Day 6: The Supplements

This photo has nothing to do with supplements.
I just think it's cute when kitties hide under the covers.

Ironically, today I forgot my supplements at home. I also did not have time in the morning (didn't MAKE the time) to make my smoothie. So it was an ad-lib day. I really noticed that the lack of breakfast-before-work really affected how I felt in the first part of the day, before my brain kicked in and I realized that I could have breakfast at work. Like I always do. Only instead of yogurt and granola, I could have fresh peaches and nectarines. Which I did. That helped. So maybe one of the new habits I take from all this is to make a smoothie in the morning. I think that would really be a good thing.

OK. Supplements. What are they for? Here's what I'm taking and why I'm taking them:

• Vitamin C: Great antioxidant. Antioxidants protect your tissues from age and disease (and free radicals! I just love that term). Vitamin C is also somewhat of a magic pill, helping with everything from fat metabolism to serotonin production to pulling toxins out of cells to fighting 'bad' bacteria.
• NAC (N-Acetyl-Cysteine): this is an amino acid. In this case, we're using it to help pull toxins out of cells. It's also effective in helping increase energy (I won't go into the detailed science report the book provides about why this is).
• Lecithin: Gross as it sounds, this is for bile lubrication. Bile helps flow toxins through your liver, so the more it flows, the better 'cleaning' you get.
• Activated Charcoal: This binds with toxins in the digestive tract, carrying them out so that they don't reabsorb. As an aside, charcoal is very effective as an antidote to poison. Generally it helps with tummy issues of all sorts. I have found this to be true. It's in a capsule form, so no knawing on briquets.
• Probiotics: As we're getting rid of all the 'bad' stuff, we want to replace with 'good' stuff too, like the healthy bacteria that live in our GI tract. Hence, the little probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus and L. bifidus.
• Glutamine: Another amino acid. I'm taking this one to help decrease the permeability of my intestinal tract, so that the bad stuff doesn't get reabsorbed. It's also another one that helps with energy production.
• Giant women's multi-v: to take care of all the rest of those vitamins and minerals.
• Milk Thistle: An herb helpful in liver detox.

I don't know why but I think that the most helpful of these has been the vitamin C, the multi-v, and the charcoal. Just a gut feeling (gut -- get it?). Lecithin is supposed to be another one of those magical substances that cures everything. Anyway, we had some of these already, and the rest were not expensive, so I'll probably keep taking them (at a lower, maintenance dose) when I'm done with this detox phase.

I haven't noticed any severe detox symptoms: no headaches, no irritability, no sleeplessness. Just some tummy upset which seems to have resolved. I'm glad. Either this means I'm not doing it right, or I didn't have all that much detoxing to do. Mostly, I just feel better. I definitely need more sleep, however. I usually get about 7-8 hours a night but frankly I think I need 9 on a regular basis. It's so hard though -- I want to stay up and read!!

Last night I did two hours of painting. It was excellent. I took some photos along the way, so once the lil painting is finished I'll post pictures of the process. It's kind of interesting to document how it evolves.

Overall, this program feels great. I definitely want to do another week, and then I'll add in some eggs, and maybe some dairy to see how that goes.