morningloryblue

Today's my Day 5 of taking Ozempic. One thing I'm glad I've been able to continue doing these first five days is dining out.

I'm a big fan of going out to eat. I've been doing it regularly for years. I not only like the taste of restaurant food; I like getting out of the house for the change of scenery.

Before I started a GLP-1 drug (Ozempic is a GLP-1, like many other now-common drugs for controlling blood sugar and promoting weight loss) I heard warnings from many friends that it messes with your digestion so badly you can't eat regular meals anymore. I took those warnings seriously... though I also took them with a grain of salt. I readied myself for the possibility that I'd be needing to eat such small portions for meals that it wouldn't be practical to dine out at restaurants. I worried I'd end up throwing half the food in the trash— making the already spiraling cost of dining out something I could no longer stomach (no pun intended).

I am glad to say that so far— and I understand it's only Day 5 and I'm still on the smallest dose— I have not had to abandon dining out. Oh, I'm certainly not going to all-you-can-eat buffets. And I'm not going to steakhouses renowned for their huge cuts of meat, either. What I'm finding works (so far) is The 2/3 Solution I started using a few days ago. I aim to order 2/3 of what I used to order.

Eating 2/3 is actually pretty simple at fast food/fast casual restaurants. I just don't order a side! I've done this at Carl's, Jr., Burger King, and Popeye's already. Instead of ordering a combo with fries or some other side, I just order the main item— a burger or a few pieces of chicken— a la carte with a drink.

This also shifts more of what I do eat toward protein. Eating too little protein is one of the pitfalls a lot of people struggle with on GLP-1s. If you fill up on bread, potatoes, or other starches, yeah, it's hard to eat enough protein. When I skip the fries and eat the burger I make sure I get the protein I need.

I've been writing for a few days about GLP-1 medications— today is my Day 4 taking Ozempic— and writing about effects and side-effects as if my audience was already at least sorta familiar with them. That may not be far off the truth, as an increasing number of people in my age bracket are already on Ozempic, Wegovy, or GLP-1s or have a partner who is. For everyone else, let me back up a bit and explain what these drugs are and what they do.

First, a bit of terminology. GLP-1 is short for Glucagon-like Peptide-1. It's the name of a natural hormone in the small intestine that helps manage insulin secretion, among other things. This class of medications are actually GLP-1 receptor agonists, a technical term that means they bind to the same receptors in the body as the GLP-1 hormone. So taking a GLP-1 pill or shot is like having extra GLP-1 hormone in your body.

Taking a drug such as Ozempic, which triggers the same effects as the GLP-1 hormone, does several things:

• Triggers the release of insulin, promoting the conversion of food into energy and lowering the amount of glucose (sugar) in the bloodstream. Elevated blood-sugar levels over time cause diabetes.


• Blocks the secretion of Glucagon, another natural hormone that raises blood sugar levels.


• Slows digestion in the stomach, reducing the amount of sugar available to release into the bloodstream and helping signal to the brain the sense that you are "full" and don't need to eat.


• Directly affects areas of the brain that regulate appetite and food cravings.

It's the third one that causes a lot of the side effects everyone on a GLP-1 drug struggles to manage. Food sitting in your stomach longer can lead to discomfort, gas, indigestion, and upset stomach. When food you've eaten previously is still in your stomach because it takes longer to digest, eating your next meal— or exercising, or even just lying down— may cause you to barf. This is one of the biggest side-effects of the medicine virtually everyone who's on it has warned me about it. Thus it's also the one I've been most concerned about as I've started a GLP-1.

So have I barfed? No, but notice how I titled yesterday's blog "Day 3: Trying not to Barf'. 🤣 There have been times over these 4 days I've felt like I might be about to get sick to my stomach. Thankfully I haven't actually gotten sick to my stomach. Yet. 😟

What I feel is happening to me is that I'm getting that effect #3 without effect #4 yet. My stomach fills up faster and takes longer to clear, but my brain isn't yet getting stronger signals to stop eating. Thus I'm at risk of overeating my stomach's reduced capacity for digestion when all I do is "eat until I feel full".

So far I'm compensating for this by consciously reducing my portion sizes and stopping eating before I feel full. I hope that effect #4 kicks in soon, because otherwise what I'm doing is basically an austerity diet— the kind that has been shown not to work long-term for most people, including me.

