My body gave up on me after pregnancy. Then I heard Oprah talk about weight loss drugs.

It took a long time for Amina Barnes to conceive a second child, and one pregnancy ended in miscarriage. When she became pregnant again, “I didn’t want to work out because I was scared I was going to lose [the baby],” Barnes tells Yahoo. She also developed preeclampsia, a serious, pregnancy-related form of high blood pressure that affects between 5% and 8% of births in the U.S. The condition is even more common among Black women like Barnes.

While on bed rest to try to prevent her blood pressure from rising, Barnes gained weight. By the time her son Arlo was born — weighing about 5 pounds and arriving around a month early — she was “not in a good health position.” Her pregnancy had “completely changed the game — my body felt like it gave up on me,” Barnes, who has a 10-year-old daughter in addition to a now-3-year-old Arlo, says.

After giving birth, Barnes’s blood pressure and cholesterol were still high and, with her family history of diabetes, hypertension, obesity-related cancers and heart disease, “I knew what was coming for me if I didn’t make some sort of change.” And change, she did: For a full year, Barnes adopted a low-carb diet and started exercising regularly. She lost 25 pounds, but she still had a body mass index (BMI) of 30, which is considered obese, and her cholesterol remained elevated.

Then she heard Oprah talking about taking weight loss medication. Barnes’s insurance wouldn’t cover a name-brand drug, but she found a provider to prescribe her compounded semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic. “I felt the effects of the medication right away,” she says. In this edition of Yahoo’s On My Weigh series, Barnes tells in her own words what it’s like to be a self-described “hyper-responder” to the drug that’s fueled her reinvention. On a GLP-1, she says, “You feel like you drank the lucky potion.”

The weigh-in

Day in the Life

Rise and shine

Before being on a GLP-1, my sleep quality was very poor. I was restless throughout the night. As far as my get-up-and-go? I felt very low energy. I was always trying to catch up with my day. Postpartum, you feel like you’re carrying a lot: having kids, working full-time — it’s a lot of weight on you, including the literal weight. I would try to keep to a normal routine, but everything felt like a struggle. I knew I could do the things I needed to, but it felt harder than it used to — especially after the second child. It just rocks your body. I always say each child takes a little more from you.

And now, I get up at 4:30 a.m. to drive 25 minutes to the gym. My mind is so much more clearer and focused, and I feel like I have more time because I’m not constantly thinking about having to eat, or whether I’m going to fit into a dress for an upcoming event.

Make a move

I lost 25 pounds through diet and exercise before starting semaglutide, and would do a couple of days a week of resistance training and cardio. When I first started my GLP-1, I took a little break from working out while my body acclimated to the education.

Since then, semaglutide has upped my fitness game by thousands. Today I did a 5 a.m. workout. I never could do that in my life — not ever, not once! I can’t believe those words are coming out of my mouth! Who are you? I think to myself. I started going to the gym early because I wanted to get it over with. But being on a GLP-1 has awakened so much tenacity and resilience in me. I’m now able to build the muscle and reach the body composition I always aimed for. I am the fittest I’ve been in my entire life, and I have the body I always wanted, but never thought I’d have.

First bites

Before starting on semaglutide, I probably would have had sugary cereal or oatmeal for breakfast around 10 a.m. or 11 a.m.

I still sometimes have oatmeal; I just don’t add a lot of sugar since starting a GLP-1. And since I get up earlier, I eat earlier in the mornings. I try to start with a protein — an omelet, fried eggs or protein shake — around the time I work out. Mid-morning, I’ll have a snack, like fruit or yogurt.

Get ready with me

Getting ready in the morning was always a bit of a struggle. It was hard to get up and get going. And because I work remotely as an operations manager for a pro bono law firm, I wouldn’t get fully dressed for the day or put on makeup.

Now I get up early and make an effort to make myself feel put together. I do think it makes a difference — you look good, you feel good! Plus, now I get to wear the fun clothes I bought. My style has evolved, too. Before, I always covered myself up. I never wore shorts in the summertime, always wore long sleeves and I was especially self-conscious of my stomach after having kids. So I never had the experience of dressing being fun; I dreaded it. Now I’m excited to get dressed and styled.

