New Skinny Cow Ice cream in single servings!

I found something at the grocery store this week that I had to try. I like a little ice cream now and then. I don't eat a lot of it, and so buying the 1/2 gallon size doesn't make much sense...it always go bad before my son and I finish it. So I was happy to see that Skinny Cow has come out w/ little individual cups of ice cream. They are 150 calories, and the flavor I tried...Chocolate Fudge Brownie, was really good. It looks like just about one measuring cup full of ice cream.Very smooth and creamy. I would definitely buy more.

Great weigh-in this week. The scale at the new office showed I lost about 11 lbs these past two weeks. I am happy with that. But it is getting too confusing trying to figure out what I have really lost between the two scales, so I am going to go w/ my home scale. According to that scale, I weighed 365 on Monday morning. Just six weeks ago, I weighed 395 on my scale at home. So I have lost 30 lbs in the past six weeks. I am thrilled with that.

I really need to start exercising though. I think it will help to increase the weight loss, and I just need to do it to try and regain some of my endurance. I am going to start out walking on the treadmill for 15 min every day, and work my way up to 30 minutes daily. I know I can do this!! Exercise is always the harder part for me...I just hate it! It is a necessary evil though, so to the treadmill I must return. :) I can't wait for the day when I will be one of those people who love to exercise.

Rotten Weigh-In on Monday...

I was so looking forward to trying out the new office for my Monday weigh-in. The doctor I have been going to opened a new branch about 10 minutes from where I work. I can get there right after work on Mondays, instead of driving 45 minutes on Tuesday after work. Cool, right?? Not so cool. First of all, the scale at the new office weighs 6-7 lbs higher than the scale at the other office. Secondly, my doctor doesn't come to this office..someone else is there, and I felt he was too brusque, too quick, and just not interested. I knew I was going to be up on this weigh-in by one or two lbs anyway, because I had my period and was retaining water. However, when it showed that I weighed 382, I could not believe it!! My second weigh-in had showed that I lost 17 lbs. Now I am back to having lost 9. According to their scale anyway. In my heart, I know I have lost more. There is a lady who manned the front desk in the office who also works at the first place, and she confirmed that the scale is definitely 6-7 lbs heavier. She said she has weighed herself at one office, driven to the new office, weighed again, and is immediately 6-7 lbs heavier. Great. Oh well, now that I have the weight recorded there, I know I should show a drop next time I weigh there.

This past week I have noticed that I am getting hungry with the munchies at night. My first doctor had me taking the phentermine at 5:45 in the morning and then eating breakfast at 7:30 or so. (You have to take it on an empty stomach, either 2 hrs before eating, or 2 hrs after.) So yesterday, I decided to eat breakfast around 6:30, and then take the med around 8:30. It worked so much better for me! I was not that hungry for dinner, so I didn't eat that much, and then I had no desire for munchies at all later in the evening. Thankfully I was still able to get to sleep at a normal time, no problem. When I first started taking the med, I had a hard time falling asleep. But taking it later did not mess me up yesterday, whew!

Well, I have to go. We are taking an 85 year old friend out bowling today for her birthday. She is going to beat me terribly, I think. She belongs to a bowling league, and I only go about once a year! :) Have a great weekend everyone! :)

It's nice not to think about food constantly....

Today I stayed home from work. I did not feel well in the early morning hours - nauseated, and other GI issues from something I ate, I believe. I had picked up a frozen eggplant parmigan meal from Trader Joe's, and ate it last night, because it had good nutritional stats. I am not a big fan of eggplant, and while I was eating it, I thought it tasted a little funny, but blamed it on the eggplant. However, I think maybe something was "off".

Anyway, I was home today, and apparently missed a big luncheon at work put on by the PTA of our school, for the staff. I have been to these lunches before, and the PTA goes ALL out. Especially on the desserts - homemade cakes, pies, cheesecake, etc. It is a giant food fest. Ordinarily I look forward to these lunches, being a chunky girl who loves food, and so I would usually be bummed that I missed it. Amazingly, I had forgotten all about it, and my first thought when someone emailed me about it, lamenting that I had missed it, was "who cares?". Huh??! "Who cares?" WHO am I? I have never not cared about food. But the phentermine actually helps me to not think about it, crave it, plan about my next meal constantly, or really even care about it! It is wonderful. Don't worry, I still get hungry at meal times, and I am still eating....but it is like I am eating for fuel, not for fun. The way I always wished I would be.....

My nausea had disappeared by mid-morning, and I was able to eat breakfast and lunch with no problem. Tonight, I was taking my son to an arcade, and neither of us had eaten dinner yet. It was almost 6:30, and I have been trying not to eat too late at night. So I stopped and got a grilled chicken sandwich, and made myself eat it. So strange....yet so wonderful...to know that I am eating something healthy, because I am making sure my body gets the nutrition it needs. Previously I would have probably grabbed a meal from McDonalds, and finished off my son's fries in addition. I truly love not living for food while I am on this medication. It may just change my life forever. That's what I am praying for! Weigh-in next Monday. Can't wait to see it. My scale has not been working well lately, so it will be a big surprise! :)

I can say freely: "I love Phentermine"!

