766: The Weight You Lose Isn't Always the Biggest Transformation: The Part of GLP-1s Nobody Talks About with Dr. Alexandra Sowa

What if the hardest part of living with obesity was never actually the weight?

For so many women, it's the years of dieting, judgment, doctor's appointments, body comments, weight stigma, and quietly believing that if they could finally lose the weight, then they could start living.

And when the weight finally does come off?

The emotional transformation doesn't necessarily happen at the same speed.

In this deeply compassionate conversation, Dr. Mariza sits down with double board-certified internal medicine and obesity medicine physician Dr. Alexandra Sowa to explore the side of GLP-1 medications that almost nobody is talking about: what happens after they start working.

Dr. Sowa has spent 15 years treating obesity and was one of the earliest physicians using GLP-1 medications for obesity management. She explains why medication can be an extraordinary tool while still being only one piece of a much bigger healing process.

Together, they unpack what happens when your body changes faster than your identity, why compliments about weight loss can unexpectedly trigger grief or shame, and how decades of weight stigma and childhood experiences can continue influencing the way you see yourself long after the number on the scale changes.

They also explore the surprising ways GLP-1s can change relationships, friendships, food preferences, social routines, and even the amount of mental space women have available when constant food noise begins to quiet.

Dr. Sowa shares the foundational practices she uses with her own patients, including logging food and feelings without obsessively tracking calories, prioritizing protein, meeting yourself where you are with movement, preserving muscle, and doing the deeper emotional work when trauma begins to surface.

And for women in midlife, they tackle an especially important conversation: why changing hormones and metabolic health deserve to be taken seriously instead of dismissed as laziness or lack of willpower.

Because losing weight can change your health, your mobility, and your life.

But the greatest transformation may be the freedom to finally stop organizing your entire life around your weight.