Sunday, June 17, 2012

Sporty Sunday: Remember Your Vitamins!

I’ve always been irregular about taking my supplements. Sometimes I remember the multi-vitamins, sometimes I don’t. (Despite purchasing the candy-like gummy vites!) Sometimes I remember the iron supplement, sometimes I don’t. (Despite keeping them on my desk at work.) When my doctor diagnosed me as vitamin D deficient, I realized I had to find a way to reliably integrate my supplements into my daily schedule.

After a few weeks of struggling to simply remember, I asked Beefy to pick me up a day-of-the-week pill case. I load it with a week’s worth of pills, keep it in my purse, and now take my supplements every morning.


The trick wasn’t simply keeping them handy. The trick was inserting the vitamins into another routine: everyday, when I get to work, I habitually go through my purse and remove the items I’d like accessible during the day (phone, lipstick, correspondence, etc) before I lock it up in my desk drawer. I’ve maintained this habit for months and it is ingrained in my daily schedule. Now, as I’m sorting through the bag, the heptaganol pill case catches my eye and I pull it out, remove the day’s vitamins, and take them with a snack. Even if I miss my morning bag-emptying routine (due to an early meeting or phone call), the need for my phone or lipstick will prompt the habit later.

The weekends are a little trickier to remember, but, so far, I’ve “discovered” the pill case in my bag while at restaurants (digging for my wallet, phone, or lipstick), and promptly took my vites.

I have a terrible memory and can’t rely on it for anything important. The habit-pairing technique has been my most successful way to begin a new routine.

How do you remember to take your vitamins?

Sporty Sunday is a recurring feature in which I share my fitness routine and offer and solicit advice. While this content might seem a little out of place in an outfit diary, a healthy, strong body is the foundation of my wardrobe. I hope to inspire my readers to be fit as well as stylish!

8 comments:

Heather said...

Tying them to another habit is the only thing that works for me too! I put mine beside my contact case so I remember to take them when I take my contacts out at night.

Clothes Karma said...

I have a morning routine of going potty, then taking birth control and vitamins right afterwards. It's easy to remember since they are right there in the medicine cabinet and I always wake up with a full bladder!

Megan G said...

The Hubs and I use daily phone alarms for daily pills. It might be inconvient for some, but we both always have our phones on us. Keeping pill cases handy also helps, but to pull OUT the case, the phone alarm is what makes me remember.

Rachel S said...

What a great article! Love your blog ! You always give me good ideas!

Laura said...

I used to be horrible about consistently taking my vitamins, until I bought adult gummy vitamins from Trader Joe's. Apparently I am a kid at heart. :)

Rachel said...

I refill my vitamin weekly thingy every Sunday, and I take my pills every night before I go to bed. That way I don't have to take them with me anywhere, and the vitamins digest while I'm sleeping (in case any vitamins give me tummy problems because I should take them with food). I get teased for being an "old fart" having the weekly thingy but it's worked really well for me. As you say, it's part of the routine now.

C said...

vitamins on the kitchen table... take them with breakfast...

Kearnygirl said...

Hi, I love your blog but have never posted. Your mention of vitamin D got me motivated. I guess this is going to sound negative about vitamins but here goes: I was diagnosed with low vitamin d (like every woman who is ever tested) and I have been taking the calcium/vitamin d tablets for over a year now. I was just tested again and I am still too low in the vitamin d category. I just saw something on tv the other day saying that they tested people who took vitamin d for years and there was no change! That is so depressing to know that. I don't know whether to take them or not now. Are they a waste of money? My dr. said to up the miligrams but then I read that there is a chance of getting too much vitamin d and that's not good for your body???? What the h _ _ _? What do you think of that?