 At
26 years old, 5 ft 4 in. tall and weighing 220lbs,
I was completely unhappy with myself. I hated
the way I looked and never wanted to go out
or meet new people.
I had never known thin.
The smallest I was in high school was an 11.
In college, it was a 16. At my wedding in 2002,
I was a 20. I tried weight watcher’s in
2004 and lost 30lbs, but I lost motivation,
quit, and gained it back.
A friend mentioned Phentermine and a doctor
that was in our area who prescribed it. She
told me about friends of hers that had lost
20lbs in 2 months, and of course I thought,
“yeah right”. I mean, we have all
seen the commercials for these miracle diet
pills, and I had always thought that if pills
really worked, everyone would be taking them.
When she mentioned the B12 shot, I thought,
“Definitely not for me!” (I have
a huge fear of needles.) But, I went online
to research it a bit and see what it was all
about.
One of the first sites I found was PhenForum.com.
I read the forums for hours at a time for about
three days. It had so much information and answered
a lot of my questions, so on February 15, 2006,
I called and scheduled myself a 1:00 p.m. appointment.
When the nurse asked me how much I wanted to
lose, I thought, ok, shoot for the moon and
said 150lbs. I winced through the shot and took
my 1st pill that day! It was amazing! I had
tons of energy thanks to the B12 and had to
force myself to eat for once in my life. I tell
people now that you could have put a
cheesecake and a pizza in front of me and I
would have walked away.
I drank 4-7 liters of water a day and took
the dogs for 30 minute walks with my then 9
months pregnant sister. My first week, I lost
7lbs, and the first month I lost 14! As for
side effects, I had terrible headaches for the
first few days, and still get massive dry mouth
and some pretty bad breath along with it. Thank
Goodness for altoids!!! The only other side
effect was I got a pretty pissy and turned into
a major b… you know what, every once in
a while.
I started my weight
loss journal after a few days on the phen
and instantly found a support system. I am still
in constant contact with the first people I
was welcomed by.
Phenforum.com felt like home to me. It was
as if my fellow phen-sters were the only ones
who knew what I was going through, like the
side effects, or whether or not I was telling
people my “little secret”. I wrote
almost daily and that helped me stick to it.
By June, I had hit a plateau at 173lbs. and
started panicking. Previously, plateaus were
when I gave up and just went back to my old
ways, but I had read that sometimes taking a
break from the phen helped get through it. I
took a 4 week vacation from the pills and only
gained a half a pound! Hmmm. Maybe I was learning
something from this, not just keeping my appetite
suppressed. Weight loss continued to be slow
the month after I went back on, but after a
visit to my doc, I was chastised for under-eating
and told I had to eat more!
I had been eating too little and too few times,
so I was keeping myself from losing like before!
Imagine that! I still don’t get the “eat
to lose” thing, but it worked!!! I have
continued to lose every month since then and
have never lost less than 5 lbs. Throughout
this journey, I have kept up the water intake,
avoided regular soda like the plague and counted
my calories. Although I didn’t do any
more exercise than that I already got at my
job or at home, but now I was able to move faster
and easier. The first time I ran to my classroom
from the parking lot to pick up something, I
was in shock. Now I am in a belly dancing class
and just bought an elliptical machine. One great
thing I did was take my measurements: chest,
stomach, arm, hip, and thigh. This helped keep
me motivated if I didn’t have a big loss.
I usually found on the weeks I lost less pounds,
I lost more inches and vice versa. Another learning
experience!
Life is different now. The compliments
from family and coworkers are nonstop
and I can’t wait to see those who haven’t
seen me yet! People who haven’t seen me
in a while don’t recognize me anymore.
Its amazing, and a bit strange. I had no clue
how different I look now until I checked out
my pics from a trip to Monterey just 2 weeks
before I started (before picture). I had no
clue how big I had allowed myself to get and
I was a little sad to because I had thought
I looked cute that day! And the clothes!!! My
goodness! I started at a size 20/22 pant and
xl top. Within 5 months, I was in a 16 pant
and a large top. My work clothes were engulfing
me (and I constantly looked like I had a “load
in my pants” gross- sorry). Over the next
2 months, the 16s got looser and here came the
14s. I am now in 12s (from Old Navy, too! I
used to couldn’t buy pants there!), and
have formed a bit of a shopping addiction! This
was the first time I have gone shopping for
work clothes for a new school year and not stepped
foot in a plus-sized section! Its amazing how
much life I was missing out on! I was always
sleeping late, even if I went to bed early,
couldn’t cross my legs without using my
hands, and walked with my head down. I now wake
up early, regardless of when I go to sleep,
even on weekends and have just started my 1st
exercise challenge on phenforum. My BMI has
gone from 38 (obese) to 27 (overweight). My
final goal to get to is 120 lbs, but that is
more or less just to see if I can get there!
I would be happy to be 130-140lbs long term.
(According to the BMI calculations, 120 is the
lowest I supposedly can healthily weigh.)
I tell anyone and everyone I meet about
phentermine and phenforum, and try to spread
the joy I have found.
I never realized how much of a learning journey
this would be! I have learned when and why I
overeat, portion control, and this strange new
thing called willpower. I have discovered that
I can do this and I don’t have to do it
alone! Although I am getting excited as I reach
my first goal of 150 and starting to think about
life without the phen, I have relief in knowing
that I can always go back to the phentermine
once in a while if I need to and my
friends at PhenForum will be here for me no
matter what! |
