Journal

My Journey With Meridia

In this entry, I will describe

1.How much weight I lost while on Meridia

2. How Meridia affected my body (physically & mentally)

3. How Meridia changed my life (for the good & the bad)

4. The reasons why Meridia worked

5. My eating habits while taking Meridia

6. How long I've taken Meridia

7. How I'm managing my weight loss ever since getting off of Meridia

8. What side-effects did I experience while on Meridia

1. How much weight I lost while on Meridia.

I started off at 273 pouds when I went into my Dr's office to ask for medicine for weight loss. My Dr. almost did not give it to me b/c she told me the medicine was VERY strong & should be taken & managed very carefully. As of August 2003 I took my first Meridia pill (10mg) & within the first 5 hours of ingesting the pill, I couldn't even eat an entire apple. And this suprised someone like me who could eat 3 sandwhiches & not even be full, & still want more. But anywho, as of Feb. 2004, I had lost about 97 pounds. I thought losing 95 pounds in just 7 months was not healthy & maybe even deadly but as I did my research, I realized that that's not true. Losing 97 pounds in less than 1 year seems unrealistic to alot of people but in my eyes, b/c I was TRULY READY to lose the weight (mentally & physically), it happend.

2. How Meridia effected my body (physically & mentally)

After about 1 month of taking Meridia (1 pill daily) I started to notice results. Sure, from the first day I noticed my appetite was almost non-existent, but the weight didn't start to come off until 30 days later. Within that 7 month period, I had started to lose about 1 1/2 pounds a day (according to my doctor when she calculated everything). My pant size started to shrink, my face started to shrink, my arms started to shrink, my chest & breast area started to shrink, my thighs started to shrink. And hey, I thought my body would look unpleasant by the time I had reached my goal weight. I thought I'd have too much hanging skin or that my body would lose more weight in certain places than others. But nope, The meridia made me lose weight equally in all of my body. My full shape/figure came out & others couldn't even tell that I had ever been almost 300 pounds just a year before.

Mentally, every single time I looked in the mirror & saw how much my clothes were getting more lose, my self-esteem jumped up a notch. Mentally, I couldn't believe how well my body was responding to the Meridia & so fast! Mentally, every single time I'd lose a pound physically, I'd also be releasing & losing a pound of the emotional & mental anxiety & stress the weight brought to my life. Mentally, I was more energetic, more open with showing people who & what I am without the fear of rejection from others. I was alot happier with myself, & even more so when others would give me my "props" & comment on all the "random" & "sudden" weight loss. It had just as many amazing advantages to my emotional being just the same as it did my physical self.

3. How Meridia changed my life (for the good & the bad)

Losing all of the weight on Meridia made me see life from a completely different outlook. I started to believe that the glass was "half full" instead of "half empty." I started speaking with confidence & like a person who'd never been depressed or overweight before. I started dressing in ways that reflected my mood (not provacative). I started feeling more confident in achieving any of my lifetime goals, even though others always hit me with the "no you can'ts" or the "That's impossibles." Others described me as someone who'd instantly came out of a longtime depression. Others said that I wasn't as moody, wasn't as negative & pessimistic about life. Others said I didn't seem as jealous or envious of others b/c I too started to believe that I was just as beautiful & could have & accomplish just as much as others had. I went from introvert to extrovert. In a nutshell, I got myself back.

But on the flip side, once I lost all of the weight, there was a constant fear that any day soon I coould regain all the weight back. Even though I still felt "full" months after I stopped taking the Meridia, I knew I'd have to prepare for the day that my appetite went back to normal. Because of this fear of gaining the weight back (possibly twice as much) I started to stress myself out, over-excerise, over-eat or under eat. I did all of these things out of FEAR, which was stopping me from losing the weight in the first place more than the calories I was taking in. I started focusing on the "what can go wrongs" of it all & forget to bask & live in the moments I had been wishing for when I first walked into that Dr's office.

