Oops, my post said that I lost 16 pounds. It should have said 26 pounds.

just breezin by It was nice to "meet" you on chat last night Amy. Keep up the good work

Hi everyone

Welcome Amy - your success is fantastic Keep up the good work. It is always a tough and long journey but it will be worth it, won't it?

How are you Nik? Still going strong?

I haven't been eating well - the drug is definately helping me with portions and lack of hunger, but what I have been choosing to eat is NOT good.

I will get back on track starting today! Wish me luck.

Frosty was looking forward to chattin with you tonight but you were on and gone so fast. It is hard to make good food choices. I HATE it but I try to meal plan for every day except Fridays. That way I am forced to eat better than if I hadn't planned ahead. Good luck and the Merida sure does help.

I will get weighted on Tuesday night---have not been weighted for two weeks so am hoping that there will be some drop. Still exercising every night with Richard.

Let's face it the whole weight thingy is hard work.

Commit2It and CeeCee hope we have not lost the two of you. The person who started this thread Don't Worry Be Happy hasn't been heard from in ages.

Take care.

Hi Everyone!

Nikolas- I am still here! I was off Meridia last week. My doctor had increased my dosage to 15mg and it didnt agree with me. I picked up my new refill of 10mg yesterday and just took one this morning. I am looking forward to getting back on track.

Amy- Congratulations on your weight loss. I too think Meridia is a godsend. Isn't it great not to be obsessing about food anymore! Keep us posted on how you are doing!

Well, this is the start of my second month on Meridia. I hope to start exercising soon. Work has been so crazy lately, I have been working 12-15 hour days. I have been too exhasted to even think of exercizing, but hopefully soon things will become a little more normal for me.

Hope everyone is doing great!

Take Care,
Elle

Hey Nikolas (and everybody). I'm still here. I've just been a bit distracted lately.

Gus (the pet rat) has lost even more weight This weekend I discovered that because she hasn't been eating her teeth have been growing faster than usual making it harder for her to eat.
(Rodent's teeth grow continuously and if they grow faster than they are worn down, the animal can starve to death).
I clipped her teeth (which scared her half to death), and am giving her both hard and soft food (in case her mouth is sore from
the amateur dental work I've inflicted on her). She's eating the oatmeal, but she's lost so much weight and is so weak I don't know if she's going to make it.
I feel terrible that some of her suffering was preventable (and I'll probably never know how much). She's approaching rat "old age" (the average lifespan is only about 2 years), so I'm relatively prepared for her to die, just not for it to be my fault.


Aside from nursing (hopefully back to health) a sick rodent,
I've been trying to get my life "on track" in general. I've spent most of the last 35 years waiting for my life to begin
(mostly until after I've lost the weight). Well, here I am smack dab in the middle of "it" still waiting.

But changing the old habits is such a huge pain in the you-know-where. It's easy to understand why it's hard to give up "bad-for-you-but-fun" habits for new "healthy-but-a-drag" ones. What is such a mystery to me is why it is almost as hard to exchange "bad-for-you-and boring" habits for "good-for-you-and-fun" ones. Gee, I'm sorry I can't go (fill in the blank with any fun, exciting activity you can think of), I have to sit here watch crap on tv and feel sorry for myself.

I am making changes in my life, but it's such an uphill struggle. It's only because I've made it this far, that it seems this bad, though. I'm well past the stage where I usually give up, but I'm far enough to compare where I was to where I still need to go, and it's making me nervous.

I went bowling with my sisters this weekend. We had fun (although I didn't want to go). I am still sore, though. That bowling was so strenuous tells me I'm in much worse shape
than I thought (that I could be in worse shape than I thought,
was a very scary revelation).

Elle - glad to hear you are back down to 10mg. I hope things go better for you.

CeeCee - you sound like a person with a big heart - I cringed when you told us how you had to clip poor gus' teeth! I hope he's feeling better.

Nik - How did the weigh in go? Were the results what you were expecting?

I am doing pretty good. Just got my 2nd month prescription filled. It was almost $20 cheaper at the Costco pharmacy than where I got it before at a different pharamacy! I don't really care what it costs as long as it keeps working for me!

