Is taking vitamin supplements good for you?

I have a confession to make. I’m not very proud of it. Would you like to hear it?

Ready?

Okay here goes.

I am a habitual pill popper. Yes, thats right. I’m a pill junkie. I would pop pills 3 times a day. Every day.

Observe :

  • Breakfast with 500mg Evening Primrose Oil, Jamu
  • Lunch with Sesamin extract
  • Dinner with EPO, Jamu and Acidophilus.

It started back when I was a teen of 15. There was a studies camp conducted by an external family and child, mind development institution called the Nury Institute. It could be from here where I got my casual interest in mind development. It was my first time being introduced to mind mapping, creative expression and memory recall as well as others. I supposed the camp worked well for me since I did not study for the O levels and I was able to have 6 O Level Credits with a B average

Mum eventually got interested in the retelling of the things that happened while I was in camp to check the institute out. At the time, she just had Diana, my sister and already was trying out the Glenn Doman method for my sister.

Anyhow, in one of the Nury Sessions, there was a chapter on how supplements help in the development of the physical and mental health. That was when mum started to buy supplements and made us eat them.

She’d sprinkle vitamin C on my food and coaxed me to eat the evening primrose oil and then made me eat the multivitamins. I remember thinking of how troublesome it was. It was just a small pill. What could it do? I was sceptical. But I still took it daily anyway.

It happened gradually. So gradual that I did not even realise it. I noticed that I never got sick even though it was the flu season. It was strange to me since when in my entire class would have the flu, I’d be fine, without even the least bit of a sniffle.

I was amazed that I never had monthly stomach cramps any more. That usually plagued me to bits. So slowly, I became a convert to the Faith of Vitamin Pills.

However while in Jurong Institute, my faith was swayed when my language teacher talked about how unnecessary it was to consume vitamin supplements. She insisted that the food that we consume would be more than enough to cover all of our daily necessities. I pondered about this for a while and thought that I should stop for a while. It made sense to me. It’s a vitamin supplement, meant to supplement and not replace.

I felt fine and dandy. For a while. And then I started to have my horrible stomach cramps again. I disliked the taste of panadols or any random over the counter pain killer. I’d rather endure the pain than to eating those chemicals.

I then did some research and found out that there was nothing wrong with consuming vitamin pills and that it was actually not enough to rely on food alone for the daily vitamin necessity. This was because of the fact that due to modern ways of rearing and growing food, there are lesser vitamins from it. A cup of leafy vegetable now would have less vitamins compared to one say, 30 years ago.

I’d rather take the vitamin pills. Still concerned about over consumption though. There is only so much that the body could consume while excess will be flushed away by the liver. So, there could be a wastage of money to over consume.

I went out with Juli again yesterday to discuss about our business plan. She showed me some pictures of a makeover she did for her friends and we both realised that what you see with your natural eye would look different in photos. Juli told me that the make-up she did for her friends looked nice to the eye but turned out very faint in the photos. We quickly realised that thicker make-up was needed for photography shoots.

I took Juli to Sim Lim Square to do a quick survey of the cameras that was sold there. Besides computers, Sim Lim square was famous for selling cameras at a cheaper price. Juli quipped that the camera that she just bought was about 200 dollars cheaper here compared to the one at Harvey Norman.

I went to a shop and enquired about a camera. The salesman showed me a camera. I fell in love almost immediately. It was light. The grip was wonderful. And the features was complete for what a dream camera would be.

Isn’t this gorgeous?

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

It has got nice features in it like 8.0 mega-pixels and 3 frames per second. Fast! More information from this site here.

I asked the price of the camera and the sales man said that it costs 1.6k. Is that your best price? I can give it to you for 1.5k he said. Do you have installment plans? Yes, but you need to have a visa credit card to use it.

I arched my eyebrow and told him I’ll think about it and left.

We asked about the price at other shops. Most quoted a 1.8k price. (First shop was better) And all of them had the same response. Installments only by visa credit card.

Now I don’t have a credit card with me. Only a debit card. So I only had the option of paying in full or going somewhere else to purchase it. So I told Juli, that I might try to go to courts to see if they had the same brand to be sold.

Later on Juli and I walked over to Parco Bugis Junction to do a quick make-up survey. We poured over the different make up. Since I was extremely bad at make-up, it was an educational experience for me. I heard words of wisdom from Juli.

