Braunwyn Windham-Spinner on Reclaiming Life with Semaglutides & Enhance.MD

The number on the scale obviously does not define one’s happiness or self-worth, though it can certainly help with self-image. And Real Housewives of Orange County alum Braunwyn Windham-Spinner can attest to that. Woman’s World spoke with the reality star on her weight loss journey — with the aid of a semaglutide like Ozempic — which she obtained through online pharmacy Enhance.MD. She explains why “it’s so freeing.”

“I realized through this journey — the amount of time that I was spending giving power to food — was taking up so much mental capacity that I didn’t even know I was wasting,” Braunwyn tells us. “The mental health aspect of this was one that I had not really even thought about.”

Although Braunwyn is thrilled with her body now, she — like many women of her time — has experienced body image struggles. Braunwyn explains that growing up in the 90s and toxic mantras like Kate Moss’ “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” negatively impacted her self-image. In high school, she details hours spent analyzing her reflection in the mirror, before eventually turning to bulimia.

“That continued until I got pregnant with my first baby,” she says. “The second I got pregnant with Bella, I gave it up.”

She was eventually prescribed fen-phen (a weight loss drug that is now illegal) and was harmful to Braunwyn, who has been open about her past alcoholism and addiction struggles. But when Braunwyn hit her 40s and became pre-menopausal, she realized she had gone up three sizes and wasn’t bouncing back.

“I realized I was gaining weight that I couldn’t take off. Normally I could button down on my calorie intake, and I would just drop that extra few pounds I had gained, and I couldn’t… I kept putting it back on,” she says. “I was working out more and that wasn’t helping — and I had been under a lot of stress — so I knew that my cortisol levels were probably high.”

Braunwyn posted about her latest weight struggles to social media, and was contacted by reps from virtual pharmacy, Enhance.MD. After hearing her story, they recommended she try Enhance.MD’s generic compounded semaglutide (as opposed to a name-brand medication such as Ozempic). And although her partner, Jennifer Spinner, initially voiced concern over side effects, Braunwyn was eager to give it a go for a month — and to report back honestly to her hundreds of thousands of followers.

I have always been very transparent with my followers on Instagram. So if it doesn’t work or the side effects are horrible, I’m going to be honest about it.

Braunwyn says the Enhance.MD prescription process was simple. She started out by completing an intake quiz and meeting with one of Enhance.MD’s providers. She then went to a lab for blood work, and obtained a prescription for the company’s generic compounded semaglutide. Altogether, she says it took about five weeks, and though her insurance doesn’t cover GLP-1s for weight loss, it only costs her about $220 per month. And with that, she’s also cut back on other costs.

“I think from a cost perspective, I’m probably saving a couple $100 every month just on my going out to eat bills,” she says. “I would get a salad and appetizer and entree — now I’m like, ‘oh, I’ll have a salad and appetizer.’ Even with my coffee — if you’re going to Starbucks twice a day, you’ll probably only go once.”

In the first six weeks of using the compounded semaglutide, Braunwyn says she lost 20 pounds. And it wasn’t before long that the 5’3″ reality star made it to her goal weight. Now she’s in the maintenance phase, however, and eventually plans to taper off entirely. “My long term plan is that this will be a tool I will utilize for the rest of my life if I need it,” she says.

The first week was rough for Braunwyn — although doctors warned her about nausea and constipation, she ignored the tips. But when it was impacting her family vacation to Florida, she reached out to Enhance.MD’s customer care. Doctors there provided her with helpful tips, and the side effects subsided almost immediately.

“[Per their recommendation] I now take magnesium glycinate at night. This helps me go to the bathroom every day,” she says. “I’ve learned to eat high protein snacks throughout the day, because in the very beginning, I didn’t have an appetite. And once I started following the rules that I’d initially ignored, the nausea went away, and I was back to going to the bathroom regularly.”

Before semaglutides, Braunwyn was already relatively consistent with clean eating and exercise. But her success has made clean eating and exercise feel like more of a desire than an obligation.

“I obviously eat less now, and I don’t eat for my emotions,” she explains. “I would eat if I was sad or stressed. Now I don’t do that. It’s me not trying to eat healthier — it’s me wanting to eat healthier. I’m also working out even more and lifting more weights. When you can see the results, you’re inclined to do it more.”

Of course, internet trolls try to take her down. But Braunwyn has garnered tremendous support from much of the Real Housewives community: “There’s people like Tamara from Orange County who aren’t for it. But they are still very supportive of the fact that it worked for me,” she explains. “I mean, Tamara works out non-stop and eats clean. But she realized that didn’t work for me, and instead of shaming me, she supported me. And there’s sort of a beauty in that too.”

Braunwyn acknowledges that GLP-1s aren’t for everybody. However, she stresses that taking a semaglutide from Enhance.MD has been incredibly positive for her mental state: “I would like everyone to know is that there’s a lot of misinformation out there. So do your own research and see if it’s right for you,” she says. “Or else I would have missed out on something that’s been one of the best gifts I’ve given myself.

Source: Woman’s World