I'm struggling with the same couple pounds again. It seems that for the past couple months I've gained 2-4 pounds around my period, then I lose about 2 pounds a week for the other three weeks. This only nets me about 2-4 pounds a month loss. It's so frustrating! Especially since there's a fifty/fifty chance that I'll get so depressed over the 2-4 pound gain that I maintain or gain a pound or two one of the other weeks, which nets me a 0-2 pound loss per month. I've been on Meridia for about 3 1/2 months, and I've lost about 20 pounds. I'm not complaining, but I'm getting very frustrated with the two steps forward one step back cycle.

The rest of my post is long (definitely off topic, but kind of funny, especially the lab rat in my blouse story at the end)

Thanks Frosty. I don't consider myself excessively sentimental, I worked in social service so long I've developed a fairly thick skin and almost morbid sense of humor (it's not that I stopped caring, just that seeing the irony/humor in horrible situations becomes a
coping mechanism).

In the scheme of things, one little rat life isn't all that important (even to me, as much as I like the little critter), but I believe that if a person chooses to have a pet, they're obligated to insure that the animal doesn't suffer unnecessarily.

I love animals, but I'm not an activist or a vegetarian. I don't eat veal, because a calf has to be tortured (malnourished and kept in the dark so ill, that they have to be pumped with antibiotics). On the other hand, I do occasionally eat pork (and pork ribs are a particupar weakness) and pigs are about as smart as a dog, so I guess that's a little hypocritical.

I do feel bad for Gus, because I've made the commitment to take care of her and I should have been more careful about it, even though she's "just" a rat. I bought her because I like having a pet and my apartment complex didn't allow dogs or cats. I didn't expect to get very attached to her because rats aren't
particulary "cuddly" (at least I didn't think so at the time, and the two year life expectancy was actually a plus, because I didn't want a huge commitment).

Rats actually make great pets because they like to be petted, and actually seem to recognize and distinguish between people (Gus definitely behaves differently with my six year old nephew. She'll sit in his lap without "exploring" much longer for him than for anyone else). Rats can be taught tricks, can be kept in a small space, almost never bite (even poor Gus, as I messed around inside her mouth didn't try to bite - They will pee or poop if you scare them though, which is why you want to wrap them in a towel if you're going to do something to them they won't like). They're very clean (they wash themselves like a cat, and some of them like water though Gus isn't overly fond of baths) and have almost no smell (the rat that is, if you don't clean it's cage of course the cage and the rat - because it has to live in the cage - will eventually start to smell bad). They get big enough (about 1/2 to 1 lb) for a child
with common sense (that is one who can be reasonably careful) to handle without harming.

In fact the only "down" side to a rat, is that it is a rat. The rat's vermine reputation make alot of people squeamish (but guinea pigs, hamsters and gerbils, even hedgehogs aren't that far from rats themselves, they've just had better press). Well, there is one other thing - rats like to cuddle but they're not usually content to stay in a lap and sometimes try to "burrow" into clothing (or worse under, trying to get a rat out of a sleeve it's just crawled into is a "shivvery" experience).

In my Experimental Psychology lab class, my lab rat "Warren" crawled inside my (tucked-in) blouse and around to the small of my back. I freaked out a bit but managed to shake him free, because there was no way I was going to ask the (VERY CUTE) lab assistant to help me get a rat out of my blouse (how's that for a pick-up line?).

Well, I had a wonderful time in Las Vegas and saw lots of new things that were not there the las time I went. I ate on the average about a meal a day and played all the other time. Drank lots of Strawberry D. drinks and loved it. I still lost. I guess its all the walking and staying up that I did. I start a new month also. I know I have lost but have not jumped on the scale. My doctor gave me four months of pills to get with out seeing him until all was gone. So that was great. But I do see the difference also about not thinking about food or realy wanting it as before. Funny how our bodies think we need all that stuff. Hope everyone else is doing great and having a great summer also. I will be going to Atlantic City in two weeks with some friends and hope to get out and walk a bunch on the board walk. Take care.

CeeCee and Commit2it, I am glad that you are both still with us.

Commit what did you feel when you increased to 15 mg. I am curious as to what side effects appear. I am planning on staying on the 10 until I feel that they are not helping

Frosty did you get the card from Knoll that gives you a 25% discount on your 1st three scripts and then 50% on the next three. More savings to add to the savings at Costco.