The reasons Meridia worked & my eating habits while on Meridia

When on Meridia, my appetite went from ALOT to very little. I couldn't eat whole hamburgers. I found myself getting full on 1 cup of applesauce. I found myself more thirsty than hungry; thirsty for water & thirsty for results. While on Meridia, I still ate all of the good stuff: the fried foods, the deserts, the fast food & everything BUT vegetables. BUT, the key was proportion (which is the key to weightloss whether you have a pill to help you or not). Because I wasn't taking in as many calories, my body started to eat it's own fat cells. The Meridia just helped me to not want to take in as many calories. What you want to eat is not the problem. Even if you have a craving for cheesecake or something sweet, that's okay b/c you're body won't allow you to eat alot of it anyways.

Every morning, I would eat a pop tart with my pill (just to get my metabolism going). That 1 pop tart would keep me full until lunch time. Once lunch time came, I'd eat 2 cups of applesauce & drink alot of water. If the applesauce didn't fill me up, I'd eat fruit cups or snack on granola bars. But once 4-5pm came alone, I'd eat a "Marie Calender" lasagna TV dinner & oh boy, I'd be full until the next morning. I'd repeat this routine over & over again & DID for the entire 7 months. To the average person, eating 1 meal a day seems unrealistic & unhealthy. But here's why the Meridia worked for me: That 1 meal had all the nutrients, calories & vitamins (in just 1 serving) that the average person needs in an entire day. So no, I wasn't starving my body. Plus I made it a rule to NEVER eat a meal after 6 or 7pm, no matter what! NEVER! And hey, every once in a while I'd get a little hungry after my meal, but because I love fruit (and HATE vegetables) I'd just snack on more applesauce until I quickly got full again. And even if I got hungry after that, I would just keep drinking water (the 2nd most important element in losing weight) & go to bed. This became my daily routine. If I didn't eat a TV dinner for dinner, I'd eat whatever others had cooked (regardless of how fried, baked or grilled it was), BUT my body wouldn't let me consume large portions so everything would work out fine anyways. Me, personally, I thought eating vegetables & excersing was the ONLY successful way to lose the weight AND keep it off. But no, all you have to do is find a food that is good for you (Fruits, vegetables, or anything with lots of fiber) & snack on them until you're ready for the big meal (dinner). For me, fruits like (apples, applesauce, pineapples, grapes, oranges, fruit cocktail did the trick b/c I have never been a vegetable lover. And even though I got criticized for eating so much fruit, people forgot that fruit is something we should consume more than meats & proteins anyways. My body couldn't necessarily argue with the fact that it kept having to digest all the fruit I was eating, because after all, atleast it's good for me.

 BUT I cannot stress this enough: WATER is very important.

6. How long I've taken Meridia

As of 2009, I have taken Meridia only twice in my lifetime. The first time in 2003 & the second time in 2007 after I had a baby (even the Meridia couldn't stop my body from gaining the weight that comes with having kids). When I took the pill the 2nd time, I didn't think it would work on me TWICE. I thought my body would still be immune to it & that I wouldn't be able to lose any weight or atleast not as much weight the way I did the first time. But it worked the 2nd time just as good. I gained 50 extra pounds after I had my son & the 2nd time, it only took me 5 months to lose 63 pounds. My body had the same reactions to it as the first time (barely any side effects.) My stomach seemed to feel just as "full" the way it did the very first time. The amount of weight I was losing per week seemed to be about the same as the 1st time. The side effects that I'd had the first time were the same the second time.

My Dr. told me that it is not wise to take Meridia for longer than a year straight & hey, at first I was like "What! Why not?" b/c I would've never imagined that I wouldn't need to be on the pill that long anyways before reaching my ideal weight. My Dr. informed me that taking Meridia in spurts (over the years) doesn't have an effect on how well it works with your body. BUT if you take Meridia between Jan 2009 all the way to Jan. 2011, the chances of you reaching your ideal weight before 2011 are EXTREMELY high, but the chances of the pill actually being as effective (if at all) after one year are very slim. So, thank GOD it usually doesn't even take a year before your ideal results take place!

