Amanda, a retired Air Force veteran with PCOS and thyroid issues, lost 63 pounds (275 to 212) on tirzepatide between December 30, 2024 and August 28, 2026 while traveling full time with her family. She used compounded tirzepatide from Lavender Sky Health (Strive Pharmacy, B12 and glycine) in the United States and pure Eli Lilly Mounjaro through Juniper telehealth in Okinawa, Japan and a local doctor in Australia, staying on the medication through Colorado, Okinawa, Texas, a two week Disney cruise, Australia, French Polynesia, New Zealand, and Hawaii.

Doses ran from 2 mg (20 units) at the start to a maximum of 6 mg (60 units), with one planned step down to 5 mg on the pure form and two unplanned two week lapses that did not require restarting from the beginning. Out of pocket cost through Lavender Sky alone was $2,424 across 21 months, not counting Juniper in Okinawa or the Australian doctor and pharmacy, with per order prices dropping from $490 to $344.

She did not count calories; her only daily targets were 60 grams of protein and 64 ounces of water, tracked with a Renpho smart scale, an Oura ring, and a handwritten dose log. Side effects included heavy hair shedding at month nine (managed with K18 FutureIQ and the Dr. Groot scalp line), gas from broccoli, cabbage, and regular pasta (managed by switching to Goodles chickpea pasta, Siete grain free chips, and a daily Wild Wonder probiotic drink), nausea and smell sensitivity (pickle juice and a Wizard Wellness peppermint inhaler stick), acid reflux (Ritual vitamins), and water retention (Skinny Confidential and Primally Pure lymphatic drainage tools).

Improvements she logged: food noise gone, eyesight sharper, heart palpitations reduced, facial hair growth slowed, dark skin patches lighter, better sleep, more energy, less joint pain, better temperature regulation, lighter periods. She chose tirzepatide over semaglutide because of studies on tirzepatide and PCOS, and paid for it herself after being dismissed by doctors.

Her food staples: Fairlife whole milk, Ballerina Farm protein, Siggi’s yogurt, SkinnyDipped, Barebells bars, FATTY meat sticks, Kroma bone broth, Taste Salud electrolytes, Perelel greens, Oats Overnight, and monk fruit.

Clothing during the transition: Spanx, Loft, a Buffbunny jumpsuit, and Rent the Runway and FashionPass rental subscriptions. Next goals: under 200 pounds, then 155 to 165, then a maintenance dose, with a new focus on building muscle through Pilates on the Melissa Wood Health app.

A few of the products in this post were gifted (K18 FutureIQ, Kroma, my Pilates membership, and some of the clothing), and I will say so where it comes up. Most of it I bought myself, more than once. Nothing here is medical advice. This is my journey, what I chose, and how it went for me. Talk to your own doctor about yours.

My codes for things in this post are below, and everything else I use is in the collections throughout this post.

How the weight came on: the years before I ever heard of a GLP-1

Weight gain can happen for a ton of reasons. Mental health, your body getting older, hormones, all of it. For me it was a combination of everything. I have thyroid issues. I have PCOS. And I have a life that, for a long time, was not built around taking care of me.

I want to walk you through the years before the shot, because it was not one decision. It was a bunch of intentional steps, and the medicine was one of the later ones.

Getting out of the military

After I retired from the Air Force I was really beat up, physically and mentally. A ton of surgeries. The transition out was a roller coaster, and the first goal was not weight. It was getting my mental health somewhere livable.

I had already done the coping work and the therapy. This phase was learning to live with it. Learning my triggers, recognizing when something was upsetting me. One thing I figured out, and this may not be relatable to everyone, is that being around a lot of military people kept bringing up the patterns and behaviors I needed to get away from in order to start healing. My mental health got a lot better once I made space from that. Not 100 percent. It never will be. Those things are always there. But better.

Losing the boat and starting over

Starting our boat life helped my mental health a lot. Getting away from the stressors and the triggers and the people. Then we lost our first boat. It was a full dream we had set out to do and it got smashed. And with the dream came the risk, and the family members with the “who do you think you are” and “serves you right for even trying” vibes.

We had a choice. Go back to where we were, or keep moving toward the goal. We kept going. We rented in Washington, picked up our second boat, finished building it, and sailed it down the coast. There was stress in all of that too. If you want that whole story, Alex just wrote our three year recap and we have a list of the sailing books that got us through it.

I was not thinking about weight in that phase. I was thinking about how to live on a boat. But I was traveling and eating really good Mexican food in Baja, and I was active, lots of back and forth, just not intentionally working out. The weight slowly kept coming on.

