Another 2 pounds or so in the last few weeks

I got on the scale this morning for the first time in a while. I think there are probably two ways to do weighing, either you are maniacal about it and do it every day and chart it so you are used to minor up and down days or you don't do it or only do it every few weeks.

I haven't noticed a lot of changes with clothing in the last week or two, everything I wear now is fitting well but the 'next level down' of clothing that I have isn't fitting yet, so I'm kind of in a dead zone of noticing changes of late.

I have a perception that my face is a little more vertical than horizontal and I'm not as bulgy in a particular shirt but I know the ways of the mind and how it can trick you into seeing what you want to see. Fit doesn't lie, though, if you couldn't button something before but now you can that's real.

So, its a risk when you finally step on the scale, and I was rewarded with a clear loss of a couple of pounds over a couple of weeks, and I'm being intentionally imprecise with myself with amounts and time frames to avoid the trap of trying to dictate how fast it will happen. It will happen as fast as it happens, and the big results will play out over months, not weeks.

Its an analog scale with a needle so there isn't precision, but there was a clear distance between the last and current reading, which puts me at somewhere around 232, based on the delta between my scale and the office scale.

In terms of number milestones those divisible by 10 are the big ones, of course, so 230 looms large, but I'm trying not to focus on the number. I'm going to be an obvious big guy for another 20 pounds or so, not until I get to around 210 or so will it be really different, and at my current pace that will happen in another 5 or 6 months, late next spring or so.

This is working, so the plan is to work it and not change anything. Work The Program. I have the experience of successful weight loss once before, on Phen-Fen, although I didn't keep it off because I didn't change anything about how I ate or drink. Or, as a friend put it, I continued to 'party hardy'. In the last couple of years I had lost 30 pounds by changing my relationship with food and drink, so I've got real progress and results on the ground before I started this next phase.

Its a rare thing to find a combination of things that produce results and is something is livable. Its easy to not eat much, but then you have to battle hunger and weakness, a battle I have lost every time.

There is a product called Sensa which are sprinkles that you put on food that cause you to feel full sooner because they affect smell. They really work. They really do. But, not eating as much made me weak, and the solution for weakness was not 'more exercise' or 'drink more water'. The unfortunate math is that you have to compensate for fewer calories with some sort of stimulant. At least I do.

In terms of a stimulant this medication is a very high quality stimulant because there is no euphoria, and therefore no emotional component or addiction risk, its just a 'get out of the chair' kind of stimulant. Its not advertised as a stimulant, of course, its for blood sugar control, and its crushing it on that front, my sugar levels are now in the normal range. The appetite suppression and the stimulant quality are (wink,wink) 'side effects'.

I'm still awake for an hour or so every night, but my irritability has gone down. You have to give your body a chance to get used to it.

Onward. The way is forward and the path is long.