Amazingly, I’m down 7.1 pounds since starting this drug a mere 15 days ago. I have not experienced consistent weight loss over this period of time in….honestly, I don’t even remember? Sure, I’m not one of those people who has somehow lost 20+ pounds in the first few weeks, but I am super proud of how far I’ve come so far.
After bungling the first two injections, today’s shot went pretty smoothly. I didn’t prick myself unintentionally, and I didn’t accidentally shoot some of the liquid gold into the air while I was prepping the needle. I’ve moved from the kitchen into the bathroom. This seems to help as I can inject myself in private rather than in the company of a bubbly, grabby toddler. I am back to the original injection site – the left side of my abdomen, about 2 inches away from my belly button. This site is easier as I can see that the dial on the pen emptying as the shot is administered. The reason this is important is because you’re supposed to keep the needle in for a full six seconds after the dial reaches zero. Truthfully, that’s the only part of this process where it starts to hurt a little bit: the needle starts to sting when it’s kept in the skin for that amount of time. Weird that six seconds feels like a long time but in this context, it certainly does. Other than that, the whole process is painless. I think I’m getting the hang of it!
Along with being the first day that I administered the injection properly, it was also the first day that I had unpleasant side effects. Roughly two hours after the injection, I started to feel pretty queasy. It wasn’t the type of queasiness that had me thinking I was actually going to vomit, but it was incredibly unpleasant and lasted most of the morning and then into the afternoon. I ate a fairly typical breakfast – Noosa yogurt and a hard boiled egg (yay, protein!) – so I’m more inclined to think that it’s a consequence of the medication/injection than an interaction between the medication and that particular meal.
Unfortunately, my appetite does not seem to be altered in any significant way. At first, I was not feeling much hunger and seemed to be filling up quickly after moderate meals, but that is no longer the case. I’m definitely hungry when meal times roll around, and I’m also hungry at the end of the day and into the early parts of the evening. Gratefully, this hunger does not translate into an urge to snack. This seems to have been the biggest change I’ve experienced. It’s almost as if that part of my brain is turned off, making the idea of snacking unappealing. While I don’t have hard evidence supporting this, I’m pretty sure that the lack of snacking has been the biggest factor in my weight loss to date. I really wish that my hunger would subside, though, because I’m worried that I’ll eventually cave into snacking if it continues.
Back to happy thoughts, though! If this weight loss trend continues, I’ll be down to the 190s by my next weigh in. Here I come, ONEderland! That should be motivation enough to keep my snacking at bay, even if my hunger remains.