Dietary Supplements

I can't remember a time when I didn't take at least a multivitamin every day. Over the years, a variety of different supplements have come in and out depending on my needs at the time. Some I began taking for a specific reason and then continued to take for maintenance such as Glucosamine and Chondroitin to protect my joints from the beating they get from running.

When Phantom was diagnosed with cancer this summer, supplements took on an entirely different meaning. My husband and I started taking CoQ10 again, a higher dose of vitamin d3 and are looking into krill oil supplements as well.

A friend of mine asked me to write down what a take because now she's on the supplement bandwagon after she started taking krill oil for her cholesterol levels and heart and she suddenly feels so much better. So much better that she recently signed up for an Ironman triathlon!

The former model, Carol Alt is really into supplements. I saw her on her health show recently and she says she keeps all her supplements in boxes and has a morning box and an evening box full of supplements. She must take 100's a day! She also eats a raw diet most of the time..

All of this made me wonder exactly how many supplements I take a day. I decided to write it down and here is my list of daily supplements.

1. 2 a day multi-vitamins for hair, skin and nails (from Life Extensions)

2. Calcium with Vitamin D3 and other minerals

3. 2 or 3 per day amino acid supplements (as well as protein powder in my green smoothie.)

    More than that when I'm training hard and long such as for an Ironman triathlon.

3. Chlorella (it helps with heavy metal detox among other things)

4. N Acetyl Cysteine (also helps with detox and lung function)

5. Turmeric (anti cancer properties) I take a pill form at night and add the powder form to my smoothie.

6. Cinnamon (control blood sugar) I take a pill form at night and add the powder form to my smoothie.

7. Garlic (heart health and anti cancer) I take the pill form but we also add it to some of our food.

8. Glucosamine with Chondroitin and MSM (joint health)

9. CLA (helps body burn fat)

10. L-carnitine (also helps body use fat stores for energy) Want to loose weight? Try this!

11.Green tea fat burner pill (fat burning and antioxidant!) Same as above!

12. Fish Oil (heart health, anti cancer, just good stuff to take!)

13. Flaxseed (same as above) I use to take this as a pill but now I ground the real stuff up and add it to my green smoothie.

14. CoQ10 (heart health and energy) I use to take this for endurance, now I take it for it's anti cancer 

     and heart health benefits)

15. B12

16. Folic acid

17. Singulair - I have to take this for asthma

18. Reservatrol - I use to take this in pill form but now I get it in liquid form aka red wine!

On my list of supplements to purchase is:

1. Krill oil with astaxanthin ( it's a huge part of my cats anti cancer protocol and that's enough reason to 

    purchase for me!)

2. Spirulina (super healthy, anti cancer food)

When I race I also take an electrolyte/salt supplement and another supplement that helps the body get rid of lactic acid called Vo2 Max both from carbopro.com.

We get almost all of our other supplements either at the local drug store or at Lifeextension.com. 

  

So it looks like I take about 18 dietary supplements per day, unless I forgot one. I don't think I have. In the past, I've taken an extra C or E or zinc or evening primrose or selenium, etc. Vit. C and E is in my regular multi- vitamin though. I would take extra if I felt I needed an immune system boost. 

Have I left a really important supplement out that I really, really need to be taking? Please let me know! I'll add it to my "supplements to purchase" list.

Thanks in advance.

Jelly Face

image from Wikopedia.com

When the Murph and I first started living together we discovered the need to compromise when it comes to the food that was allowed in the house. What this means is I have to compromise or be accused of not being a team player. I have a little bit of a sweet tooth and tend to snack. The Murph doesn't like having any temptations around because he says he has a slow metabolism and doesn't need to eat certain things.  His list of things to never have in the house include ice cream, jelly, donuts, potato chips, cream cheese, pies, cakes, most kinds of cookies and candy.

I have compromised for the most part and have actually started eating better myself. I now satisfy my sweet tooth mostly with yogurt, fruit, and certain not so sweet and buttery cookies such as a bag of dried up. cardboard tasting animal crackers. No more almond pillow cookies.

Needless to say, last month when the Murph went to take care of his dad in New Jersey, I went all out crazy at the grocery store. One of the first things (other than donuts) I got was jelly. I had suffered with peanut butter and no jelly sandwiches for far too long.

