Wellness Wednesday Ozempic Face & Burning Tongues:When Skinny Shots Backfire 031925

The wellness industry has exploded with promises of quick and effortless weight loss, but what if these "miracle solutions" come with devastating consequences? After exploring various weight loss options, I woke up one day to discover I could no longer enjoy coffee, alcohol, spicy foods, or even simple pleasures like bread and crackers. For twelve agonizing weeks, I've battled a mysterious chronic mouth condition that medical professionals can't diagnose, forcing me to question whether my weight loss experimentation might be the culprit.

This Wisdom Wednesday episode takes a deep dive into the risks we rarely discuss when pursuing aesthetic goals. What's particularly striking are two recent studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that examined behavioral interventions for weight loss. While showing some positive results, these interventions produced modest outcomes at best, raising important questions about sustainable weight management in our post-Ozempic world.

We're constantly bombarded with impossible standards from celebrities, social media influencers, and entertainment industries that make us believe perfect bodies should come naturally. This pressure leads many of us down dangerous paths of experimentation with trendy solutions like GLP-1 medications, natural Ozempic alternatives, "skinny shots," and countless fad diets. But as I've learned through painful experience, we must ask ourselves: is risking your health and quality of life really worth the reward of fitting into societal beauty standards? Perhaps it's time we reconsider our approach to wellness and embrace sustainable lifestyle changes that enhance rather than compromise our overall wellbeing. Share your thoughts and experiences - I'd love to hear your perspective on this important conversation.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Elkivate Your Life
• 3:53 Recent Earthquakes & Emergency Plans
• 4:38 Chronicle of a Mysterious Mouth Condition
• 6:01 Weight Loss Journey & Exercising Outdoors
• 9:05 Diet Fads in a Post-Ozempic World
• 19:01 Is the Risk Worth the Reward?
• 25:33 Thank You to Loyal Subscribers

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Wow, chicka, wow, wow. Good evening everyone and welcome to my podcast. I am your hostess with the mostess L as in the letter L and key as in the key to your heart, and you are here with Elkivate your Life. Today is Wisdom Wellness Wednesday and I have some wisdom wellness tips that I want to share with you. Thank you all to my consistent listeners. I appreciate you. Thank you for continuing to follow, like, share, subscribe, hopefully sponsor here in the near future, and thank you to my new listeners out there.

Speaker 1: 0:53

I've had something heavy on my mind. First of all, what's up with all these recent earthquakes? Sorry, squirrel, for those of you who saw the movie Up, you know what I mean when I say squirrel. The dog sees a squirrel, stops in his tracks, looks away. I use a lot of movie references, okay, so let's get into it. What's up with all the earthquakes lately? Is it the global warming? Is it the weather change? What are your thoughts, opinions, or perhaps you even have some inside intel that you would like to share?

Speaker 1: 1:32

I just can't help but notice that every day, somebody is reporting it on Nextdoor or telling me about it or posting it on social media, and I have to tell you so I'm super sensitive to light and sound. I'm what you would call an empath. So I hear and feel everything. And I just made an observation the other day, which is I used to feel the earthquakes literally before they come. I was the girl that felt the little jolt before the actual earthquake and in recent years I haven't been feeling them, I haven't been noticing them. People are asking me hey, did you feel it? It was in Dublin, san Ramon, pleasanton, whatever. I haven't been noticing them. People are asking me hey, did you feel it? It was in Dublin, san Ramon, pleasanton, whatever. I'm like no, I was doing my podcast, recording my podcast, doing my chores, whatever. Nothing Haven't noticed. Kind of crazy. Hopefully, wherever you are, you haven't experienced any doozies of an earthquake and they haven't impacted you, your home, your belongings, your things.

Speaker 1: 2:50

It's interesting because at the time that all this happened, my husband was like, hey, we don't have an earthquake plan in place, we need to have one. And I'm like, yeah, I guess we do, because they're becoming more and more frequent. And you're right, we don't have a plan in place and we should have one. We should all have an emergency plan in place just in case, just in case you know what happens Doo-doo happens.

Speaker 1: 3:22

You know I just try to be mindful of using swear words because I never know who's listening. I have some of my students, a lot of. You know that I'm a special ed aide and some of my students might be listening, not to say that they don't swear. I just try to lead by example. Okay, so, moving on, what I want to talk to you about.

