Moien, dear reader, and welcome back to the new season of your favourite parenting lifestyle podcast, Mom Life in Luxembourg! I have missed you! I have been working very hard to bring you this new season, which is shaping up to be largely about health and wellness. I am dedicated to helping you live your best life in the Grand Duchy and that includes your mental and physical health. As my Gen Z niece loves to tell me, “health is wealth!”
For our first episode, I wanted to discuss a topic that’s been all over the news recently, and that’s GLP-1s, otherwise known as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, etc. GLP1s are majorly on the rise in Luxembourg. While they’re still only approved for CNS reimbursement for Type 2 Diabetes, the new WHO guidance is that they can be used for weight loss, so I think it’s possible that one day they might be reimbursed here (fingers crossed!).
CNS reimbursement aside – if you’re looking for the real deal on how to get them here in Luxembourg, and what it’s really like to actually take them, you’ve come to the right place.
On this week’s Mom Life in Luxembourg, I sat down with Heather – a mom of two from the States, a former personal trainer, and brave soul willing to talk openly about her experience using Wegovy. The conversation turned into one of those raw, funny, slightly uncomfortable, incredibly real chats, and I am so grateful for her honesty.
The reality is a lot of us hit our forties and things that used to work just don’t anymore. The old formula of “eat less, move more” stops working. Hormones shift. Sleep goes sideways. Stress goes up. Life happens. For me personally, I gained about 10 pounds per kid. I have three kids. That’s thirty pounds. Yikes. But if you want to take the medication to help your weight loss, queue the judgement!
We can and should normalise that gaining weight in midlife is normal. Because it is! But let’s also normalize doing what you want with your body and your health, because after all, your body belongs to you and nobody else.
Many of us aren’t struggling due to lack of knowledge or access. We live in Luxembourg. We have access to healthy food. We have gyms and pools and hiking trails galore. This isn’t ignorance or lack of willpower – it’s biology, life stages, stress, and bodies changing in ways we didn’t sign up for. But yet, many of us are told to lose weight “the old fashioned way”.
Heather walked us through the real story – not the Oprah or Serena Williams version. The side effects. The trial and error. The fear. The logistics of actually getting a prescription here. The adjustments to eating, exercising, and figuring out how not to accidentally model weird food behavior for your kids. We also talk about the benefits she noticed not related to weight loss.
This episode does not offer medical advice. We are not doctors. Spoiler alert: you must do your own research, weigh the pros and cons, and decide if a GLP-1 is right for you. But if you’re looking for a non-celebrity, regular mom first person account of what it’s really like being on it, what the side effects are and practical tips on how to get a prescription in the Grand Duchy, this one is for you. No judgment. No endorsements. Just a couple of regular moms trying to navigate health, aging, and confidence in a world that has lots of opinions about it. And stay tuned for next week, when I bring in the fabulous Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RD/RDN), Diana Reid to talk about all things nutrition and exercise regarding GLP-1’s.
Please give it a listen and let me know what you think. If you want to comment on the show, or there’s a topic you’d like to see covered, please email me at momlife@rtltoday.lu, or you can reach me on FB, IG and my new favorite EU social media platform, Monnett @momlifeinluxembourg.
