical effects of significant weight loss.

Things like hair loss, loose skin and changes in facial appearance.

It opened up another conversation I'm interested in exploring as this journey continues.

Because losing weight isn't just about watching the number on the scale go down.

It's about understanding what happens to your body along the way.

Speaking of the scale...

I'm not weighing myself this week.

I'm in Jamaica, and I'm certainly not trusting some random resort scale that's never met me before.

So I'm waiting until I get home.

Next week, I'll have my first weigh-in after two weeks, including an entire all-inclusive vacation.

And I genuinely cannot wait to see what happens.

Because historically, vacations have always been where my weight-loss efforts fell apart.

But this time?

I think I might actually come home lighter.

And if that happens, it'll be another first in a journey that's already full of them.

So week five ends with me in Jamaica, wearing a bikini, feeling better about my body, managing some frustrating anxiety and discovering that unlimited food doesn't have to mean unlimited eating.

For the first time in my life, I'm on vacation without feeling controlled by food.

And that freedom?

It's priceless.

I'm also sharing additional behind-the-scenes diaries and footage from this journey on my Substack, including the moments that don't always make it into the weekly podcast. You can follow along for free or become a paid subscriber to support the show and get access to additional content.

Next week, I'll be back home, back on my own scale and finally finding out what happened to my weight during this vacation.

Did I actually lose weight at an all-inclusive resort?

Or is the scale going to have a different story to tell?

I guess we're about to find out.

So I'm still holding the flashlight.

Come with me while we find out what happens next: the good, the bad and the unexpected.

AI disclosure: I used AI to write the summary of my episode based on the transcript.

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, and nothing in this video is medical advice—I'm simply sharing my personal experience. I’m not paid, sponsored, or endorsed by any medications, products, or brands mentioned.

***** Subscribe to my Substack to get behind the scenes content, additional footage and more ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://quietingthefoodnoise.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *****

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And this week, I started keeping track of the cost.

Welcome to week four of my GLP-1 diary.

First, the good news: it’s still working.

This week I lost another 1.8 pounds, bringing me to about 6.4 pounds down since I started a month ago.

And I’m not dieting.

I’m eating the same foods I’ve always eaten. I’m just naturally eating less of them.

I went to Lone Star with my partner and ordered our usual steak fajitas for two. Normally, I’m eating the free chips and salsa while waiting for dinner and then easily eating three or four fajitas.

This time, I looked at the chips and thought, if I eat these, I won’t have room for my fajitas.

So I left them there.

The old Sarah did not leave free delicious food sitting on the table.

I ate two fajitas and stopped.

It almost feels easy.

But this week also showed me another side of what this medication can do.

One morning, I ordered one of my favourite things: a toasted bagel with butter.

Normally, every bite is joy and dopamine.

This time?

It tasted like cardboard.

Another day, I made my usual toast and eggs and found myself almost repulsed by food I normally love.

And that left me wondering:

What happens when the thing that used to give you joy doesn’t give you joy anymore?

Is taking away some of the joy of food part of what makes Ozempic work?

Is that part of the cost?

Then there was a much more literal cost.

After the blurry vision I talked about last week, I finally went to my eye doctor.

The good news is that my eyes are okay. Nothing she found suggested that Ozempic was damaging my vision, and I got the all-clear to continue.

That appointment cost me $210.

Crisis solved.

Until approximately one day later when my health-anxiety brain found something new to worry about.

My teeth.

Then came the nausea.

After a night out where I had eaten some pastries followed later by two fajitas, I woke up feeling incredibly sick.

I dry heaved. I had stomach pain. I spent one of the worst 30-minute car rides of my life clutching a bag in case I threw up.

When I finally got home, I crawled into my own bed with a bucket beside me and cried.

And then the next problem appeared.

I had been having unexpected menstrual cramps. I was nauseous. Food was suddenly making me dry heave.

And about a month earlier, I had thrown up after taking my birth control pill.

Suddenly my brain went:

Oh my God. What if I’m fucking pregnant?

I never want to have children, so this was not a cute little “maybe there’s a baby!” moment.

We went to the drugstore.

