Non-Scale Victories, Community, And Hope: Mike's Story

We share Mike’s journey with GLP-1 therapy, from fear and stigma to non-scale victories that restored health, identity, and relationships. We unpack how quieting food noise, lowering inflammation, and finding credible guidance create sustainable change.

• redefining success beyond the scale
• early wins from reduced inflammation and food noise
• practical non-scale victories in movement and daily life
• using TikTok to document progress and build support
• connecting beginners with credible, data-informed voices
• clarifying side effects and the value of trained clinicians
• identity shifts, confidence, and stronger relationships
• forgiveness toward self and food to heal patterns
• building a care team for long-term metabolic health

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Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 0:00

Welcome to the Modern Metabolic Health Podcast with your host, Dr. Lindsay Olville, Board Certified Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine Physician. Here we learn how we can treat and prevent modern metabolic conditions such as diabetes, PCOS, fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, and more. We focus on optimizing lifestyle while utilizing safe and effective medical treatment. Please remember that while I am a physician, I am not your physician. Everything discussed here is provided as general medical knowledge and not direct medical advice. Please talk to your doctor about what is best for you. I created this YouTube channel to spread more education about obesity medicine and its treatment options. And through this journey, I have met many amazing people. And I have one of those people here today, Mike, and we met on TikTok. And I am so excited to have him share a little bit more about his story and what he's doing on social media to advocate for the community. So I'll have him introduce himself and then we're going to talk about some non-scale victories today.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Thank you so much, Dr. Ogle. So my name's Mike. Mike Donnelly Boylan. I have been on Monjaro for 14 months. And it's been a, it's been quite the journey because right before I got on this, I had become completely hopeless. I was starting to sort of plan for not living anymore. I assumed that my weight had gotten so large and that my health conditions were so out of control that I wouldn't be here. And a year later, I'm 100 pounds down. So I'm a 51-year-old male from Boston who lives here with my husband. And yeah, I've been on quite the journey through TikTok and now some advocacy work here as well. Happy to talk about all of it.

Beyond Weight: What GLP-1s Change

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 2:03

Yeah, yeah. I can't wait to get into it. And thank you for just, I really respect how vulnerable you are with sharing your story because not many people do. And I think it's so helpful to educate others about the power of GLP1 medications and how life-changing and life-saving that they are, because there's can be a lot of negative press out there, and many people are nervous about these medications. And I really think it's great to highlight real patient stories and how these medications have impacted your life on a day-to-day basis and long term.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yeah, no, it there's so much negative stuff out there. And it's like, you know, you hear all you hear about is side effects. And I always say the one side effect that I got was I got my life back. That's the side effect that actually matters in all us.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 2:54

Yeah, yeah. And I remember that post that touched me so much. Um, and so why are GLP ones more than about the number on a scale? Uh I think people think about, you know, GLP ones is weight loss medications right now. Um, but there's so much more than that. We know that. Um, but I love to hear your perspective on that.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Yeah, I mean, the media loves to tell us that they're the skinny shot, right? That it's all about the weight. And it's actually, you know, we've all dieted. People who have the disease of obesity probably know more about losing weight than anyone else because we've lost a million pounds and we've also gained a million pounds. And um, what's different this time is it's about your metabolic health, right? It's about my metabolic health. It's it's finally regulating things in a way that it's not about a diet, it's about being able to make the lifestyle changes that I've always wanted to make. And, you know, it's easy to focus on the scale because that's the most easy thing to look at in your house every day. But the things that are most amazing are for me, it's my blood work. Like it's my blood work and it's the ability to do things that I've not been able to do and be present in my life in ways that I never have been before. Um, so yeah, it's it's it's a total mind game. Um, as much as it's about a scale, right? I mean, we all want to focus on the scale because that's what we've been taught by diet culture to focus on. Uh, but there's so much more to it than that.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 4:22

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And were you surprised by some of the non-scale victories that you achieved?

