Back on

Thursday:

I went to my doctor on Tuesday after my haircut and got another script for Duromine, so you'll have to ignore what I said before about waiting a much longer time before trying it again! I was getting frustrated with my inability to lose weight without it.

Brief summary of Duromine history (all dates are Mondays which don't 100% match with actual start and end dates but Monday is my weigh day:

Start 16/08/17: 84.7 kg, waist 102 cm (waist not measured until a week later so might have been more)
After 3 months 13/11/17: 75.1 kg, waist 97 cm.

Loss of 9.6 kg and 5 cm off waist. Minimal side effects but didn't seem to be working much by the end of the three months. Delighted with result. Felt so much happier in my body.

More or less maintained over 2 month break including Christmas period.

Restart 01/01/18: 75.4 kg, waist 97 cm
After 1 month 05/02/18: 72.6 kg, waist 96 cm

Loss of 1.8 kg, 1 cm from waist. Much stronger side effects including nausea and extremely dry mouth. Also dizziness but my doctor thinks that is my low blood pressure and the flu not the Duromine, and it continued after I stopped the medication while I had the flu. The side effects didn't seem worth the relatively small weight loss so I didn't ask for a repeat prescription.

This Monday, 05/03/18: 74.9 kg, waist 97 cm, hips 107 cm, bust 101 cm.
Regain of 1.3 kg and 1 cm on waist, most of what I'd lost in January.

The doctors at my clinic rotate every six months or so, I once tried going elsewhere to get continuity of care but didn't like the doctor who looked at my high blood sugar and obesity and basically said 'you're fine'. So I went back to this place. I have liked every single one of the doctors I've seen here over the past two and a half years (five of them I guess!) and this new one is the nicest yet! There had been a change since I last went. They are all young, female, straight from medical school I think and this is part of their work experience, up to date with new information and keen as mustard. Not much experience though. (There is also a experienced male doctor continuously there but I like to see a female.) Anyway, she gave me a month of Duromine (have to see her again before I get repeats) and wants me to get down to 65 kg which means losing another 10 kg, but she didn't just hand me the script. We talked about weight loss strategies for now and in the future when I'm no longer on Duromine, and somehow I found her more motivating that other people who have probably said the exact same thing. Probably a combination of her charisma and attitude and my own mental state. Things like restricting treats to weekends, exercising more, reducing portions, drinking more water, all stuff I know but don't always do. She wants to see me again in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday I started taking it again (have to take it early in the morning) and felt energised and appetite-suppressed all day. I foolishly read a book on the train on my way home from the city, which can give me motion sickness at the best of times, and got a bit nauseated which took a couple of hours to subside even after I got home. I had 2 fruits and 5 vegetables and some lean protein, small amount of fat, ten glasses of water. Excellent day. Nearly an hour of brisk walking, made up the last four minutes jogging up and down stairs at home because I wanted to hit an hour of exercise.

I slept poorly last night, just lay there wide awake quite a bit. Also had to get up five times to pee! Probably got four good hours of sleep. That's fine, I know it will take only a couple of nights to resolve then hopefully I'll sleep really well like I have in the past.

A little bit nauseated all day, dry mouth but not unbearably so like last time. I really hope the nausea passes soon. I keep burping (and feel better) so I seem to be creating gas in my stomach? I did 60 mins dance this morning and went for a 30 min walk in the afternoon. Tired now - that is a lot for me! Eating was good.

Taronga Zoo

Friday:

We went to the zoo yesterday. It's quite a long trip; car, train, train, ferry then a very short bus ride up the hill. About two hours each way. But the ferry ride across Sydney Harbour is fun. Taronga Zoo is on a slope right next to the harbour. The giraffes have excellent views! The bus takes you to the top of the hill and you walk zig zag down to the ferry again. We spent about three hours meandering slowly and watching the animals. It was cool and cloudy, which was nice for walking, but the sun came out in the afternoon. I got a bit burned around my collarbone despite sunscreen.

The Komodo dragon is always impressive.

Giraffes with a view of the city across the harbour.

A binturong, otherwise known as a bearcat, from South-East Asia. I've never heard of them except for this solitary one we have at the zoo.

There are some natural-ish new enclosures but still some rather small and dismal old ones. They gradually upgrade all the time. They have guided walks through some of the 'friendly animal' enclosures like lemurs, and there was some kind of tour of the tiger enclosure but with a half hour wait which we weren't prepared to do, and you couldn't see the tiger/s at all from outside which was disappointing. No other big cats at all. I'm sure they used to have lions last time and leopards or something. Actually quite a few animals I remembered from several years ago seemed to be missing. Maybe as they make exhibits larger they have to cut down on which animals they keep. There was an area fenced off where they were working on an African Savannah, something to look forward to next time.

I started Duromine (phentermine) again yesterday. Good appetite suppression, a bit of extra energy. I didn't sleep at all well last night, it might take a few days to get past the insomnia. The dry mouth returned today. At least it ensures I drink a lot!

Cotton mouth

Friday:

I went up to 30mg of Duromine this morning. Still no manic energy or complete loss of hunger, but good appetite suppression and a little more energy. Not much different to the first few days on 15mg. Except this afternoon I started to experience the dry mouth side effect. I can live with that, it will encourage me to drink more!

Study, grocery shopping and moving dirt around the garden, pretty normal day. Oh, and the skip bin finally got taken away at around 5pm! Yay. Big ugly thing gone.

The best thing that happened today was that Tim came home! He's been away most of the week for work. But he got home this evening. So that makes it a great day.