Sunday, June 16, 2024

It's Father's Day and DH just got up after sleeping an extra hour. We were out late last night, not getting to sleep until midnight. Good thing we don't have anything strenuous planned for the day.

Yesterday was a good day catching up with DD. She inherited a home from her Aunt last fall and is about ready to sell it. It took a long time to get ready as the aunt was a hoarder. DD ended up hiring a woman to sort through everything and work with DD to determine what to do with it all. It wasn't dirty and a lot of the stuff was high quality (like unworn Prada shoes still in the box), but the house was so full that they were surprised to find out that the spare bedroom had twin size beds in it. The house hadn't been properly maintained over the years though so whoever buys it is likely to tear it down and rebuild. The house is on the water in Cape Cod so the land is worth quite a lot but there are many liens that have to be resolved which would make it very difficult for DD to retain it.

In the midst of talking about her sale, we did a little bit of real estate research in the area (which is really the same area as my home is located). I was surprised to see how quickly homes are selling and for how much. I thought my friend/realtor was being overly optimistic when I talked to her at Christmas but maybe not. I do have a slight fear that the best offer will involve me vacating the house before younger DD's wedding at the end of September. For the right deal, I suppose I could get out and rent another home for that time, but I really want to stay in mine until mid-October.

We will go to breakfast in a bit and tonight are going to a restaurant on a pier with live music. Should be fun though I don't think we will stay out too late twice in a row, especially since we are going sailing/snorkeling early tomorrow morning.

I expect DH's children will check in with him over the day. I know he'd especially love a call from his son who is living overseas for the next few years.

Not much else to report. Have a susurrous Sunday!

I'm reading an article in the Wall Street Journal titled "Ozempic Fuels Hunt for Smaller Clothes". Amazing enough are trying them to move the needle! A few snippets.

"While blockbuster drugs like Ozempic that lead to significant weight loss have dented demand for diet plans and caused food companies to prepare for people eating less, clothing sellers are finding that millions of slimmed-down Americans want to buy new clothes.

The newly svelte aren't just restocking their wardrobes, many are also gravitating to more body-hugging shapes and risqué designs, according to industry executives and shoppers. Some brands are responding by replacing zippers with adjustable corsets and adding more sheer looks.

The nascent downsizing is happening across brands and types of garments. Industry executives said that they can't be certain weight-loss medicine is the cause, but added that the shift is unlike anything they have seen. It is also an about-face from recent years, when many retailers rushed to add larger sizes to accommodate Americans' growing girth."

"Sales of the three largest sizes of women's button-down shirts fell 10.9% in the first three months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2022 at a dozen brands, according to Impact Analytics, which helps retailers manage their inventory and size allocations.

Sales of those same button-down shirts in the three smallest sizes grew 12.1% over that period. Impact Analytics analyzed purchases in physical stores located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It focused its research on this area because it has the highest concentration of individuals in New York City taking these drugs specifically for weight loss, according to market research firm Trilliant Health.

A similar trend played out for women's dresses and sweaters, as well as men's polo shirts, sweatshirts and T-shirts, according to Impact Analytics.

Prashant Agrawal, Impact Analytics' founder and CEO, said it wasn't possible to know if the size changes resulted from people losing weight or a shift in clothing styles, but added that such a pronounced shift is unusual. "It's not something we've seen before," he said.

Some executives are worried that the shift could reduce demand for plus-size clothes.

"I'm trying to figure out what we have to worry about in the future," said Doug Wood, the chief executive of clothing retailer Tommy Bahama, noting that as more people lose weight it could hurt sales of its "Big & Tall" collection designed for very large men."

My scale woosh has stopped. It was a fun slide! 193.6 today (up 0.4). I usually step on the scale before I go to bed so the morning weigh-in isn't a sad surprise. Funny how we are all different about the scale! I don't want to miss anything so I look often! Except when I'm ostriching. So me not weighing often is a red flag.

Yesterday was hair color (my hairdresser is blown away by the weight loss. She sees me every 3 or so weeks, so it's like time-lapse photography). My friend stopped by to drop something off and stayed for a visit. And I went to the drugstore for a few things.