Non-Scale Victories In Daily Life

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Oh, absolutely. Um, it's funny, I was just thinking about this the other day. Uh it was only a couple months in uh that I ended up hiking the rim of the Grand Canyon, and I couldn't walk two blocks uh without being in excruciating pain two months earlier. Um, you know, I you know, I find myself right now randomly looking down and realizing my legs are crossed. Like I couldn't cross my legs at that point 14 months ago, and I hadn't done it for years and years and years. I only took the elevator at work. Um and anywhere I went, I would take an elevator. Uh just if I could avoid stairs at all costs, I would. And now in the beginning, I had to fight fight my brain, which assumed it had to go in an elevator and get on the stairs, even when it could. And now I find myself just on the stairs, um, just walking stairs, and I'll see an elevator while I'm on there and just like my mind explodes. Um, there's so many little things like that that just constantly happen on a day-to-day basis where my body's capable of doing things and my brain is still just catching up, which is kind of wild to think about, right? Um I think one of the craziest things about these medications is when the food noise, the the when you take these medications, oftentimes what happens is you lose sort of this noise in your head that's constantly calling out for food. And when that quiets, I think you have a lot more time to even realize how many things your body is doing and so many different things that you just couldn't think of before. But one of them I've noticed is I'm constantly noticing things that I don't think I would have ever had the time or space in my brain to notice. And a lot of those are non-scale victories.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 6:07

Yeah, that's amazing. And I think it is so interesting that your body is just, you know, making those changes and you know being more active naturally and you don't even have to think about it. That's that's so uh so interesting and fascinating. And um I I do uh have a couple of follow-up questions of you know what you just said as well. Um I'm curious when you notice that you have some of these non-scale victories, do you take the time to, I guess, like catalog it or celebrate it or like acknowledge it along the way? Or are you kind of getting almost used to having these changes? And I'm just curious what you do.

Celebrating Wins And Mindset Shifts

SPEAKER_00 6:51

So from the very beginning of this, the way I've processed things is instead of keeping a diary, I keep a TikTok account, right? So um oftentimes I just turn the camera on and talk about what just happened. And so I think I probably think about them even more than most people just because it's content sometimes. Um but I'm constantly celebrating them because for me, those are the things that actually matter. I'm much more present in my life generally. Um, there's this uh I have an hour commute to work every day, and at the middle point in my commute, there's a rest area. And I use, I stop into the rest area all the time to use the restroom, and I look at this curb at this rest area, and it is like I wish I I it it was like my barrier in life. Every I noticed when I got as big as I did because I'd have to think about stepping on and off that curb very gingerly. And when I see that curb now, it's still like my nemesis. I see it and I still panic. So there's I feel like I'm constantly thinking about these things. And, you know, um, I think the celebrating of those things is half the battle because I'm at the 14 month point in my journey. And, you know, the first eight months, six, eight months for a lot of people, including me, we're like the honeymoon period where things just sort of melt off. And I'm past that period. Now it's, you know, every week or two weeks I lose another pound, pound and a half. Um, and that's not the rush that the scale once gave me. And so, but it's the little things like tonight, literally tonight, I went into the bedroom and I grabbed a pair of jeans to put them on and they were snug. And I was like, what jeans are these? What this is crazy. Um, they were my husband's jeans. Um, they were three sizes down from what I thought I was. Um, granted, it's Lucky Brand and they're more but it's like even in those moments, I immediately grabbed my phone and sent a picture to him. I'm like, this is crazy. I'm in a 36-inch jeans. I started in a 52-inch pair of jeans waist size when this started. Um little victories are what makes the um makes this part of the journey, anyways, a lot easier.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 8:56

Yeah. And what kind of response do you get on social media when you share these non-scale victories?

