For almost six weeks now my weight has hovered at 260. I noted this morning that I was at my absolute lowest point on the scale, but I just haven’t made that downward move into the 250s, which I very much have wanted to see happen in August. I still have a few weeks left, so I’m hoping that can still happen before I fly off to Amsterdam for our river cruise and mountain climb in Switzerland. I am still religiously taking my Zepbound shot each week and have been wrangling with my doctor, the local pharmacy and Medicare to get squared away with what is called the Medicare Bridge Program, which specifically covers weight-loss users of GLP-1 medications. It’s a temporary program, but now runs through 2027 and allows me to get Zepbound for $50/month versus the $500/month I have been paying. That means a total of $7,500 in savings for me, so I very much want to get approved and onboard. I have been put through the usual rigamarole that has been like watching Abbott & Costello’s “Who’s on First” routine. First the doctor says I qualify. Then they text to say I don’t because I don’t have Medicare Part D. But I do have Medicare Part D I remind them and they say, “oh, yeah…”. Then the pharmacy says I can only get it with a KWIKpen versus the vial and syringe I’ve been using, but the doctor has to change the prescription to that form of delivery. I speak to Medicare and they say that I can qualify under Part D or if my Apnea is bad enough, that can qualify me…but that’s technically not the Bridge Program. The latest is that the doctor owes me a response, but they seemed to think I will be able to get onto the program. We’ll see. Either way, I’m continuing with Zepbound and I am continuing to eat light and exercise as much as possible, so I’m pretty sure I can still get down the added 30 pounds I want to lose.
I have literally never felt better and it is particularly nice to feel that way in the summer. I have taken to wearing short sleeve summer shirts (I’m partial to LL Bean) and these new tech pants that fit me so well (BYLT) and mock T-shirts (Co36) and when I wear those plus my Newzill performance (a.k.a. Compression) socks and my Kizik slip-in shoes I feel like a million bucks. The jelly roll of a stomach and love handles I have had my whole life are pretty much gone. My legs actually look skinny for once and easily cross at the knee for the first time. I feel comfortable standing or sitting and about the only issue I’m still having is with my middle upper back where I think the newfound lack of padding is making my spine stick out in ways it never did and occasionally poke into a hard chair back. Whether I’m walking, working in the yard, working out in my home gym or just going out and about, I feel comfortable pretty much all the time now. It’s a new feeling and not one I necessarily anticipated.
I don’t really spend much time worrying about what we are going out to do any more. If we are going to Old Town like we did yesterday, that’s cool. If everyone wants to walk around, great. If we go out to the theater as we did on Sunday and will do again tonight (down at The Welk) or Saturday (LaJolla Playhouse), I’m fine with walking up the stairs or across the campus to get to the theater as needed. None of that even enters my mind any more the way it used to. I wasn’t really aware of how much avoidance I tended to practice when it came to physical activity associated with our various social and entertainment activities, not to mention our travel. DOn’t get me wrong, I am still not above coping a seat on a bench or chair rather than mill around, since I still have a case of what I call “Cocktail Party Back” where my back will start to hurt and even sometimes get numb from standing around, but I’m working on that every week between my three training sessions, two assisted stretch sessions and my usual Gyrotonics session. I’m committed to getting it stretcher and stronger, but, as I have said, I’m correcting 70 years of abuse and its amazing that’s the only untoward malady that seems to be lingering. My point is that I am thinking of this as my summer of physical comfort. It’s a great feeling.
I am starting to strategize for the end of summer and heading into the fall. This will come on quickly this year since we are starting with our departure for Amsterdam on August 30th. We will walk the town for a few days and enjoy the canals before boarding the Viking River cruise down the Rhine. I finally got an email from Viking discussing the low water conditions on the Rhine and they have basically said that as of right now nothing is changed, but they do expect that there may be some need to make adjustments to the itinerary. I’ve seen that they sometimes have to shift boats along the route to avoid low water spots in the river. If that’s the worst that happens, so be it. The bad situation will be if we have to ever get on a bus for any stretch of the trip. That is unlikely to be very pleasant. But I’m not sure that I’m terribly concerned about it all. I’m sure we will still have a nice time and the temperatures I am seeing in Amsterdam and Zurich look to be coming down nicely as hoped. They are already in the low 70s and I expect we will be into the high 60s by the time we get over there. So long as the oppressive heat wave that adds plagued Central Europe dissipates, I think we will be all good. As for the Swiss portion of our trip, I am really looking forward to hiking through the hills of Switzerland. We are training everywhere on our Swiss Rail Passes and the combination of trains, cable cars, funiculars and lake boats should be a fun way to get around and have a very active trip through some beautiful country. I will be taking an excruciating stretch band to do my morning exercises to keep my back limber and keep me on track with my training program that I’ve worked hard at for the past eight months. It should help to be traveling with cousin Pete who is a lifelong devotee of picking up heavy things and putting them down as his wife Nancy says. It will be fun rider if I can keep up with my fitness concepts cousins, but here’s the thing…I’m looking forward to the physical activity, not dreading it.
I guess I’m hoping that my summer comfort transitions into my fall comfort and as my step father Irving (reset his soul) used to say, I want to just keep getting better and better.