Sunday's D&D game wasn't finished after the epic chase scene where Leoghnie and Otonio caught the fleeing spy/ringleader. For one, there was also action happening in the other ring. Back at the scene of the ambush, the hobgoblins had fled but the worgs (bigger, stronger, evil wolves) had not. The worgs had already killed two of the caravan's horses and were about to kill two more. Ryuu-Han the mage moved around from behind his wagon to confront the worgs.



Ryuu-Han's move was a good one... initially. He gained clear line-of-effect on the worgs with his spells while remaining 20' away from the melee. He struck one worg with a burst of magical flame that singed its hide. But in the heat of battle he forgot that worgs, like their wolf cousins, move fast. The worgs disengaged from the horses and moved to attack the foe they perceived as the biggest threat. Ryuu-Han was flanked.

The mage wasn't done. He still had fight in him. The magical protections he'd cast gave him some defense against the worgs' snapping jaws— much better than the worgs expected for a city-ape clad only in rags. His strongest spells were depleted, though. The risk was very real that the worgs, even both injured badly already, would kill him before he killed them.

His companions rallied to his side.

Herran, already on the ground with her bow in her hands, spotted the trouble first. Employing a tactic of "walking fire"— move, shoot, move, shoot— she closed on the worgs, each shot becoming more deadly as she shortened the distance. Before her first move, though, she banged on the side of a wagon asking Wataru for help.



Wataru, a grizzled older driver, had put up a stout fight so far. As driver of the first wagon he'd already taken a lot of arrows, though. He'd retreated into the cover the wagon to drink a healing potion. Now it was time to rejoin the fight. He leapt down from the seat, bow in hand, and followed Herran with walking fire.

BTW, if you're wondering why I'm narrating that Wataru had a bow in hand, when the picture above clearly shows him ready to draw his sword: it's because this is the sort of thing I get from AI image generation. Yes, I'm providing a lot of careful prompts. No, it's not perfect; it even stubbornly refuses to change some details I'm explicit about. I consider it enough of a victory that it doesn't draw any of the female characters with exposed cleavage or bare midriffs (IYKYK).

Update: I worked on a picture of Herran rallying aid to help Ryuu-Han:



Another driver joined in the fight, too. It took some urging from Kiarana the cleric, who was seated next to him on the buckboard. Blushing with chagrin that a cleric had to tell him to get back in the fight, he loaded his crossbow, fired, and loaded and fired again.

Together, between Ryuu-Han's resilience under threat and three warriors working their bow, the group defeated both worgs.

But even there, the story of the ambush wasn't complete. There was still the captured spy to deal with!



Kiarana healed him enough to bring him to consciousness. She cast a spell to compel him to speak only truth. Otonio led the questioning while Leoghnie scowled holding her massive sword, providing the implicit "Or else".

Again re: AI image gen... Yeah, it's not accurate that the cleric has a sword. And she's over-armored. But again, that's way better than her showing off her boobs and midriff. Plus, Jill, who's athletic herself, appreciates that Leoghnie is drawn not only with appropriate gear to go fight snarling monsters toe-to-toe but is drawn stocky enough to actually wield that huge sword she's got (IYKYK).

The spy gave up almost nothing in the questioning. He couldn't lie, due to the spell, but the spell couldn't force him to elaborate. He spat and called them names.

Otonio challenged the spy that he looked familiar. "I have seen you in the city. You serve House Berenar."

"Yeah, Tashara kid, you probably have," the spy sneered. "Best you let me go or you'll join me in hell when they find out."

Otonio's eyes narrowed as he weighed the political dimensions of this. Skirmishes between ruling houses were not unheard of but had to be navigated gently. Very gently.

"Get the merchant," Kiarana barked. She was irritated by the spy's stonewalling. Plus, now it seemed the spy might actually be the ringleader. Leoghnie went and grabbed the tied-up former caravan leader, Munetoshi, dragging him ungently across the ground to add to the questioning.

"Look, here's the deal," Kiarana explained to the two captives. "One of you talks, one of you loses his tongue. Choose." Eyes widened around the gaming table that the cleric was the one making the threat. "Hey, I'm Lawful Neutral!" the player rebutted.

Munetoshi babbled that although someone else had hired him first, this man, Touichi Berenar, told him there would be an ambush and paid him extra to advocate for surrender when it came. This confirmed that Touichi was not merely a "spy" but the coordinator of the attack.