Today I have no set plans. Some vacuuming would be good...

That's all from Sedona! Have a great day!

I'm not sure one can attribute all these shifts to weight loss drugs. Even though most of us in our highly motivated group are using them, when I assess all the other people I know there are very, very few trying them. That includes not only my generation but the next one down. When people ask how I lost weight recently, a large number have never heard of the glp-1 medications and the next largest number are afraid of them for a variety of reasons (fear of needles, fear of side-effects, fear of cost, fear of not wanting to eat their favorite things).

When I stop weighing (at least once a week), I am almost always on the way up on the scale - truly ostriching.

Could be people losing Covid lockdown weight since they were comparing 2022 to 2024 in parts. But Eli Lilly was getting nearly 100k NEW prescriptions a week EACH for Mounjaro and in March. And Wegovy and Ozempic were each around 75k a week. And the compounding pharmacies are swamped. Plus Med Spas... And all those people have friends and family watching and asking questions. So half a million plus new prescriptions a week across the board adds up quickly. Then Oprah and Hollywood stars like Kelly Clarkson have gotten the word out. Wouldn't surprise me! Maybe less have heard of them among the Medicare cohort unless they can afford to pay out of pocket? Though it seems to be in every magazine or newspaper everyday, so it's surprising people have never heard of it!

The Medicare contingent has validity, but both DH's children and most of mine seem to be of different minds than these folks. Younger DD is trying it because of me. And DH's DD has a close friend who has lost weight successfully with these medications but no one in their family will touch the stuff even though most of them have significant excess weight. Of course these same people think bariatric surgery is extreme.

Maybe it depends on where people live (so who their peers are)? Perhaps people are more interested in either following Oprah or getting into those smaller clothes in some environments than others? That actually makes some sense to me.

151.4

Interesting article.
I'm wondering just what those 3 largest and 3 smallest sizes are? Poking around "retail industry women's shirt/clothing sizes" the manufacturers sizing range is all over the charts. Several top sizes stopped at 4x, some at 5x and I know that I saw 6x when I was a 5x and wondered just what I was going to wear when I got too big for the 6x at the rate I was heading. Same for the smaller sizes- anything from x small to X-Large or 1x (which is the same size, but proportioned differently.

And, which retailers did they get the sales dataset from? We all know how a size medium is not a medium some where else and may well go both ways, small to large depending on the clothing brand.

And, again, I'm thinking that a great many of those people who are using the meds for weight loss who think they are going to keep that weight off with out permanently changing their diet and go off the meds as a maintenance tool are going to have a huge awakening when the hunger and pounds come bouncing back with a vengeance.

Those of us that have had WLS and then battled regain are lucky in that we know any weight loss tool can be "eaten around" and manipulated and hopefully we will no longer find ourselves falling down the same hole again. Cannot loose the weight and keep it off if the plan is to lose and then go back to eating the way you used to before the loss. ( I'm preaching to myself, here who has twice done just that.)

The whole point for me is the ability, no matter what, maintenance is the key, and I foresee an uptick in larger sized sales increasing in the future.

Almost at 150!!!

Interesting article. Thankfully I have closets full of clothes from size zero to size 12. I was up to an 18 W at my highest weight but those clothes are long gone! I can shop from my own closets for a bit! ?

I love closet shopping!

C.C., what an interesting article about the clothing sizes people are buying. I've got to believe the fashion industry has to have some pretty good analytics for inventory control, so SOMETHING is causing this downturn in size!

I am now down to a half dose of semaglutide. I know it will probably take a few weeks to stabilize that level in my body, but I hope that's where I can land for maintenance. I'm going to see how I do, and then decide whether I want to try to switch to tirz to see if it lessens the side effects. (I'm hoping the smaller dose will do that, too!) I take my shot on Friday. This morning I decided to have a late breakfast (I'm NOT usually a breakfast eater, but I am trying to get in more protein). I made a poached egg on half an English muffin and couldn't fini**** Amazing!

My DH is taking a little Father's Day nap. We had a friend staying here for the last few days, so I think we're just going to putter a bit today!

L