It's been 8 days. Still doing great!

Today is April 29, 2007. This is the eighth day with meridia and I am doing great! I went to the Doctor on Friday and my blood pressure was 138 over 78. So it has not shot up. I also weighed 303 with my shoes on so I have lost 5 lbs. What is nice about this diet pill is the fact that I don't feel hungry and I fill up on very little food. I am drinking Mocha flavored Slim Fast for breakfast. That gives me my coffee taste and milk. I find different things to eat for lunch. And supper this last week consisted of chili without beans and ham and black eyed peas. But I eat a lot less than I used to. Each night I have been having 1 pickle spear but I usually don't eat the skin so it is not much. It is just the sour taste I crave. Yesterday we had lunch at Connie's Restaurant in Downtown Knoxville. By we, I mean Sherry, Dan, Dad, his "significant other" Karen, Donnie and me. It was a great time! Karen is a very interesting lady. She is nearly 6 foot tall, 70 years old and she was born in the Netherlands but grew up in Aruba. Dad met her at the YMCA in Houston. She has had a stroke and a heart attack. She gets around slow and her speech is slow but it seems like she has come a long way from her stroke. She also
makes Dad happy so that is what counts. Donnie and I are going to meet them at the airport as we send her back to Houston. She has been here for 9 days. I think Dad is going to be lost without her. We will see what happens.
Anyway, back to the diet. I had a chef salad with turkey for lunch yesterday and just ate 1/5 of it. I gave the rest to Sherry to take home. I felt full up to suppertime. Then for supper I felt like I splurged. I fixed a sandwich in the toaster with thin sliced turkey, sauerkraut, and cheese. When it was done, I added a tomato. It was very thick but very good. I also had a couple thin slices of apple. I was not hungry the rest of the night. This is quite a concept because Donnie and I both snacked in the evening mainly out of habit but I was usually very hungry. I can't stress enough that I AM NOT HUNGRY! And my stomach doesn't growl.
These pills trick your brain but I don't know how it tricks your stomach but that is ok! I just hope this affect lasts. My mind WANTS to eat healthy food. I avoid frying things even though an egg roll would be good.... I threw away an eggplant because the only way I like it is fried. Now I just have to start exercising. I have been going up and down the steps more often and parking further away to I walk more. But I know I need to be doing other exercises. I think as the weight comes off, I will feel like doing more. I liked my doctor's recommendation. She said just to walk 15 minutes a day for a few weeks and then work up to 30 minutes. That makes more sense. There are a couple things that let me down on diets. That was being told to eat a drastic amount less and starving and then walking 30 minutes. When you weigh over 300 lbs. I think you need to start slow or you get burned out.
My body will tell me when it wants to do more. I think this is going to be a big change in my life. It has taken 51 years but now I get it. I want to live longer and better. This is my chance and I am going to take it.