We want the grind of champions with the effort of couch potatoes
Yesterday I came across an article about Weight Watchers on the brink of bankruptcy. It seems that Weight Watchers has a debt of over 1,5 billion dollars. These bad results are for a large part because of people losing weight through means like Ozempic.
The first question that formed in my brain was: Would I take Ozempic for my weight loss journey or not? And the answer that immediately followed was… Nope.
Side effects
Modern goals: binge at midnight, detox by morning, and be Zen by noon
The next thing I did was look up all the side effects of Ozempic. And my reaction was basically: uhh… Yikes?
Nausea. Vomiting. Diarrhea. Stomach aches. Constipation. Acid reflux. Pancreatitis. Gallstones. Kidney problems. Depression. And a few more… Let that sink in.
That sounds insane compared to the daily grind of changing your diet. I started my weight loss journey a little over two months ago.
I’ve been struggling with my weight since my early twenties. Over the years, I’ve yo-yoed between 92 kg and 122 kg — never really finding a sustainable balance. At one point, I went from 108 kg down to 92 and managed to keep it off for over two years. But after an injury, things slowly went south again.
And in the last three years, the yo-yo effect only went upward — fluctuating between 108 and 122 kg.
Definitely not healthy.
Journey
We demand instant results from habits we never built
I changed the following five items:
- Sleep more, and more consistently;
- Train three times a week for at least an hour;
- Skip all unnecessary calories in drinks (including alcohol);
- Track what I eat, count calories, and monitor my macros;
- Eat more yogurt so I don’t get hungry.
It may sound like I changed a lot. But I actually just eat normally: Breakfast, lunch, dinner — sometimes a banana before hitting the gym, and a protein shake after training. That’s it.
And since starting my journey, I’ve lost over 6 kg — or burned an extra 42,000 kcal.
And my choice of words is deliberate: this is not a project — it’s a journey. A journey I’m on for the rest of my life. Changing my food intake is doing the work. Ozempic? That feels like cheating — with a long list of side effects as a bonus.
Ozempic doesn’t just feel like cheating — it is cheating. The moment you hit your project goal and stop using it, the lost weight will likely come back quickly. Because the eating habits? They probably never changed in the first place.
And changing your eating habits is key!
The Valve!
Why digest calories when you can outsource the consequences?
By making it deliberately absurd, you start to see just how messed up it really is.
Introducing: The Valve™ For those who want to binge without the bulge. Simply install our patented gastric bypass bypass: a fictional valve just above the stomach. Craving chips? Open The Valve™ — and watch the calories collect neatly in a side-mounted disposable snack bag.
Time to digest? Close the valve.
Eat consciously. Rejoin humanity.
Ask your doctor if The Valve™ is right for you.
Insane
Sounds insane, right? But this is exactly where we’ve ended up as a society.
We want to indulge like kings, look like athletes, and feel like monks — all at once, and preferably overnight.
We all want to eat. We’re encouraged to eat — especially the highly refined stuff. Most commercials are aimed squarely at ultra-processed food. And food companies? They’re masters at engineering the perfect bliss point — that addictive balance of fat, sugar, and salt that keeps you coming back for more.
And I’m not immune to it either. How do you think I ended up with a BMI of over 30?
So on one end, we have a highly fucked-up industry feeding us ultra-processed food. And on the other, we have Big Pharma selling us products like Ozempic to clean up the mess. And when you quit Ozempic, you fall right back into “normal eating” — which means you’re back to square one. So guess what?
And repeat.
Determination
We crave cheat days, six-packs, and inner peace — preferably before lunch
That realization alone infuriates me. But it also fuels me. More than ever, I’m determined to reach a healthier version of myself by the end of this year.
Losing weight is hard. Just consider this: every kilo of fat equals roughly 7,000 kcal of stored energy. That means 10 kilos is 70,000 kcal.
And the journey I’m on? It’s 175,000 kcal — or 25 kilograms of excess fat I’m determined to burn off.
With a weekly deficit of 3,500 kcal (that’s 500 kcal a day), it’ll take me about 50 weeks to burn off that excess fat. Sounds like an eternity, right? But honestly — it’s just the reverse of how I ended up with the extra weight in the first place.
And for most of us, it really is that simple. Excess kcal — especially from carbohydrates — gets stored as fat. Create a deficit, and that same fat will slowly burn away.
The grind
We want to be fit, focused, and flexible — but without sweating, starving, or stretching.
We have to do the work ourselves.
What we put in our mouths, how much we exercise, how much we walk, how well we sleep — it all matters. In the short and long term, this is so much healthier than relying on products like Ozempic.
Am I a saint? Do I have all the answers? Nope.
Not even close. I’ll probably cheat somewhere down the line. But this time. I’m determined to get there.
And why will I succeed this time?
Because I know this approach works. I’m losing weight. I’m not hungry. And I feel fantastic — without all the side effects people using Ozempic may have to deal with.
Are you also on a similar journey?
Brain out.
It boils down to: We want instant gratification, which is impossible