Unfortunately, I couldn't eat the entire jar before the Murph got back home so the jar has sat in the refrigerator and I've been able to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and jelly on toast and jelly on bagels. Heavenly!

There were a couple of episodes where the Murph threatened to throw it in the garbage, but I managed to salvage the precious jar. I was "making it last" because I knew I wouldn't be able to manage to get another jar into our shopping cart at the grocery store. I've tried sneaking things in by putting them under the napa cabbage and the bag of kale, but the Murph always manages to sneak them back out by the time we get to check out and my search for it in the shopping bags after we return home is futile. My goodies are gone!

I knew how valuable this jar of jelly was so I tucked it away behind my bottle of wine and Mike's Margarita's in the fridge door. It was safe... for a while.

Then it happened! The other day after spinning in the gym, doing weights followed by a very steamy 4 mile run, I was hungry. A green smoothie was not going to hit the spot that day. I was craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I was so happy because I knew I still had half a jar of jelly left. I was "making it last."

The only problem was that when I opened the fridge, the jelly was missing! It wasn't hidden behind the adult beverages anymore! I asked the Murph if he threw my jar of jelly away and he said "nooo". I asked him where my jar of jelly was and he said "I don't know".  After a thorough search of the fridge, I KNEW he had done something to the jelly so I asked him if he ate my entire jar of jelly. That's when he finally admitted to doing something to my jar of jelly and said "there wasn't that much left in the jar. I had a sandwich and used what little was left". 

I don't really know if this is true and he really ate the jelly or if he just threw the jar away because he was tempted to eat it. All I knew was my jelly was gone and he was the culprit!

Over half the jar was left!! He ate or disposed of it and didn't tell me and now I can't get another jar of it because he doesn't like it in the house because when it's in the house he's out of control. He can't "make it last" so I have to suffer. It's not so much the jelly he doesn't like in the house, it's that he likes peanut butter and jelly too much. It's not the cream cheese he doesn't like, it's the bagels and cream cheese he likes too much. The only reason why bagels are "allowed" is because there is no cream cheese and who likes dry, plain bagels, but me.

This was my look when I realized my jelly was gone and there wasn't going to be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for me that day. 

I also look that way when I'm hungry and I was very, very hungry that day. Don't mess with me when I'm hungry!

Of course the Murph laughed and said "Whaaattt?" and now whenever I have "that look" on my face he says "Don't give me that jelly face!" or he sometimes just calls me "jelly face". Somehow I have to learn how to outsmart him in the grocery store and learn how to hide things better.

In the meantime the Murph suggested that I just put honey on my peanut butter sandwiches which is totally not the same as jelly. Not the same at all!

I Confess - I Turned The Alarm Off And Went Back To Bed (And Other Important Things)

What a week! I don't even know where to begin. The Murph's job offer in St. Pete? The Boy's eviction notice from his college apartment? Phantom, the cat's, bad, good, trying to get him to eat, drink and take his pills and supplement days? My half ironman training (that's not) days?

The 15 hours of continuing education real estate license classes I have to take so I can activate my Alabama license, so I can then get a reciprocal Florida real estate license without having to take the 60 hour pre-license class again. Searching online for a place to live in the Tampa/St. Pete area before we head back down there in a couple of weeks so we can see them in person.

That doesn't include all that's coming up next week. We are going back to Birmingham to clean out and pack up the house and then turn it over to a Birmingham realtor to sell for us. Hopefully, she will sell it quicker than we were able too. Being there to show it is key. That's hard to do when you're 4 hours away like we are. We weren't all that concerned about it until we discovered we were moving several more hours away. Any way, that's all next week.

This past week the Boy, who has Asperger's, called me from college while we were still in St. Pete saying he got an eviction notice from his apartment. This is after the fact that the Boy had gone down to the office several times to get this vendor form filled out for Alabama Rehab. AL Rehab has to have the form before they can pay the apartment complex. The Boy is eligible for a part of his rent to be paid by Alabama Rehab. Without their help, the Boy can't afford to live there. There have been a series of phone calls, emails from the Boy, me and Alabama Rehab to the apartment complex, but nothing has been done. I even called the corporate office and the Boy has been to the apartment office several times. Despite all of this, since rent is past due because the form hasn't been filled out, the Boy got an eviction notice.

This has FINALLY been straightened out (I think) so the Boy's okay for now. His classes were dropped also, when his financial aid wasn't applied to his account because of me. That was back a few weeks ago when I didn't know the difference between an income tax return and a transcript. This was taken care of as well so he's okay there too. Finally!

