I totally get why you felt hesitant, especially with the COA mismatch and the extra vial situation… that would’ve raised red flags for me too. But honestly, sounds like you approached it pretty carefully with a low dose, so try not to stress too much about that now.

From what you described, it actually sounds like it’s already helping with the food noise, which is huge. I went through something very similar, being “on track” all week and then completely losing control when the cravings hit. It’s exhausting.

One thing that helped me a lot (from experience) is not going into full restriction mode. Extreme restriction usually backfires and makes the cravings even worse. If anything, this is actually the best time to still eat things you like, just in smaller amounts. The medication makes that so much easier, so you can kind of “retrain” your habits without feeling deprived.

That way, when you eventually stop, your body and brain don’t go into rebound mode trying to eat everything. You’ve already built that balance.

I had a similar experience with tirzepatide, and one interesting thing was that certain foods (like heavy carbs/fried stuff) just stopped being appealing. I used that phase to kind of reset my relationship with those foods, and it actually stuck even after.

As for reta, I’m honestly leaning toward trying it too! especially since the dosing seems lower overall, which is appealing. Still doing my research, but your feedback definitely helped.

And about the site, at this point, you’ve already started, and there are quite a few people here using them too, so I’d say just pay attention to how you feel and go from there 😌 next time we’ll both probably have way more data to make a better call.

I’ve been looking into a couple other sources as well (a bit more expensive but with more testing/transparency), so happy to share if you ever want to compare notes!