What Vitamins Do I Take?

I'm ofen get asked what vitamins I take and where I buy stuff. I got the question again tonight and actually took the time to type it all up. So I'm sticking it here to refer back to later.

I recently wrote blog posts on Organizing My Vitamins and Calcium Options ... they show pics of my vitamins and stuff if you want to take a peek.

The list below is MY vitamins based on my own lab results and more extensive than the basic vitamins needed right after surgery ... nobody should follow this list but me, it's just an example of one person's pill line-up at 2+ years out. For information on what the basic vitamin plan is for your surgery type, see the ASMBS Nutrition Guidelines (chart on pages 7-8).

What you see below is an ever-evolving schedule - listed below happens to be what my current routine looks like. It was actually different yesterday than it is today because I just replenished my supply of fish oil that I've been out of for a couple months. And just a week or so ago, Andrea made me change my copper and zinc doses to be alone because I was screwing it up and taking them with the rest of my vitamins, but they need to be alone and treated just like iron. So those 2 doses in the middle of the evening are new to me and tough to remember. I'm also just starting iron since my GYN took me off Depo Provera so I'm no longer a non-menstrating woman. So, as of February 27th... this is what I take.

(And yes, I realize that some of these doses are less than 2 hours apart on the schedule. That's not usually the case in real life because the times are never exact. But even if it's only 1.5 hours between instead of 2 hours... I guess that's better than not taking it at all because there just aren't enough hours in the day.)

My Vitamin Schedule

7am -- in my protein shake

• calcium +D (UpCalD from Amazon)

9am -- or whenever I arrive at work and get settled at my desk

• iron and chewable Vitamin C (iron is Feosol from Walmart. Vitamin C is chewable GNC)

11am-ish -- taken about 30-40 minutes after I eat breakfast and start drinking again

• Centrum adult chewable multi (from Walmart or drug store with manufacturer coupons)
• B-100 Capsule (Puritan Pride or GNS) I need capsules, can't deal with smell of tablets
• Vitamin A - retinal (from Vitalady but it's a very strange pill that dissolves too fast, will switch to new brand when this is gone)
• 500mg Magnesium (Puritan Pride)
• Vitamin D3 - 2000IU (Spring Valley from Walmart - it's often out of stock in stores)
• glucosamine and chondroitin (to help with knee-joint pain) (Puritan Pride)
• Fish Oil Capsule (Spring Valley or whatever brand is on sale)
• Stool softener (Equate - Walmart store brand of Colace)

12:30pm, 2:30pm, 4:30pm

• calcium +D (Bariatric Advantage Wild Cherry Lozenge and/or Citrical Regulars)

6pm-ish -- on empty stomach

• copper (Puritan Pride)

9pm-ish -- on empty stomach (or an hour after dinner)

• zinc (Puritan Pride)

11pm -- bedtime dose

• Centrum adult chewable multi
• Probitotic (Spring Valley from Walmart - blogged about it here)
• 500mg Magnesium (Puritan Pride)
• glucosamine and chondroitin (Puritan Pride)
• Fish Oil Capsule (Spring Valley from Walmart)
• Stool softener (Equate - Walmart store brand of Colace)

3x per week

• B12 sublingual (Walmart or Puritan Pride)

1x per week

• 50k Vitamin D3 (BioTech on Amazon)

 

Notice I have a ton of stuff from Puritan Pride. They have awesome sales. I caught them on a "Buy 2 get 3 free" sale last time I orders... got enough stuff to last me a whole year of some of my supplements. I also buy Centrum when I find it on sale and have some manufacturer coupons. Last round it was on sale for $6.99/bottle and I had $3-off coupons... so I got a supply that'll last me about 11 months for the price of 2 months at regular price.

 

~Pam