Community, Advocacy, And Fighting Misinformation

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Um, I get a lot of response. Um, you you know, you you said in the beginning that I'm I can be vulnerable. And for whatever reason, um I seem to have no shame about showing emotion on on camera. And so uh yeah, it's it's been really helpful and supportive for me in my journey to sort of have people in my corner. But at the beginning, it was about getting people to help support me on my journey, and now it's really about using those things to help other people sort of see themselves in that and to celebrate their own victories, if that makes sense.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 9:33

Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. And I think that's a great, you know, utilization of TikTok and social media.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Um it's been a lot of fun.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 9:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

I I'm a very public person in some ways with my career and my job. And the fact that I'm doing it publicly still is kind of crazy, but it's um it's opened up a whole new side of myself at 51 that I didn't expect to find.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 9:57

Yeah, so fun. And I do really appreciate also how you um introduce new, I guess, like members in the community. So if somebody um posts that they're starting on a GLP one, you are quick to you know promote them and point them in the direction of people who are going to support them, whether that that is other patients on their journey and they can share, you know, tips and tricks along the way, or doctors like myself who can help with medical knowledge, or you know, dietitians or anybody um you that's wonderful that you can, you know, point people in the direction because there is a lot of noise out there that may not be the best to listen to. And so you've already kind of um, you know, waded through the waters and found the people that can be supportive in the journey. And I think that that is extremely helpful.

Side Effects Reality And Bigger Life

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Yeah, I mean, I have this very lucky gift of a platform that I don't know why I have this platform. I I'm I have more followers, and not that I have a million followers or something, but I have a large a large following compared to a lot of people I know. And I feel like I should use that to leverage it and give back what I got in the beginning, which was if I can help people get that level of support who are earnestly trying to get out there and build, build um a community, I want to help. And honestly, um I'm a big believer in the doctors and the medical professionals that are on TikTok correcting misinformation like you. And thank you for what you do. Um and so I like to try and connect that because so much of what my first part of this journey on TikTok was finding people that uh were teaching me all sorts of things that were not uh data informed, um, they weren't data driven at all. Um, and so I was, you know, looking, I got obsessed at one point in my first couple of weeks with maybe I should be injecting in my inner thigh, because apparently the doctors don't tell you this, but that's where you get your least side effects. Not true at all. And so very quickly, um, I started following so many of the doctors on TikTok and uh have become, I think, their biggest cheerleader and trying to connect people to good information because what scares me the most is some of the peer-to-peer information that can be shared on TikTok or YouTube or any one of the social media channels that is um, you know, not good. It's not good information. It's not medically sound and it's not been peer-reviewed.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 12:24

Yeah, yeah. It can be can be really dangerous to, you know, have some of that misinformation out there. And I I definitely feel uh a responsibility, a sense of responsibility to kind of step in and share some accurate information. Um it's not something that I expected to be doing either, to be as vocal on social media as I have been this past year or so. Um, but it's it's been fun, and I think it isn't it is important for us to you know share that information. Um what has been your biggest surprise on a GLP one?

SPEAKER_00 13:02

I think it's been the lack of side effects. Um that, you know, I came to TikTok literally searching GLP, not Majaro in my case, Majaro side effects, right? I had type 2 diabetes, I was on Majaro, and um that was my fear. I mean, the box sat in my fridge for a few weeks, even after I got it, um, because I was so frightened of all of the things that you hear. Um and the side effects that I've gotten are minimal at best. I've had some mild constipation. I've um gosh, that's about all that I've had. Uh and the reality is the side effects that I see them are all the things that are positively happening to me in my life. And as I said, reclaiming my life, right? My world has gotten so much bigger on these medications. Um you know, one of the things that I think most surprised me though was um I didn't realize how imbalanced my relationship had become as a result of my weight. Um and, you know, there's this moment I've talked about before where my hot we my hot water heater exploded downstairs. And um my husband and I were down in the basement with the the wet dry vac trying to get this all under control. And there was a moment where we just looked at each other and we had this moment where we both realized that, you know, three or four, five months earlier, I there's no chance I would have been downstairs helping. I would have been upstairs, he would have done all the physical labor. Um, you know, I would never go down when the door rang, doorbell rang. We're on a third floor walk-up. So it's a and they're these the house is old and the stairs are really steep. Um, and so all of these things I never would have carried up, the packages or the suitcases or anything like that. And our marriage had become a situation where he was taking on a significant amount of the physical piece, and it hadn't even occurred to me until the inflammation went away, um, until the GLP one sort of showed me what I was capable of that I almost realized what those deficits were. And I think it's one of the nicest things that's nicest things that's happened as part of this journey.

