Years of doctor visits, zero answers
Doctor after doctor. Every appointment ended the same: eat less, move more. I was already doing both. Nobody ran the right tests. I was dismissed year after year while the real problem went completely unaddressed.
I started doing my own research
I stopped waiting and started digging. Fasting insulin. HOMA-IR. Full hormone panels. The results told a completely different story: severe insulin resistance. The answer had been in the labs all along. Nobody had ordered those tests.
Metformin: bad side effects. Then a GLP-1 was recommended
The doctor's first move was metformin. The side effects hit me hard; it wasn't the right path for my body. Next: a GLP-1 medication. Clinically it made sense. But that opened an entire new chapter of barriers.
I tried all-natural options first
Before pharmaceuticals, I tried every evidence-backed natural option: inositol, D-chiro-inositol, berberine. These genuinely help many people. But for me, with the severity of my numbers, they moved the needle without getting me where I needed to be.
Insurance denied. Compounding too expensive.
Insurance denied the GLP-1 coverage. A compounding pharmacy existed, but the cost was completely out of reach. I had the diagnosis. I had medical reasoning from a licensed physician. And I had zero affordable access to the treatment that had been recommended to me.
I got robbed in the gray market
Out of desperation I found my way into the gray market: no community, no guidance, no idea who to trust. I got burned. Money gone. Fake or underdosed product. A painful lesson in why knowledge in this space is not optional. It is your only protection.
That's why I built my research and lab-report verification site, so you can check before you trust: ruivpndata.com ↗
Kind people changed everything
The right people came into my life: people who knew which sources were real, which communities were trustworthy, and how to do this more safely. They didn't have to help me. They just did. That freely given knowledge is what I want to pass forward to every person in the same position I was in.
About me
I was a nutritionist and a personal trainer.
I did everything right.
About me
- Years
- Of doctor visits
- 1 lab panel
- Showed the real cause
- PepFitCoach
- The resource I wish I'd had
Who I am
Nutritionist. Personal trainer. Someone who knew macros, programming and physiology better than most, and still couldn't figure out why my own body was failing to respond.
I am not a doctor. I am not a scientist. I am a person who was failed by the medical system and decided to stop waiting for an answer that was never coming.
The lab work nobody ordered
Standard physicals were fine. Standard bloodwork was "normal." What nobody ordered:
- Fasting insulin
- HOMA-IR
- Full hormone panel
- HbA1c
- Thyroid panel (free T3 / T4)
- Lipid NMR
Those tests revealed severe insulin resistance, the root cause of everything. It had been there for years, invisible to every doctor because nobody had looked.
Get the doctor letter for these labs →My recommendation: doctor first, always
Get your full blood panel. Ask your doctor directly: am I a good candidate for a GLP-1 medication?
Exhaust every covered option first. If you still end up in the gray market as a last resort, know the risks, tell your doctor what you are taking, and book a follow-up at 3 months. Let them see what is working. That is how you do this responsibly.
What is PepFitCoach
PepFitCoach is an educational resource that helps people use GLP-1 medicines and peptides more safely, get the right labs, and train and eat for their age.
You'll find plain-language guides to GLP-1s and peptides with honest evidence levels, how to read lab reports and testing (purity versus sterility, and what a certificate of analysis can and can't tell you), the difference between research-use products and FDA-approved medicines, doctor letters for the labs that get missed, and workout plans with animations for home or the gym.
Everything is for education. Research compounds are not represented as FDA-approved medicines or as products intended for human use.
I also run Verified Peptide Network (VPN), focused on lab-report (COA) verification and research education: ruivpndata.com ↗
What most people don't know
You can have a healthy weight, eat clean and train hard, and still have undiagnosed insulin resistance.
The system is built to treat symptoms and manage chronic disease, not to investigate root causes. If you aren't getting answers, the solution is better questions and better tests, not giving up.
This site is the resource I wish had existed.
Created by Said Kolenovic · ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer (2012) · Certified Hijama Practitioner
About me, Said Kolenovic
Too many people start a GLP-1 or peptides and get left on their own: losing muscle, fighting side effects, or hitting a plateau nobody explains.
ISSA-certified as a fitness trainer in 2012, and a certified hijama practitioner since 2017 with training in holistic health and wet cupping therapy, I turn the research into a plan you can actually follow: strength training for your age, Zone 2 cardio, protein and recovery, and labs you review with your doctor.
You, your doctor and me, on the same page. That's how this works.
- ISSA-certified trainer (2012)
- Certified hijama practitioner (2017)
- Works alongside your doctor
- Safety first, no guesswork doses
- Ages 18 to 80+, home or gym
