vitamins: easy fix or constant problem?

Some things that are supposed to help you have the appearance of the easy fix. Use the stairs instead of the elevator. Eat more fruit. Drink more water. Moisturize. Take a daily vitamin.

None of these have been particularly easy to accomplish in my life. Some of these "easy fixes" are more difficult than others. None more than taking that daily vitamin. I found one I generally liked. I found one by the brand I like. I scanned the nutrition label to check that it contained the vitamins that I am lacking. I bought it. Everything seemed so easy. Until I got home and opened the bottle. They were horse pills! Not actually for a horse, but much larger than the Tylenol caplets that I'm used to swallowing. And the taste... It's a chalky, leafy taste that should not exist in any form. I dread taking my daily vitamin, so much so that it's not really a daily vitamin.

On top of the daily vitamin I sometimes take MSM, which is not the news station, but a supplement that promotes strong cartilage. It dulls any joint pain quicker than any pain medicine, but that might be a placebo effect. Today I decided that I needed to up my intake of Omega-3 fatty acids, in hopes to promote healthier skin. So I trotted over to CVS and bought a triple omega supplement. I thought the daily vitamin was bad! It's easily twice the size and thus ridiculously hard to swallow. At least it doesn't have that awful taste. Woo hoo to vitamins encased in gelatin! Woo hoo! It's been a few minutes and I can still feel the capsule making it's way down my throat. Uck...

I have to say that one of the things I like about taking a collection of vitamins is that I end up being much more hydrated. To swallow each capsule, I end up drinking about 1/2 a glass of water. Three vitamins later and I've had twice as much water than I normally consume each day. (I'll talk about why that is in a later post.) So yeah for hydration! Which is sort of the reason I'm taking the triple omega supplement anyways. We'll see how long this lasts.