It started the moment the food noise turned off. I vividly remember standing in my kitchen and feeling the energy shift, like the air before a storm. It was so quiet it felt unreal, quiet enough to hear the metaphorical pin drop. I had been taking a GLP-1 medication and was trying to “get healthy” (again). The silence was so still that I genuinely wondered if I was having a stroke. I was terrified… and furious. Furious at myself for taking yet another risk to lose weight. Furious for “failing” again. And the self-talk kicked in:
“Here you go, Kim. Taking a diabetes medication to lose weight because you can’t control something as simple as food. You are so pathetic.”
But then I realized… I could hear myself think.
That was rare.
In that moment, I knew this was different. I felt something I’d never felt before: stillness. Quiet. Satisfaction. There was terror in that silence, yes, but there was power too. And I remember asking myself, “Am I going to squander this… or am I going to do everything I can?” I vowed to do everything I could. At the time, I think I thought “everything” just meant diet and exercise. But very quickly, it became about something bigger. It became what I could do for others who struggle like me. Though I am describing the dawn of my purpose, know I’m no saint. I’ve made about every mistake there is, but my intentions are pure. And I care deeply for those who struggle with this disease.
I needed to understand exactly what was happening in my brain and my body. And I needed to tell EVERYONE. Because I knew in that quiet moment, viscerally, it wasn’t my fault. That’s how The Plus SideZ was born.
If you’re new here, I’m Kim. I’m an obesity care advocate and the host of The Plus SideZ Podcast, an education and advocacy show about obesity, metabolic disease, and GLP-1 medications. My podcast features people from the GLP-1 community who share their stories, and I pair them with leading doctors in the field of obesity who validate those experiences with facts, science, and data. In just 2.5 years, the podcast has won four awards and is ranked in the top 1% of podcasts worldwide by Listen Notes.
My story is different in that I am no one, yet I am everyone. Because to me, that’s obesity. It knows no bounds. I lived with obesity for the majority of my adult life. And from the outside looking in, I was incredibly blessed: an amazing family, a great career, wonderful friends. But it never felt like enough, because I couldn’t control something as “simple” as food.
This is my first Substack article. Here, I’m going to tell you about the birth of a movement and how a marginalized community rose up and said: “It’s not our fault.”
I hope you’ll subscribe to follow along.