The GLP-1 Revolution: Are We Solving Weight Issues or Creating New Problems?

Weight loss injections are everywhere now - commercials, social media feeds, celebrity gossip. But are these GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic the miracle solution we've been waiting for or just another shortcut with hidden costs?

Having tried every diet imaginable - Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Atkins, keto, even the dreaded cabbage diet - I understand the allure of something that simply turns off hunger. That "food noise" can be deafening. Yet while these medications are genuine game-changers for people with diabetes or clinical obesity, their widespread use raises serious questions about our relationship with food, exercise, and our bodies.

The side effects can't be ignored. "Ozempic face" is definitely real - I've seen it firsthand. And what happens when you stop taking these medications? Most people regain the weight, sometimes with additional complications. Women face particularly impossible standards - we're criticized for gaining weight, then judged for using medical interventions to lose it. I share my own complicated journey with oral lichen planus, which limits what foods I can eat without painful flare-ups, making traditional "healthy eating" advice nearly impossible to follow.

The fundamental truth remains: sustainable health comes from creating positive habits around nutrition and finding joyful ways to move our bodies. For me, that's outdoor activities rather than dreaded gym sessions. A body in motion stays in motion - but should that motion come naturally or from a weekly injection? Share your thoughts on this controversial topic and subscribe for more candid conversations about health, wellness, and navigating life's challenges.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Subscriber Shoutouts
• 2:19 Introduction to GLP-1 Inhibitors Topic
• 7:29 Weight Loss Standards and Social Pressure
• 12:27 Healthy Habits vs Quick Solutions
• 17:39 Call for Listener Feedback
• 18:38 Final Shoutouts and Episode Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Bow, chicka, wow, wow, good evening friends, welcome to another episode of Elkivate your Life. I am your hostess, with the mostess L as in the letter L and key as in the key to your heart. Well, thank you to all my loyal listeners who have been continuing to share their feedback and leave likes and comments, and just sharing their feedback about my podcast. I really appreciate that. So, shout out to my loyal listeners. Too many to mention, but just to name a few Kara Kitchell, thank you very much. Kara Kenfield, thank you very much. Roger Havens, thank you very much for your comments, your feedback, uh, roger Havens, thank you very much for your comments, your feedback, miss Samina, I appreciate your feedback. Thank you very much, angie. Angie Germer, thank you, thank you so much. Uh, ladies and gents, as you all know that you can subscribe to my channel for as little as a cup of coffee and as much as a happy meal, so I would love to have you become a loyal subscriber. In doing so, I share a little bit of intel about the podcast before it comes out, or I shout out to you regarding your company, your business, your hobby, what have you? And? Uh, yeah. So shout out to persimmon dental for keeping my teeth so healthy and clean and white, and to your friendly staff. I so appreciate Persimmon Dental, located on Martinelli Way in the Persimmon Plaza in Dublin, california. Okay, so let's get into it.

Speaker 1: 2:18

A really common topic, something that has just been popping up on all the social media, the commercials I mean it's everywhere. And since it is Wisdom Wellness Wednesday, I want to ask your opinion, ladies and gents, this is not just limited to the ladies. So summertime is here. So summertime is here. We're all trying to get well. Maybe I shouldn't say we're all. Uh, I know that the mindset is this is when we get in physical shape, if we're not already. This is when we're working on our fitness and also working on, maybe, our tan. So this is a topic that I've seen literally everywhere. It's being talked about on social media, it's on every other commercial, and so I want to talk to you guys about it. Bear with me, I'll be drinking throughout the episode.

Speaker 1: 3:29

For those of you that know about my condition, my mouth has been. I always think of that Alicia Keys song this girl is on fire. Well, in this case it is. My mouth is on fire. Okay, anyway, I won't bore you with that. So what I want to talk about today is the GLP-1 inhibitors that are out there the ozempics, the, the various different glp1 products that are out there.

Speaker 1: 4:12

So my question to all of you is one how do you all feel about this new product? I know it's a game changer for the diabetics out there, the people that need it, that actually need this tool to help them right, that are seriously overweight or obese and need the help of turning off what they call the food noise. By the way, that was never a thing growing up in my era. We didn't talk about food noise. It was just oh, I'm emotionally eating, or I can't stop thinking about food, or I should probably stop watching TV, because every other commercial is fast food, right. So all these subliminal messages that are being sent Now it's on social media as well as to TV and definitely guilty of all the diets known to men and women Weight Watchers, jenny Craig, Atkins, keto, paleo, cabbage I mean, you name the freaking diet I definitely have done it.

Speaker 1: 5:43

So, while I'm supportive of the people that need this help, I'm just wondering how do all of you feel about relying on these medications? Number one, because there's a lot of mixed reviews about them, especially now that it's been out there for a while about Ozempic face. It's definitely a thing. I've seen it, I've witnessed it. It's definitely a thing. I just kind of would like to take a poll or a survey on how do all of you feel about these drugs that are out there that are changing the way that we take care of our bodies.

Speaker 1: 6:38

And since it is Wisdom Wellness Wednesday, I'm just wondering is it the easy way out? Do you feel it's the easy way out? Because the flip side of that is people are like just eat right and exercise, and for some people that's not so easy, myself included. I will tell all of you because I've been on the diet, excuse me, healthy supplement, all of that roller coaster. Would we rather take a magic pill Alice in Wonderland days or you know, a shot to curb our hunger, or do we feel you should just eat healthy and exercise? For someone like myself, I could understand the appeal because it keeps you from being hungry. Like you are literally not thinking about food at all, so you're not eating food, so it's turning off the food noise.

Speaker 1: 7:45

But how do we feel about the fact that it's on every other commercial, it's on all the social media platforms, it's literally in our face, being shoved down our throats no pun intended every single day. Do we agree with it? Do we think it is helpful to the overweight, obese people that do struggle with it, and is it being abused? Absolutely, it is. I have to tell you some fun facts that I read is that, while it is great for the people that are diabetic and need to control it, or extremely overweight and obese and they need that extra push of not emotionally eating, etc.

Speaker 1: 8:39

The downfall about this, just like everything else that's out there, is that people are abusing it. They don't want to go off of it because once they go off of it, well, back to the old drawing board. What diet is next? And there are the health risks that are involved. Like I mentioned, ozempic phase and other things. Some of them lose the weight so fast that it's like, well, you should be implementing exercise while you're losing the weight, because you may encounter that depending on your age and your current health.

Speaker 1: 9:22

So, yes, I'm just interested to know how men, in addition to women, feel about it, because I'll speak from the woman's perspective, in that we have such a high standard that we have to uphold. We are expected to look a certain way be a certain size or we are not attractive right. And now I do see that it's affecting the men, because I do know of men that are going on it because they need it, they emotionally eat, or you know food is what they turn to. And then what about the foodies out there? You stop having a relationship or a healthy relationship with food, and for women it's like there's so much shame attached to it all. Shame attached to it all.

Speaker 1: 10:25

There's actually some famous people out there that have admitted to okay, I gained the weight, so then I did this. So it's like we get criticized for gaining the weight because whatever Like in my case, I'll give you myself. I'll use myself as an example. I got to my ideal goal weight through doing all the different things that anybody and everybody has done, and then I got this mouth condition, oral lichen planus, and now that I have that, I have to eat foods that calm my symptoms down. So what does that mean? That means earthy foods that are not necessarily so healthy, because I have to think about what I can eat that doesn't irritate my condition, their own condition, or because they got pregnant, having a baby can't lose the baby weight, and there's such a stigma out there for women that we have to be a certain size or we are not attractive. What I will say from my own experience is that it is a slippery slope, because I noticed when I was heavier, I felt that I looked older and then, when I lost the weight in a healthy way, I felt that I looked younger.

Speaker 1: 12:09

But some of these things out there are the in-betweens of you're going to end up with ozempic phase, you're going to have other health issues, you're going to have a different relationship with food Could be for the better, it could be for the worse. And you know, it's just like for women. It's almost like we can't win. And men, please speak up. Do you feel that that stigma is the same for men? I know that women are like oh, I want a man that's tall, dark and handsome. You know I'm stereotyping right now. I'm just giving an example of what we used to say. So is the stigma the same? Do the men feel? Well, I have to, you know, have a hot bod and a six pack and work out or have muscles, otherwise women are not going to look at me, talk to me. I would really be interested to know what men and women have to say about this.

Speaker 1: 13:22

So the problem that I'm reading about with all of these things is like, if we go back to the basics of it, all starts with creating healthy habits, right of eating healthy and exercising, whether that's walking every day, using weights, taking a class, going to the gym. I'll be honest, I'm all over those fast, easy remedies because a lot of us, especially women, we want the instant results, but also I'm not a fan of working out at the gym. When I do go and I get into the rhythm of it, I'm like I actually enjoy this. Why do I keep stopping? And I'm sure it's the whole. It takes 30 days to create a habit, break a habit, because I haven't stuck with it diligently and religiously. I rely on my walking, intermittent fasting, eating healthy-ish.