The Murph accepted the job offer and we are still waiting for everything to be finalized. We should know something this week. We already have a realtor trying to help us find a place to rent in Tampa/St.  Pete and I've been looking online. What a headache!

Me and Miss Mary

Phantom is doing pretty well. We had dinner with Miss Mary, an energy healer, who has been helping Phantom, last night. She's been sending Phantom healing energy and giving me other suggestions for him. She thinks he might be dehydrated. He was drinking tons of water when we were in St. Pete and not so much now that we are back in Pensacola. If you want to keep up with how he's doing he has his own facebook page here and blog here.

The Murph and Miss Mary

I had to upgrade my computer system so I could take the online CE Real Estate classes. That was a pain since I thought I could do it myself and wasted several hours attempting it. Who knows what all I've downloaded on this thing now. I have a dinosaur of a computer! I've only gotten halfway through the first risk management class and have 5 classes (15 hours) total that I have to take. Boring!

Half Ironman training? Well, uh, yes, I'm sucking at it! I haven't swam in a couple of weeks or been on my tri bike. I've been indoor cycling, weights and lots of running, but shorter runs of between 3 - 9 miles. Okay, mostly just 3 miles.

Sunday was the Trigulfcoast's club members only practice triathlon for the Santa Rosa Island Sprint that is coming up in a couple of weeks. I was signed up to do the practice race which was going to be officially timed with a chip and everything. It would have been a great practice race and good overall brick workout. The night before I pumped up my bike tires, set my tri clothing out and packed all my gear into my transition bag. I set the alarm on my IPhone for 5:30 a.m and was all set to go!

My alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. just as scheduled. It was still dark outside at 5:30 a.m. That totally sucks because I terribly dislike getting up when it's still dark outside knowing that I have to swim. In the ocean!!

I got up, turned my alarm off, fed a snack to two of our curious, demanding cats, who were probably wondering what the crap I was doing, then I crawled back into my nice warm bed between my sexy husband (he has incredible body heat at 5:30 a.m) and our other four legged furry kitty, Ed, who likes sleeping on my side of the bed.

A few hours later, the Murph woke up, looked over at my sorry sleeping ass, laughed and asked me how I did on the race.

I told him it was an incredibly tough race! I had to stumble 10 feet to turn my alarm off, followed by a couple of hours of some marathon sleeping. It was grueling, just grueling! I even shortened my Sunday long run because of how exhausted It was from getting up at 5:30 a.m.

And did I feel guilty about being a no show?

Heck no!

St. Pete Beach Sunsets, Toasted Monkeys, And Weird Moon Pictures

I thought this maxi dress was going to be perfect to wear as we transition from Summer to Fall (yeah, Fall at the beach. Really!), but I've been wearing it so much all summer that I'm probably going to be sick of it by the time Fall arrives. For sure it will be in threads by next summer. I love it that much!

Our trip to St. Pete Beach was FUN! The sunsets were AMAZING! And living in Pensacola Beach, I am very spoiled when it comes to amazing sunsets. St. Pete Beach faces west so the sunsets are right over the Gulf of Mexico, which is amazing on an entirely different scale than Pensacola Beach where the beach faces South and we get the sunset going down over the bay and the Santa Rosa Sound. Totally different and amazing as well.

There were many cool beach bars within walking distance of our hotel and we frequented as many as we could fit in in the short time we were at St. Pete Beach. I loved the name of this one - Toasted Monkey.

Very fitting since we saw several people who were indeed toasted and acting like monkeys. In a nice way though.

Of course, we took Phantom with us since he has to have his cancer and heart medications and special foods. The first day while I was doing a 3 mile run, I bought this new snappy red harness for him so he can go outside with us without running off. He didn't like it much at first (still doesn't) and did this dead possum pose where he would lay there dead weight and refuse to budge even if I poked at him and tried to bribed him to get up.

When I finally gave up and said, "Okay, lay there! But I'm going outside!" and then I would go outside and stand by the door, he caught on quick and popped right up. Even Phantom can overlook a little indignity if it means getting outside for a while.

The people who worked at the hotel were very impressed at the way we had "trained" Phantom to walk on a leash. Trained! Ha!

