As someone completely new and inexperienced with all of this, I figure keeping a sort of daily or weekly log might be worthwhile. Since I'm stuck in my own thread, pretty cut off from everyone else on the forum and not disturbing anybody, and honestly I have nowhere else I'm allowed to post besides the introductions section, I might as well do it here. Plus it would be interesting to revisit these entries later and check on my progress. I'm a stats geek, and even though I realize this is largely qualitative stuff, I think it could be enjoyable to analyze down the road.
About the Reta I'm currently injecting—it's from a vial I purchased from an Irish supplier at a cost matching what a whole kit goes for on the grey market. Truthfully though, the reason I did that is my grey market order is taking its sweet, comfortable time actually arriving at my door, and I got impatient. Poor choices, I'm aware. But life is just a bunch of good and bad decisions, right?
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So yesterday {Day 1} marked my initial 2mg dose. My earlier post mostly covered my immediate feelings right after injecting. There was some nausea following the shot, though I figured for the first 5 to 35 minutes it was mostly placebo. Nausea came, a bit of tiredness too, and I just wanted to park myself in a chair and do nothing—but life doesn't pause, so I pushed through and handled some chores.
Yet almost right away, something weird occurred: I felt starving but simultaneously not starving??
That's so bizarre!
I get that typically appetite goes down and that reta acts on the 3 agonists to different extents compared to sema or tirz, which hammer the GLP-1 much more—that's why folks often stack reta with tirz (I saw online that sema is 17x stronger at the GLP-1 receptor than the natural version). But I never expected to feel that hungry right after the injection. I'd already had a decent protein load (2 roasted chicken drumsticks and 2 breasts) for breakfast earlier, yet this intense hunger hit afterward—and strangely, it felt kind of controllable?
I nibbled on some beef chunks I'd prepared earlier to take the edge off, and soon after there was a degree of suppression—or perhaps better put, a sort of hunger ceiling or a steady minimal desire to eat. Amazingly, I maintained that for over 9 hours until around 1-2am, when I only ate a tiny amount because I wanted the taste of dinner rather than to stuff myself silly.
Oh, also: I stayed indoors the whole day, so only about 2400 steps and just 1L of water.
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{Day 2}
Today was intriguing. Last night I drifted off feeling a bit scared, nervous, and anxious since it was my first time sleeping with reta in my system. I've had some rough drug experiences as a teen—one time my best friend dosed me with an experimental substance, and other incidents during my first year at university. So there's probably some trauma around taking things and going to sleep unsure if I'll wake up. But to my surprise, I slept amazingly and woke up to my alarm. Normally when I get up, I'm not hungry and food seems revolting, but reta didn't change that.
I was traveling across the country to see a friend, and we grabbed lunch outside together. I usually stick to keto, but for social reasons, I'll sometimes have carbs.
He chose an Italian pasta spot, and I ordered a plate of quattro formaggi pasta plus a cannoli (my first ever!). The pasta tasted really good—or rather, I knew it tasted great, but I wasn't experiencing it that way. It was like a flavor explosion in my mouth, yet all I thought was "this is nice pasta." There was no gluttonous frenzy of shoving it in ecstatically and going for seconds (I'm a volume eater—you'd be amazed how much I can pack in). I just ate and thought, wow, this is tasty, but I'm eating like it's just normal. I can't quite explain it properly, but I knew the food was delicious and I felt good eating it, yet I wasn't on that high (?) like before, and I knew I could stop anytime.
Then I got a cannoli after my friend influenced me, and that was a whole other level. Normally I KNOW I'd have binged on that sugary, sweet, soft, creamy treat, gotten seconds, and wished for thirds without the social judgment. But today I felt so... satisfied. Like I put it in my mouth, and as it coated my mouth with its creamy white goodness, I remember thinking "this tastes amazing, I'm glad I had it with this pasta," and I didn't want more food or snacks. Such a fascinating experience.
Later I walked around town (about 15,600 steps today), went home, and then had this urge to eat again—not because I was full or not, but just because? Keep in mind, by then I'd probably had less than a liter of water all day, so it might've been hydration. But I had 2 roasted chicken breasts from yesterday (oddly the chicken's flavor seemed muted—is that typical for protein on reta?), then drank 1L, hoping for maybe 1 more before bed, but it's midnight so probably not. I've felt quite full since, and I don't want to eat, but my mouth is kind of salivating, or going through the motions of hunger, encouraging me to eat despite feeling really full (like hunger level: 1/10, desire to eat: 3/10 or 4/10).
-By the time I came back to proofread this, that mouth feeling vanished. Could be a rise in my ghrelin around now. I did go out for food at this time yesterday, so maybe midnight is when my ghrelin peaks. Maybe it's the earlier meal, insulin, and blood sugar. Hard to pin down trends and causation with no metrics but my emotions. I might look into getting some devices soon for this.
end of day stats: 15654 steps, 2L of liquids, checked my weight for the first time in weeks: 94.95kg
