I thought it was just middle age.

I'm Craig.

At fifty-two I was on seven medications for Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and weight that wouldn't shift. I thought I was just getting older.

I started the Feel Great protocol. Within eleven months I was down seven stone and off all seven medications. Four years later I'm still maintaining — fitter at fifty-six than I was at forty-five.

I fixed the insulin resistance underneath it.

What I was missing was insulin resistance.

Insulin is the hormone that decides whether the food you eat gets burned or stored. Eat carbs and sugar all day, every day, for twenty or thirty years, and your body stops listening to it. Insulin stays high, fat storage stays switched on, and no amount of willpower gets round it.

That's why it feels like middle age. The weight, the crashes at three in the afternoon, the cravings that arrive whether you want them or not, the broken sleep, the numbers creeping the wrong way at the doctor's. It isn't laziness and it isn't age. It's a hormone problem.

Nobody explained that to me for four and a half years on medication. Once I understood it, the fix was simple: give your body long enough between meals to let insulin drop, and support it while you do. That's all the Feel Great protocol does — and it's why the weight came off and stayed off.

Insulin resistance explained, plus a quick self-check →

Are you on a GLP-1 medication?

Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, or one of the microdosed versions. If you are, no judgement from me — they work, and for a lot of people they've been the first thing that ever did.

So how do you see it ending?

That's the question almost nobody gets asked. Are you on it for life? Are you tapering off at some point? And when you do come off, what's actually going to hold the weight where it is — because the insulin resistance underneath it hasn't gone anywhere. The injection was managing your appetite. It wasn't fixing the metabolism.

That's the gap I can help with. The Feel Great protocol works on the same thing from the other direction — slowing how fast sugar hits your blood, stretching the gap between meals, keeping cravings manageable so you're not white-knuckling it. It's food-based, you can stay on it indefinitely, and it costs a fraction of what a monthly prescription does.

I'm not telling you to stop your medication — that's between you and your doctor. I'm saying have a plan for afterwards, and start it before you need it.

What happens when you come off Wegovy or Ozempic →

Message me and I'll send you the simple version.

No pressure, no pitch. I'll tell you what I did, answer your questions, and help you work out if it's even the right thing for you.

— Craig

Want the full story?

• Insulin resistance explained — symptoms, causes and a quick self-check
• After Wegovy or Ozempic: what happens when you come off
• All articles →