“To tell for quality makeup, it should have a good texture”
“The trick to makeup, is blend, blend, blend”
“A good foundation is the base for good makeup”

Now, I am the type of person who’s just slap on make-up and dab it any how. I couldn’t care less how I looked. However, I did feel responsible at that it would  not be professional when they see my uncombed lion mane and panda eyes. So this year, I’m *trying* to be just a leeeeeetle bit more groomed.

I find it of a hassle having to do the morning rituals though.

– Wash
– tone
– moisturise
– medicated blemish gel
– eye gel
– sunscreen
– concealer
– powder
– eye-liner
– lip balm

And that’s the minimum steps! I could go on to eye-shadow, blush and all the other rubbish. I haven’t even started about eye contouring. Oh dear. All those steps above would be about 30 minutes if I hurry. So much hassle! It’s so annoying. But for the sakes of looking more presentable. Anyways, weekends would be my day where I can look like a lion if I wanted to since I won the right to do so 🙂

We then had dinner at Juli’s old workplace. The place was called Terracafe. I really enjoyed eating the pasta there. The Marinara was really lovely there. That’s the thing I’d usually order when I was at terracafe.

I met Juli’s good friend Ridzuan. I met him for the first time early 2000. It was a horrible experience for me then since the location that we met, and the time when we met was totally wrong. I wasn’t a night person. I was happy to sleep early before midnight and I disliked pubs with a vengeance. I felt very left out since I was the odd one out in the people of 4 since the other 3 knew each other already. They didn’t talk to me much and after a while, I decided to not mingle at all and just kept quiet.

So yes, I have a phobia of blind dates. Cart thinks that I should give these people a chance. But I feel that the situation shouldn’t feel like a “date date” I’d rather get to know a person while doing something together like canoeing, or fairs or bullying someone else. Having to try to impress someone that I don’t know with nice clothes, oh so charming manners, gorgeous hair is just nerve wrecking to me. I really disliked the whole idea.

Anyhow, this didn’t feel like a “date date” this time, and felt more like a casual outing so I didn’t mind when Juli asked her friend to join us for dinner this time. Anyhow, we’ve been talking on msn for a little and I thought that he was funny and eccentric.

Ridzuan turned up in a white tee, belted jeans, black tennis bracelets, and had a beard. He looked quite similar the same way the first time I saw him.

He also was wearing shades! It was already night time!

I commented on how cool his ipod shuffle was. And observed how he and Juli would tease each other. It made me chuckle to see how they would bully each other with catty remarks. Some of which cant be said on this family oriented blog.

But what struck me was how witty Ridzuan was. He was soft spoken, genteel even but words that came out of his mouth was a fluttery riot. One of the first things he said that I could remember

Ridz : I’m going to make a portal for all the ugly people to get together. Show them that they are not alone. There are other ugly people too. The website will be called www.u.g.l.y.com
Me : Cool, sounds interesting. But isn’t there a similar portal already?
Juli: Sorry ridz. I think you’re too late. We already have a www.s.d.u.com
Ridz : No, I will make it accessible enough that even the most antisocial, the types of people who just visit the void deck to get a keropok would know of it. And I could use your expertise to help me make these people over and feel good about themselves
Juli : So typical Malay. Always using other people.
Ridz : Shut up you (censored)
Juli : You male (censored)

Anyhow after dinner, we went to the Apollo Building for a round of karaoke. Turns out that Juli and Ridzuan loved to karaoke. It was a good way to relieve stress. Singing one’s heart out. However, I shuddered at many cat’s wailing in one of the rooms.

But I had fun. It was good company I was in so it was nice. It felt nice and relaxed. We laughed at the weird karaoke location shoot. One love song vid clip was in an aquarium.

I really had to control myself from bursting. Imagine singing Celine Dion’s “All by myself”

All by myself ….(scene of a crab)
Don’t wanna live….(scene of a sea fish)
When I was young … I never needed anyone (scene of a clam)

There was other silly scenes also, making me wish that I had a camera to take the silly singing scenes, those are just priceless.

– couples dancing off tempo
– crucifixes (in a love song!)
– dogs running on the beaches (for the entire clip!)
– a girl wearing high heels and long sleeved shirt (while walking on the beach!)

Suffice to say, it just didn’t go with the theme of the song. Too funny.