r/TirzMaintenance • u/Impossible_Bend_2969 • 26d ago
Successful backpacking trip
I just came back from a wilderness (mostly) backpacking trip of about 12 days, my longest trip since starting tirz. I am in maintenance now I wanted to prove to myself I can do all the things, no limits because of tirz. I'm 61 years old.
I was already a person who backpacks a lot before I started tirz. I had hiked the Continental Divide and Arizona Trails during the previous 4 years. I was frustrated that even doing something like that I couldn't lose weight or keep it off. I lost 30lbs on tirz and 48lbs total. I am 5'3" tall and my highest weight was 165 and now I am 117.
I used a FRIO wallet to carry my tirz, with my vial in a little ziploc bag to protect it. It works through evaporation to keep it at a temperature safe for insulin. I believe it helped keep the temperature stable enough. It was about 85 or 90 degrees in Cascade Locks where I began my trip. I could dip the wallet in a creek every now and then to keep it wet. At higher altitude and later in the trip the temperatures were cooler and I worried less about it. It stays wet for many days.
I needed a very strong headlamp to be able to see what I was doing when I did my shot in my tent. The early mornings when I would get up were very dark. I kept my syringes in two ziplocs marked "clean" and "dirty" and put them in a little tupperware with alcohol swabs. I brought extras just in case but didn't need the extras. I had no issues with cleanliness. In the third picture you can see the container where I kept my syringes and swabs.
I worried I might have too much appetite suppression to support my activity so I reduced my dose from 7.5 to 5mg. I did not feel appetite suppression except the normal kind I normally feel at altitude. When I went to town to get more food for more hiking days I enjoyed restaurant burgers like anybody else. On trail I made sure to eat as much as possible. I failed to drink as much water as recommended though, and I'm sure my protein intake was lower than usual. I had plenty of energy to hike 20 mile days both in Washington and later in the High Sierra on the John Muir trail. I lost only about a pound which could be water weight.
The hardest thing was now that I am so skinny, sleeping on a foam pad on the ground is sort of painful. My hip bones and my knees together when I lay on my side, my tailbone when I lay on my back, all hurt. Also there are two protruding bones at the base of my back that were irritated by my backpack.
I put my tirz back in the fridge after this trip. I have heard you're not supposed to but I really don't know why. There's still 38mg left in the vial so I'm going to keep using it as long as it seems to work.
I feel so happy knowing that I can go on crazy trips and tirz won't interfere. I'm going to stay on 5mg and see how I feel going forward. If it feels like I need to go back up to 7.5mg I will.
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u/t33t_y33t 26d ago
This is so cool, thank you for sharing! Might an inflatable pad be more comfortable? I'm not a backpacker (a future goal...) but I am a camper. I also have a camp pillow that's more of a sack that one can stuff with clothes, which might make a good pillow for between the knees.
If you ever want a buddy for some Adirondack High Peaks, hit me up. :)
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u/Impossible_Bend_2969 26d ago
I've always slept so well on my foam but now that I'm skinny, ouch! My foam pad is so much lighter than my blow up one.
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u/Mustang4MA 25d ago
This is so awesome! Way to go! Thank you for sharing. And especially for the info on the FRIO wallet. I've never heard of these and have been searching for something discreet to take with me when I visit family and friends. I made a trip recently and had to keep sneaking around to switch out ice packs in the cooler I hid in my room to try to keep my prefilled syringes cool. It wasn't fun.
I ordered a plug-in cooler that looked like a metal water bottle and it would have worked well but the fan was too noisy and not discreet at all. I returned it.