159. Weight Loss, Drugs, and What To Do About Them

Are you really confused with all the different research out there on all these new weight loss drugs? Well, don’t worry. You’re not alone. I’m Dara Tomasson and this is about weight loss, drugs, and what to do about them. I’m the quilters coach and this is podcast episode 1 59.   Today’s podcast might be a little hot and spicy.

Some people might not be happy with what I’m going to say and that’s okay. I’ve actually thought about this podcast. For over a month because it is extremely controversial.

The more that I researched, the more that I looked into it. It is extremely interesting to me how we have all of these different specialists saying all sorts of different things. No wonder, we’re feeling confused. One of my jobs as a life coach is to take big concepts and as a teacher and then boil them down.

What I like to do is use a filter for what is what is the truth. Of course truth is subjective for everybody. Today’s episode we’re going to really focus on common sense. We’re going to focus on what we can learn from history. We’re also going to focus on brain science.

My goal for you is by the end of this podcast, you are going to feel like you can make a much more informed decision and really start seeing for yourself what we’re really what this is all about in the first place.

But before we dive into this episode, I always love to share these wins from the members of my membership because of course I have this lifetime membership and. This one is so sweet because. This member she’s been with me for three, three. For almost four years, I think. I started in, I think she joined in 2021. And she is recently widowed and it’s just been incredible to watch her truly embrace the life that she has. She went on she went to the quilter sisters. Quilt showed all by herself because there was someone that she really admires in the quilting world and she was going to be teaching a class.

She flew up by herself, went to it, organised everything. Then her daughter and granddaughters were going to join her and the puppy actually got really sick. The daughter wasn’t able to leave the dog, but she was able to send the granddaughters. Do this big exploration on the Oregon coast. The thing that is amazing to me is how many time she had to shift her brain to adjust to the new plans and then going from a vacation where you are now, the grandma slash mom. With 11 and a 14 year old is very different from a vacation of being with the mom who does the parenting. You can just kind of take the side step. It was just really fun for me to watch this confidence and. You know, this. When you see how in the past there were a lot of, I could never do those things.

That’s not me. I can’t do Uber, and I can’t do these things and that’s just not me. To now all of that is changing because they are creating. Who they are. And the ripple effects of that is now her granddaughters are seeing such an amazing example of this grandma who just does all these cool things and she doesn’t. She doesn’t let things get in her way.

She just allows herself to pivot and to refocus and to rejig and rework. That situation is that she can. Continue to love her life, create the life that she wants. This is what is possible for all of you. And I think that one of the biggest services that we give ourselves is that we do not allow ourselves the opportunity for change and for growth. We spend so much time praising our kids and encouraging our kids and paying for coaches for them, for their sports teams or like a debate coach we spend so much time and effort for them for that development and I just questioned why aren’t we doing it for ourselves? I’m just so glad that these ladies in my membership are doing that. It is completely possible for you. I, 100% know that with the tools and the support, you can totally do this.

I just needed to say that plug because. We all need a little nudge, right? I just see it so often and repeatedly of what is happening in the lives of these women when they learn these tools and they use them. They keep showing up. It’s so awesome.

History of Weight Loss Drugs

I’m going to, we’re going to have a little history lesson.

How does that sound? I love teaching history. It’s a podcast that I’ve, I actually have listened to and taken notes from it three times. It’s fascinating. The podcast is linked. The podcast is called the diary of a CEO. And he is interviewing Johann Hari

He’s a really accomplished author. He has struggled with his weight, his whole life. He’s a Scottish writer and journalist. The thing that’s so fascinating about this interview. Is that even though he has struggled with his weight for so long he actually describes during COVID and he was thinking, okay, we’re going to, I’m going to go to my first party.

And it’s going to be really interesting. Everyone else is going to be even like, Like way more, they’re going to be quite large.

And he gets there and he sees all these famous people who are really skinny. They kind of have these gaunt looking faces. He was blown away. He’s like what has happened to all them? They either got amazing fitness coaches or something.

The Magic Pill and Its Risks

His book was called the magic pill. The extraordinary benefit and disturbing risks of the new weight loss drugs.

And that one of the descriptions here online, it says reveals how his childhood trauma led him to uncover the dark side of society’s obesity’s epidemic exposure. He actually lines out 12 serious risks of the GL. GLP dash one drug. Ozempic there’s a, there’s a whole variety of them. And it Ty, he, some of them are suicide. Depression, malnutrition, alcoholism, drug abuse.

