And away we go…
The first month I was at a low dose (standard) to allow my body and myself to get acclimated to the medication and for me to practice listening to my body and get in practice of getting in that 90 grams of protein, 90 ounces of water, and 30 grams of fiber. I focused on fiber more in my second month, but I was getting some fiber in that first month.
My first month’s experience was positive, well, past the first few hours. Ha ha.
I experienced the reduction to a completely gone ‘food noise,’ you know what I am talking about, you are not hungry, but you feel you should be eating. That was loud for me from 10 am, after I had already had breakfast and it would continue through lunch until 2-3 pm. Every. Single. Day. It always ended with no reason at all, whether I would eat or not, and that is when I would finally feel more focused on tasks without that nagging distraction of wanting to eat. The medication really shut that off. I started to think… Wow! Is this how everyone else feels, no food noise all morning/afternoon long? 100% focused on tasks? I could not believe what I had been handling all these years. I was floored!
I was told that if I was a stress eater, that I could experience that when I stressed my brain/body would not know what to do and that I could experience a feeling of something being off, and I needed to learn to identify that and find an outlet for stress, so once I am off the medication I do not slip back into eating when stressed. That would be the same if you were a boredom eater, or emotional eater. Whatever feeling or situation might give you the thought of needing to eat, when you do not need to. I am a combination of boredom, and overthinking eater.
The second thing I noticed in that first month was inflammation, slowly but surely my inflammation was going away, a little at time. I had an old injury to my shin that always had a bump/inflammation, on some days it would be bigger than others, rounding out my 4th week, I noticed it was gone, completely gone. I am 3 months in now and it is still gone. Another inflammation area was on my wrist, it was gone, and that joint slight discomfort was gone. I used to have to massage my wrist some weeks to have that discomfort relieved. Other little random aches, I would have to guess from inflammation… all gone!
Month one, I did have weight loss, but I was so distracted by the inflammation reduction, I didn’t notice. However, in month 2, it was noticeable. My clothes were fitting better, much better. When I weighed in, seeing the scale, I was so motivated to continue, because I was finally having some results for my efforts.
I do mean efforts, as I said before, there is no magic wand. You do have to put in some effort. Increasing my water intake and protein was a big one for me. Watching your protein, you really do notice what you are eating. It makes you think about what is on your plate without really thinking about the details of what is on your plate. Does that make sense?
Month two was my eye-opening month of realizing how my body was really doing prior to my decision. Let’s just say not bad, but not good. You know what? It was the best decision I made for myself, and as always with most decisions… I wished I had started sooner.
I have no time for regrets… just time to make small changes and move forward. And I am, one meal at a time and one day at a time.
