My doctor turned me down 6 times when I asked about weight loss drugs. I fought until I got them.
Joie Armstrong's life looked pretty good — at least on paper. A loving husband of nearly 20 years. Six kids. The freedom to focus on her family as a stay-at-home mom. Between picking up and dropping off kids at school, soccer practice or ballet, she'd make frequent stops for pick-me-ups: popcorn, Wendy's lemonade, a Cinnabon.
'I was free to follow my own ambitions, but I wasn't happy,' she tells Yahoo Life. 'I felt very solo. I was in this place where everything felt OK, or like it should be, but on the inside, you consistently have sad days.' Armstrong weighed 277 pounds and woke up most days in pain and still exhausted. Her attempts at the old-fashioned 'eat less, move more' strategies hadn't paid off.
Armstrong asked her doctor about GLP-1 medications. But the former theater teacher says she was turned down as many as six times. And, when she finally did get a prescription, she was denied insurance coverage and started to consider bariatric surgery instead.
Then, during an April 2024 trip to New York City, Armstrong suffered a severe allergic reaction to something. She'd had bad allergies and asthma her entire life (her mother used to call hospitals in places they were planning to visit when she was a kid, to warn them her daughter would likely be coming in). But this time, Armstrong had to be placed in the intensive care unit. After her health scare, Armstrong decided she couldn't wait to get insurance coverage for GLP-1s, and bought her first order of compounded tirzepatide. She wasn't sure that it would help with her allergies, but she knew the number on her scale was 'probably too much weight for most Americans to carry,' she says. 'And I'm only 5 feet tall, so it was just way too much for my knees, my back and most of all, my heart.'
It's been nearly a year since Armstrong took her first injection (she's since switched to Eli Lilly's Zepbound). Not only has she lost significant weight, but she's rediscovering herself. 'The GLP-1 has really helped me to reclaim my confidence,' she says, adding that she's taking 'steps toward being the woman I want to be.' For Yahoo's On My Weigh series, Armstrong shares how starting on the medication 'freed up space to examine, 'Joie, you take care of everyone else, but how are you taking care of yourself?'' Read on to see how she's now prioritizing her 'only Earth suit.'
Name: Joie Armstrong
Age: 40
The method: Tirzepatide, 15 milligrams
The goal: I just wanted to wake up and not feel out of breath and in pain and to be able to exercise again — simple, basic life things. I was always tired, my mobility was starting to be affected by my weight and I was just feeling worn out, lonely and consistently sad and depressed. I was just kind of ready to feel better.
Progress report: I've lost a total of about 87 pounds. I'm now 190 pounds. I'm being more active and my knee, hip and foot pain are pretty much nonexistent. One positive side effect I didn't expect: Tirzepatide seems to have helped a lot with my allergies and asthma!
Within about eight weeks of starting tirzepatide, I started to feel like myself. Weight loss is no longer the main ambition; it's just to be healthier and to have a better overall sense of well-being. Even if I don't lose any more weight, I feel like myself.
Food noise volume: My food noise volume used to be between an 8 and a 10. But around four to six weeks after starting medication, it dropped to about a 4. I remember just looking up one day and being like, Did I eat today? I have so many things I can do in life now because I'm not constantly thinking about where I can stop to get food or a treat.
Prior to starting tirzepatide, I always overslept. I was just tired all the time and it seemed like I couldn't get enough rest. The worst part about being an obese person is waking up in the morning — not because you don't want to live, but because you're just still so tired and sleepy, wondering, What did I do last night, if I didn't get any rest?
About four weeks into taking the medication, I realized I was getting up in the morning. Now, I typically wake up with the sun. It's so unique. When I wake up, nothing is hurting. I'm able to get some things done in the hour or two before the rest of my house wakes up. I just feel free.
I used to wake up thinking about getting a cinnamon bun or my favorite vegan chocolate chip cookies from Insomnia Cookies. And I used to have coffee first thing, but now I only have it in the morning three times a week or so. I'm such a boring eater now! I typically have two eggs, boiled, scrambled or fried. If I didn't eat enough the day before, I might have three eggs, with sliced tomatoes or some other vegetable and some kind of protein. I like to get the protein in right away.
The kids get toaster waffles or pancakes and sausage. I don't force them into eating how I eat now, but the options I give them now are a little cleaner than they used to be.
I used to be so tired when I woke up, or when my kids would have to wake me up, like, 'Mom, I gotta go to school, we're late.' I would just dress myself quickly in whatever was clean and start going, and sometimes I wouldn't stop until later that night. Now that I've made more time for myself in the mornings, I love taking care of my skin and taking a nice, relaxing shower. I have a whole skin care routine now that includes a cleanser, a moisturizer and something with some collagen because loose skin is a big thing for people on GLP-1s. So I'm using products that help keep my skin youthful and rejuvenated and help it retain its firmness. Sometimes I do that in the mornings, but I love doing my skin routine at night.
When it comes to dressing, my taste in clothing is just not the same as it was before losing weight. For example, I used to wear clothes with a lot of ruffles all over them, because I thought that was more flattering to my body. But I just don't look forward to putting on something like that anymore.
I feel a lot freer in my body and less cognizant of my undergarments. As an obese woman, you try to keep everything together by wearing Spanx or what the ladies of old would call a girdle, or a waist trainer. My whole life, I've only worn one brand of bras, and it's almost time for me to go looking for some new ones. I'm looking forward to having a bigger selection of undergarments to choose from, now that I don't have the same needs as I did when I was in a bigger body. I'm still a big online shopper, but it's nice to be able to go into the store and try on a size large, rather than going through the whole rack praying there's a size 2X. That has been a really significant and heartwarming part of this journey.
