It's been one week since I started taking Adipex - the diet pills prescribed to me by my doctor. Read about that appointment here. I'm still having issues with accepting the "need" for these pills and I've been struggling emotionally this week because of my doubt about using a drug to jumpstart weight loss. I'm trying hard to accept this as an experiment and to realize that, just like my RNY, the Adipex is a tool I've been given and I can use it or I can waste it. So for now, I'm attempting to put the emotional distress aside and focus on the short term experiment.
Besides the emotional crap there has been some physical crap that comes along with Adipex. To review, Adipex is suppose to slightly increase metabolism and dramatically decrease appetite. So, let's take a look at how the past week has been...
WEIGHT LOSS -- figured I'd start here since this is what the whole experiment is about, right? So first, let's look at where I started. My "official" weigh in last Wednesday morning was 196.1. For the past 15 months I've been fluctuating regularly between 193-ish and 196-ish - sometimes a pound or two high, sometimes a pound or two lower, but usually within that range with wide fluctuations from day to day. This morning I weighed at 192.1. So in theory you could say I've lost 4 pounds. But honestly, I'm counting it as a 0 loss since the numbers still fall within my normal fluctating range. And just for reference sake, yesterday I weighed 196.4. So yeah... if we're going to keep score I'm going with "0 pounds lost."
METABOLISM -- I wear the GoWearFit, as you know. So I've got a very accurate record of how many calories I'm burning. So far I have seen no increase (or decrease) in my usual numbers. Everything has remained the same.
APPETITE SUPPRESSANT -- As I said before, I don't get hungry since my surgery. At least not in the normal sense of "hungry" - it's more of a feeling that my body needs nourishment and I need to feed it - not really gnawing, aching hunger pangs. And I don't believe that has changed in the past week. But there's been a marked decrease in my calorie intake --- but I'll get into that below...
NOT SLEEPING -- This part really pisses me off and it's making me cranky. Because of my very hectic schedule I already don't get enough sleep at night, but now even when I'm in bed... I'm not sleeping. For instance last night I got to bed after midnight (after getting home from class after 11pm) and I had a bit of trouble falling asleep, which is unusual for me. But then at 3am I was wide awake and couldn't get back to sleep until 5:30 - just 30 minutes before my alarm went off. My GoWearFit says I'm averaging about 4 hours of sleep per night of restless, interrupted sleep. Basically I'm sleeping for about 30-45 minutes at a time then waking up. This is a very bad thing.
NAUSEA -- The instructions for taking Adipex is to take the pill first thing in the morning with a glass of water at least 30 minutes before you eat anything. And as soon as I attempt to put any food on top of that pill 30-60 minutes after taking it... the nausea sets in. Even one bite or one sip of a protein shake will do it. If I stop eating/drinking the nausea continues... if I continue eating the nausea continues. So I've learned to just keep eating/drinking so I can get my calories in because on the days when I've given in to the nausea I've ended with a calorie count that's dangerously low. As a general rule the nausea seems to last for about 4 to 5 hours then subsides for the remainder of the day to a level that's manageable (still present, but not as bad as the morning). This part seriously sucks.
EXERCISE -- So the doctor told me to increase my exercise by an extra 300 calories a day. Which for me would equal about 60-90 minutes of brisk walking (my preferred exercise). There's a few problems with this - besides it being winter in Michigan and the lack of a treadmill that works -- I simply don't have an extra hour to hour-and-a-half in my day during the week to devote to a long workout. I've been doing what I can, like jump roping in my living room or using the resistant bands to a DVD... but I'm literally squeezing those 15-20 minute workouts into the times when I really should be doing other stuff - like sleeping for instance. I had good intentions of trying to fix the treadmill this weekend, but I was buried in homework. (Over the 3 day holiday weekend I calculated that I spend 22 hours doing homework this past weekend.) I'm trying, really I am - but it's hard right now.
EATING -- So as I mentioned the nausea has put a dent in my normal eating schedule. Because I don't get hungry, I generally eat on a specific schedule so I can get all my calories in and hit my protein goals for the day. This weekend while engrossed in homework I forgot to eat a few times - that happens to me sometimes when I'm highly distracted. Combine that with the constant nausea and my calorie intake has been very low on a few days this week. One day it was 733 calories, another 950. Because of the nausea my normal 1300-1400 calorie day has slide down to around an average of 1100. I know some might think this is great... but I know how dangerous it is to be so low in calories and I'm trying hard to get things back to normal again. Basically I'm just forcing myself to eat despite the nausea. I'm actually beginning to wonder if the "appetite suppressant" aspect of Adipex is actually just "nasuea" which makes you feel like not eating cuz you're sick all the time.
WATER -- one major side effect (besides the nausea and trouble sleeping) is dry-mouth. Oh boy do I have this! I am so thirsty all the time. I'm definitely not having any problems drinking 60-70oz of water (crystal light) every day and usually go way over.
So there you go. A really long and rambling look at my past week. It's been a rough week and I can only hope that something lets up in the coming days to make things better. I could really use some quality sleep and it'd be nice if the nausea went away. I've 3 more weeks before I see the doctor again and I'm going to hold on until then.
~Pam