Identity, Confidence, And Capability

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 15:11

Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, thanks for sharing. And I'm I'm assuming that, you know, leading up to that point, it was kind of a gradual change and a gradual, like I guess, regression of activity that you were were doing. Um, so it was not as noticeable to you, um, like you were, like you're saying. And you said you've been on Montreal for 14 months, and that's not that long of a time to have such a big change in your lifestyle. And you were saying you were seeing these differences even, you know, as short as two months in, which is that's just so remarkable to me that you know it was years before, and then now we're on the time frame of months to really being able to turn that around.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Well, the thing is, I think we again we always focus on the weight loss. But one of the most amazing parts of these medications that's not talked about enough is the how it takes down the inflammation in your body. So I couldn't put in the work to do workouts because of the inflammation. It's like a chicken and the egg scenario. And once that inflammation comes down, which is partly in how you're starting to be able to lose weight, but once that inflammation goes down, your body becomes capable of things it wasn't before. So my weight, my weight gain was gradual, but I looked recently and I was 330 um pounds in 20 uh just before the pandemic started, like February of 2020. Um I got to 372. Um, and that's only 40 pounds. And that, you know, that probably had an impact, but also I've carried a lot of weight my entire life, but I crossed that 50 Rubicon, and your body's just less capable of doing things as you get older. And the combination of the age and that I think was a pretty major factor.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 16:58

How has that changed your self-identity?

SPEAKER_00 17:03

That's a great question. Um I see myself now as someone who strength trains. Um I see myself as someone who's capable. Um I've been very successful in almost every single thing I've done in life. Um the one thing that I really failed at consistently was weight gain. Um and that sometimes is the hardest thing to not be too good at when you're doing well at everything else, but it's the thing you physically carry in front of you, which then carries more stigma and all of these kinds of things. So yeah, my identity has um completely changed because as successful as I was, I still felt like a public failure. Um and I don't see myself that way anymore. And that's that's that's really big.

Clinical Guidance And Better Outcomes

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 17:54

Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Sorry. Oh no, you're yeah, you're totally fine. And yeah, that's what I was kind of thinking is like when you're able to, I guess, yeah, like contribute more in your relationship and at the household and be more active in your life. I mean, you you see yourself in a different light than you did previously. And that has to just build so much more confidence in yourself and in your relationship and your capabilities, even though, like you said before, I mean, you've always been a successful person. Um, but this is just, you know, putting an exclamation point to it and you know, adding it onto the day-to-day.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

It completely does. And I think it's how I've turned into like an event evangelist for these medications, right? Like once you understand not the magic of them, because they're not magical themselves, they're a magical tool. And if you use that tool, you can do that. And once you know that and once you see it, it's hard not to want to tell lots of folks about it.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 18:59

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because I guess going back to the concerns about the side effects, I hear that all the time where patients are like, they'll come to me and you know, want help for weight management or their metabolic health, but they'll say it right away, like, I don't want to try a GLP one. I'm too worried about the side effects, or all these bad things can happen to me because that's what they've heard. Or you hear on social media or in the news about all the negative side effects and how severe they can be. But in my practice and when I talk to fellow obesity medicine doctors, we don't really see significant side effects. And it's because um, I think it's because we are trained in how to use these medications um most appropriately and can help you know prevent the development of the side effects, because there are definitely things that you can do to prevent them from ever happening. Or if they do come up, we can help troubleshoot it compared to if you're going to a provider who doesn't have that training and you know, just getting a prescription and not getting a lot of education on how to um optimize the medicine, then you're gonna have a very different experience for the most part.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