I usually take my shot in my stomach, though recently I've started trying it in my arm, just because it's a little easier to access. But, generally, I'm a stomach girlie. I feel like I recognize my limits better when I take the shot in my stomach. There are lots of tips about 'pregaming' for shot day, and you can do things to reduce injection site irritation, like using an ice pack and rubbing some Benadryl on the spot.
Sometimes, while your body is adjusting to the medication, it can make you feel tired. If I feel tired on shot day or a couple of days afterward, I've learned that it's OK to lie down and take a nap.
I typically don't have much for lunch. If I do eat something, it's often a salad with a protein, like some precooked, presliced deli meats from the big-box stores. Or I'll add some smoked salmon, chunks of chicken breast or some Angus beef. Whatever I can grab and heat up easily!
I actually started working out before I began taking tirzepatide. Before GLP-1s, obesity was just seen as a lazy man's disease. So, you were always told, 'Just eat less and do more.' Back in my 20s, when I moved more and ate less, I would lose weight. But it wasn't the same later in life. At 39, I started going to the gym again. I went every other day or every day for about eight weeks. I lost around 4 pounds. And it was just so discouraging to not be losing much weight, and my knees and lower back were hurting every morning.
In August of 2024, four weeks after I'd started tirzepatide, I realized I was recognizing things that had gone undone around my house. I would think, I should organize that drawer, or I should clean out that closet. I noticed I had the energy to do those things. I decided to weigh myself, and I'd lost 7 pounds. I was in shock. I hadn't gone to the gym or changed how I ate yet. I couldn't believe it, and it just gave me such enthusiasm and motivation to keep going.
Now that I'm feeling better, I've started doing weighted walks, where you wear a weighted vest, once or twice a week. It's an especially good way for women over 40 to do some strength training. Walking is good for your heart health, but when you add the weighted vest, it turns it into strength training! My husband enjoys joining me for walks too, and I've noticed a lot of my neighbors are also walking lately. I also try to do some strength training three times a week.
Aside from the occasional celebratory drink, I don't really drink. Plus, I've heard that alcohol and GLP-1s clash, so I mostly steer clear.
As far as my social life goes, I'm still relatively new to the Dallas area, and I can't say that I've made a ton of friends. But, since starting tirzepatide, I've been a lot less apprehensive about initiating new relationships or just inviting people to do recreational things.
I'm also looking forward to an adult camp I signed up for in August, Camp Social, in New York. It's an overnight camp for women who are age 30 and up and want to make new friends. I'm so looking forward to meeting some new ladies there and at a local meet and greet. I feel like I'm getting back to the essence of who I truly am, without the weight and stress that I was carrying in a bigger body. Now that food is not something that I am constantly wrestling with, I have felt like I have more time for friends and a social life. And, of course, my spouse is a very good friend to me. We were friends long before we were married.
I think I've become more aware of which of my relationships were draining me and which ones are fueling me. Before starting a GLP-1, I had relationships with some people who I believed loved me, but I was constantly giving. When I was more obese, that was just what I did to have friendship. Now, I don't want to have to perform or only focus on the other person for us to be friends. I want to be myself! I now see a therapist every two weeks, and they helped me understand that weight loss as significant as mine is a huge change, and people who are not on this journey with you don't change that quickly. So, I have to be more patient and tolerant, but trust that people love me.
Now, I usually eat the same thing for dinner that I had for lunch. Told you, I'm a boring eater! The most significant change in me and my life since I started a GLP-1 is how I think about food. When you're obese, you lead with your cravings. But I know from studying my entire dieting life, and trying keto and the like, that your body is an engine. Now, I prioritize protein so I can just be a constant fat burner.
I do have children, so I probably still do 80% of the cooking for dinner. I rotate things like spaghetti and hamburgers. I always try to include a meat, two to three fruits or vegetables, and some kind of starch, like rice, pasta or a bun. I used to make fun of women who bought presliced fruit trays, but now those are my best friends!
I still lead with what tastes good — maybe some tacos or fried pork chops — when planning dinners, but without cravings, it's a whole new world! Once a week, we eat out somewhere that has a drive-through or that's easy to pick up from. It's part of the culture of raising a family in America, I think. Five days a week, dinner is up to me, but once a week, we're having whatever the colonel — Colonel Sanders! — is frying up. But now we make healthier choices at those places. We go to Salata, where you can pick a protein to go with your salad, or Chick-fil-A, where we can get high-protein meals. And my mom cooks Sunday dinner for us.
My food budget has declined dramatically. I order my groceries online and know what I'm going to order, so I don't impulse buy. I only go into the grocery store if I want to get those extra steps in. I figure, OK, I'll push that big heavy cart around and get some steps around the store.
When you're a busy family, you're typically buying food on the go, but you're also buying groceries. So you're essentially buying double the food. I'm not doing that so much anymore. It really helps to make room in your budget for GLP-1s. My advice for people whose insurance maybe doesn't cover 100% of the medication and who feel like they can't afford it: Go back and look at how much money you spent in the last three months on just being in that drive-through. You can almost guarantee that you're already spending the money anyway — maybe more! — because the drive-through is not cheap.
My budget has probably been cut down by 35%. My husband loves that because he hated seeing all those transactions on our account all the time. It feels good to be able to have the self-control to drive right past the cinnamon bun place or the grocery store with my favorite dill pickle popcorn or Sriracha-something. I don't have those cravings anymore, so if I decide to have it, I just have it, and then I'm finished.
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