Well? Rather than actually eating, you know, real food with nutritional value, I’m trying to be healthier by taking a daily multivitamin.
I constantly forget, though. The only other pills I’ve ever taken on a regular basis were allergy pills and a lactase supplement. If I forgot either of those, I would certainly know, and the resulting nasty effects would make me much less likely to forget. Vitamins do not do that.
They say to take with food, and I don’t generally eat breakfast, so taking them first thing in the morning or right before bed is out. So - what’s the trick to remembering to choke down the ridiculously huge pill?
Yes, I do know that I should eat breakfast and also eat vegetables and fruit and stuff. I’m a college student who’s locked into a mealplan, and I intend to make the most of the remaining years of my life when I can eat absolute crap and still feel just fine.
My parents keep their medicine in the cabinet with the cereal bowls and coffee mugs. Since they’re in there every day, they always take their medications with breakfast. You don’t eat breakfast, but can you do something similar? Get a small pillbox and keep it in the same place (pocket, purse) where you keep your mealplan card?
Can you trigger remembering to your lunchtime somehow? Put the bottle next to where you stash your lunch, if you brownbag it, or next to your purse, if you go out.
Well, you should take them with food, but if you aren’t taking them at all now taking one right before bed every night or before you brush your teeth in the morning would be better than not taking it at all.
Otherwise put some in your purse and take one every day at lunch. Or set the timer on your cell phone to go off at a specific time every day and take it then.
I’ve read that they recommend taking it with food to avoid stomach problems. If it doesn’t bother your stomach, I wouldn’t bother with the food requirement. I take my vitamins at night before bed and I keep them in the fridge and on top of the microwave so I see them.
Ditto on this. I wouldn’t take them because of the swallowing big pills thing, so I bought chewable Viactiv vitamins - they’re about the size of those cellophane-wrapped square caramels, and come in various flavors, mostly variations on chocolate or caramel. I have a container of the multivitamin type, and one of the calcium + Vitamins D and K. I pop two calcium and one multi in my pocket on the way out the door, and chew them when I want a little candy.
I think I’ll try this - I somehow assumed it was just an absorption thing. I’ll stick them in my bathrobe pocket, and hopefully the rattling as I get ready to shower will remind me.
Do you eat the same thing for breakfast every day? I put my vitamins directly in the way of my cereal box. I don’t eat cereal every day, but about half the time I do. The other half of the time, I usually see them because they are on top of the fridge. I probably manage to remember about 6 days out of 7.
I have the added complication of taking thyroid medication first thing in the morning; I have to take a multivitamin and two iron pills a day. You can’t take iron within 4 hours of taking thyroid medication because it can interfere with absorption.
My solution is an adorable little pill case like this (the top of mine is metallic blue with a starburst pattern cut into it, bright silver) that I bring to work. I then set up a daily reminder on my Outlook calendar. Come 2pm (usually 15 mins after I’ve finished my lunch), the reminder pops up and I usually say, “oh yeah! duh!” and then take them.
It may be both. Most of the sites I can find seem to suggest that it’s about absorption, but they’re all rather poorly written and completely lacking in citations. This page says:
So take that for what it’s worth.
As for how to remember to take it: I have no idea. I forget all the time.
Make it part of your morning routine: get up, coffee, have breakfast, take vitamins, shower, brush teeth. That’s what I do anyway. I now feel weird if I don’t take my vitamins - not because of their dubious inherent value, but because not taking them would feel a little like leaving the house without brushing my teeth.
Back in the days when I only had my thyroid pill to take, I’d put the bottle in my coffee can (yes, this was back in the days when coffee came in CANS, not sacks) so that I’d see it as I fumbled my way through making coffee. In other words, I tied the pills to a habit that I already had.
I’d suggest really trying to get in the habit of eating SOMETHING in the morning, even if it’s just peanut butter on toast. It really does make a difference.