I bought a pregnancy test.

Negative.

Thank fucking God.

Cost of Ozempic this week: another $13 and a day of fear.

But the biggest surprise this week might have been what happened inside my head.

The food noise came back.

One night, I was lying in bed thinking about a banana sitting on the counter.

I could picture peeling it.

I could picture the first bite.

The second bite.

It was basically seductive food porn happening inside my brain.

And I realized something.

Food noise is like having an itch you can’t scratch.

That uncomfortable feeling keeps demanding your attention until you finally scratch it.

If I had eaten the banana, it probably would have satisfied my brain for five minutes.

Then it would have found something else.

That’s the battle.

Sometimes a banana is not just a banana.

And yet, even with the nausea, anxiety, pregnancy scare, weird food repulsion and returning food noise...

I still want to keep going.

Because there have been gains too.

My face looks a little different. My partner has noticed he doesn’t have to hold the camera as high anymore to hide my double chin.

I’m leaving food behind.

I’m taking leftovers home.

I’m spending less money on some meals because one dinner becomes tomorrow’s lunch.

And apparently, I’m far from alone.

This week I started telling more people that I’m taking Ozempic.

And something weird kept happening.

“Oh, me too.”

Again.

“Oh yeah, me too.”

People I’ve known for years have been taking it and I had absolutely no idea.

I expected stigma.

Instead, apparently everybody got the fucking memo except me.

So week four ends with me 6.4 pounds down and realizing that this journey has costs and benefits I never expected.

And next week is going to test all of it.

I’m going to an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica.

Unlimited food. Buffets. Drinks. Vacation eating.

Historically, this is exactly the kind of trip where I would expect to come home heavier than when I left.

Except this time, I’m going with Ozempic.

And I genuinely have no idea what that's going to look like.

So I’m still holding the flashlight.

Come with me while we find out what happens next: the good, the bad and the unexpected.

AI disclosure: I used AI to write the summary of my episode based on the transcript.

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, and nothing in this video is medical advice—I'm simply sharing my personal experience. I’m not paid, sponsored, or endorsed by any medications, products, or brands mentioned.

***** Subscribe to my Substack to get behind the scenes content, additional footage and more ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://quietingthefoodnoise.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠ *****

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And this week, I started wondering if I might have to stop taking it.

That’s a pretty fucked-up place to be.

Welcome to week three of my GLP-1 diary.

Because here’s the frustrating part: it’s working.

This week I lost another 2.2 pounds, bringing me to 4.6 pounds down since I started. I’m eating foods I actually like. I’m having dessert. There are Häagen-Dazs bars sitting in my freezer that I bought five days ago because I genuinely believed I could trust myself around them.

I still haven’t eaten one.

Not because I’m restricting myself.

I just… haven’t wanted one.

For the first time, I’m starting to feel like I can actually trust myself around food.

But this week, something scared me.

Twice, I experienced temporary blurry vision. One episode happened while I was walking around Costco and was scary enough that I found myself wondering if I needed to sit down.

Then, a few minutes later, my vision went back to normal.

I’ve been afraid of potential eye problems since before I ever took my first injection. So suddenly experiencing something involving my vision hit the exact fear that almost stopped me from starting this medication in the first place.

I booked an appointment with my eye doctor.

And then I had to face another uncomfortable question:

Do I take my next shot?

Because I don’t want to lose this.

I don’t want to lose the feeling of eating chocolate, wanting more and realizing I don’t have to eat more. I don’t want to lose the ability to hear the food noise without automatically obeying it.

The food noise actually came back a little this week.

But something was different.

The thoughts could show up without controlling what happened next.

One night I even went to bed because the food noise was getting louder and I didn’t want to spend the night fighting with it.

Another day, I ate some chocolates, wanted more and simply... didn’t get more.

I stayed in my power. That’s new.

And underneath all of this, I started thinking about how deeply food has been woven into my life.

Finishing everything on my plate. Feeling guilty about wasting food. Eating while watching TV. Protecting the joy I get from a favourite meal. Feeling guilty for eating something delicious even when I haven’t actually done anything wrong.