There’s so many problems. It is. Really really interesting. The crazy thing about it is it he’s on the drug. It’s just this wild. That’s why it’s just like his kind of blown my mind. ’cause he outlines these 12 really serious risks for this disease. But on the other hand it’s his battle because on the other hand Obesity is also a really serious problem. He just keeps weighing out the difference and the thing that’s so startling is that he gives all these examples of all these people.

People were really excited about this idea of, I could just take this pill and I could just eat whatever, and I could still lose weight. When we check out with the G chat GPT, Cause, you know, That’s where we go for history. Chat GPT, so we have these amphetamines. And this is when we started to discover that it was at these factories for making these ammunition. So from an a, in the 1930s to the 1970s now. So we have like Dexedrine and Adderall, people have heard of that.

But what was happening? People were having heart attacks. They were super addictive. And they were having really serious side effects dying at an earlier age. Then we have this thyroid hormone because we can have an underactive thyroid or an overactive thyroid.

When we have the overactive thyroid, it boosts our metabolism and then we can lose weight. But of course there’s going to be when you’re inserting a drug like that and you’re increasing, especially when you think of menopause. No longer are we getting our estrogen from our ovaries. The thyroid is part of creating that for us.

If we’re boosting it that way and it’s like, really stressing it out, of course, they’re going to have these side effects like heart palpitations, bone loss, it’s just going to increase menopause symptoms that we, we struggle with. Then we have the Finette. I was like, I should take it. Pronunciation class before this finan trimming. I mean. That was a stimulant that suppresses appetite.

People are still using it, even though they know that it’s increased their blood pressure, insomnia, and nervousness. They came out in 1999. Or Alice that, and it blocks the absorption of dietary fat in the intestine leading to reduced calorie intake. Of course we’re going to have gas gastrinoma issues, oily stool, flatulence. It’s not a healthy

it’s kind of like duct tape, right?

You can use duct tape and it will work for a certain amount of time, but eventually wears off and it’s not sustainable. Then we have this. You are tramming. I don’t think I said that right from 1997 to 2010. But what that would do was it, it was inhibiting the uptake of serotonin. No for refereeing.

Thus reducing your appetite, but it was withdrawn from the market because there was an increase of cardiovascular events, heart attacks, and strokes. So and then we have another one, the. Laura. Serene. Same kind of idea. The body’s tricky to drink to think it’s full. But then of course we have risk cancer, eye cancer for risks.

Modern Weight Loss Drugs and Their Side Effects

Now we’re here in 2014 with our Jeep LP, one receptor agonist. This one’s interesting. This is what we’re getting like, Wegovy and ozempic. And all of these variations of this drug. Basically what they’re doing is, and these are used for diabetes patients.

When they were seeing the results for that They were looking at how it was controlling their appetite and they’re slowing the gastric emptying. You could see that it was working, however, There’s a lot of side effects. And in fact, in this yo Johann’s book, he has 12 deadly side effects.

So you take this drug and 70% of the people once you get off of this drug gain the weight back. It reduces your muscle and it affects your bones. Now you’re getting again these advanced menopause, which we’ve been talking about. It just accelerates it. Then we know about bone density and when women fall according to the worldwide health organization falls are the second leading cause of unintentional injury. So older people have the highest risk of death or serious injury arising from a fall. We look at history. Even with all the research and all the scientists putting their heads together. There is big money in weight loss, drugs huge. Of course we don’t want to have those risks, but the problem is we keep trying to solve a problem with the wrong approach.

We are abusing food and we are not using food for how it’s intended.

There’s an epidemic of obesity. There’s no question and it’s worldwide. The reason it’s becoming more and more worldwide is because we are not addressing the issue.

Emotional Support and Obesity

My mom had a new hip recently and I took her, I had to take her up for a couple appointments. I’m going into the hospital and there’s doctors, nurses smoking. They’re overweight because even those who see it firsthand aren’t getting the emotional support and help to overcome it. They clearly know the effects of obesity. We have moms grandmas.

We have regular people who are becoming obese. Even though they’re lovingly and caregiving and they’re amazing and wonderful. But there’s something missing in taking care of themselves too. Create a healthy relationship with food and their body and their life. I know this is super bold and I do recognize that there are, and I’m going to be in the next podcast, spoiler alert.

We’re going to be talking about sexual abuse and how that’s one of the contributors for obesity.

Three Reasons for Being Overweight

There’s three reasons. Cortisol.

So we’re not dealing with our stress. Why aren’t we, why are not? Why aren’t we getting the help that we need? Why are we not taking care? Our stress or stress comes from here and our body system. The second reason we’re overweight is because of over hunger. Where does eating more than our body needs? We’re just constantly feeding ourselves and feeding ourselves more than we need. The third is over desire.

We’re going to the sugar and flour and we’re not taking care of ourselves. We have to start really being honest with ourselves. That is why life coaching or therapy or whatever you need to do. You need to get the help because you are basically putting yourself in jail. You’re trapping yourself. In this endless loop of trying to solve a problem that can’t be solved with food.

You, you cannot solve your problems with food. The only problems you can solve with food is.

Energy for your body.

That’s about it. We have to stop. It’s madness. This is the problem.

The Importance of Independence and Discomfort

The rules of being a human. We want to become more independent. We have to, I, we watch these nature shows and we’ve got these lionesses and they have these four Cubs and you watch them as they go and they handle the day and they.

Like we have to teach them to be independent and we all have to become independent. That’s normal, but to become independent, the rule is you have to be uncomfortable. You have to learn and grow and you have to have failure and you have to, you know, experience what it feels like to mess up. Ask for forgiveness or. The second part of the rules of being a human. The first one is we want to increase our independence. That is a natural and a very healthy thing. The second is discomfort to figure it out. It’s uncomfortable. It doesn’t feel great. But what can be really super helpful is being able to say, I’m really uncomfortable. I tried this new thing and have this new thing that I tried.

What went well? What didn’t go so well. What can I do better next time? This is the key. Right there. The third phase is to figure it out and so that we can get to that next level.

Perfectionism and Self-Compassion

Now for all my perfectionist girls out there. I see you. I love you. I hear you. Perfectionism was, and it still is still a challenge for me.

I have, I’m rewire my brain to allow myself to learn and to grow. Every time I make a mistake, I don’t have to punch myself in the face. That’s what perfectionists do. They don’t allow themselves to move on and on, they punish themselves forever. Right. You know, you hear me? Right. I hear you hear me. You’re like, why did I do that?

What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I ever get it right? I, you know, why what’s the point of even trying, I keep failing and you just punch yourself in the face over and over. Instead of saying I’m so proud of myself, I can’t believe this. This is so cool. I like trying new things. I’m learning new things. I am thrilled with the progress that I’ve made.

That’s what I want to be hearing. So now you’re figuring it out. You achieve it to the next level. Then guess what happens? Your brain is like you’re back to number one. You want to increase your independence. Then you’re back to number two, which is uncomfortable to figure it out. But then now you’re uncomfortable again. It’s like my son who got top marks in grade nine, maths. Then he went to grade 10 maths and he got 51% because at the beginning of the class, he was like, what. This is hard. I’m but I’m good at maths

He realised halfway through, oh my goodness. I’m feeling. I’m going to have to repeat this class. Then he started pulling his socks up and started like getting help and going there for lunch and all of that but. By then, I mean, he was 51. Technically you could move on to grade 11, but he said, well, what do you want to do?

I’m going to take that again. Just because you, you elevate, you got really good marks in grade nine. But grade 10 brings it to the next level. That is what a human’s life is like. We have to learn to embrace this growth.

The Ineffectiveness of Weight Loss Drugs

The issue is weight loss drugs aren’t addressing that issue.

We’re still doing the same pattern of going to the food because we’re feeling frustrated going to the food because we want to numb ourselves out, going to the food because we can’t cope very well. Going to the food because our life isn’t great. We’re having this ice cream treat to look forward to. It’s like a little carrot in front of us. Do you see how it doesn’t address the issue. I am not a scientist but I am a person who has common sense. I am a life coach who has professionally helped hundreds of women since 2019.

I’ve been helping them look at their relationship with food, look at their relationship with their body. Look at what’s really going on and open their eyes to these really unhealthy patterns. It’s crazy. You guys. I know. It’s so hard.

I get it.

