Competing as a bodybuilder taught Thalia LeBlanc a lot about how to work out and what to eat to achieve lean muscle. But maintaining a healthy weight overall has been a challenge since her teens. That’s when she first suspected that she had polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal disorder that can cause a wide range of symptoms, including weight gain, infertility and excess hair growth. PCOS was probably the reason why LeBlanc had to start shaving her face and struggled with her body image by age 15, she tells Yahoo Life. “I remember seeing Jessica Simpson on a magazine cover, and people were saying she was fat — she was like a size 6,” LeBlanc tells Yahoo LIfe. “I tried Atkins and crash diets — it was so trash. The early 2000s really did a number on us, but I didn’t feel like there was a solution other than eating less and working out more, like I’d heard all my life.”
By the time LeBlanc was in her late 20s, those strategies simply weren’t working. She gained additional weight during the pandemic, and training the same way she had for bodybuilding competitions didn’t move the needle on the scale. Then she got a formal diagnosis of PCOS and found out she was at high risk for diabetes.
So when someone at her local med spa asked if she had heard about a “skinny shot,” — as in weight loss injection drugs like Ozempic — LeBlanc was intrigued. Instead of quickly getting “skinny,” she has slowly and steadily seen her weight fall from 187 lbs. to 150 lbs. over the past year and a half with the help of GLP-1 medications. But her biggest wins haven’t been on the scale; they’ve been about attitude: getting comfortable in her skin and “not obsessing” over food or her figure.
For our new series “On My Weigh,” LeBlanc explains in her own words how she’s gone from crash diets to quieted cravings and seen food fixation fall away.
The weigh-in
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Name: Thalia LeBlanc
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Age: 33
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The method: Compounded tirzepatide, 7.5 milligrams, for about a year, compounded semaglutide for about five months before that
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The goal: I’m an ex-athlete who just happens to have PCOS going crazy on me. I was five-foot-nothing, 187 pounds, I had high cholesterol and I was one point away from being prediabetic. I was like, I need to get this under control.
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Progress report: I’ve lost 35 pounds slowly since I started my GLP-1 journey almost two years ago. I no longer obsess over my food, my weight or my exercise. This is revolutionary for me: My periods are back! Since I was 15, I would get maybe one or two periods a year. I’ve had my period every month this year. It’s the most periods I’ve had in my life, and I’m no longer even close to {being] prediabetic.
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Food noise volume: My food noise was between a nine and 10 sometimes. It was crazy. I would get plagued with feelings of hunger, wondering why I wanted to eat more, if I’m just lazy — it was constant. Now my food noise is probably a 2. That’s the most magical part: It removes that obsession of wanting to try new foods.
Day in the life
Rise and shine
I used to eat heavily at night and then wake up with headaches or feeling bloated. I would wake up with this ravenous hunger, and I’m a big breakfast-and-coffee girl.
But when you don’t have cravings, you can think more logically about the functionality of what you’re eating. So, I wake up, drink some water, take the supplements my doctor recommended for PCOS — vitamin D3, a multivitamin, omega 3 and 6, zinc and magnesium — and make a cup of coffee. Then I’m a little hungry.
1st bites
I make the same thing every day: a hash-brown patty and two boiled eggs with two slices of avocado, and sometimes I substitute oatmeal for the patty.
Get ready with me
Eating big meals at night would trickle down to how I felt getting dressed in the morning. As women, we often think, “This fits gross” or “I feel gross,” and you start talking crazy to yourself. When I was struggling with my weight, I missed out on opportunities — outings, vacations and content creation chances — because I was so overwhelmed by how I felt about myself. People who have never been overweight don’t understand. They’re like, “Just put on your clothes.” But you think everyone is going to be looking at you.
These days, I’m not wondering as much if things fit me right, and that’s a huge blessing. Now that I have a better body image, my mornings are a lot less emotional and that’s really impactful to my day. But it’s like the food noise: I’m just not thinking about it and obsessing over it. I haven’t even stepped on a scale in a few weeks, because it’s just not a big deal to me!
Make a move
I was a competitive bodybuilder in my early 20s. I had goals that were harder than just losing 10 or 15 pounds. But as I got older, I was doing the same things as when I was trying to compete in bodybuilding, and it just wasn’t working. My metabolic conditions, including PCOS, slow down my metabolism. The gym felt like such a big waste of time, effort and energy.
