Annual Check-up & Vitamin Question

I admit to being really really, I mean REALLY bad at taking my prescribed fist full of vitamins every day for the last 6 months or so (maybe remembered 3 times in the last 3 months).  I have never been good at taking pills on a consistent basis.  Now I'm paying the price with fatigue, dizziness, stalled / slowed weight loss, and sores not healing properly. 

So, I am going to try to take them more consistently and would like some tips on how all of you remember your vitamins? 

Also, my annual post op is this month and I need to go for blood work, how long before the rededication to the vitamin routine would be reflected in the blood work? 

Get a couple of pill carriers and put an extra on in your purse so in case you forget you always have some when you remember.  Also set the reminder on your phone and tell as many people as you can about your routine so they can help you establish a routine.  If you need to put Notes around every where so you can remember

I have a 7 day pill box that I pre-load with each day's vitamins.  I know I need to take everything in it daily, even if I am finishing them after dinner.  I have 3 boxes that I fill at a time so I only have to do it occasionally.  Walmart has them hanging near the pharmacy and I even found one at a dollar store.  

When I had a vitamin D deficiency, my doctor did not retest me for 3 months, and then again every 3 months until it was resolved and I had a stable amount of Vitamin D in my blood.  I don;t know about other vitamins.  

http://www.forgettingthepill.com/products/deluxe-weekly-plan ners-with-case I bought this

I have 4 alarms set on my phone every 3 hours.

I have my bottles in a vegetable tray divider and it sits on a lazy susan.  On Sunday I swirl it around and load up my vitamins for the week.  I take my first dose and put that day in my purse.

 

 

I like!  I have the traditional seven day box.  I like you can take the days with you without the bulk of the whole box.

I also have a 7 day pill box and I load it up on Sunday. My mornings are always my Prilosec and my vitamins and supplements are right before I go to bed.

I use the weekly pill sorters too, and have forced myself to develop habits. Synthroid and Prilosec when I first get up, multivitamin, iron, vitamins C, D and biotin with lunch, cal mag citrate with supper, flexeril at bedtime. (Because sleep is a Good Thing)

I find that I need to attach the new habit to an established one. Like - I ALWAYS have coffee in the morning, so my routine now is chewing on my Synthroid while the Keurig dispenses my first cup, then taking the Prilosec with my first sip of coffee. Not the ideal way to take either, but what my pharmacist told me to do.

I like my lunch to be pretty - my lunchtime vitamins go in a small cup on the plate. Part of cleaning up after supper is taking my Cal Mag liquid, then adding the spoon to the dishwasher. I take my flexeril with a sip of my bedside glass of water when I pour it to take upstairs.

So - my never humble advice: look at your current habits and find a way to "attach" your vitamins to something you're already in the habit of doing. Doing it that way is MUCH easier than trying o set up completely new routines.

Kelly-Anne