Clean products first, then clean food

For the thyroid and hormone stuff, clean beauty and clean ingredients became really important to me. The first creator who put this on my radar was Gracie Norton (@gracie_norton on TikTok), who showed up on my feed talking about PCOS, how she combated it, and how she lost a bunch of weight. That is when I got into Merit Beauty, Innersense Organic Beauty, and Dr. Bronner’s, and I got rid of bleaches and chemicals from our household completely. Alex was on board because he thinks the same way about whole ingredients.

If you look at those brands and think “that is expensive,” you are right, up front. I explain how it actually saved us money further down.

After the products, we did the same thing with food. More whole foods. Living on a boat there was not really another option, you can only buy so many things. So my diet was not that restrictive. But I was still gaining weight, and honestly my portion control was out of control. A little bit of binge eating, too. When I get stressed I go to food. I did not realize how much food noise I had until the medicine turned it off.

The heavy travel year

2024 was a ton of countries. Mexico, dealing with the hurricane and putting the boat up, then Grenada, a cruise, then Europe. My oldest was getting ready for college and we were already in that mindset.

The Grenada house sit really messed me up (Grenada itself was beautiful, and our True Blue Bay stay is the good memory from that trip). It was the first time there was an actual hidden nanny camera in the house filming us. I felt unsafe and out of control and it triggered my stuff like crazy. We left. Then we kept traveling heavily: the Margaritaville cruise, then Europe.

Travel is great. But there is stress in it, and I was eating tons of food and trying everything in every country. That is how I got to Colorado.

Losing weight with PCOS and thyroid issues: why I picked tirzepatide

The wake up moment in Colorado

We were house sitting in Colorado (if you are wondering what a house sit is, here is our five year TrustedHousesitters review) from December 2024 into about February or March 2025. I weighed myself there and realized this was getting out of control. If I kept letting it go I was going to hit 300, and I never wanted to be there in my whole life. No judgment to anyone who has been there. I get it. But for someone who was in the military and used to being fit and active, 300 was not even feasible to me.

I think I have a little body dysmorphia, because I did not feel like I looked that big. Now, looking at photos, I can see how puffy my face and body were. But I was struggling. Really tired. Walks were harder. My body hurt everywhere, and it will always hurt because of my injuries, but everything was way more difficult. Even moving forward, walking and thinking, felt like a block. I do not know how else to explain it.

I have always had heart palpitations, and they were getting more frequent. Then two big lumps showed up under my breast, pretty much out of nowhere. That scared me, combined with the heart stuff. My PCOS symptoms were loud too: really heavy periods, hair growth under my chin. The question became: can I do something to fix this?

Why tirzepatide over Ozempic for my PCOS

This was when GLP-1s were going crazy and Ozempic was everywhere. I looked at all of them and chose tirzepatide because there were studies showing it did extremely well for women with PCOS. My aim was more about helping my PCOS symptoms than the number on the scale.

Here is the part I think a lot of women will recognize. Doctors get my records, and because I have a history of getting mental health help in the military, they assume a lot of my stuff is anxiety and I get blown off. So I took it into my own hands and decided to pay for it myself.

The PCOS belly

A lot of my PCOS weight was water. I was holding on to a lot of it and swelling constantly. In the first two to three weeks on tirzepatide I dropped about 10 pounds almost instantly, and that was water weight. That is why lymphatic drainage tools ended up in my routine (more on those in the products section). The apron belly is a different story. It is still there, and it is going so slow it is hard to see it go. If you are there right now, the pants I lived in the whole time were my Spanx pants, and they are still what I reach for. If you want a second option, this is the pair I wrote about last month.

I also went through a whole skincare phase built around PCOS acne and dark patches. That Beekman 1802 guide is here if that is part of your story. I have since moved on to different products, but it was a real step for me and it may still be useful for someone starting out.

Where I got compounded tirzepatide, and what I paid

Lavender Sky Health and Strive Pharmacy

I started with a compounding telehealth company called Lavender Sky Health, and I am happy to share them because they have been great. Their compounded tirzepatide has B12 and glycine in it, and they use Strive Pharmacy, which is the reason I picked them. I stocked up in Colorado with enough to travel with, and every time we have been back in the States and settled, Texas and now Hawaii, I have gone right back to them.

Juniper, the pure Eli Lilly version

In Okinawa I used a company called Juniper. Short video visit with an English speaking doctor, a few questions, and they shipped it to the door of our Airbnb. Juniper was the pure form, straight Eli Lilly tirzepatide, not compounded. I tried Juniper again in Australia and could not, and I explain why in the travel section.

My rule going in: slow, and the lowest dose possible

Going in, I knew I needed to fully commit and take it very slow. The last thing I wanted was to shed a ton of weight fast and end up with sagging skin. Saggy skin is still better than keeping the weight, I know that, but it was my fear at the time. So the plan was: go slow, and stay on the lowest dose possible. Hair shedding was not on my radar yet. That came later.

