Day 10

So...I got out my least favorite item in my house - my scale - and did an official weigh-in yesterday, Day Nine. 5 lbs lost so far! Not horribly drastic, but certainly significant and encouraging - at least, for me. I'm presuming most of it is water weight, but considering that I was practically killing myself with exercise earlier this year without so much as one pound of weight loss (including cutting back on what I ate), this is a pretty big deal for me. No ticker tape parades needed, but I'm fairly stoked. This is weight loss so far WITHOUT any type of exercise, which I plan on incorporating back into my schedule very soon. I'm hoping once I do, that it'll somewhat accelerate my results. Right now, I'm taking it nice and easy, to make sure my body is well adjusted to this stuff before I try to overdo it.

I'm not going to assume that I will lose more or less than 5 lbs a week (that's pretty drastic, actually), so I'm going to sit back and take this all in stride, and let 'er ride. :)

Byetta has definitely decreased my appetite, although I do make sure to eat 3 squares a day - they're just smaller squares. I DO have to remind myself to eat, however. I'm guessing that I actually consume around 1000 - 1100 calories per day, sometimes a little less. This is cutting a few hundred calories a day for me (I was probably eating around 1400-1500 calories a day, which doesn't sound like much, but it certainly wasn't small enough to force the scale to budge, I guess).

I had a brief craving for wine last night (didn't end up having any) - but I think that was spurned by the fact that my mother-in-law visited us all day yesterday, and it exhausted me. ;) Once she left, I crawled into my bathtub full of scented bubbles to relax, and it just sounded sooooooo good right then with the hot bath. The feeling passed quickly, however...and the bath provided all the relaxation I needed for last night. Prior to beginning this exeriment, it had been a while since I had a glass. I do love a glass of wine some days, but I also know that alcohol slows the metabolism...and since I'm focusing a lot of energy on becoming healthier, I'm going to hold off on that as much as possible (plus, I'm not sure how well alcohol is tolerated or digested while being on Byetta - I'm a little afraid to test it, as I don't want to make myself sick!). It'll taste that much better in celibrating once I get closer (or meet!) my goal weight, anyhow. :D

I understand that Byetta is supposed to be a medication for diabetics, and having some diabetic issues myself in my life (I had gestational diabetes with both my pregnancies - the first one wasn't so bad, but 4 years later when I became preggo with my 2nd, it was WAY worse), I'm trying to figure out how Byetta truly helps. Yes, I understand that it should help lower blood sugar levels in conjunction with other diabetes medication...and yes, I understand that diabetes is very common in overweight individuals, some of which would benefit from the weight loss (and actually "cure" their diabetes in doing so). My point is, however, that it curbs your appetite so much that you don't end up eating very much, which seems to be counterintuitive for diabetics in the here and now.

When I had gestational diabetes, I had to eat every couple of hours (in addition to eating lower carb/lower glycemic) to try and keep my blood sugar levels stable. Going longer periods of time between meals made my numbers go wild. Eating often (not OVEReating, but eating more frequently) is recommended for normal diabetics with Type II diabetes. I can't imagine trying to do that on this medication. I feel so full from even the tiniest of meals, and I get the feeling that if I tried to eat (even miniscule amounts) every couple of hours or so, I'd be pretty damn sick/nauseous. My body simply does NOT want it, and the food just sits there in my stomach for a long period of time.

Maybe this is just my experience, and certainly there may be others out there who have no problem with this - it was just a curious thought/question I had.

As for the "pen" issue, I'm still seeing a small amount sometimes come out of my body when I inject myself, with the same tiny drop on the end of the needle sometimes after injection (as mentioned in a previous post), as well. I've stopped worrying about it, since apparently I'm getting enough of it and it appears to be working. Also, I HAVE found that NOT LOOKING at the needle while I'm "stabbing" myself (not that I do it aggressively) helps immensely. I hardly feel anything when my eyes are averted while it's going in...but I feel it quite a bit if I'm watching it go in. So - yeah, I guess it's psychological. :D Figures for ol' chicken me.

So far, so good!