Ugh.

 241.6

Bounced back up again this morning. I went to dinner with a friend last night, and while I didn't finish my meal or eat an excessive amount of chips, I did have two large blended margaritas. I suspect the combination of alcohol and fruit probably made the calorie content pretty high. I'm hoping that tomorrow's weigh in will drop back down. That 240 milestone would be a nice one to cross, and I'll feel better once I'm day enough below it that I know I won't bounce back above it with a gain. 

The bounces are always disheartening. I know some weight loss programs recommend only weighing yourself weekly, and I can see why; you'd be likely to guarantee at least a small drop every week. I've just always been afraid that if I do only weigh myself weekly and I backslide, it'll be hard to correct. 

But it's also a reminder that this weight loss is tenuous, so I need to stay diligent on my eating. This week we're going down to my in-laws' house for the latter part of the week. I will have to take my medication with me. I'll also need to be careful with food; there's always a lot to eat.

Shot #10

 240.0

I'm happy with that because I bounced up about two pounds yesterday. Not sure why. I think sometimes if I've been drinking a lot of water, I retain some of it. That may be what I can attribute it to. I didn't drink much water last night. I also took a stool softener (seems to help if I feel a bit constipated). That may be why I dropped as much this morning as I did. 

I was right; last weekend, the heartburn hit me HARD. I struggled Saturday and Sunday with it and took multiple Prilosec capsules and a couple of antacid tablets. I will pay close attention to it today. 

This week I've noticed that, while it do feel full sooner than I used to, the temptation to keep eating is still there. It's easy to want to purge when I overeat. I've been a binge eater all my life and developed bulimia when I was a junior in college. I've struggled with that off and on ever since. I'm very happy with daily weight loss, but on those days when I don't lose it I gain, it's easy to want to turn to that as a solution. I need to train my eating habits so I don't fall back on that. I don't want to take this medication forever, but I'm worried that I won't be able to maintain the loss without it. 

I also haven't gotten an exercise routine started, so I really need to do that.

No leftovers

 244.4

I've actually been at that weight two days in a row. Hoping tomorrow is another loss and not a gain. 

I took the first shot of my last vial of medication. I did measure out as much as I could get from the previous vial, but it was only about .2 mL. Not enough to seem like it's worth it to take as a dose, especially since I would be stepping up the next week. I just have to hope that the shipments do account for what seems like potentially four weeks that are otherwise not covered in this first shipment. 

I do think I've noticed that I seem pretty prone to a bit of heartburn on the day after my shot, so I will pay attention to that tomorrow. We're going out of town tomorrow, so I need to be careful with my eating. 

Shot #8

 246.4

I was a little worried that I wasn't going to have a loss today because I had spent two days at the exact same weight and then gained yesterday, but maybe that precedes a loss. Or it could be that I was just overly hydrated yesterday morning, as I drank a Gatorade Zero at my son's hockey practice the night before. 

Anyway, this "officially" puts me at a 20-lb loss since we returned from our vacation at the beginning of August, but it's really closer to 25 lbs down from what is likely my heaviest, about 270 or 271. Not bad for not quite two full months. 

I find it a little easier when my husband is out of town to eat less in the evenings because I can just make or get something for my boys and not necessarily feel like I need to eat much myself. My husband came back from a week out of town yesterday, so I'll need to be careful this week to not increase my intake. I'm pretty pleased that I've stayed under 250, and I'd like to continue to stay there. 

I have one vial remaining of my current shipment of medication, and it's the strongest dosage, which means I'm supposed to step up next week to what is intended to be the maintenance level for the rest of the year. I haven't felt like I've had any real side effects from the medication so far, and I'm hoping the next level will be the same. 

What I am worried about, though, is the next shipment. These shipments are supposed to be three months' worth of doses, one vial per month, but they're all supposed to be 2 mL vials. That doesn't exactly translate to three full months. Instead, it will leave me four weeks short on the year at the end. My next shipment says "about October 30" in the TrimRx portal, but that's when I would need to be taking my next vial from that shipment. Does "about October 30" mean it will be shipped then, or that it will arrive then? What if I don't have my next shipment when I actually need it?