Here is exactly what my log says, because I know this is the question everyone wants answered. This is my log, not a chart for you.

I started at 20 units, which is 2 mg, on December 30, 2024, on the Strive compound through Lavender Sky. Two weeks later, on January 13, 2025, I moved to 40 units (4 mg) and stayed there. On March 6, 2025, in Okinawa, I switched to pure Mounjaro through Juniper, and my 17th dose, on April 22, 2025, is when I moved to 50 units, which is 5 mg, the standard dose.

From July 1 to October 15, 2025, back in the States, I was on a Lavender Sky compound with niacinamide, and on July 22 I went up to 60 units (6 mg). On November 10, 2025, in Australia, I went back to pure Mounjaro and moved back down to 5 mg, because I was afraid to jump up on the Eli Lilly version.

I stayed there through French Polynesia and New Zealand. On June 11, 2026, back in the States, I started the Strive compound again and restarted at 2.5 mg (25 units) for about a week, then went to 50 units, then to 60 units, 6 mg, where I am now. I jumped back up quickly because my body was already used to it. I have never gone higher than 6 mg.

So in 21 months, my dose went up, came back down once on purpose, and restarted from the bottom once. That is what slow looked like for me.

What it cost me

I paid for all of it out of pocket. No insurance, no discount programs. The cleanest record I have is Lavender Sky, so here is every invoice from my account, in order, so you have real numbers instead of a guess:

• December 4, 2024: $490
• December 5, 2024: $250 for the lab work and the doctor visit (you still have to see someone, and they charge for it)
• January 27, 2025: $490
• July 22, 2025: $455
• June 5, 2026: $395
• August 23, 2026: $344

That is $2,424 to Lavender Sky across 21 months, and you can see the price has come down over time, from $490 to $344. That is not my full total. Juniper in Okinawa was its own subscription, and Australia was a doctor visit plus the pharmacy every time, and I have not gone back through those yet. So take this as an idea of the cost, not the whole bill.

One more thing that happened along the way. During the craziness with Eli Lilly and the compounding pharmacies, there was a period when Strive could not compound tirzepatide anymore. Lavender Sky moved me to a different compound with niacinamide in it for that stretch, July through October 2025. I did not like the way it made me feel at all. When Strive was able to compound again, I went right back to the original.

How I tracked everything while living out of a suitcase

Almost everything I bought was chosen because it was portable. I realized early that if I was going to do this, it had to include traveling with it, so I could stay consistent and keep track.

Why weighing myself is hard for me

I do not like weighing myself. Every time I do, I feel bad about not being at the number I think I should be at. Some of that is military. I was never super skinny, always at the high end of the chart, still within regulation, but always feeling bad about it. Some of it is older than that. My stepmom told me I was too big when I was little and made me walk on a treadmill at 10 or 11 years old. I played sports. I do not think I was fat. But I have a lot of issues with weight, and I know a lot of women do.

So I needed a scale I could stand to use, that worked with my Oura ring, and that traveled light.

The Renpho scale

I bought the Renpho scale because it is small. It fits in the laptop slot of my backpack, next to my laptop. Bonus travel hack: we use it to weigh our bags. One of us gets on, then gets on again holding the bag. Not perfectly accurate because of the weight distribution, but close enough to avoid a fee.

I did not get the scale until January 23, 2025, almost four weeks after my first shot, so the chart starts there. I entered 275 as my starting weight by hand, even though I was already about 13 pounds down by then. The Renpho Health app is free. Every time you step on, it syncs by Bluetooth and tracks bone density, water, BMI, body fat percentage, and more, and keeps trend charts going up or down. Seeing it visually helped me a lot. It also tracks water intake, and it links with Apple Health and Oura so every weigh in flows everywhere it needs to go.

The Oura ring

I invested in an Oura ring. Yes, there is a subscription. It was important to me to look at my whole health and find patterns and triggers, not just the scale. It tracks my heart. With my iPhone everything links together, so Oura recalibrates my goals as my weight changes, helps with calories and walking, and now lets you log your GLP-1 doses and reminds you when the next one is due. It also tracks periods, which mattered to me because I wanted to log them and watch my body come back.

If you want it to look less like a fitness tracker and more like jewelry, these are the covers I like.

My dose log notebook

I bought a notebook specifically to log my shots: the date, the dosage, and where I took it. Now that Oura has dose logging (it works on older rings too) you do not really need the journal, and you can see in my photos exactly where my notebook entries stop and the app takes over. I would still recommend one. It travels, and it is nice to step away from digital a little.