After taking a GLP-1, losing weight and getting active, you really enjoy the body you’re in. Before this process, I’d never had the experience of feeling like I didn’t want to look like someone else. I always wanted someone else’s thighs, or something else about them. But now I don’t. I want to look like me.

Dose time

I take my injections on a Tuesday or Wednesday. I like for it to hit by the weekend because that’s usually when I have more varied drinking and eating. On shot days, I drink one to two glasses of water with electrolytes, have a protein shake and take the shot right before bed. When I wake up, I do the same thing — water, electrolytes, protein shake — and make sure to eat small meals throughout the day.

When I was first starting out, I had nausea, fatigue and dehydration and didn’t know how to regulate my blood sugar. But I learned I needed to eat and have protein every few meals and take electrolytes because the medication flushes out your system. I had some constipation at first, too, but now I’m good as long as I take probiotics and prebiotics. Now, I’m no longer in active weight loss and am just trying to maintain my current size, so I space my doses out by about 10 days to two weeks, rather than taking them weekly.

But food noise is something I will have for the rest of my life, so I plan on staying on a GLP-1 indefinitely. Oprah spoke to a doctor at Yale who talked about obesity being a disease. It’s not something you just get rid of when you lose weight because it’s caused by your genetics, the environment you grew up in and your metabolic profile.

Let’s do lunch

Before taking semaglutide, I’d often have fast food for lunch. I’d typically grab something quick — a burger, a sandwich, Chinese food, junk food types of things — because I felt like I had such limited time.

Now that I have a routine of eating whole foods down, it’s easier. I know I need just half of a turkey sandwich with a little bit of fruit and maybe a little pasta salad — and that’s good! I’m just more conscious of the food groups I need and want to eat.

Happy hour

I feel like I’m just as social now as I ever was. But I can make more mindful choices with food and drinks when I’m at events or outings. I trust myself to have a cocktail or to eat outside of my routine because I know that I can stop when I’m full. It’s like having your skinny friend’s brain. They can eat a little bit of everything when you’re out to dinner and then have a couple of bites of dessert. In the past, I’d be like, “What are you talking about? I can clear that plate and then clear those other plates, then go home and clear some more.”

Being on a GLP-1 has helped me not only lose weight, but gain perspective on how I want to spend my time and who I want to spend it with. I’ve dropped the weight of people in my life who don’t need to be there. It’s having a positive effect on my kids, too. We do a lot more family walks with our puppy and are mindful of getting out of the house. My 10-year-old daughter comes with me to the gym and goes to the kids’ club. She’s in more physical activities than I was because, just like me, she’s probably going to struggle with obesity. I know now how to be a positive role model of being active, moving our bodies and making mindful choices around food. Plus, I just have more energy to keep up with her and my 3-year–old son — and I need it, because they are crazy!

I took my daughter to New York City for her birthday, and we did so many things. I wondered, Could I have experienced this with her three years ago? I truly don’t think so. It’s nice to feel more present and actively engaged as a parent.

Dinner bell

These days, we try to eat earlier in the evening so that I can let my food digest because, on a GLP-1, it sits in my stomach longer. I always make sure we have some fruits or vegetables. But I eat the same things that my family does: Burgers with no buns, spaghetti or tacos.

We used to eat more processed food, like fast food or stir fry or a frozen pizza. I’m now very conscious of eating raw food, and I like to try new foods because it makes it easier to eat healthy. I save tons of one-pot or one-pan meals to Pinterest. But the main difference is that my portions are healthy now.

Let’s get the bill

My gym membership costs $200 a month, but that’s never going to change because I love my gym. Plus it has a daycare, so it’s a family expense. I pay about $300 to $400 a month for compounded semaglutide. But it kind of balances out because I used to spend a lot on dining out, DoorDash and alcohol. What I’m saving by not doing those things covers about half the cost of my medication. And, I like to think that the other half of the cost is covered by those future medical bills that won’t be there.

What’s more, whatever the cost may be, my health — not to mention the mental and emotional health improvements I’ve seen — is worth the investment.