Contrave Update - July 2022

Jul 10

Where am I at with Contrave today?

And what else am I doing?

Hey guys! My name is Katie and I’m so glad you stopped by! You ready for a Contrave update? Here ya go! (If you’d rather watch the video, you can click below.)

So I'm going to be honest—the goal that I had for last summer and actually starting this summer was to come OFF of Contrave. For

me, in the place I'm at right now, it's been more of a mood stabilizer than anything else.

Why Would I Want To Come Off Contrave?

I know. It’s done so many amazing things for me, opened up so much in terms of thought processes. The truth is, this whole journey's been a struggle from the beginning because I haven't wanted to be on a medication. I kept wanting to try to figure it out on my own and I did get to the realization that it's okay, and I'm telling you it's okay if we need that. It's out there and it's available for us to help us. And I got to that point with my doctor, of course--all of this is to be talked with your doctor because I am not a doctor--I'm going into this with an open mind that September could roll around and I need to start taking it again.

I know that I have a seasonal thing going on where my mood just really drops when the weather changes and starts getting cold and I'm not able to be outside as much. And the sun--like I REALLY feel like the sun is therapy for me! This will be the second year where I've seen that trend happening so I know that that's naturally what my body and my mind are doing. So I am trying to do things right now while I'm off of it that will hopefully keep me in that even keel range going into the fall and winter.

Am I Against Going Back On Contrave?

Absolutely not. And all of this conversation has happened with my doctor, of course, like trying different supplements and different things that are more natural. I'm kind of just getting into that so let's just see how it goes and then I can share with you what I've tried and I'll have a better idea of how it's working or not for me in a couple months.

Getting Out the Shovel And Starting To Dig

What I decided the beginning of this year was that I was gonna take no matter how long, whether it was the whole year, a couple months, six months, and I was gonna dive in to figuring out what was beneath the surface. I always go back to the fact that if diets worked, if they REALLY worked, then you wouldn't gain the weight back.

Can diets be used as a tool? Yes...well, MAYBE. And if yes, is a diet gonna be the whole fix? No. And I really say that pretty confidently--not pretty confidently but VERY confidently!

Everything that I'm doing is to try to get to the root cause of the weight. I know that, for me, it is way more than just going on a diet.

Anyone else sick of hearing “It’s just calories in, calories out?”

UGH. I’ve been an athlete all my life. Some of it has slowed down a bit now that I’m in my 40’s, but I still got things going on.

But part of this for me is realizing, yeah, maybe I just have to be more consistent with the activity...maybe it's not enough to just do the sensible moderate exercise three days a week. Instead of feeling like a victim of my circumstance, why not roll with it? The reality is, I feel LEVELED UP when I exercise daily.

I can say with confidence that all of these mental connections started happening for me after I took Contrave. The way it reacts with my body/mind now may be a bit different than in the beginning, but those brain synapses are firing away now more than ever!

I realize that there's not just some magic potion, magic pill that's gonna make this happen. I'm at a point where it's just time to dig. It's time to figure out and take responsibility for it recognize things for what they are, and not look for a quick fix but look for a way that I can live my life and enjoy it, be comfortable, and be happy—ALL the things.

What Do I Feel About Hypnosis/Hypnotherapy?

Okay, how did we get here?

I want to share with you that I just got an email from a viewer and I SO appreciate emails. I just want to throw that out there that it's so nice to hear from you guys. It's nice to hear you starting your journeys or contemplating journeys. It's nice to be able to support you. And I LOVE knowing I’m not the only one out here struggling to put this all together in a way that makes sense.

One of the things this lovely viewer said was that she thought she was at her lowest point before the Contrave when she started researching hypnotherapy or hypnosis. I wanted to touch on this topic because hypnosis doesn't have to be scary. It doesn't have to be this thing that you imagine some guy on stage pulls up an audience member and hypnotizes them to act like a monkey or whatever and the person doesn't remember it and all these things. It's not that.

IT’S REALLY NOT THAT.

The way I look at it is, it's a very concentrated form of a meditation. It really helps because when you're trying to change behaviors, you're trying to reach your subconscious because your subconscious is what is doing all the things that you don't have to think about doing, that you just do. When you drive to work every day and you can think about other things while you're driving, that’s because it's ingrained into your brain, like I know how to get to work and I don't have to think about each street I'm turning on or how to run the car because I already know. All those things are on autopilot. That's your subconscious…the autopilot.

When we're talking about health and dieting and weight and all these things, we get frustrated. We ask these questions:

“Why am I sabotaging myself?”

“Why can't I just stick to this diet?”

“What am I doing wrong?”

Our subconscious mind. Our mind is wired a certain way and that autopilot is kicking in and overriding anything that we're trying to do. And let’s be real for a second here. Our minds/bodies are trying to protect us. They have our best interest at heart. Our minds don’t know the difference between scarcity of food like back in the caveman days versus how we live today.

The idea is to reach your subconscious to try to change behaviors and hypnosis is just another form, in my opinion, of a concentrated meditation.

It's a way that you can get quiet and you can take yourself back to moments that could be turning points for how you’re hardwired.

I’ve been focusing A LOT on the mental rewiring. Our brains have neural plasticity and that just means that we can retrain and carve new paths in our brain that will be more beneficial for us.

The key is definitely REPETITION.

But before that, it's maybe figuring out at what point in my life did this change? Did something change for me? Because we're all different. I've always been overweight. I've always had an issue with weight.

“You’re healthy BUT your weight doesn't fall within the charts.”

Right? Oh, the BMI charts. (Insert Head Slap).

I can transport myself back to certain situations that I can see where it started changing how I felt about myself, really.

But let me just remind you (and me)…

Our weight DOES NOT determine our worth. Let me say it louder for the people in the back…

OUR WEIGHT DOES NOT DETERMINE OUR WORTH!

Last thing here…

I found this life-changing program/audiobook the other day. I really feel in my soul that I found her for a reason. The audiobook is called “I Am Enough” and her program is also titled “I Am Enough.” Her name is Marisa Peer and you can visit her website at:

www.iamenough.com

Her philosophy is that all these things we struggle with, whether it’s weight, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, money blocks…they all stem from the fact that we feel we are not enough just as we are.

Welp, that’s it for the Contrave update. I’m excited to see where this all goes and I can’t wait to hear from you! If you have any interest in forming a support group of some kind centered around Contrave and these ideas, let me know by sending me an email to simplykatieann@hotmail.com. If there’s enough of you, I’ll get the ball rolling!

Learning to accept yourself and LOVE yourself unconditionally is a HUGE step. It has to come first. Start with some “I Am” affirmations (like the ones I did in this video). If you struggle, please reach out. I’d love to create a community here where we can support each other. It’s nice to know others out there REALLY get it.

(You can reach me via email at simplykatieann@hotmail.com)

And lastly, but certainly not least…