I’m starting to pull those things apart and ask myself which behaviours are actually me and which ones I’ve just been carrying around for years.

So week three ends in a very strange place.

I’m losing weight. I’m eating normally. I’m enjoying food. I’m starting to trust myself.

And I’m scared.

I took my next shot.

Now I’m getting my eyes checked, paying attention to my body and figuring out whether this thing that has given me so much hope is something I can safely continue.

For the first time since starting this journey, I’m excited for another week...

and scared of it too.

I’m still holding the flashlight.

Come with me while we find out what happens next - the good, the bad and the unexpected.

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, and nothing in this video is medical advice—I'm simply sharing my personal experience. I’m not paid, sponsored, or endorsed by any medications, products, or brands mentioned.

***** Subscribe to my Substack to get behind the scenes content, additional footage and more ⁠⁠⁠https://quietingthefoodnoise.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠ *****

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Not because I was dieting. Not because I was trying to be “good.” I was just… full.

And honestly? That fucked with my head a little.

Welcome to week two of my GLP-1 diary.

This week, the dramatic side effects from my first shot were basically gone. No nausea. No lightheadedness. I felt like myself.

But something around food was definitely different.

My portions were getting smaller without me trying. I started noticing the difference between actually being hungry and simply wanting something because it would taste good. Foods that normally wouldn't survive 24 hours in my fridge were just… sitting there.

The food noise wasn't completely gone, though.

It started creeping back in — just quieter. And one night, I actually stood in front of the fridge with one of my trigger foods in my hand and somehow PUT IT BACK.

That might sound ridiculously small.

For me, it was huge.

This week also brought weigh-in frustration, anxiety about side effects, another unexpected change in my relationship with dopamine, and even a fight with my partner that forced me to think about the difference between support and feeling like my food choices are being policed.

I'm only two weeks into this experiment. I still don't know where it's going.

For now, I'm eating with more intention than compulsion. I'm enjoying the same foods. I'm not feeling deprived. And for perhaps the first time, being full actually seems to mean I'm finished eating.

I'm still holding the flashlight.

Come with me while we find out what's next — the good, the bad and the unexpected.

***** Subscribe to my Substack to get behind the scenes content, additional footage and more ⁠⁠https://quietingthefoodnoise.substack.com/⁠⁠ *****

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, and nothing in this video is medical advice—I'm simply sharing my personal experience. I’m not paid, sponsored, or endorsed by any medications, products, or brands mentioned.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the very first episode of Quieting the Food Noise: A GLP-1 Diary with Sarah.

I’m 42, I’ve struggled with my weight, emotional eating and binge eating for years, and after being VERY resistant to GLP-1 medications, I finally decided to try Ozempic.

This isn’t a polished weight-loss show. I’m not a doctor, a fitness influencer or someone showing up with a perfect before-and-after story. I’m documenting this while I’m actually living it — the good, the bad, the embarrassing and the stuff people usually leave out.

In this first episode, I take you through my first week on 0.25 mg of Ozempic: my fear of taking that first injection, nausea and vomiting, unexpected changes in my appetite, losing my first two pounds, and the surprisingly emotional experience of realizing that the constant voice telling me to eat might actually be getting quieter.

I also talk honestly about my history with binge eating, using food for comfort, eating when I wasn’t physically hungry, and what it feels like to spend years fighting your own brain around food.

And yes, we’re going to talk about the weird stuff too — because one of the most unexpected things I noticed during my first week had absolutely nothing to do with food.

There is no carefully scripted success story here. I don't know how much weight I'll lose. I don't know what side effects I'll experience. I don't even know if I'll still be taking this medication months from now.

That’s the point.

You’re coming along while I figure it out.

Raw. Unfiltered. Sometimes funny. Sometimes uncomfortable. And always honest.

This is my GLP-1 diary.

Let’s see if we can quiet the food noise.

***** Subscribe to my Substack to get behind the scenes content, additional footage and more ⁠https://quietingthefoodnoise.substack.com/⁠ *****

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, and nothing in this video is medical advice—I'm simply sharing my personal experience. I’m not paid, sponsored, or endorsed by any medications, products, or brands mentioned.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices