My Love-Hate With Multivitamins

I eat a very very low calorie diet.

That being said, there are nutritional needs that I have to supplement.  I'm lactose intolerant, so right off the bat I have to supplement calcium.  I do everything I can to consume enough protein, and typically do.  But I know I don't get enough fruits, iron, and often need the Vitamin C, because when you're running 5 miles 5 days a week you need to stay healthy.

Right from the get-go, I knew I needed to take a multivitamin to help supplement some of the nutrients that I don't get regularly from food.

After some trial & error, I settled on Women's One-A-Day Active Metabolism.  They're about $8.99 at any Walgreens, Walmart, Target, whatever.  I picked these in the beginning mostly because of the word "metabolism", but I've stuck with these.  Again, this is what I take.  You are allowed and encouraged to find what works for you.

Now, in addition to the multivitamin, I take:

*Vitamin C (You can never really "over-do" it.  Vitamin C is water based, what your body does not use it will pee out. This is one of the most important to me, because the minute I get sick my work outs suffer or stop completely.  I cannot afford that.)
*Biotin (I'm obsessed with growing my hair)
*Fish Oil

My vitamin supplementing is a work in progress.  The more I research and learn, the more I decided to change what I'm taking versus what I'm getting through food.  Its an evolving process, so we will be coming back to this at some point I'm sure.

This is where the hate part comes in:

I'm extremely sensitive to my multivitamin.  At first I was taking it and getting extremely nauseated, puking within the first 10 minutes I had it down.  This is what you need to know about taking a multivitamin:

*NEVER take it with citrus. The acid will react badly with it.
*NEVER take it with dairy. Ditto, the combination will make you sick. Does this mean you can't take it at lunch if you had a slice of cheese on your wrap?  No.  It means don't take it with yogurt at breakfast or with a milk chaser.
*NEVER take it on an empty stomach.
*Take it with a bigger meal. When I first started with the multivitamin, I'd take it with my breakfast.  What I learned quickly is that my breakfasts are not a big enough meal.  Its not enough substance to keep the multivitamin from irritating my stomach.

The result of not doing these things...almost instant nausea that won't go away until you throw it up.

Consider yourself warned. :)