Friday April 28

Happy Friday, my friends! Sorry, this one is a long one. Hopefully, you'll find it interesting.

Weight down 2 full pounds today. I'm sure it's all water, but I'll take it.

I had some experiences yesterday in relationship to food that are befuddling. Perhaps you have read on the main board (or in any obesity related blog) that there is no "Magic Pill". Well, yes that's true, but I want to know what chemical reaction occurred in my brain yesterday because this sure feels like a magic pill.

I am struck by the profound lack of reaction to food - trigger foods especially. It is utterly foreign. I decided to test a few things yesterday. My dear friend (Auntie Kathryn to some of my FB friends) had some stressful news about work yesterday. She is obese and very much in the throes of her dysfunction, so was in desperate need for comfort dessert foods. We ended up at Whole Foods. She bought multiple desserts (enough to alarm even my BED self!). Whole Foods makes one of my favorite and highest value trigger foods - a toffee chip cookie from the self-serve cookie bar. I bought one cookie and a carton of chocolate ice cream. I thought I would give myself a little test after dinner and note my reaction.

Well, first thing to note is that I forgot about the cookie and the ice cream until quite late. Then I actually had to DECIDE to do my test. I was not compelled to have dessert. I dished out some ice cream - less than I normally would given the chance to eat ice cream- and took the ice cream and the cookie to my comfy chair. I tasted the ice cream first. I was unimpressed. SHOCKED and unimpressed. There was no flavor dance party in my mouth. The under my tongue sensation that drives my compulsion for more wasn't there. I tried the cookie. I could taste individual flavors and feel textures I had not previously noticed. I did enjoy the cookie for about 3 bites. Then the enjoyment seemed to wane. Rather than wanting more, I felt like the taste and texture was getting to be too much. It was a six-bite cookie. By the sixth bite, I could have spit it out. Ice cream was shared with the dogs. Afterward there was no urge for more. There was no drive or compulsion to put something in my mouth before bed.

Sleep was not as deep last night as it has been and I have recollections of dreaming a lot. Upon entering the kitchen this morning I saw on the kitchen counter the haul I brought home for Ron from our Volunteer Tea at school. (That food event was another "out of body" experience. Full tea buffet - I held a single chicken salad tea sandwich in my hand the entire tea without eating it. Ate no cookies, cake, chocolates, NOTHING). This morning there WAS an impulse of wanting to eat the cookies and tarts on the plate. I felt that drive and push and quelled it by taking my vitamins and meds with 12 oz of water. Then, I had my protein shake on the way to work. By 10:00 (roughly 3 hours after my dose of Vyvanse) when the birthday breakfast was served in the teacher's lounge all compulsion to eat was gone. I ate a small amount of fruit (2 raspberries, 1/3 of a strawberry, and a few slices of banana), tried a taste of tater tot casserole, which I could not eat. I decided to do another little test at the breakfast and took a scant 1/2 tsp of PB and a dab of Nutella and slowly tasted and ate it. This combination is a definite trigger combination. I tasted it, enjoyed the taste, noticed the complete lack of reaction, put my plate in the compost and left. I am bewildered by what this medicine is doing in my brain. The breakfast buffet was a Belgian Waffle bar with fresh berries and bananas, syrup, chopped bacon, Nutella, PB, two different tater tot casseroles, egg casseroles, Danish, muffins, juice and coffee. A normal experience for me would have been doing my absolute best to regulate my intake without getting over full, often failing to maintain control.

Needless to say, I am enjoying this novel experience even though I feel as if a part of me has been plucked out and put aside. It is an oddly freakish, yet empowering feeling. I'm going with it. I can also sense already how this could become habit forming if not monitored by an MD.

And, there you have it: Installment number 2. I am curious to see what the weekend will bring.

This sounds pretty amazing. I hope the effect lasts indefinitely - I'd like to have something that would curb my cravings when they hit.

Congrats on your V-effects! :)

But I gotta say something else: Your description of the food events in your life in one 24-hour period says to me that you live in one of the most dangerous food environments for a BED person -- or frankly, for anyone -- I've ever heard of. I haven't seen food gauntlets like that in a single day in ... well, I don't know when. It sounds like yesterday you were living in an IHOP / a Carnival cruise ship / my mother's house during Christmas in the 1950s.

IMHO, no one who wasn't on Vyvanse could navigate those menus, buffets and food courts without gaining weight. Lordy!

Greetings Spring Maintainers

Days of sun expected here and oh does it help the mood. However, 135 from psycho scale did not help. But I earned it as I ate two slices of veggie pizza at lunch yesterday. Unexpected change of lunch plans. But it was really good and I will not be wanting pizza for awhile. I hope the pound is water plus another unmentionable substance.

Liz so glad the support groups seem like a good thing. When I moved my Phd mother to her retirement home I was worried about there being other educated people. Turns out there are other college professors, doctors, lawyers, teachers and all sorts of people with outstanding lives. Worked so well and she is approaching age 92.

Ann sorry for the shrinking party but don't blame people for wanting to stay out of the weather. Out here, the heavy winter rains have caused landslides which closed the roads. I can't drive to San Francisco and probably won't be able to for months. The detour route takes about 5 extra hours. Road workers had it open for about a day then it slid again. We really live in the boonies.

Paula, rest up and heal. Can't wait to see that prom dress!

Well I volunteered to bring some food for our art gallery art night. So Its all gonna be healthy stuff. No junk. Someone else will probably bring that.

Ouch, dropped an unopened bottle of wine yesterday and it landed on my big toe! Didn't break but my toe is now as purple as the bottle contents. I had shoes on and don't think its broken - just ugly.

Joey glad you got to support group. Seems they always have at least one troll person who takes over. Still you can take a lesson - as my DH says even the worst person can be useful as a bad example.

Well sleep well my friends. Off to the studio today and probably grocery store. Maybe better stock up on toilet paper as trucks can't get through with the road closure. . . Diane S

No, I don't blame them at all. In fact, I wish I could leave! :)

Greetings Again

Well have to comment on Devon's post as we were simultaneously posting. So interesting to ready your analysis of your feelings while on the drug. Good that it is helping your food cravings. Do you feel some sense of loss when your favorite foods no longer give the pleasure they once did? Makes me curious how the drug works.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience. I have always felt like with vsg I made a new deal. I traded my pig out ability plus most of my stomach for reduced weight and better health. A good deal indeed. Hopefully you can think of the v drug this way. Is this a med you take indefinitely or for a fixed time until habits change? So interesting. Hope it keeps going well. Diane S

And Furthermore:

Kairk's description of how he feels on the v drug reminds me of how I felt years ago when I took the Phen Fen combination for about 3 weeks. Nothing was interesting and I couldn't even eat a little at a small luncheon to be polite. But my BP shot up and that was at the time the news started reporting bad things about it. So I quit. Anyone else ever try that? Diane S

Yes, I took Phen-Fen, too in the 1980s. And yes, it did greatly reduce my appetite. At least initially. Then not.

But my favorite diet pill of all time was (in the 1960s) one called "Preludin." Damn, that was an effective diet pill. But eventually, you really couldn't sleep. Unless you took downers before bedtime -- which, naturally, MDs conveniently provided you with an Rx for when they gave you the Preludin Rx.

Unfortunately, that did NOT end well.

Ah, the Sixties!

Late to the party.

Kairk liking your detailed reactions very much.

Great food day and walked for 2 hours.

cutting the grass Ooooooops, I mean moss!