Speaker 1: 3:51

So the last episode was talking about women and how we had to be mindful of our choices and not wait too long for the perfect man to come along, because there's no such thing as the perfect man. I'm just summarizing, ladies and gents, and it kind of got me thinking about some things. So, for you regular listeners that have been listening to me for the last 12 weeks and forgive me, men, because some of the men are like, we are so tired of hearing about you and your chronic condition and how you haven't found a cure, yada, yada. Well, sorry, but I am the host, aka hostess with the mostest, so I feel it's important for me to share my journey with you so that you know where I'm at. Well, I'm not proud to say that I have been brainstorming on this because the doctors can't give me answers. It's been 12 weeks, jeff Travis I'm keeping it short and sweet, so just bear with me and so it has left me to basically fend for myself.

Speaker 1: 5:01

Like I'm reading, I'm researching, I'm trying to figure out the answers to the mystery rash, ulcers, numbing, burning of the mouth, tongue can't eat the foods I want, can't enjoy the beverages I want. Basically, I just woke up one day and had to find out you can't have coffee, you can't have alcohol, you can't have sweet. You can't have coffee, you can't have alcohol, you can't have sweet. You can't have spicy, can't have your favorite citrus foods, you can't have your favorite spicy foods. Uh, you can't have bread, crackers, chips, and a lot of your food is going to taste like metal. So good luck with that. Yeah, so it got me thinking in doing my research, which is where we're going to tie in the Wisdom Wellness Wednesday in that.

Speaker 1: 5:54

Okay so, uh, I take a lot of, not just vitamins and minerals, but I was definitely dabbling in the whole. What can I do to get this weight off thing, even though I eat fairly well and I exercise and I'm going to say fairly, because there are the Marissa Volks of the world that works at my school 49er cheerleader the world that works at my school 49er cheerleader tip-top shape, runs on her brakes, does PE all day long. I mean, the girl is like the size of my pinky and we're the same height. Granted, she's probably 20 years younger, but it doesn't matter, doesn't matter Anyway. So for a while there I was dabbling in the whole. What can I do to get this weight off? Because, as some of you may have experienced throughout your years of relationships and this happens to women and men is that we get in a relationship, we get comfortable. Next thing, you know, we're watching Netflix and eating bottomless popcorn and oh, now I had salty, now I need the sweet. You know where I'm going with this, right? Let's face it. We get complacent and then we start deciding to maybe eat more and exercise less, especially during the cold fall winter months.

Speaker 1: 7:33

I know for me, I am not a gym person. I would much rather exercise outside. Give me a bike, give me rollerblades, give me roller skates, give me a bike, give me rollerblades, give me roller skates, give me a mountain to hike, anything that I can do outdoors. But going and sitting in the gym and doing the stationary bike and the weights, I can do it and I enjoy it when I do get myself there. It's not my favorite thing. I'd much rather be out enjoying nature and exercising that way, because I enjoy nature. And then the next thing you know, an hour, two hours have gone by. You didn't even realize you were exercising.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Exercising Point is I might have been dabbling here and there in all of the weight loss things that are out there, the fads, and just to name a few, and I'm reading a lot of information about GLP-1, glp-1x, natural ozempic phenermine, lemon balm oh my gosh, I'm trying to go down the list Wagovi, energy boost shot, skinny shot, and then I have a lot of other products. So many different things. And so it got me thinking what if one of those things side effects is what caused this chronic mouth thing? I would be so pissed at myself, and this is what we do, especially as women. I know you men put pressure on yourselves to have the perfect abs, chest, arms, legs, all that stuff, washboard abs, all that. But I just feel like women were held to a different standard. The Kardashians, for example, social media housewives of everywhere, housewives of Orange County, new York, potomac, atlanta, just everything we see on social media TV. We women are expected to wake up looking beautiful and refreshed and be fit at all times, like we are just supposed to wake up, as if we are Snow White or Sleeping Beauty or Beauty and the Beast Take your pick. You get what I'm saying right. Beauty and the beast, take your pick, you get what I'm saying right. So it had me looking up all of this information and I have to tell you, uh, it's hard not to go down a rabbit hole, but anyway I was looking up diet and exercise in a post-olympic world.

Speaker 1: 10:45

If losing weight was easy, everyone would do it. Two recent studies raised difficult questions about behavioral intentions, and so they've. The doctors and several companies out there have been doing studies. Medications like semaglutide, ozempic, wagovi have changed how we talk about weight loss. Obesity was, and often still is, seen as a lifestyle problem rather than a chronic disease needing a chronic treatment. But in the frenzy surrounding the newfound popularity of this drug class, we still have a major unanswered question what role do lifestyle interventions play in this new post-medication era? If losing weight was easy, everyone would do it. Telling people to diet and exercise is well-meaning advice, but it's not useful. Patients already want to change their habits, but desire doesn't get you to the top of Everest. Desire gets you to base camp. Mountaineering skills get you to the top of Everest.