"Hmm," Otonio said aloud, making a show of thinking about the situation as he faced Touichi. "You planned and attempted my murder. I am sure that my loyal house guard would object to that, strongly."

Leoghnie was busy picking her nose, or something— but picking it fiercely— so she didn't catch the verbal handoff. Otonio repeated himself, "I said, I am SURE my house guard would object to that, strongly!" Leoghnie didn't need a third invitation; she lopped off Touichi's head.

"As for you—" Otonio said, turning to caravan leader Munetoshi and leveling his rapier at the man's throat, "Your treachery imperiled all of our lives. It killed one of the men you hired. And should we further risk our own lives spending our now-depleted resources transporting you to the next city for trial? As a member of House Tashara, ruling coalition of Durendal, I declare your life forfeit here and now."

We had crummy weather all this past weekend. High temperatures barely peeked above 60, several degrees below normal for this time of year, and it was mostly gloomy with rain on-and-off. In the past I would've groused about how shitty weather ruined the weekend— and of course it's sunny and warmer on this back-to-work Monday morning— except for me it's not a back-to-work Monday morning. I'm retired! And that's why I don't care the weekend weather was shitty. In my retirement every day is a Saturday.

Today was Day 2 on The Pill. I started by weighing myself— something I couldn't do yesterday because the bathroom scale I've owned for 20 years just says "D'oh!" when I step on it now. I've gained a lot of weight over the past 18 months due to 1 or 2 of the many medicines I'm taking. I'm now over the weight limit for a lot of bathroom scales. That's why I ordered a new scale on Amazon yesterday. It has a higher capacity. It arrived swiftly but not in time for an inaugural morning weigh-in. So I did that today. And I forgot to do it first thing in the morning, before eating breakfast. So I did it after breakfast... and after a dump. I figured, one meal in, one meal out; it's balanced. 🤣

I feel like I'm starting to see some of the side effects of the GLP-1. It didn't start that way, though. Yesterday, Day 1, I began with my normal breakfast. Okay, I figured; the pill doesn't take effect immediately, especially at the lowest dose. For lunch I tried cutting down my normal portion by half but was still hungry afterward. I then ate more, adding up to a typical lunch amount. I tried a reduced portion again at dinner, going with 2/3 the amount I normally eat, and that's when I started to see some appetite reduction. I felt full after a modest, 2/3-sized dinner... though that feeling of fullness came partly from a mild discomfort that felt a bit like stomach gas. I had the burps for a few hours after dinner. When I went to bed 3.5 hours later it felt like the food was still siting in my stomach and trying to crawl back up my esophagus. It wasn't painful, thankfully; just a bit weird.

Today, Day 2, I downsized my breakfast and lunch to about 2/3 of what I'd normally eat for each. I was a bit hungry after breakfast and just waited until lunch. I was a bit hungry after lunch, too; I treated myself to a small dessert of two cookies. That was enough to hold me over until dinner without any mid-afternoon munchies. Come dinnertime, though, I was hungry. I ate a full portion at dinner. Now I feel bloated from that, like I overate. Part of learning to deal with this medication, and part of why doctors start everyone on the smallest dose, is becoming familiar with new signals and developing new habits. I'll see how I feel in about 2 hours when it's time for bed.

Saturday morning I ordered a new bathroom scale. Nothing fancy, just a basic scale to replace the 20-ish year old one we have. After I selected one that doesn't have bluetooth or require downloading an app to setup, Amazon offered me a delivery option I'd never seen before, a same-day option. Oh, I've seen same-day options before. But this one was crazy because it offered a time window of 10am - 3pm... when it was already 9:52am.

"Let's see if this gets here in 8 minutes!" I chuckled to myself as I pressed the Buy button.

The reality wasn't 8 minutes, of course. But it wasn't far off, compared to the "Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery" refrain still heard in some corners of life today. The scale hit my doorstep at 1:08pm. That's a new delivery record of 3 hours 16 minutes.

Last night I wrote about finishing off two bottles of booze in my out-of-control collection. I suggested that the next bottle I'd knock out would be San Matias Extra Añejo. Well, that was an oversight. While I really dig that tequila and wouldn't mind finishing it off, the discipline I'm practicing right now is to finish off bottles that are almost empty. San Matias is still over half full. What is/was almost empty? Espolón Añejo.



I poured the last shot and a half for a nightcap drink on Friday.