I'm now trying to figure out what do to about that. I disposed of my first vial, the lowest dosage, already, even though it still had a little left in it (from my misjudging of the dosage the first week). I did notice in my current vial, which I'm technically done with, there is still a little medication left, but it doesn't look like it's a full dosage, maybe .25 mL instead of .5. I haven't tossed it out. Now I'm thinking, what if I add a week into this middle dosage by taking whatever remains of this vial next Friday? Will it mess up my progress to take an incomplete dosage? I've done that once before, of course, but it was the first dose, not a middle-of-the-cycle dose. 

I may actually go as far as to measure it out next week. If I can get at least .25 mL out of it, I think I'll go ahead and add the dose. If not, I'll just dispose of that syringe and take the first dose from the third vial. 

It's something to think about for subsequent cycles. I need to make up several weeks in order to get myself through a full year. Not sure how I'll account for that yet. 

Stuck

 250.2

I'm closing in on a weight that has a little significance for me, but it's been a frustrating week. 

I had gotten down to 251 early in the week, but then I bounced back up to 252-253 for the rest of the week. Even though I'm well into the medium dosage of the medication, I felt my old eating habits creeping back in a bit this week. When I got a chicken wrap from BWW, I ate both halves, even though I didn't really need to. I grabbed a cheese stick for a snack, even though I didn't really need a snack. Last night, I had three tacos for dinner, even though I could've stopped at two. I didn't obsess about it or go back for more, but I have not felt the lack of desire to keep eating that I felt during the original dosage. 

I have discovered something that seems to help: I saw some ads for Loaded Teas. They're basically a green tea with added ingredients like protein and collagen. Protein seems to help with the feeling of fullness, and collagen is supposed to help with skin elasticity as I lose weight (I'm worried about extra skin). The previous week, I had bought a few of those teas to try out, and they seemed to help me not feel hungry in the evenings. So I bought more, and they arrived yesterday. I'm going to drink them in the afternoons this week and see if I can keep the weight loss going. 

That 250 mark feels like a big deal. Not that it's a huge improvement from 270 and 260, but I was right around 250 when the world went a bit sideways. Back in September 2024, my dad had a stroke on Labor Day. I went to Carson City to check on him later that week, and I weighed myself on his scale. I was down to 248 on one of those days. I had to clean up his house, entry his fridge, make sure his mail was forwarded to me, access his computer so I could pay his bills, etc. It started a year of being responsible for my dad as we moved him to a nursing home in Billings. In September of 2025, my dad had a fall that may have either precipitated another stroke or caused a brain bleed that essentially created the same kind of outcome. He passed away on October 4, and since then I've been working on closing out all of my dad's personal business. It's been a stressful couple of years. So getting back below 250 will feel like an accomplishment.

I know I will hit plateaus throughout this process, but hopefully I can at least get off this one this week.

Heartburn

 252.6

Oof, last night was unpleasant. I made chili for dinner, and I overate a bit. I tried not to, but by the time I added sour cream and shredded cheese to my bowl, it was more full than I had intended it to be. Even though I didn't eat the entire bowl, I had more than I should have, especially since I also ate a biscuit. Between the volume and the level of spice, I felt very full and a bit heartburn-y by bedtime. 

I should've taken an extra Omeprazole before I went to bed, but I didn't. I woke up at about 12:45 with dreadful heartburn. I eventually took my heartburn medication and a melatonin and managed to go back to sleep around 3. 

I was pleased to see that I still managed a loss this morning, but I'm tired. Hopefully today I can eat within my limitations.

Shot #6

 253.5

I recorded the same weight this morning as I did yesterday morning. I'm not feeling great about my chances for a loss today, because I feel like I ate a lot. Toast and coffee for breakfast, a cheese stick mid morning. A protein snack bar and cottage cheese at lunch, half a piece for pumpkin bread mix afternoon, more cottage cheese when I got home, and a couple pieces of pizza for dinner. It's still probably not a crazy excessive amount of calories, but I'm sure it's more than I've been eating. 

For whatever reason, the past couple of days, I've felt hungry. I still have at least found it easier to not overeat when I do eat something, but I'm still feeling hungry even when I think I shouldn't be. 

Tonight was shot #6, the second shot at the mid-stength step-up dosage. I hope I can continue losing. I have been pretty pleased that I'm down about 15 lbs from the start. I had joined a TrimRX group on Facebook, but it was a lot of people who weren't seeing results, and I found it a little disheartening. 

So I hope I have less of an appetite tomorrow.