Why I never counted calories

Counting calories is a childhood trauma thing for me. My stepmom was always on Weight Watchers. “It has so many calories, it has so much fat, so it is bad for you.” Tracking calories and macros was going to be too overwhelming, so I decided that if I was on the medicine, I was going to let the medicine work.

What I did track was protein, and I kept my sugar low. My daily targets were 60 grams of protein and 64 ounces of water. That is it. If you do want to track food, I used MyFitnessPal for a while. It does carbs, protein, fats, and calories. For me it was a lot of extra stress.

Using the scale and the ring together is what got me through the plateaus. There were two or three months where I lost nothing on the scale, and I could still see healthy changes happening. That kept me on it.

My tirzepatide before and after: what actually changed

The first three weeks

The first two to three weeks I dropped about 10 pounds almost instantly. That was water. I had been holding on to a lot of it and swelling constantly, and it went fast. After that it slowed way down, on purpose, because I stayed low.

What I wrote in my log

I kept a written list of the improvements I noticed, because I wanted proof for myself on the days the scale did not move. Here is what was on it.

My eyesight. I remember the first shot and thinking, holy crap, I can see in 4K. If I skip the shot for a few weeks it starts getting fuzzy and blurry again. (Blood sugar changes can affect your eyes, so if your vision suddenly changes on one of these, get it checked. Mine went the good direction.) The hair on my face grew slower. The dark spots and patches were less prominent, and I was finally able to treat them.

My mood improved. The heart palpitations slowed down a lot. Sleep got better. My feet, knees, and hips do not hurt as much, probably from the weight coming off. Nothing will ever make my body stop hurting because of my surgeries, but this helped a lot with pain management. Energy came back. Thinking felt sharper. I was not as hot all the time and could actually regulate my temperature. Water retention went down. And the food noise was completely cut.

The plateau

There were two or three months where I lost nothing. That is where the Oura data and the Renpho charts saved me, because I could see my body still changing even when the number did not. I did not bump my dose to break it. I just kept going slow and it eventually moved.

The day I hit my goal

My goal number was 215. I picked it when I started because it was one of the first numbers where I noticed my weight gain, and it was my weight when I got out of the military after all the surgeries. On August 28, 2026 my scale read 212.0, and it has not moved much since. Getting back there felt like getting a piece of myself back. I got a little emotional about it, which I was not expecting.

One honest note on the chart: my scale shows a starting weight of 275.2 on January 23, 2025, but that is the day I bought the scale and typed in my real starting weight. By then I was already about 13 pounds down from the first three and a half weeks. So the curve looks steeper at the start than it felt.

I still think I have a little body dysmorphia. The weight does not come off evenly, so some places are still bigger and I catch myself thinking, dang it, I wish it would come off that area already. But for the most part I am happier to be healthier. Everything is easier.

The side effects I had, and what I used for each

There have been bads. Overall it has been good. Here is every bad, honestly.

My hair loss on tirzepatide

Around this time last year, at about the nine or ten month mark, I started losing a ton of hair. Half my head. Clumps. I was already losing some from PCOS, but this was different and it got scary.

I looked it up, and a lot of people have hair loss on a GLP-1 and grow it back within about two years. So I told myself: it is okay, I still need to get the weight off, get that under wraps, and the hair will grow back.

Then last month K18 sent me their FutureIQ hair longevity serum (gifted, and I would rebuy it). Within the first week my shedding almost stopped. Now it is a tiny, normal amount. Had I owned FutureIQ when the shedding started, I would have used it immediately. My full FutureIQ results post is here, and the K18 brand review covers the rest of the line, including the AirWash dry shampoo I use between washes.

Around the same time I bought the whole Dr. Groot scalp line: the Scalp Revitalizing Shampoo, the Miracle In Shower Scalp and Hair Hydrating clay mask, and the Hair Thickening Scalp Serum roll on pen. Some weeks I go back and forth with it and Innersense, because the Innersense conditioner is still great on my hair. For shine, I recently added the Agent Nateur leave in hair mask.

Once I have used the Dr. Groot line long enough to say anything real, I will update this section.One more hair thing, because it happened in the same country: I fried my $350 hair tool in Australia. Check your voltage before you go.

Did tirzepatide make me tired?

For me, the opposite. Tired was one of the reasons I started. Before the shot I was exhausted, walks were hard, and everything felt like pushing through a block. Energy was one of the first things I wrote down as an improvement. I know a lot of people ask this one, so that is my honest answer.

Stomach issues and the foods I cut

I did experience a lot of gas with certain foods, and it is horrible when it happens. Broccoli triggers it every time. Cabbage was the worst. I have not eaten it since. Basically that whole food group. Carbs too, so I switched from regular pasta to chickpea and protein based noodles, which helps me hit protein and keeps my stomach happy. There is medication you can take for it. I heard digestive enzymes help too and will be trying these next. What helped me most is a daily probiotic and prebiotic drink, which significantly changed things.

