I’ve never been “fat fat.” But I’ve absolutely battled: 🍪 Snacking 🍕 Overeating 🌙 Late-night food noise Last year I decided I wanted something different. I set a goal: 📸 Get into ridiculous shape and do a photo shoot. 🥗 Phase 1 — Hard Dieting (Before Reta) I dieted hard for 2 months. Lost about 10 lbs. But I was: 😩 Suffering 🍽 Constantly thinking about food 💭 Fighting cravings 📉 Nowhere near the shape I was chasing It felt like white-knuckling every day. 🧪 Phase 2 — Enter Retatrutide I had been deep into research on peptides and retatrutide specifically. So I said… Why not. ❌ Mistake #1 — Starting at 4mg Don’t do that. It felt like I had eaten two Thanksgiving dinners… And someone told me to eat again. For 3 straight days. It’s hard to describe — just extreme fullness. Food was the last thing I could imagine. 🔄 Week 2 — 2mg Much better. ✔️ Eating clean ✔️ Still getting 4 meals per day ✔️ ZERO food noise ✔️ Night snacking gone ✔️ Energy levels strong This was huge for me. The mental freedom was insane. 🔥 Week 3 — 2mg Again Easy week. Workouts strong. Meals on track. Down another 2 lbs. This is when I realized this wasn’t just appetite suppression — it was control. 🎯 Week 4 — Back to 4mg (Sweet Spot) This is where everything dialed in. 4mg became my perfect dose. I never went higher. I got: ✅ Full appetite control ✅ No side effects ✅ Stable energy ✅ Clear head And something weird happened… Food that used to feel bland? Suddenly tasted amazing. My diet became: 🍗 Chicken 🥩 Lean ground beef 🍚 Rice 🥦 Broccoli (And yes… mustard on everything 😂) I wasn’t forcing it anymore. 📸 8 Weeks — Photo Shoot Ready After 8 weeks, I hit the shape I was chasing. The shoot went amazing. But it felt… anti-climactic. So I did something wild. At 48 years old. One year removed from a heart attack. I entered my first bodybuilding show. 🏆 12 Weeks Total — Show Day Another 4 weeks at 4mg. Another 4 weeks of clean eating. I hit my all-time best condition.