With this I have now cleared out three bottles this week. Three! Three bottles of booze. It makes me feel like this:



OMG, I can't believe Google Gemini let me make a Sesame Street cartoon about booze! 😳🤯🤣

I am sure that 6 months ago it would have refused, offering me an explanation about copyrighted property, blah-blah-blah. Our future AI overlords are getting bolder.

About a year ago I opted to do something unusual for me, in the credit card churning game. I opened a miles-and-points credit card without a hefty signup bonus. It was doubly unusual because not only did I open it without a hefty signup bonus but I accepted a hefty annual fee of $650. I crunched the numbers in my head and decided I could make the card pay off, even starting out $650 in the hole. Now that I've owned it for a year, let's check the math on whether I was right.

The credit card I'm talking about is the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire. It's one of the new generation of premium cards— offering premium benefits in exchange for a premium price, that whopping $650 annual fee.

The trick with the benefits is that you've got to spend money on certain things, regularly, to use them. For example, there's an annual $400 credit on Hilton resort stays. But it's broken up as $200 each six-month period, and it's only good at the small percentage of Hilton's properties they classify as resorts. Similarly there's an annual credit of up to $200 on airline purchases. It's couponed as four quarterly credits of up to $50. You've got to spend on these things every period to maximize the benefit.

Maxing Out a Few Key Benefits

There are a lot more potential benefits than just the few I name here. These are just the few that work for me. And over the past year I did a solid job of making them work.

• Due to a trick of timing I hit the semiannual $200 resort credit three times. That's $600.


• It took a bit of finagling but I hit the $50 airline credit every quarter. And due to the same trick of timing I hit it five times in 12 months. That's another $250.


• Amex offers small cash-back incentives at dozens of specific vendors every month. 99% of these are places I have no desire to shop, but the other 1% I did charge purchases at and earned $51 cash back.

So, just on cash back I outearned the $650 annual fee, grossing $901, net $251.

Then there are the points from spending. Even with no signup bonus I earned 132,500 Hilton Honors points over the past 12 months. Yeah, that sure looks like a big number, but HH points are barely worth $0.004 anymore, so that's just $530. And again, that's a gross value. For the net value I subtract the opportunity cost of not using one of my 2%-cash-back, no-fee cards. I cycled $15,500 of charges to earn those points. At 2% that's $310 I could have earned elsewhere, fee-free. So the points net from this card is just $220. Still, a win's a win, and this increases my net win for the year to $471.

Diamond Status

Owning the card gives me Diamond elite status in the Hilton Honors program. For the limited-service hotels we stay at a lot of the time that means very little; a couple bottles of water and maybe an upgrade to a slightly larger room. At fancier hotels it can mean a nicer room upgrade and a comped spendy breakfast buffet. We enjoyed a bit of each on our trip to Italy last year. I figure the comps were worth $200 to us. That brings the net win on the card to $671.

But Wait, There's More!

Potentially a lot more. There's a big benefit I haven't yet gotten the value of.

Every year with this card Hilton provides a free-night certificate. In the distant past I used these certs on nice-ish hotels that cost, say, $250/night. Then, as prices rose and I widened my aperture, I found a $400/night hotel. Then I really thought about it and found an absolutely amazing $1,000+/night hotel. And you know what? I'm going to book it again.

Booking that hotel for one night pushes the value of this card to over $1,800 for the past year. But you know what? Due to that "trick of timing" I mentioned above, I got two of those free-night certs. That two nights at that amazing hotel that costs almost $1,200/night now. That puts the net value of this card to about $3,000.

Will I Renew? It's a Toss-up!

But will I renew this card? That's always the question I ask in these reviews. As over-the-top as the $3,000 net value I stand to realize from owning this card for one year is, you might think holding it for the next 12 months is a slam-dunk. Actually, it's a toss-up.

It's a toss-up because that "trick of timing" I mentioned several times won't be there for me again. The resort credit will be worth only $400, not $600, and even $400 is only if I max it out— which I'm not sure I will. The airline credit will be maxed at $200. And there will only be one of those free-night certs... and it's not worth making a trip somewhere just for 1 night. (I debated how worth it it was even traveling for 2 nights.)

Put all these together and it's a lot smaller win I can forecast next year than this past year. A smaller win, and yet I start out $650 in the hole (paying the annual fee) if I want to play. I might or might not renew this card when the annual fee posts in a few weeks.