Yesterday was my two week check up since starting the phentermine. I stepped on the scale after work, and the doctor could not believe his eyes. I was down to 374....I had lost 17 lbs in two weeks. He kept acting like he had written it wrong my first visit, when I weighed 391. I laughed. "Surely you see other folks as big as I am who have lost that much in their first weigh-in after Phentermine..." The doctor denied it, saying usually he only sees a loss of 8-10 lbs at the most, even if it is someone my size. I was surprised. I wondered if many of those people had stopped eating, thereby slowing down their metabolism. I have been eating healthily....not really counting calories, but just eating lean protein and fruits and veggies. I eat when I am hungry, and at least eat Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, even if I am not hungry. I have even eaten a cupcake or two, and a piece of pie, but that is the exception, and not the rule.

I feel good. Though I don't feel the great push of energy I thought I might feel, I am not tired all the time either. I definitely need to start exercising too, but for right now, I am concentrating on taking a few more pounds off first, before hitting the old treadmill.

I am so happy with the weight loss. My BP was fine (some people say Phentermine raises Blood Pressure), but mine was lower than the first BP they had taken. I am sleeping well again, and do not really feel any negative side effects. I love this medicatin. I feel like it has corrected the inbalance in my brain that kept me craving things that added to my weight, instead of helping me to lose. I am so thankful that I tried it. And my prayer is that the effect continues, and I don't develop a tolerance to it, and become immune to the way it makes me feel right now. :)

One week later....

Well, I have been on the phentermine for one week now. It is definitely working. I love it. The phentermine takes away that desire to eat "just for the sake of eating". In fact, I have felt like a normal person in regards to food this week. For some reason, I have been able to stay on a healthy diet without eating foods that are bad for me either. Although I did give myself the "license" to eat whatever I wanted, without restriction. But when I have the unhealthy food in front of me, it just doesn't hold the appeal it usually does, and it is easy to pass it by.

I have often watched thin people eat until they were full and then push the plate away. That was a foreign thing to me. I always finished my plate. Always. This past week, there have been several times I left food on the plate. Just had no desire to eat more. I love the feeling. I am actually trying to count calories a little, just to make sure that I eat enough....I don't want to drop down below 1500 calories at this point, or my metabolism may suffer. So I am trying to figure it out, and am excited because I am intuitively eating right where I should be for weight loss, and I don't feel deprived or like I am spending forever in healthy food preparation and planning - or even thinking about food that much.

I weighed in today...one week since starting the phentermine. I was down 10 lbs on my scale. I cannot believe how easy it has seemed. The only drawback is that I am still not sleeping as well as I used to, but I have to admit, I don't feel tired the next day, which is nice. I definitely have more energy overall, and I am excited for my official weigh in on their scale next Tuesday!! :)

I've made my visit to the pill pusher.....

Okay, Tuesday was the day. I went to visit Dr.Rivas, and get started on my new weight loss plan - which involves Phentermine, an appetite suppressant. My first impressions were not the greatest. I did not get a feeling of personal caring from Dr. Rivas. He has probably seen so many thousands of overweight people, heard the same sob stories, and had to answer the same questions. But I was giving him my hard earned money ($130 to be exact, for this first visit), and for that I would like to see some sincere attention.

For the price of admission, you are given 2 weeks worth of the medication. I started it yesterday. The side effects have not been too bad. I did feel a little bit "off balance" for about 1/2 hour during the morning, but that went away quickly. I also had trouble sleeping, but did not feel tired today. On the plus side, I did not have much of an appetite yesterday! I definitely didn't think about food as much, and when I did, it was not as compelling as usual. Today was the same! I am really hopeful that this might work for me.

I am trying not to focus on being perfect with my food intake. In fact, I am not "dieting". I am going to try and choose healthy foods for the most part...lean proteins, veggies, fruits, etc. But I am also going to eat whatever I crave. Strangely enough, even with that "License", I did not feel like eating anything sweet yesterday or today. Which is very weird for me. There was cake all over the place at work today, and all I thought was: "Wow, before I would have had a piece of cake at least once, maybe even twice before the day was through." Instead, this morning I had to remind myself to eat a snack, and I didn't FEEL like finishing my yogurt. What? Me not finish something??? So bizarre. Amazing what one little pill can do.

I don't know how it will continue to work, but I am praying that it will still work for me, and I will not develop a resistance to it. I don't weigh in until 2 weeks from the start, and already I am hoping it will be a good number. It wasn't so great at my initial weigh in. 391. Yes, it is true. Sigh. I hope I never see that number again!

Uh Oh - I haven't posted in 19 days!

Hmmmm, perhaps I didn't post for 19 days because after one awesome week of eating right, I again found myself indulging in JUNK?! It is so hard for me to blog when I am not eating right. I greatly admire those who persevere and blog no matter what. You are my heroes!!

I have come to a decision though. One I am not making lightly, and one which I have researched deeply. I am going to lop off my right leg in an attempt to quickly lose 55 lbs or so. Wait - I am just joking. I wanted to say that first so that what I am really doing won't seem so bad. On Tuesday, I am going to a weight loss specialist. His name is Dr. Paul Rivas, and he has been on Good Morning America, as well as other TV shows. His method of helping people lose weight has to do with giving them an appetite suppressant, along w/ an antidepressant, to help change the chemicals in their brains and help them not want to eat all the time. That is what I long for. To have that "I want to eat a donut" thought just switched off!

If you google his name, you can find out a lot of information about his program. He has been fairly successful, and has been in the wgt loss business X 26 years. I have tried everything else..except surgery, and I don't want to go there. I am hoping that perhaps this method might work. I think it is at least worth a try. Has anyone else ever heard of him? Or taken Rx drugs to lose weight? It is not my preferred method of losing weight, but my other methods have left me at 390 lbs, so I think it is worth a try. I would love to hear your thoughts though...good and bad!