I am not here to judge people. I am not here to finger wag at them and tell them they’re so dominant. I am afraid of taking weight loss drugs. What I am telling them is if you’re thinking about taking weight loss drugs, he talks about muscle loss sarcopenia when you fall, then you’re more likely to die. Your muscle mass, it’s like a walking time bomb. It talks about depression and suicide type two diabetes takes 15 years off your life. Within a year of stopping taking Ozempic you regained 70% of your weight. He also talked about eating disorders. So if you have disordered eating, then a lot of people will go to disordered drinking or disordered working or whatever that is, because it’s just like there’s, they’re just. They’re just addicted, swapping. But this was the big one. There are so many unknowns. We just don’t know what we don’t know. When you’re taking these drugs, you’re playing with fire. Your heart could stop or you could become paralyzed there’s so many unknowns. One of the things that he showed us in this work was, he gave the example of Japan. Right at the beginning of school. We’re like we don’t serve processed food in school. The kids make their own food.

They help with the food. They teach their kids how to eat. They make these new norms.

I could go on a lot more. But I want to thank you first of all, for being here. The second thing I want to say. Is.

The Power of Coaching and Personal Growth

That every time you turned to food, it was an effort for you to feel better. But it doesn’t work.

It just makes it worse. The third thing I want to say is that you are not broken. You are not past repair.

It’s like you’ve been playing a game. You’ve been playing monopoly. With the rules for Scrabble it’s like monopoly is a dumb game. Didn’t make sense. You have been eating.

Without the right rule book because you’re turning to food to numb out, you’re turning to food for pleasure, but it’s not true. It’s not, this is not real. It’s like virtual reality, right? The fourth thing I want to say. Is that when you. Slow down look at what’s going on

and really be honest with yourself. You are going to get so much freedom.

There is so much freedom with opening it up.

So I want you to just imagine. What life would look like if you were not constantly battling yourself and your brain and everything about your body. What would that be like?

So I have experienced that. Back in 2018, I got a coach. She helped me. She taught me this tool that helps me solve any problem.

That tool has changed my life. I have lost over 50 pounds and I’ve kept it off since 2019. I have created an incredible community. I’ve made over a million dollars as a life coach, which I never imagined in my wildest dreams would ever be possible. Completely changed my relationship with money. With my relationship with my family. My kids. My husband.

And I want that for you.

The path is different for all of you. But I know the tools that will help you to create the path that you need to make for your own unique life. I am here for you.

I’ve got you.

It’s one thing to listen to this podcast and I’m so, so grateful that you’re listening to the podcast. But until you actually start doing this for yourself. Start writing things down and think slowly and thinking about it you’re just going to keep repeating the same old, same old. If you always do what you’ve always done, you always give too.

You always got it. I don’t want that for you anymore. I just had every single day I looked in the mirror and I just thought, oh my goodness, Dara. So proud of you.

A Personal Journey to Self-Acceptance

Recently I was at my sister’s. I’d always been jealous of my sister. She had a beautiful body and she’s just so beautiful. She is still beautiful. She’s just an amazing and talented, just incredible person. She brought up some clothes and she brought this jumper and she’s like, try this on. I thought. When did you wear this? I was like, I dunno if that would ever fit me. I put it on and I just started to cry.

I just started to cry.

It looked so good on me. I just couldn’t believe that I could wear that jumper. There’s so much emotion when it comes to our bodies and our expectations. The thing that really made me so happy

was that I have worked through so many challenges

I have created such a strong relationship with myself. I have recreated, like I’ve really established, like this really healthy relationship with me, my body, my mind. . I’m being pretty vulnerable right now, but I tried it on just for fun when she brought a bunch of other things and I tried some stuff on and then I had a coaching program. I had to wake up early and, and get going, she dropped me off at the train station.

She didn’t give it to me. But I was about to get dressed in my clothes that I was going to wear for the event. I put that jumper on again.

That I finally worked through so many. Issues.

That I have created so much peace in my own body. That my body is healthy. Like mentally and emotionally healthy state. That’s what I want for all of you. This was a doozy. But needs to be said. I want to help you. I want you to learn how to help yourself. To have those experiences, because that was sweet and that was genuine.

That was real. No drug could ever give that to you. All right.

Give me your feedback. I want to hear it.

If you want more help with learning about your body and how it’s changing, Through menopause, perimenopause, through whatever it is, my program is focused on helping you truly become your own best expert. So as we go through June, uh, working on our menopause, perimenopause experiences, July, we’re focusing on becoming our own bestie, July and August, actually, with our summertime Um, challenge and then in August, we’re really diving into how to lose the physical weight when you focus so much on the mental.

I have an incredible program for that coming in August. So there’s so much to look forward to. You truly can make your own transformation and I love helping you find that inner knowledge and wisdom that’s just waiting for you to unlock. So that you can create permanent change for yourself.