Seriously, what did you do to adjust to taking all the various supplements? I'm still in the very early stages of my journey, so I've started making some of the required changes (learning to chew my food carefully, smaller portions, giving up soda & caffeine, drinking more Water and the vitamins). I'll be starting on the exercise as soon as my kiddo gets over this sickness and stops using me as a pillow all day!

I'm mostly doing quite well. It's definitely a learning curve! I really don't care for the large number of pills I have to take. I've never enjoyed taking Multivitamins (the smell of some is very off-putting), and the large number of Calcium tablets is hard to swallow (pardon the pun). For the moment, I'm using standard pills for everything (except the B-12), as that's the least expensive route, and probably the one I'll do long term. do you have any tricks to making the pill taking easier? I have a pill reminder app to help me remember to take them. Any way of making the pills more palatable? I thought about using the chews for calcium, but that seems like quite a few extra calories to be doing long term.

Also, Does anyone have any tips for getting in your water? I've always been a "gulper", and I'm having trouble learning to do smaller sips, spaced out over time. How do you remember when to quit drinking before your next meal?

I substitute a pill for the vitamin patch. See patchmd.com. I've had my levels tested and it works fine. That's one pill down.

For me the major problem is keeping track so that I don't miss any.

It is important to separate Iron from calcium. I found out that taking iron is best to take just before bedtime. When I get up I take half my Vitamins. Then I take my calciums throughout the day spaced about 2 hours apart. And just before bed I take all the rest. Since my blood work showed I was deficient on iron, I take a separate iron pill in addition to the iron in the Flintstone chewable vitamins that contain iron.

I use two pill organizers. One for the morning and one for the evenings. I fill these once every 2 weeks *with all the vitamins except the calciums). I place the calciums in a very small bowl when I get up. That way I don't lose track of the number of calciums. I just reach in every 2 hours and take some of them. If I am up and about, I put my calciums in a zip lock bag and take it wherever I go.

Right after surgery, I found that I could not swallow medium to large pills. I used pill splitters and pill crushers during this time. The calciums were terrible because crushed calciums taste like eating chalk. I found the only way to take these when crushed is to mix them with Crystal light. I would have to fill the glass several times and stir it in order to consume all the powder. Fortunately, this limitation only lasted a couple months and I got back my ability to swallow again.

James, how many calcium are you taking throughout the day?

I have a pill container with four sections that seems to be working well. I also have an app that gives me reminders when it's time to take meds. Right now my schedule is:

AM: 2 calcium, 1 Multivitamin, 1 Vitamin D, 1 B-Complex, and a disolvable B-12 tablet.

Noon: 2 calcium

6PM: 2 calcium, 1 multivitamin

Bed: 1 Iron and 1 Vitamin C chewable.

James, how many calcium are you taking throughout the day?

I have a pill container with four sections that seems to be working well. I also have an app that gives me reminders when it's time to take meds. Right now my schedule is:

AM: 2 calcium, 1 multivitamin, 1 Vitamin D, 1 B-Complex, and a disolvable B-12 tablet.

Noon: 2 calcium

6PM: 2 calcium, 1 multivitamin

Bed: 1 Iron and 1 Vitamin C chewable.

I had been using the large Citrical's of 5 per day. Then I switched to the smaller (petite) ones of 8 per day. After about a year and a half post-op, I tried to reduce the large ones down to 4 per day but my blood work showed that I wasn't getting enough calcium, so I had to go back up.

One of the things that might be confusing with the Citrical's is that the dosage rate is based on 2 tablets (not one). So until my first post-op visit with the nutritionist, I was incorrectly taking the calcium dosage. Anyways, there are a lot of calcium's to take daily.

Bariatric Advantage has a powdered calcium that is unflavored and you take it 3 times a day. You can sprinkle it on your food or mix it in your Protein drinks. You can't taste it at all.

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App