I got weighted Tuesday night and have now lost 55lbs since end of January. I do not set weight goals for myself so I don't set up expectations. Just keep on trying to eat well and exercise.

CeeCee poor Gus---I feel badly. I did laugh at your story of the rat down your blouse.

Littlebear sounds like you had a wonderful time. I haven't had any alcohol since I began this food journey. Psychologist who heads our group said that it slows down our metabolism to a virtual crawl so I have stayed away. Glad to hear you still had a weight loss.

Take care all---

Hi everyone.

Thanks for the tip about the discount card, Nik. I did call, but apparently the discounts are only available in the US and I live in Canada. Oh well. As I said before, as long as this keeps working for me, I don't care how much it costs. Over the past 10 years I have spent ALOT of money and have not seen much results so this is nothing!

Hope everyone has a good weekend. It is a long weekend for us as Sunday is Canada Day! I'm going to relax and get caught up in housework. How fun!

Hi Everyone, I'm so happy to have found this group. I'm a 36 year old stay home Mom of 2 boys, ages 3 and 6. I started Meridia on June 10th and have been searching for a support group. I was telling a friend of mine about this web site today and it occurred to me that I should have checked her for a Meridia group. Glad to see there was one!

I've been a member of TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) since Oct. 20, 1999 and the first 7 months I lost 70 lbs on my own just by watching my portions and being determined, but of course that soon slowed down and it took me about the next year to lose almost another 20. I learned to accept it, but I still need to lose another 100 lbs and I was really getting worried that my motivation was going in the toilet, so I spoke to my doctor about Meridia and she agreed to let me have it for 3 months. (Hopefully I'll get her to extend that!)

My results haven't been miraculous so far, but I am definitely off that gain/lose/gain yo-you that I was on. June was my first month in a long time where I had no gains. I've lost about a pound a week since starting the meridia and I'll definitely take it! At a pound a week I could make my goal in 2 years and I would be happy with that.

I've been overweight my whole life and like most people did the diet yo-yo on and off over the past 20 years and all I ended up with was an extra 200 lbs that my body didn't need. When I was pregnant with my 3 year old I developed a blood clot and was on bed rest for a long time. I had to self-inject blood thinners 3 times a day and I spent most of the pregnancy crying because I could barely take care of myself, let alone my then 2 year old son. I swore after I had the baby I would do something about the weight and I am determined not to ever give up, no matter how long it takes!

Meridia has been a god-send to me. I was always hungry and that seems to be my biggest downfall. Now I'm not starving all the time and late at night which was always my worst time, I feel more in control!

I'm glad to read of your successes. It makes me feel very hopeful. I thought long and hard before asking for the meridia, and I'm glad that I finally did it. I don't discuss it with my TOPS group because I think a lot of people would look down on me for taking it and also because I don't want them to treat me as if any success I have will be due to the pills and not to me trying. I try hard and I exercise daily, but people tend to look down on anyone who resorts to pills, so I really needed this group! It's rough not having anyone to talk to about the meridia. I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts!

Hi VioletRose, just reading about you and all you have done good for yourself. I think that is great. Do what ever it takes because we are here for just a brief moment in time and I think we need to do all we can to make us happy. I am doing real good with the pills. I feel like I dont even want to eat most of the time and when I do it is just a little. The most I eat is at lunch and then I just eat very little at night. My husband said he could tell I was getting smaller so that is a good sign also. I have a lot of small clothes that I want to get back into and that is my goal. I do hope you are drinking a lot of water, that is one thing I started doing for me and it helps a lot. Well, everyone keep doing great and have a great day.

Water is wonderful! One thing I learned when I started this "healthy journey" was to drink lots of water. I gave up all my other favorites (except for my morning coffee, I still love it!) -- I try to drink about 100 oz of water a day...sometimes more! Some days I feel like I'm floating away!

Hi everyone -

Welcome Violetrose. I hope you find this board as helpful and supportive as I have. Your success to date and determination is very inspriring.

I had a fantastic day yesterday, I joined one of my oldest friends and we did this amazing 3 hour hike. We were just outside of Banff in the Canadian Rockies and the weather was ideal. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. Today is Canada Day (like your 4th of July), and my sweetie and I are going to the inlaws for a BBQ. I will fill up on water instead of the tempting stuff.