Speaker 1: 11:55

This is very interesting because, as a lot of you know, I was on a weight loss journey during COVID times. I was over 200 pounds and at 5'4 on a good day with heels. That was not a good look for me, not just looks wise, but I was superBS. I had GERD, I had um oh my gosh I'm trying to go down the list Fibromyalgia, colitis, back pain, neck pain, um, just basically everything hurt. I just wasn't healthy. I was sick all the time and I really was that girl that had a drawer full of meds for all these things. That couldn't help me. So it just got me thinking and wanting to read about what we women and or men go through to try and look our best.

Speaker 1: 13:16

So what I was reading is finding behavioral interventions that work poses several problems. Most fad diets work at first, but clinically meaningful interventions have to have sustained benefits. It's not enough to lose the weight, you also have to keep it off. Also, any program or intervention has to be applicable and scalable to the population as a whole. It would be easy to eat healthy if you had a private chef, but private chefs are not a practical way to deal with the rising rates of obesity.

Speaker 1: 13:54

And then I was reading about these two recent studies that were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They tested two different behavioral interventions to help with the weight loss. In the first study, researchers used a wireless feedback system made up of a Wi-Fi activity tracker and an electronic scale that fed information back into the smartphone app that provided daily feedback on weight loss goals. Half of the study participants also received phone-based coaching on a weekly basis. Anyone not achieving a half a pound of weight loss per week received additional behavioral interventions in the form of a text message reminder or a meal replacement. At six months, the group who received the wireless feedback system lost around six pounds. Those who had the extra coaching lost an additional four and a half pounds.

Speaker 1: 15:02

The second study tested a program where participants got daily text messages to help them maintain their weight loss goals. A control group received no messages, one group got just text messages and a third group got daily text messages plus financial incentives. If they met all their weight loss goals at one year, they could receive a certain dollar amount. It says Canadian 700, so translate that to ours. The control group lost 1.3% of their body weight over the trial, the text message group lost 2.7% and the group with the added financial incentives lost 3.2%. These two studies taken together raise a difficult question what role do behavioral interventions like these have in this post-Ozympic era? The interventions did work, but their benefits were modest.

Speaker 1: 16:13

While most people think diet and exercise are free, designing programs like these to help a wide swath of the population are difficult and resource-intensive to scale up. Medically speaking, you generally want to see at least 5% weight loss for any weight loss intervention, and maintaining at least 10% over the long term is probably necessary to have meaningful clinical benefits. Remember, the point of all this is not the aesthetics but disease prevention. This is so interesting because, again, just going by, I had so many clients that would come to me and go okay, I need to get this weight off, I have a bad knee, I can't climb my stairs when I get home and I can't carry my groceries, yada, yada. And I was like, okay, no problem, I understand, this is the plan and they would go, but can I still have my wine, can I still have my In-N-Out burger? And it's like guys, you're not just modifying, you're not just losing the weight.

Speaker 1: 17:26

Let's look at it this way. It is not just a diet because, let's face it, what word is in there? Die. So that's why people want to give up. It's a diet. No, you want to look at it as this is a lifestyle change for me and I need to change the way I look at food, eat food. To change the way I look at food, eat food. And I need to change my lifestyle. I can't expect to sit on my butt and eat bonbons and watch movies and lose weight just because I'm eating Weight Watchers meals, for example. Just saying I'm just using that as an example. There's so many out there, you could have your pick. So the studies were interesting because they tested creative and fairly innovative approaches to weight loss, but the benefits were small and most did not achieve even 5% weight loss, though some lost quite a bit of weight. Achieve even 5% weight loss, though some lost quite a bit of weight.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Balancing high-cost medical therapy against cheaper but more modest behavioral interventions is never easy. Programs like this may be appropriate for some people who really respond to extra external motivation or those who need modest weight loss to counteract a recent life event, such as an illness or an injury that led to the weight gain. But just as medication is not appropriate to everyone, behavioral interventions won't work in everyone either. In the end, these are creative solutions that won't be applicable to everyone. That's why weight loss is so hard. That won't be applicable to everyone. That's why weight loss is so hard.