It has gotten better with time, but mostly I just avoid those foods now. The other day I had a salad with a little cabbage in it and had gas for two days. Not painful, thank God. Every once in a while I mess up and forget, because I am so used to eating the way I eat now that you forget it is a side effect until you eat the thing that causes it.

The ick, nausea, and reflux

Slowed digestion means I am not hungry. Making yourself eat is hard. It sounds dumb, but it really is. I still sometimes get “the ick” mid meal, even on foods I absolutely love. I am loving the first couple of bites, then the ick hits, and I cannot eat anymore. It sucks when you really wanted it.

For nausea, I drink the pickle juice from Grillo’s pickle chips. Whole garlic, whole dill, it tastes really good, and the containers double as storage. For the acid reflux you get on a GLP-1, the reason I take Ritual vitamins is the burp back is mint or orange, you pick, instead of tasting like fish oil.

The other thing that lives in my bag is the Wizard Wellness Happy Nose inhaler stick. It is peppermint, and it helps a lot with nausea on the go. It also solves a problem I did not have before the shot: I am way more sensitive to smells now. Vanilla and gourmand scents smell amazing to me, more than they used to, but a strong bad smell hits me out of nowhere and can make me feel like I am going to be sick. Someone gets on the bus smelling really rough and I can open this and hover it under my nose and it mellows the whole thing out.

You are supposed to inhale it to clear your sinuses, and it does that too, but I mostly use it this way. I know they make essential oil nose rings for the same thing. This is more discreet, and it does more than one job, which you will notice is a pattern with everything I keep on me. The scent is like Orbit vanilla mint gum. Noticeable, not overpowering, and the mint is right there with it.

Swelling and water retention

A lot of my PCOS weight was water, so lymphatic drainage became part of my routine. I use the Skinny Confidential ball tool and the Primally Pure gua sha kit.

Loose skin

I still do not want saggy skin, and I feel like I am getting it in certain places, under my neck and in my thighs. So I am starting Pilates. I was gifted a membership to the Melissa Wood Health app (MWH), and I am already liking it because there is meditation in there along with the short workouts. If someone wants to do it with me, they can. I am also trying to walk more. I have not been as good about it as I could be, and I am trying not to be too upset about where I want to be versus where I am. Some days are still harder than others.

What I eat on a GLP-1: the food that still tastes good

The whole idea has been making the food still taste good so I am not punishing myself. You do not have to stop eating on a GLP-1. For me it came down to healthy portions and high protein, and a lot of fun drinks and fun snacks so I did not get bored eating the same things every day.

Protein drinks and dairy

Fairlife whole milk has 13 grams of protein per serving and no lactose, so it does not make me feel sick. I use it a lot for smoothies. What I do not do is put Fairlife in my protein powder or my bone broth. It makes it too heavy and hard to drink. A lot of people do it to get even more protein in, and stopping that is what made it possible for me to actually get the drink down. The shelf stable Fairlife chocolate milks, the 30 gram ones, are good and my oldest loves them, but they are too much for me. I am sensitive to tastes and smells now and they got wasteful, so I stopped buying them.

Half and half or heavy cream goes in my drinks. There is basically nothing in it, and heavy cream has more protein than half and half, but you take what you can get. Coffee with real cream tastes so much better to me than coffee with milk.

Protein powders

I struggle with protein drinks and always have. Whey or pea, does not matter, though pea protein is pretty gross to me and whey I can get down. After trying a ton of brands I settled on Ballerina Farm. I have all the flavors and I just add water or fruit instead of milk, which tastes better. There is also the FlavCity all in one butter coffee protein powder from Target, which is good for breakfast. On its own it is just okay for me. It has a bite. The label says you do not need to blend it, but if I blend in a medium frozen banana it tastes way better and I can actually drink it.

Meals and staples

Hard boiled eggs with mayonnaise, sriracha, and candied jalapenos. Sweet and spicy without being overwhelming. I do a lot of these (taking a break right now). I use candied jalapenos instead of hot honey. Not spicy, but they give you that taste.

Siete tortilla chips have no grain, so they do not hurt my stomach. I did a lot of nachos with these and ground beef, and the cheese is higher protein, so you get a high protein nacho. Chickpea or protein based pasta instead of regular. Tuna. Sweet potatoes did well for about the first year, then I got tired of them. I will bring them back soon.

Dessert

Siggi’s yogurt has 16 grams of protein per serving, and for a long time it was my after dinner dessert because I was still trying to treat myself. Siggi’s with two or three chopped strawberries and Lily’s milk chocolate tastes like a chocolate covered strawberry in yogurt form, because the yogurt is not overpowering. Lily’s is the closest chocolate chip I have found that melts and tastes like regular chocolate.