Speaker 1: 14:37

And I say ish because, again, referring to my mouth condition, I can't have spicy, I can't have sweet, I can't have coffee, I can't have alcohol. Not saying that those things are good, I'm just saying I used to be able to have a better balance and now I'm finding so many things that aggravate my condition that I'm learning. I'm learning the things I can and can't have. And yeah, anyway, what I'm trying to say is we definitely have to bear in mind that, while there's all these great new products out there that are readily available to us, we still have to consider the basics that go along with that, which is putting healthy, clean things in our body and making time for some sort of exercise.

Speaker 1: 15:49

Okay, I told you I don't really like to go to the gym, but I love bike riding, playing basketball, throwing the football, throwing the baseball, bicycling, roller skating, hiking, basically the outdoor activities, especially in the nice weather. Right, I mean, for me, there's nothing like it, because you are enjoying the outdoors, beautiful nature and exercising at the same time, and if you're in good company, it's just the trifecta. Right, you're in good company, you're exercising and you're outdoors. You're in good company, you're exercising and you're outdoors. Yeah, it's, it's such a great. It's such a great thing that's really so important, because we do have to consider our cardiovascular, our heart health and how important it is for that. A body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest.

Speaker 1: 17:00

So what are your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen? Is this new glp-1 drug, is it a good idea or a bad idea? Or does it depend on who's using it and not abusing it. Inquiring minds want to know. Namely, I am the inquiring mind and I would love to know your thoughts on it. Mind and I would love to know your thoughts on it.

Speaker 1: 17:41

Well, I want to make sure that I give a shout out and a thanks to all my loyal listeners. Lisa Roberts Curbelo we are overdue for a double date, girlfriend or a girl's date, something. Come on, respond to my invite, please. Every time I reach out to this girl, this woman is busy, she's traveling with her boyfriend or she got plans with friends, so had to make that little personal shout out, lisa, thank you. Thank you for being a loyal subscriber and listener. Jeff para appreciate you. My friend is always there in my time of need when I need some sound advice about staying in sync and in tune with my body. Hence me always ending with namaste, because we talk about positive thoughts, positive vibes, positive feelings, meditation, grounding yourself. Jeff Parada, I appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 18:49

Next up we have Michael Kaufman. Michael Kaufman, thank you for being a loyal listener and a loyal, faithful podcaster. I appreciate your belief in me and your support. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 19:11

And, of course, back to Kara, kara Kitchell, kara Kenfield, lovemyartistetsycom. She's got an excellent page. She just shared with me a new edition which is a song that you could utilize in your wedding, for your anniversary to a loved one. So you should check out her page and see all the lovely things she has, from clothing to paintings, to poems, to wedding favors you name it. This girl can do it, super talented. Love you, kara and Roger. Roger Havens.

Speaker 1: 19:57

How's the dating life going, my friend? Have we met Mrs Wright yet? I'm dying to know. I've definitely been keeping my eyes and ears open for you. And once again, a shout out to Persimmon Plaza. Thank you for taking good care of me, my teeth, my family's teeth, and Persimmon Plaza in Persimmon Plaza, persimmon Dental on Martinelli Way in Dublin.

Speaker 1: 20:27

And then, of course, angie Germer of Thrive. Thrive by Lavelle is, since we're talking about diet stuff, perfect segue into Angie. Their products are all natural and basically supplements to fill the nutritional gaps, something to provide you energy. Energy help speed up your metabolism. It's basically the natural approach of the glp1 that I'm speaking of tonight, so you should check her out. Her link is in all of my podcasts, same with kara and tom guzik minerspickstudiosetsycom. His artwork is more of a rustic approach.

Speaker 1: 21:23

Tom, you don't necessarily give me any shout outs or comments or likes on my podcast. So I would really appreciate hearing that from you. In fact, while all of you are listening to me on Buzzsprout, amazon Music, spotify, apple or YouTube, it would mean the world to me if some of you could also leave a comment or review on my Apple. So my Apple account, I mean, I'm on all the platforms and I'm focusing I've been focusing on my YouTube, but my Apple account could use some love. I have a five-star, I have reviews, but no recent ones, not since I first started, and it would really mean a lot to me if you could show me some love. Well, ladies and gents, that's all I have for now.

Speaker 1: 22:25

Shout out again to all my loyal listeners and supporters uh, kyle Few. Oh my gosh, I almost forgot you. I'm so sorry. Shout out to Kyle Few Professor Kyle, guru Kyle, know all, be all of everything. Thank you for being a loyal listener. I also appreciate you and all of your wisdom. I'm sure you'll have some comments and feedback on this episode. I can feel it coming. Thank you all for tuning in. Thank you all for listening and that's it for me. Ciao, for now.