100%. The the work that you as doctors and other medical professionals do on here in TikTok is so important. My my doctor handed me the prescription. And when I asked for advice on what to do, he sent me to the American Dia uh American Diabetes Society's website. That was what he did, right? He didn't have the background in these medications to help me. Um and so I've had to patch together a care team uh in order to be successful, and I've used social media to do that. Um and, you know, people are afraid of side effects because they don't, there's not enough trained obesity medicine certified doctors out there in order to really help people be guided through these journeys. The numbers are changing, um, and the numbers of primary care doctors who are familiar are growing, but it's still a major crisis for people starting these medications. And I think that is exactly, as you said, why people fear these medications right now.

Forgiveness, Food, And Healing

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 21:08

Yeah, yeah. Um well, this has all been great, and I know we could talk for a very long time, um, and maybe we'll have to continue the conversation another day. Um but I do want to end on a question about forgiveness and how has forgiveness uh played a role in your health journey.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Forgiveness, I think, is the hardest part on this journey. Um when I started, I was really angry at myself. I was angry I had let myself get to this point. I was angry that I let us order Uber Eats every night and that it was pizza and Chinese and Thai, and it was that was my fault. Um no one had ever said to me that obesity was a disease, right? No one had ever said to me that if they give you this medication, which has been out for a few years at this point. Uh, that craving in your brain would go away, and you'll realize that that wasn't your fault. Um, and so a good chunk of the first six months of this journey was allowing myself forgiveness. Um, there's a great sort of peer-to-peer run support group on TikTok and on um YouTube run by Sabrina Ramos. Um, it's every Friday, every other Friday night. And that became instrumental to me in sort of getting my mindset to where it needed to go in order to accept that it wasn't my fault. And I also had to forgive food. Like I look I love pizza, like I love pizza. Um, but I didn't touch a traditional slice of pizza for a good 10 months um because I was mad at it. I was mad at the food. I would the to me, the food was still intrinsically bad. Um, and there was this moment where I was in New Haven, Connecticut, and it's one of the pizza capitals of the country, and I was going out uh with friends, and I allowed myself to finally have a piece of pizza. Um, and it was sort of mind-blowing as I got to this pie and I had two slices of one of the best pizzas in the United States. And I was like, okay, I've enjoyed that and I'm good. And I walked away, and you know what? The next day, the scale actually went down. Um, and I think that was a the start of me forgiving not just myself, but food. I think it's both, for me, it was both. It was both forgiving myself and then eventually saying it's not the food's fault either.

Building A Support Team

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 23:39

Wow. Well, that's incredible. Thank you for sharing, and I think that really highlights the fact that it is not just the medication. Like you said, the medication is very powerful and it can be life-changing, but it's not going to be just taking a medication and then, you know, all the the world's gonna, you know, become roses and daisies. It is there's a lot of work along the way, too, and a lot of self-image and self-worth work and relationship with food, relationship with others. Uh, there's there's a lot of other layers that are going on during this process. And our GLP1 medications are a tool in that process. Um, I think community support groups, individual therapy, um, you know, maybe a dietitian, maybe a trainer, um an obesity medicine doctor, primary care doctor, you know, surrounding yourself with a team that is going to support you is so important for your health and well-being and sustainability and your treatment and your health, you know, long term.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Agreed 100%.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 24:55

Yeah. Well, this was amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your story.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Yes, and if you're looking to follow me, I am Mike.onamission2 at TikTok and here on YouTube as well.

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 25:09

Yeah, highly recommend, and I'll include those links below. Um, and have a great night. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Thank you, Dr. Ogle.

Links, Thanks, And Closing

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD 25:21

Thank you for listening and learning how you can improve your metabolic health in this modern world. If you found this information helpful, please share with a friend, family member, or colleague. We need to do all we can to combat the dangerous misinformation that is out there. Please subscribe and write a review. This will help others find the podcast so they may also improve their metabolic health. I look forward to our conversation next week.