SkinnyDipped dark chocolate coconut almond bites are one of my favorite things right now. Three grams of sugar per bag. Their dark chocolate peanut butter cups are three grams of sugar per piece. Anything SkinnyDipped, honestly. Smart Sweets candy is three grams of sugar too. If I have a treat like that, I usually skip the yogurt.

Snacks and meat sticks

Protein bars are pretty gross, but Barebells are the ones I can tolerate. You will have to keep trying flavors. For meat sticks, I leaned toward Bavarian Meats at the beginning. Paleo Valley summer sausage is pretty good. Duke’s sausages are really good, Cajun and a bunch of flavors, but they all taste similar enough that I like them and kind of do not, so I keep other brands around for a noticeably different flavor profile.

The ones I really like right now are FATTY meat sticks, the honey barbecue and the jalapeno. I get the packs on Amazon, and they make minis too. You are just going to have to figure out which meat stick works for you, because every few months my palate changes on what I can tolerate. I get the ick from a beef stick too sometimes and do not finish it.

Hippeas groovy white cheddar only have about three grams of protein, but they are plant based, a different kind of snack, and they taste like cheddar. Wonderful pistachios, roasted and salted, and their chili ones, which are not spicy at all. I buy the packs from Amazon. Jack Link’s teriyaki jerky is seven grams of protein and 50 calories a pack.

I hate Quest chips. I tried them. They are disgusting. I do not even need a brand partnership from them so i’ll say it.

Why prepackaged? Unless you are going to commit to buying in bulk, portioning it out, and remembering what is in each bag, prepackaged is easier. Having it already portioned helps me see what it is and makes it grab and go. It feels like eating a snack instead of punishing yourself. When I do portion things myself I use paper bags over plastic.

Drinks, sweeteners, and gut

Wild Wonder is the probiotic and prebiotic sparkling drink I have landed on after trying a bunch. Keep them refrigerated. An Amazon subscription makes them a lot cheaper. Your gut might be a little off at first, then it is good.

Kroma sent me their 24 Karat bone broth (gifted, and I have kept buying it). Beef and chicken are really good, and the chai is good too with half and half to make it creamy. They are a little bland, but I like salt, so I add salt. Best packs of on the go bone broth I have ever had. If you are not traveling, the container and your own scoops is fine. For travel the packets are perfect. Their cookie butter is really, really good (Alex freaked out at the calories for one scoop, but a scoop is a good quick snack), and the granola too.

Sugar free Torani syrups let you spice up drinks with no sugar. Of all the sugar substitutes I hate every one except monk fruit. I keep a little monk fruit squirt bottle in my bag because hotels only offer the blue or pink packets, which are our parents’ age and really gross. A tiny squirt goes a long way. One bottle lasted me six months using it almost every day. I carry In The Raw monk fruit packets sometimes too so it does not make a mess. Trace minerals go in my water.

Electrolytes: you need them. I use Taste Salud because they taste like real agua frescas and not like chemicals. My taste buds changed a lot and these taste the most authentic. The kiwi collagen and beauty pack tastes just like a Snapple and I love it, with a very slight collagen aftertaste. Their immunity and electrolyte line travels with us and I do not feel like we get as sick as we used to. That is not a health claim, they are just easy to drink. Alex drinks them all the time, I do about one a day, and my labs have been fine at that amount. Taste Salud review, code SALTYVAGABONDS.

For greens I use Perelel. Most greens taste gross to me and these I can drink. The Perelel travel packs are great too: all three vitamins in one pack, already done, and they take up no space. My full Perelel review is here, code SALTYVAGABONDS15. Tahini is a great add on to fruit for a sweet and tangy kick. And for hydration on long days, H2tab is the other thing in my bag.

Breakfast

Oats Overnight comes in a bunch of flavors at 20 grams of protein. This is the one where adding Fairlife is totally fine, which puts you at 30 something grams, and it does not bother me the way protein drinks with Fairlife do.

Real dinners with my family

I eat a lot of whole foods and I try to eat a normal dinner with my family. Whatever is being made, I eat a little of. Alex makes me special noodles: Goodles, 11 grams of protein per serving, four servings a container. He cooks mine first, scoops them out so he does not lose the hot water, then cooks everyone else’s. It barely adds any time. Instead of a bun I use salad, or I skip the bun and eat the food without the bread.

I also did a two week Disney cruise on this, which I get into below, so yes, you can still eat on vacation.

Creators I actually follow for this

These are the three people whose pages I went to when things were happening to me and I needed to know if it was normal.

