Every Healthy Step Makes a Difference

Wow, has it been a long time!  I really try to blog as often as I find time but time has eluded me these days.  It also hasn't helped that my new computer crashed over a week ago.  Yes, the new computer I just purchased less than two months ago crashed.  Thankfully, it was all under warranty so I hopefully I will have a fabulous, working computer in just a few days and then I will just fight time when keeping up with my blog again.  Right now, I've taken my son's school computer to catch up with you while he takes a lunch break.

My journey is as exciting and as boring as every - it all depends on the day, hour and minute.  Over the past couple of weeks I have made a few changes in my healthy lifestyle. One of them is something that I rarely speak of with you.  In fact I think it's an important part of weight loss and a healthy lifestyle but often gets missed. I have changed my vitamins.  Exciting stuff, hey?!

I have taken a multi-vitamin for many years - 15 years to be exact.  When I became pregnant for the first time 15 years ago my doctor told me to start taking prenatal vitamins.  Prenatal vitamins are very similar to most women's multivitamins except for a few small differences - one of them being the amount of folic acid.  Being new to the mom circuit 15 years ago made me take my vitamins religiously.  After I got through Jason's pregnancy and life got busy I still tried to take my vitamins knowing that I was probably going to have more kids (ha, that was an understatement). I knew that taking a multivitamin was important during pregnancy but it was just as important before pregnancy and in the very early stages of pregnancy when many moms don't even know they are pregnant.  Therefore, I still took prenatal vitamins as often as I remembered or felt like it. I was never very good about remembering them each and every day but I always had them on hand just in case.

Over the years I have continued to take prenatal vitamins or multivitamins to help with my healthy life as well as keeping any possible additions to my family healthy too. I have run into a couple of problems though.  One is that I often forget.  I have tried many methods over the years to remember but many of them have failed.  The other problem is that they often make me sick.  I have been known to take a vitamin and then be very sick to my stomach 15 minutes later.  This makes my memory worse because taking a vitamin that makes me sick is that last thing that I want to remember to do.

When I was pregnant with Samuel my doctor did the normal tests when I was about 6 months along.  That afternoon the nurse called me and told me that my doctor wanted me to start taking iron pills because my iron levels were too low.  I sheepishly admitted that I had not been taking my prenatal vitamins more than once a week.  My nurse chuckled and said that she would tell my doctor and that she would recommend that I take my prenatal vitamins every day until my next appointment when I could talk to my doctor about any additional iron if needed.  I was kindly scolded by my doctor at my next appointment.  I took my vitamin daily from there on.  I cushioned it between 2 snacks and that helped me keep it down. After Sammy was born I went back to my bad habits again.

A couple of weeks ago I threw away all of my multivitamins.  I decided that I really needed to take them but should not dread the process.  I went to the store and bought myself some chewable vitamins and was thrilled to find out that I could keep them them down with no problems.  I have to spend a little more money on chewables than I did the others and that's painful for my frugal self, but now I am taking them regularly and feel good about it.  One of the Weight Watchers Good Health Guidelines is to take a multi-vitamin daily and after all of these years, I can finally say that I am doing it right.

Is there something that you know you should do but dread it?  What can you change that will help the process go more smoothly?

Have a great day,
Corinna

"O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!" -Psalm 95:1-2