Keep On Keepin' On

My husband told me this morning that I look thinner. I weighed myself this afternoon and there's no weight change, but I haven't done any measurements in a while so I don't know if my body has actually changed. It was nice to hear, especially since I AM making efforts to build health. Whether it's an illusion or reality, it was a nice reinforcement.

I'm only a couple days into my plan to put my health first instead of second, and already I feel better. Not great, mind you, but I have noticed a subtle difference, mostly in the afternoons / early evenings. I'm a little more energetic, a little more productive, and my stomach hasn't been hurting quite as much. Unfortunately the fatigue is still there in the mornings and it comes back in the evenings, and the stomach issues are still around, just not as prevalent during the day. This also gives me hope.

I'm not doing anything mind-blowing. I'm just focusing on the real basics. Automate the foods I am eating - limit to a basic plan for each meal at a set calorie amount, and avoid all other foods almost all the time. Eat meals on time. Exercise. Take my meds and supplements, and take them on time. Track my blood sugar and all health issues. Keep up with all doctor visits and tests and stay on top of my health care providers until we get me back to normal. And GO TO SLEEP ON TIME and get ENOUGH sleep (something I have ALWAYS struggled with).

I'll talk a bit more in future posts about automating my meal plans and exercise, which has been a challenge because of my health issues and fatigue. It's kind of a Catch-22; I know exercising generally helps you have more energy, but I've been too tired to exercise! I'm working on it.

Supplements

Hey, so yeah. Do NOT Google Image search the word 'cleanse'.
There's some really gross stuff inside people's colons. MY GOD.

One of my Facebook friends (a distant cousin that I'm not close to at all) has been posting recently about doing a cleanse and how great she feels; she's posted several links to the company she's using - Advocare. I'd never heard of them before, so I went to check it out. I'm admittedly very wary of the word "cleanse" - to me, it brings to mind  starvation, lots of pooping, crazy sugar and carb withdrawals, feeling even sicker than I do on a regular basis already, scary frothy green smoothies, etc. One big frightening mess, in other words. I'm not even sure I buy the concept of "our bodies are full of toxins and we need to get them out in order to HEAAAL!"

Still, the idea of cleaning out toxins, if it IS true, intrigues me. The idea of filling my body with healthy, beneficial fuel and cleaning out the junk appeals to me. So every time I hear of someone going on any kind of cleanse, I check it out to see what the deal is. Usually it's the crazy scary mess kind of cleanse. This Advocare thing doesn't sound like that though. It sounds like it's mostly a variety of supplements, taken in conjunction to maximize their benefit, along with a healthy eating and exercise plan. Basically Advocare seems to be a high-end (so they claim, anyway) nutritional supplement company, and of course they want to sell you their products and packages and whatnot. They sell through individual distributors; I don't know if my distant relative is a distributor or just an end user and frankly, I'm not keen on asking because I don't want a sales pitch. I'm open to supplements. I've even taken a variety of them in the past. I'm even open to Advocare... their products sound pretty decent from the little research I did. What I need in my supplements though is good quality at a fair price, and I haven't done any pricing research yet.

What I'd like to figure out now is what sorts of supplements I'd like to take and then price them out and get the best deals. Walgreens and CVS almost always have supplements on sale, Buy One Get One Free. I still don't know if those are the best values because I don't buy them often... quite frankly, supplements are expensive, and when you start taking multiple pills several times a day it can get REALLY pricey. We're quite poor these days so we don't have a lot of options.

After doing a bit more research, and building on what I used to do and what I already know, these are supplements I'm interested in adding to my regimen:

probiotics - I hear lots and lots of good things about them. I do eat yogurt but not every day. I'm going to try to eat more yogurt as well. I have a lot of GI problems of late though, and I'd like to do anything that might help with those.

fiber - I'm supposed to be taking Benefiber daily because of my GI problems. I haven't been lately because we ran out and, well, money. But I'm really miserable most days and again, I need to do whatever I can to help myself feel better.

multivitamin - I think we should all take one daily.

milk thistle - supposed to be great for liver problems. I have a fatty liver and would like to help my liver repair itself.

omega 3 fatty acids - I just keep hearing more and more good things about them and how we should all be getting greater amounts of them, and we don't eat a lot of fish, so I'd like to supplement.

amino acids - I'm not sure about this. I read a little about how they are good for building muscle, which in turn will help your metabolism increase, but I need to do more research.

echinacea and garlic - I don't know if they come together, or if there's some kind of combo immune boosting supplement, but I'd like to do some more research and possibly take something with these during the winter. I tend to get sick a lot, and I hate it.

vitamin B - specifically B6 and B12, as I hear they're good for energy boosts. I've been suffering extreme fatigue for months now. I NEED more energy. I can't live like this, it's awful. I just don't know if this is a vitamin you can overdose on, so I need to check... I don't want to take too much if I'm going to take this and a multivitamin.

So that's my wish list. Now I just need to figure out the most cost-effective way to get these items in my house. It's hard to be healthy when you're poor. :/

What supplements, if any, do you take?