Speaker 1: 19:17

And I found this to be so interesting and the reason I'm bringing it up, like I said, is I feel like I've done every diet fad diet, weight loss oh my gosh. The cabbage, the um, oh gosh. The one with the, the brown sugar and the cayenne pepper and the syrup and the water. And remember that one I've done keto I have done didn't used to be called keto, it was called something else. The Atkins diet Um, I've done. Weight Watchers I have done. Jenny Craig oh my gosh. And, like I said, most recently, all of the ones that I mentioned earlier. And the bottom line is, ladies and gentlemen, with the benefits will come rewards, but we also have to look at the whole picture. So I was reading about ozempic and all the other ones.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Ozempic, primarily used to treat type 2 diabetes, is gaining attention for potential weight loss benefits, but it's not a weight loss drug and should be used under medical supervision, not as a quick fix for diet fads. And it just goes on to talk about the side effects, which nausea, vomiting, diarrhea how it works and mimics a naturally occurring hormone that's the GLP-1 or GLP-X that I was referring to. So it mimics a naturally occurring hormone that helps regulate blood sugar and appetite, potentially leading to weight loss. Wagovi, also known as semaglutide, is also approved under the brand name Wagovi, which is specifically designed for weight loss. Approved under the brand name of Bovi, which is specifically designed for weight loss.

Speaker 1: 21:13

And there's all these crazy things like ozempic face, where you lose weight too fast and your face falls and looks sunken in. And basically, the reason I wanted to bring this up, ladies and gents, is I have just gone through a slew of things within. Okay, I'm going to say, before July birthday last year, I had put on some weight during marriage and I was like, man, I need to work on, I need to get this off. And my husband is vegetarian. I am not. He loves his sweets, his carbs, he yeah, he likes to eat a variety of foods. Let's just put it like that.

Speaker 1: 22:06

And so you know again sitting on the couch watching movies, cold rainy day. We're in that season of hibernating and just staying home and eating and drinking, right, and it just made me think what if one of these things I did did this to my body? Was it worth it? The me suffering for 12 weeks of having a burning mouth, a burning tongue? I can't enjoy the foods I like. I can't. I mean in case you didn't hear me the first time can't wake up with my coffee in the morning. I can't have my favorite cocktail, which is espresso, martini or vodka and soda, because I can't drink the hard alcohols. I did manage over St Patrick's Day just so you all know if you saw me out there I did manage to have a little bit of wine without it burning my mouth, but I paid for it the next day.

Speaker 1: 23:17

So the point I'm trying to make so riddle me this Batman is the risk worth the reward? Because what if I did this to myself? What if me experimenting with all these things to lose weight put me in this position where I can't enjoy the foods that I love, the beverages that I love, the everyday snacks, I mean? Literally the window gets smaller and smaller every day and I probably sound like a broken record to all of you, but to all of you foodies out there who love to have your specific food, and I want you to think about this. You wake up one morning and you now have to have the boring bland diet where all the things that you used to have for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, entertainment, celebration you cannot have. Is it worth it? I'm thinking no. I'm thinking we should take a more healthy approach and not just be so quick to be the Alice in Wonderland of the world and this pill will make me grow small, shrink down to fit through the little doors to go in, and this pill will help me to grow bigger so that I can go into the beautiful garden. Hopefully you understand the analogy that I am giving. So, ladies and gentlemen, let's think about if we want to jump on that fad diet or trend and think about is it really worth it? Hmm, maybe we should consider our other healthy, natural options. That is my Wisdom Wellness Wednesday tip for you. Thank you for joining. Thank you to my loyal subscribers.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Kyle Few Commitment to Love. Love is a Verb. Check out his book via Amazon. Not only a book to help you in loving relationships, but also self-love, which is where you have to start. That's what you have to start with self-love in order to be able to love others and for others to love you In order to be able to love others and for others to love you. Jeff Parra, another loyal subscriber who is always happy to share his thoughts and constructive criticism. Thank you, jeff, appreciate you. Lisa Roberts Curbelo thank you so much for being a loyal subscriber. I hope you and your family are managing through these challenging times and seeing the positive in the negative things that impacted you, without saying too much out of respect for her privacy. And, last but not least, mike Kaufman, the water salesman, who's out umpiring softball today tonight.

Speaker 1: 26:46

Thank you for listening, thank you for being a supporter. I appreciate you and thank you all for tuning in. I hope that you will continue to like, share, subscribe. Sponsor. You can find me on all the platforms Spotify, apple Podcasts, podcastle, soundcloud, deezer, podchaser, youtube, amazon Music. You can also find me on Instagram, facebook, so many others. I hope that you will like, share, follow, subscribe and feel free to text in your thoughts or ideas. I would love to hear what you have to say and I do respond. I do comment, I do share your ideas and thoughts, as I did just a few episodes ago. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Namaste Ciao for now.