Vitamin D {Healthy Mama Challenge Week 19}

Hello, Hello!

I’m extremely excited to back at work on the blog… or at least the fun parts of the blog.  I’ll be sharing more about the big host move later this week but for now let’s just say that I’m not the most tech-savy gal out there and so I’m happy to be back to working on the artsy side of blogging.

I don’t know about where you live, but here we are in the throes of winter.  The snow is abundant and the sunshine is not.  This is where Vitamin D comes in handy.  I only started taking Vitamin D fairly recently.

A few months ago I had my annual check-up with my midwife she asked about how I was doing emotionally.  She knew about my struggle with postpartum depression after having baby S and wanted to see how I was progressing a year after his birth.  Thankfully I am in a much better place emotionally.  She reminded me to reach out for help if I still felt I needed it and then mentioned something that I had not heard too much about- Vitamin D.

Apparently most of us live in areas where in the winter we just don’t get enough sun for our bodies to produce an adequate amount of Vitamin D.  Among other things, Vitamin D helps us to have strong bones by enabling our bodies to use calcium we get from food.  Some studies have shown links between low levels of Vitamin D and depression.  My midwife recommended that I take Vitamin D especially in the winter when my levels are probably inadequate.  Now, she wasn’t saying that taking Vitamin D would ward of any return of depression but she recommended it as something that might help my mood in the long winters here and could certainly help my bones.

So I’ve been taking it now for a few months.  I can’t say as I see too much difference in my mood since I have begun taking it.  When I began taking it in October my hormones had leveled out and I wasn’t depressed.  And currently I do not feel depressed.  Whether or not it does make a difference I’m not sure, but I do like taking it as I am sure my Vitamin D levels are super low right now and my bones could use all the help they can get.

I am currently taking these softgels. They are small and easy to swallow.

Initially I bought these VitaMelts because they have calcium as well as Vitamin D but they are disgusting.  When I bought them I thought that they were chewables for some reason, but they are not.  They are melts.  The difference?  You have to let them melt in your mouth and they take quite a while to do so.  The whole melting thing might not be a big deal but they taste so bad that I kept gagging, which is saying something because there is not much that makes me gag.

And now to the scale to check in on this week’s weight-loss progress…

Since I last checked in three weeks ago I have lost 0.4 pounds or 0.2%.  Since beginning my challenge 19 weeks ago I have lost 9 pounds or 5.2% overall.

I have a few weight loss goals-

• Get to a healthy BMI (2.0 pounds to go)
• Get to my pre-pregnancy weight (4.0 pounds to go)
• Get to my pre-marriage weight (9.0 pounds to go)
• Total Weight Loss Goal {Get back to my ideal weight} (19.0 pounds to go)

In my last Healthy Mama post three weeks ago I mentioned not working out because I had a bad cough.  I went to the doctor shortly thereafter and found out that I had pneumonia in my right lung.  That kept me from working out or doing much else until the end of last week when I finally started feeling normal again.  I worked out for the first time on Friday morning and it was rough but I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and making some progress toward my goals.

We’re about a month into the year… anyone else still working on getting healthy this year?  How’s it going?  Do you take Vitamin D?

(Please note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on a link and make a purchase I will receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting the blog!  Read my disclosure policy here.)

Cat

Cat is a teacher turned stay-at-home mom of two boys.  She shares crafts, DIY projects, kids’ activities, and a little bit about life in Ohio.  Learn more about her and the blog on the About page.