Gracie Norton on TikTok. She is not GLP-1 focused. She is focused on being healthy, clean beauty, working out, and skincare, and she has really good recipes I have tried and liked. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Amy in Half (@amyinhalf ). She is 160 pounds down, she had PCOS too, and she posts her before and afters constantly. If you need motivation and positivity because the people around you are not supportive, she is the one. She fights back on rude comments, she shares what she makes (some of her recipes are higher protein than I can handle, but they could be perfect for someone else), she has been through surgery for loose skin, and she is now working on her husband’s journey too.

Smaller Sam (@smallersam_pcos). Also PCOS, also a GLP-1, 260 pounds down. Recipes and body positivity, and her recipes are interesting in a good way.

How I stayed on tirzepatide in four countries

This is the part I could not find anywhere when I needed it: how to keep a GLP-1 going when you do not live in one place, and what happens when you cannot get it.

Colorado, where it started

Lavender Sky Health, compounded. I ordered enough to travel with before we left the house sit.

Okinawa, Japan (three months)

From Colorado we went straight to Okinawa and rented an Airbnb for about three months. This is where I used Juniper. A short video visit with an English speaking doctor, a few questions, and they shipped pure Eli Lilly tirzepatide to our door. I stocked up right before we left. If you are wondering about Okinawa itself, we spent a lot of that stay at American Village, the Churaumi Aquarium, and a side trip to Yoron Island.

Texas (a few months)

Back to the States for a house sit in Port Aransas. Back to compounded through Lavender Sky like normal, and I ordered a little extra before we left for the cruise.

The two week Disney cruise from Hawaii to Sydney

You probably think I am crazy for taking a Disney cruise on a GLP-1. It really was not bad. I still eat normal, so I could have a little of the things I know will not upset my stomach and enjoy it. I still had an adult beverage here and there.

This is why Taste Salud came with us. Club soda, which might irritate you at first, mixed with their margarita, watermelon, or paloma flavor. You do not really crave alcohol on a GLP-1, so it was easy to make that my drink instead of Diet Coke every day. The waiters learned what I wanted and would just bring it, and I would mix it at the table. I had my medicine the whole cruise.

Our Disney cruise packing list has the rest of what I brought, and this is how we got on that ship as a military family.

Australia, and the first lapse

Australia is where I tried to use Juniper again. Their health system only lets you use it if you have an Australian health number, so that was a pain. Finding a local doctor and going in was the fix, and once I did, it became easy. She saw me a few times, monitored me and did my weight, and before we left I had her write a three month supply up front so I would be covered through French Polynesia and New Zealand. All of it was paid at once, plus what I already had from the month before.

The lapse happened right after we got off the boat. We drove up the coast with no real plan and I did not know where we would be. Juniper took about a week to tell me I could not get it, so then I had to find a doctor and schedule an appointment. That cost me about two weeks. Part of me was scared I would have to completely start over. Instead I restarted on my same dose and I was fine.

That whole stretch is in Australia Unscripted. I also lost my cooling case somewhere in Australia, which I get to below.

French Polynesia and New Zealand

About three months in French Polynesia, split between Bora Bora, Tahiti, and Moorea, plus a few weeks in New Zealand, all covered by the Australian supply. It lasted until about one week before we had to leave French Polynesia. If you saw our Bora Bora videos, that was me, mid journey, hiking Arete de Matira.

Hawaii, and the second lapse

Back in the US, my timing was off by about a week and I had to reorder while we were not settled in one spot yet. Another two weeks. Other than those two, I stayed consistent through full time travel. Now that we are parked in Oahu for the year, I am back on compounded through Lavender Sky.

Compounded vs pure: what I have actually taken

Lavender Sky is compounded, with B12 and glycine, through Strive Pharmacy. Juniper and the Australian doctor were pure Eli Lilly tirzepatide, nothing added. So my order went: Strive compound in Colorado (December 30, 2024), pure Mounjaro in Okinawa (March 6, 2025), a Lavender Sky compound with niacinamide back in the States (July 1 to October 15, 2025, which is the stretch when Strive could not compound), pure Mounjaro in Australia and French Polynesia (November 10, 2025), and the Strive compound again since June 11, 2026.

The one place the two versions changed how I acted was Australia, where I dropped my dose back down rather than go up to the standard Eli Lilly dose. Between the Strive compound and pure Mounjaro I could not tell you a difference in how I felt or how I lost. The niacinamide compound was the exception. I did not like how it made me feel, and I was glad to get off it.

The travel cooling case

For a while I had a cooling pack that showed the temperature, which was nice, and it worked decently if you froze the ice packs. I do not think it stayed as cold as it could have. Then I lost it in Australia. I do recommend having one, and this is the one I would get now. I also keep everything organized in Cadence packing cubes.