Now I’m like, “Bro!” My results from the gym are so much quicker. I can see it and feel it. I get 10,000 steps in every day. Having a dog helps immensely because I get about half of those steps from our walks. And I lift weights two or three times a week. I do the same routine: a full-body workout, then upper-body, then lower. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Let’s do lunch
I normally eat the equivalent of a Chipotle bowl for lunch. Sometimes I make it at home, [other times] I get it from Chipotle. I make sure to get some rice, chicken and vegetables because at night I usually don’t eat that heavily.
I was pretty deregulated before I started a GLP-1. I was DoorDashing [getting take-out meals] to save my life, eating out a lot and eating quite a bit of fast food. I’m Dominican, so sometimes I would cook things like chicken, rice and beans at the house.
Happy hour
A lot of my leisure time is spent at events and content creation opportunities. I would go to events and have drinks and think, “Where can I eat all the food?” As soon as I started taking a GLP-1, my body was like, “No, you cannot drink.” Or have fatty, fried foods.
When I first started on tirzepatide, I got really drunk at an event. I had never been so hung over. I threw up so many times. My brother, who’s in medical school, told me I shouldn’t drink on a GLP-1. Now I don’t drink as much at events. Those nights look like mocktails, and I’m reaching for things that are healthier in general, because I don’t want to feel crappy. And I don’t really miss it. It’s like you got a little lobotomy, for real. I don’t really care about food and drinks anymore — give me water and some fruit please.
Dinner bell
During the pandemic, my husband and I were trying to support the local businesses by ordering everything. And several tragedies hit our family. My dad was a doctor, and during the pandemic he passed away from COVID-19. Between emotional eating from grief, PCOS and just life, I gained 40 or 50 pounds.
Back then, we used to eat together all the time. But I was struggling with nighttime cravings and binging sweet and salty [foods] back and forth. These days, it’s a little bit of a battle with my husband. Sometimes he’s hungry and I’m just not. He’s Creole, so his family is always having crawfish boils and gumbo. He’s used to flavorful, tasty foods, and I’m over here eating like a rabbit.
I don’t want a big meal at night, so I try to find things that are just simple, like a premade Caesar salad pack and these chicken breast nuggets. I wash and plate the salad, put the chicken in the air fryer, cut it up and, bam! Food is ready in 15 minutes. I prioritize protein because the medication will eat your fat, but it’ll also eat your muscle. Sometimes he’ll eat what I’m having, and maybe I’ll make some sides for him, but more often than not he’s ordering [takeout]. Sometimes it can feel like you’re just not sitting down and eating together much.
Dose time
When you take your weekly shot, if you’re going to experience a little queasiness — especially if you’re going up in dose — you’ll feel it most in the first 24 hours. So, I try to take my shot at night so I can’t experience the symptoms, and in the morning I feel fine. I started on semaglutide and tried taking my shots in the morning, but I had worse side effects with it.
I was afraid to switch over to tirzepatide because I heard it worked better. So, I thought it must be stronger, and that must mean it has stronger side effects. But it turned out to be the opposite for me. A few hours after taking my shot now, I get a little queasy, and you can definitely get constipated. That’s why you need to have that fiber on lock. I take a supplement if I’m not getting enough because I’m not eating as much in general.
Let’s get the bill
At first I was paying $475 a month for semaglutide. I gave up doing my nails because it was [costing] like $200. You think about your priorities and sometimes you’ve got to rearrange that budget and I definitely did. Now, I’m getting paid to take it and talk about it because I influence for Mochi Health.
When it comes to grocery shopping, I buy fewer things now, but the stuff that I opt for is organic or healthier, and those things just tend to have a higher ticket price. I also shop less often and try to do bulk-buys at Costco.
We just did our expenses and we used to spend like $1,500 a month on DoorDash. We literally spent like $10,000 on eating out in a year — and that’s not even restaurants, just deliveries. That’s wild. We need to reel that back in because what could we have done with that $10,000?
Want to share your weight loss medication story for “On My Weigh”? Email heylifeeditors@yahooinc.com.