Since I started acupuncture 3 weeks ago I’ve lost 8 pounds (yipee!), have less severe headaches (hallelujah!), and I feel calmer than I used (a strange feeling I’m not used to since I’m notorious for being wound as tight as a drum all the time and unable to relax – ever!).

Plus, I wasn’t my normal “bitch on wheels” the 2 days before my “monthly friend” made an appearance, which is probably the first time that’s ever happened!  (I’m really making it sounds like I’m hard person to live with….I hope I’m not.  People tell me I’m nice.  I hope they’re not lying.  They wouldn’t just be saying I’m nice so that I don’t jump down their throats, would they?).

I’m still hating the needles in my ears though.  They hurt enough to make my want to snarl at my acupuncturist (I don’t though – she knows it hurts cuz she’s had it done to her many times).

I really think acupuncture is helping which is super exciting to me!!

I’m getting relief from headaches without taking a bunch of pills that have nasty side effects; I’m not feeling the need to pig out and overeat and don’t need a weight loss pill that can also have nasty side effects to do it; and I’m getting stress relief without having to hum and chant for several hours a day!

All I have to put up with are a bunch of needles in my body (which thankfully I don’t have to look at so I can pretend they’re not there); but I’ll do that any day over going back to taking a bunch of pills again that in the end only made me sicker.

So I’ve decided I’m going to keep going with the acupuncture treatments for at least another 3 weeks and then re-evaluate it.

The only really hard thing about it?  The cost.  Insurance doesn’t cover it and I don’t know why.  Does anyone know of a grass roots initiative to have acupuncture covered by medical insurance or know of a petition I can sign asking for it to be covered?

The needles in my ears still hurt like a bitch when they went in, but if I lose half as much weight this week as I did last week I’ll be more than ready for round 3 next week.

I lost 7 pounds in the last week! I’m not sure if it’s because I wanted the treatment to work and thought it would, so therefore I ate less (kind of like a placebo effect); or if it really did curb my cravings. Maybe it was a little of both.

Plus my headaches this past week, while still the same in duration, were a little less severe. My head feels less tight and like there’s less pressure behind my eyes.

Those two things made me ready and eager to subject myself becoming a human pin cushion again this week.

She gave me two new needles this week – in my neck of all places (think of the bolts sticking out the side of Frankenstein’s neck and then replace that image with acupuncture needles and also hopefully with a more favorable image of how I look)

If you think I wasn’t squeamish about the needles in my neck, you’re crazy. I think my eyes nearly popped out of my head when the acupuncturist recommended them because she immediately assured me that they weren’t painful because there a lot of tissue in the neck and the needles don’t go in that deep.

I only felt one of them go in and it wasn’t nearly as bad as though darn ear needles (5 in each ear). Total needle count this week – 20 (10 in the ears, 2 in the neck, 2 in the hands, 4 in my legs, and 2 in my feet).

Even though I tried harder to relax this week I still did a pretty good impression of a statue because I was still worried about moving the wrong way and disturbing the needles. Maybe I’ll do better at the relaxing thing next week.

They went in the side of my neck. I didn’t look in a mirror (would never want to see myself with the needles poking out because it very well might make me so light headed that I would faint and poke the needles all the way in which is