Clothes while my body was changing sizes

Clearing out at the one year mark

At the one year mark I started getting rid of clothes that no longer fit. Selling on Poshmark helped, and I rolled that money into cuter clothes, mostly from Loft. I really like Loft. I am trying to be mindful about not buying too many new things, even though I really like clothes. And it is nice. You feel better about yourself, and at a smaller size you can wear cuter things, because they do not make things as cute the bigger you are. There are brands that do, Eloquii and Torrid and the ones people know, and I will link those.

What works when you are in between sizes

Stretchy material. Linen, because it is meant to be baggy and flowy, so it does not look as stark. I started this whole thing in a Skims jumpsuit and I can still fit in it. It is really baggy now, but it is meant to look baggy, so it does not look bad. Some of my XL and XXL pieces are just falling off me, but things meant to be tight, like activewear, are looser without being crazy loose, so they still work.

Bathing suits have mostly shrunk down with me. A few are off, but for the most part they still fit. I only got into Nani Swimwear this last month, so it was not part of the journey, but their suits have been the best thing I have worn on this body right now. My try on is here and the mom edit is here. Code SALTYVAGABONDSFALL15.

Rental subscriptions (what I am doing in Oahu)

Instead of paying $150 for a dress, you get around 10 dresses or outfits a month. It lets you still look cute without investing in new clothing until you are at the size you want to be, or the size you think you are going to be. I have two passes right now, Rent the Runway and FashionPass, and a few of those outfits are already on the blog: brown lace dress, polka dot dress, and transitional fall outfits.

Saying “I am not going to buy any new clothes” felt like a punishment. I knew I was losing weight, I just did not know how much or how fast. This is a good way to still enjoy yourself, test what fits and what brands work, and play with your style. I want to wear more fun things now than I did before, and the passes let me do that. My oldest used the same trick for her graduation dress inspo.

Gifting

Now that we have grown on social media I get a lot of gifted clothing, especially spandex and loungewear, and some brands I am actually in love with. I will say gifted where it applies.

The clean swaps that were part of this

This started before the shot, and it is still going. The full list of what I switched and why is in my clean living post, but the short version is: Innersense for shampoo and conditioner, Merit for makeup, Dime Seven Summers for perfume (on a GLP-1 you get more sensitive to scents, and this vanilla dries down like candy sugar without being overpowering), Dime lip gloss (dries with a sugary coating that feels real, and does not make you crave anything), and Dr. Bronner’s. Beekman 1802 goat milk soap was part of this for a long time too.

I am not as hyped on it as I was, and I use different products now, but my review is still up because it can still be useful for some people, code SALTYVAGABONDS20. Deodorant is Saltair. Coral Coast was gifted to me and I loved it enough to go into Ulta and smell all of them, and Seascape is the one I bought. Their AHA 5% serum deodorant is what helped with the discoloration under my arms. I have put it on my elbows and inner thighs too and it helped there as well. Not advice, just what I did. My understanding is the AHA exfoliates. Our laundry went clean too, Laundry Sauce and Dirty Labs.

Here is the cost thing I promised. Those products look expensive up front. The real story is cost per use. We buy the huge Innersense refill packs and take the whole bag with us. In Baja the whole family took it into the locker room showers, the kids used it too, and it lasted months. Dollar store shampoo you go through in a week or two, then you are adding water and shaking it for the last drop, and it is bad for you. Merit makeup lasts months because it is quality. A good bar soap lasts literally months. It costs a lot to switch at first, and it does not happen overnight. But it compounds. As you switch, things last longer, which frees up money to keep investing, until slowly everything is switched over and you are saving money. Weird and backwards, but that is how it went for us.

Where I am now, and what is next

Under 200

My next goal is to get under 200. That is another 12 pounds. The last time I was under 200 was probably 2012. I am trying to be gentle with my body because I know it is a lot. Right now I am working to get past a baseline my body has been comfortable at for years, so I am continuing to go slow.

The goal after that

Get to the higher end of my military weight, 155 to 165. That was my range even at my healthiest, and that was with running. I have a more muscular build, bulkier thighs from volleyball, so I am not chasing a number below that.

The next 60 pounds: muscle

This next stretch is about building muscle and strength and toning. Pilates, getting my hips down, getting the belly fat down, and still working on not getting sagging skin. Before, I did not have the energy to focus on any of that. I was really struggling. Now I do.

Maintenance, and the microdosing question

After that I plan to move to a maintenance dose and talk to my doctor about staying on it to sustain. I have heard about microdosing GLP-1s. I am not sure yet. When I decide, I will update this post, because that is a question that’s been on my mind and I do not want to answer it until I have a better direction on where im headed with that.

If you are trying to figure out if it is time for you, DM me. I am not a doctor and I will not tell you what to do. But I will tell you what I did, and I will answer honestly.