How I've been managing my weight loss even after getting off of Meridia

When I first took the pill, I thought it was going to do all the "work" for me. But no, all it taught me & FORCED me how to do was manage my portion control. I not once excersiced or ate 1 vegetable (knowingly) while on the pill but yet I was still able to lose 97 pounds in just 7 months while on the pill. About 3 months after I stopped taking the Meridia pill, I did notice that my appetite did go back to normal & that that "full" feeling after just 1 apple or sandwhich was no longer as quick to come. BUT, because I had trained my body for so long when to eat & how much to eat, it was easier to still stick to the routine I had when I was on the pill.

The reason I've been able to keep the weight off is because I know realize (now looking back) that the KEY to weight loss is calory intake. Dieting doesn't work. And here's why: When you 1st get on a diet, you are told that you can only eat certain foods & usually only from a certain store or source. And of course, after a while, you start to see some weight loss. But what happens once you have reached your ideal weight? You can't expect to NEVER again eat something fried or have desert in your lifetime. What you ate on your diet (rather it's all meat or just all slimfast or all weight watchers) is not something you can do for the rest of your life. So what's the problem? Well, the minute you lose the weight, you stop going to the source that was providing you with all of that healthy & "from the tv commercial" food. You go to a cook out & eat the ribs, the pork, the deserts, the pop/soda & then you start to notice that you are gaining the weight back way quicker than you lost it. And that's b/c diets are temporary.

     But with Meridia, I didn't have to change WHAT I ate, but instead I had to change HOW MUCH I ate & WHEN I ate it. I still ate the fatty foods & carbs. every once in a while (mostly during PMS time) & still managed to keep losing the weight. The way I ate while on Meridia is the same way I eat even now that I'm not on the pill. I still don't eat after 6 or 7pm (after all, you're not supposed to anyways). I still eat lots of fruits (instead of cookies, chips & icecream) when I'm hungry. And I still eat 1 or 2 meals a day that have enough ingredients to fill me up, without later having the urge to eat a completely new meal. And I can eat this way for the rest of my life b/c I'm not discriminating against any foods. I eat in variety, just not as much & THAT'S the difference when it comes to actually keeping the weight off, long term.

Now that I'm at my ideal weight, & still eating the same way (as when I was on the pill), of course my body is not losing 1lb a day anymore, BUT atleast I'm still keeping the weight off. The reason I was losing so much weight before is b/c of this philosphy: The MORE weight you have to LOSE, the more weight you WILL lose." Now that I'm at the right size/weight for my height & age, my body stopped telling itself that I needed to lose more weight. So instead of gaining the weight back (in large numbers) or continuing to lose weight, my weight is staying right where it is!

What side-effects I experienced while on Meridia

Every once in a while, I'd have trouble sleeping, I'd have mild headaches or dry mouth. But that's it! And trust me, I'm a baby when it comes to pain so I would've immediately gotten off the medicine had I felt it was harming my health in any way, shape or form. I heard about all the diet pills that are killing off the people that are using them, so I made it a priority to pay close attention to any changes in my body (outside of losing the weight) that wasn't normal or there before I had lost the weight.

I've never had a problem with my blood pressure going up because of the Meridia, never had a problem with abdominal pain, never had any of the other "possible but rare" side effects the bottle tells you, you might experience. And hey, I didn't mind a slight headache every other month when I could look in the mirror & see myself quickly going from a size 24 to a size 10! Sometimes I'd be so amazed & shocked when looking int he mirror at the new me forming before my eyes, that I wouldn't even notice or feel the headache. I know everyone's body is different & everyone's reaction to Meridia is different, but I can only speak on behalf of myself & I must say, I was very suprised that something so strong as Meridia did ONLY what it was supposed to: Help me to lose the weight & not help me to lose the weight & then die from heart or liver failure. I've had more problems taking sinus medicine or other less-strong medicines more than I did with Meridia.

I really hoped my experiences touched your heart! If you are thinking about taking Meridia, give it a shot! But know that you have to be mentally & physically prepared to change the way you eat. And when you're really tired of looking in the mirror & hating and/or resenting yourself, you'll find new-found strength in you that you never even knew you had, while on Meridia. From me to you, Meridia works! This stuff actually works!