In this creepy looking picture we were trying to capture the moon behind us so the camera flash was turned off. Right after sunset, before all the stars came out, there was only the crescent moon with a very bright star next to it that we are pretty sure was a planet. There was several debates on which planet it was. I say Venus because isn't that one called the "evening star'"? Or is Venus the "morning star"? My second guess is Jupiter.

The Murph thinks it was Venus too. Below is a little better. It doesn't look like fairies are about to land on the Murph's head like the above picture does.

We got several pictures like the last one. Our camera's not high tech and neither are we. A couple from Germany had a high powered super camera that was taking some amazing pictures of this. The Murph offered for them to swap cameras with us, but they weren't interested. They got a good laugh at our poor camera's expense though.

Anyway all they got are silly moon and planet pictures and who even knows for sure if it even was a planet for real. We got an entire light show!

Traveling South In Florida

 Here's the reason why I haven't posted anything for a couple of days. I'm at the beach. Not the beach I live on, but another beach further south in Florida. Thursday we packed up Phantom and drove down to the Tampa/St Pete area because the Murph had a job interview. The drive took up about 7 hours from Pensacola Beach, but Phantom and I handled it very well. I did better because I drove 2 1/2 hours of the drive. That was the part where the Murph didn't do very well.

He was glad to take over the wheel again.

Phantom slept most of it. I let him out of his crate twice to use his litter box and stretch his legs by jumping into the way back area of the SUV where I couldn't get to him. He was very cooperative though and came to me when I called him because he thought he was getting out of the car. He is a very good traveler and a sweet kitty.

While I was running yesterday in St. Pete,  I went into two different pet boutiques and purchased this cool backpack, rolling carrier for Phantom. I also purchased a bigger halter that actually fits him so we can take him outside with us without him running off. He loves being outside, but can hide inside the backpack if he gets scared.

I put him on my back and went to the hotel's out door grill for lunch while we were waiting for the Murph to get back from his job interview. Phantom would go from "wanting to explore and attack the birds" to "I'm scared! I better hide!" The backpack was his "safe" spot.

He did really well with the new halter. Much better than the other halter I have for him. I didn't get any good pictures of it though. Just a bunch of strange looks from the other tourists. I guess they've never seen a cat on a leash before.

Good news is...

1. The Murph got a job offer so it looks like we might be moving down here. Good news because he got a job, but bad news we have to leave Pensacola Beach. We LOVE it there, but we can love Tampa/St. Pete too. The beaches are HUGE!! Like on steroids huge!

2. I found not one, but two vets who specialize in holistic medicine down here and have called and emailed them to see if they can help Phantom fight his cancer holistically. I am very, very exited about this because I found zero vets in Alabama or the pan handle of Florida that does holistic stuff.

I stopped the Palladia after he threw up the last pills. I think they helped stop the cancer spread, but now I'm looking for holistic stuff that will take over where the Palladia left off.

In October we go to Miami for the half ironman triathlon. I feel like I've suddenly become a total beach bum, taking a tour of many different beaches! Florida beaches this time. It reminds me of when I went to visit a dear friend in Tortolla and her husband took us on a tour of all the beaches on the island. We circled the entire island and hit all the best spots. I was amazed at the difference in all the beaches on that small island. Some rocky, some smooth and crystal clear, some with huge surfing waves. It was so fun!

What are some of your favorite beaches?

That's all for now because I have to get a work out in and then hit the beach!

Meet Ms. September

Ms. September's yoga pose for the month is the side plank. This is a one I need to do. The regular plank is something I do all the time. It's a great core exercise for runners. It would be really easy for me to add the side plank to my core workout.

Regular plank
Image from womensfitnessmag.com

As I was flipping through the calendar the other day I realized that the first name on the left side of the calendar was  the cat's name and not another name for the yoga pose. So I guess Maude is the cat name and not the pose. Since Maude is probably a girl name, she is indeed a "Ms." so I can correctly call her "Ms." September.

My apologies to Stallone and all the other male cats over the past year who I referred to as "Ms" when they were actually a "Mr."

Opps! Blonde moment. Oh well, at least I figured it out before January.

This is one reason why yoga may be dangerous for me. The instructor would say "side plank" and I would get all confused because I would be thinking, "Maude, you mean Maude?"

Reason two is I have no sense of balance. I'm always a little off balance. My best yoga poses are the ones where both feet are on the ground.

Seriously.