Vitameatavegamin!

The third approach I'm taking to this new fitness/weightloss regime is to add a vitamin supplement. This came about unexpectedly and by happenstance, and according to my son, the skeptic, is totally unnecessary and possibly dangerous.

I'm sure that vitamin and mineral supplements are necessary for me because I'm likely not getting enough through my food. But I'm notoriously bad about staying consisent on taking vitamins. I'll take prescribed medication, but staying consistent with taking a vitamin is just asking a lot of me. Not sure why, it just is.

A couple of years back a friend had me taking numerous natural supplements through a company she was working with and swore by. I was taking all sorts of things, and they each had a specific body part or health concern they targeted. But I usually had to take two to three doses of some of these supplements a day and I wound up taking 10 to 20 pills at every meal! Granted, after I had been on them a while, I really did feel better, but taking that many pills at once was just not doing it for me. And...they were expensive. I hung in there as long as I could with them, but I just couldn't sustain that level of vitamin/mineral intake!

Since then I've tried taking B12 in the morning, because my doctor determined that I'm B12 deficient, and I've tried to be consistent with taking Fish Oil in the evenings. But even just that level of intake, in addition to my prescribed medications, was more than I could do.

When I was at my hair stylist last week, she started telling me about a liquid vitamin/mineral supplement she's taking called Veema (see www.veema.com for more information). It's a two ounce shot of juice you drink each morning and it supposedly is a miracle worker. It naturally inhibits hunger (though not the sole reason to take it) - Susan said she had lost 10 lbs. in a month without trying. As well there is a long list of things it wards off , like arthritis pain, plus it enhances sleep, improves skin, eyesight, etc. She and her skeptic husband were swearing by it. She had heard of it from friends who had been on it a while and were talking about it as though it was the Fountain of Youth. It's made of the Mangosteen fruit, Aloe Vera, and Green tea and includes beaucoup vitamins and minerals, even some trace elements of minerals that you don't typically see.

This is where my son, the skeptic, went ballistic - when he read the number of "rare earth" elements that were in the drink. Frankly I thought "Rare Earth" was a 70s rock band, but at any rate, I figured there are only trace amounts of those elements in there, and I'm not too concerned. The proof, they say, is in the pudding. So I'll have to report back in a couple of weeks to see if I feel like it's having any positive affects on me.

I figure that surely I can handle a two ounce shot of juice in the morning. It tastes pretty good, so I don't have to "choke" it down like I often did pills, and it will be easy to remember to take. And they even provide a little "shot" glass to measure out the juice. It is a little pricey - $70 a month. But that's a lot less than what I was paying for the other vitamin regimen I was on, and most "serious" multiple vitamins are nearly that much.

I have to admit though, to say I'm taking a liquid vitamin supplement called Veema reminds me of the "I Love Lucy" episode where she was filming a commercial for a similar substance called "Vitameatavegamin." Apparently this "vitamin supplement" was 95% proof, and the more takes of the commercial she had to take, the more she had to drink the stuff, and the drunker she got. It's quite a hysterical episode, as she tries to say the name "Vitameatavegamin" and the drunker she gets the harder it is for her to say it. I'm pretty sure there's no alcohol in the Veema, but my son snidely remarked when he started reading the list of ingredients, "Oh, right here at the top it says it contains 'snake oil'!"

Update to my blog post from yesterday - I have intended to insert my "Mii" self into my profile photo, which is mentioned in the blog. Obviously I haven't done that yet. Stay tuned....