March 18th, 2011
I want to give everything a real chance before I report any conclusions, so I’m going to post my final observations in a week. In the meantime, here’s how the testing’s been going:
Yerba Mate
I got my order from yerbamate.us on Wednesday and had some fun trying the different brands & flavors out. One thing’s for sure, I much prefer these yerba mates to the one I got at Whole Foods (Guayaki brand). That one is extremely grassy/smoky tasting while the ones I ordered taste more like teas. The one from Whole Foods works though, so it’s definitely worth trying if you want to test it out – just remember to buy loose tea – if you get teabags by mistake, you’ll need to infuse 3 or 4 to get the right strength. If you decide you like it, order online; it’s cheaper and tastier.
A whole lotta Yerba Mate
I haven’t tried the Rosemonte Especiale yet or the free sample flavor they sent (Mountain Nut Premio) but I’ve tried the white chocolate and really liked it. It has a relaxing, slightly sweet flavor (it contains stevia but I add more sweetener and milk) and while it’s not a dead ringer for white chocolate, it’s a great evening drink and didn’t give a buzz at all, though I only used 2Tbs so I wouldn’t get much caffeine. I had a cup at 10pm and was able to go to sleep at my normal time, though because I brewed it conservatively, I was peckish an hour later and went for the carrots.
Now, yesterday morning I had the super-duper strong one, Mahtay. That one has guarana seed, ginseng and extra yerba extract added and is touted as having “twice the kick of of any Yerba Mate on the market today“ . I friggin’ believe it! About 30 minutes after I had a cup, I was an absolute buzzing bee at the sewing machine! It was kind of funny actually, how I became uber-motivated and focused on the task at hand.
For a daytime pick-me-up it can’t be beat, but avoid it at night (not that I tried, you can just tell it’d keep you up). I’m going to drink some before my next early morning voiceover gig – sometimes it’s hard to get my brain wrapped around medical/technical jargon at 9am but this stuff will have me zoned in from the get-go.
Like the other yerba mates, it keeps you from getting hungry but it’s not like you want to stop eating completely. I had no problem downing my meals, I just didn’t get as hungry between as I ordinarily would.
Glucomannan
I was timid about trying Glucomannan, which is interesting since it’s just fiber so in reality, it’s the least mysterious of any of these things I’m testing out. But as I mentioned on a Facebook update, it has me thinking of the gelatinous creature from Alien, so when I tried it a couple nights ago, I only took 2 capsules instead of the suggested 3. It seemed to fill me up some but didn’t last too long. Since I didn’t choke, poop excessively or discover any jelly-like creatures bursting from my stomach, I’m going to test it with the proper 3-capsule dose next.
Hoodia
I tried it last night. Since my interest in all this is focused on apres dinner snacking, I was tempted to take it a couple hours after dinner but followed the directions and took it an hour before dinnertime. I actually wasn’t expecting it to work since I’d read that you might have to take it for a few days before it starts working, which is one reason I was ready to dismiss it summarily.
Surprisingly, it seemed to work right off the bat. I held off cooking for an extra hour because I wasn’t hungry enough to go for it (and I’m always ready for dinner). Btw, the kind I got, Source Naturals Hoodia, is the priciest of everything I’m testing but as I mentioned in another post, it’s worth it to me to spend the extra dosh since there are fakes out there and I trust this company.
Anyway, I found myself wanting to snack a couple hours after dinner, so next time I’ll try it mid-evening to see if that works because I don’t need or want my meals affected, I have no truck with those. Ditto with Glucomannan, btw…it’s suggested to be taken 20 minutes before a meal, so I’m going to experiment with the timing of that, too.
Almost There
So the jury’s still out on Glucomannan and Hoodia. I need to give them a couple more tries taken at different times to judge their effectiveness properly so keep an eye out for my final conclusions in a week or so.
Yerba Mate is genuinely effective for appetite suppression, however it can give you some added energy along with it, more or less depending on your brew strength. While it won’t give you caffeine jitters, you’d have to do your own experimentation to figure out the right amount for the job.
I’ll close by giving my most humble apologies to those of you who don’t give a crap about any of this. Normal posts will resume with the next one (not that there’s anything interesting going on anyway, but one can always hope). In the meantime, have a great weekend, all!
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So how long does the Yerba Mate stuff keep you up like that? Do you crash hard coming down?
No crash at all, that’s what’s cool about it, it isn’t like a coffee-type jittery thing, it just ebbs away. And I made it strong, not realizing how potent it was (I’m never one to fear altered states, lol). I guess it lasted a couple hours. I had 1.5 cups…didn’t want to finish the 2nd cup since I was pretty buzzy. By the time I went running around 2pm I wasn’t feeling it anymore.
I’m going to try it again in a little while using less. I had used the same amount as the Whole Foods stuff but it’s so strong, there’s no need to.
Btw, Good Luck this weekend!!
woaw, i just stumbled on your little test. Interesting. All i can think of the commercials: “all the Desperate Housewives are using Hoodia.”
dying for the full report out next week!
“grassy/smoky tasting” – hur, hur, hur. I got a flashback to another set of your posts from some time ago
I have no idea why you would apologize for this. People who aren’t interested will skim or skip; others may find this hugely helpful. The beauty of blogging is that nobody’s forced to read it.
I do appreciate that you are testing out this stuff and posting your results – keep it coming. I love reading about your training, but that’s not everything – it is how one interacts with food, sleep, recovery and LIFE that makes us who we are, whether that’s in an “athlete” sense or just in a human being sense.
Bravo.
Thanks for the thumbs-up, gals. It probably has to do with guilt over the subject matter; even though I know it’s innocuous enough, it does have a negative vibe about it (Oooh, you want help with appetite? How cheaty!)
OTOH, you don’t get extra points in this world for being pure as the driven snow…so fuck it.
Interesting stuff, Flo. Do the stimulants send your heartrate up like coffee does? Speaking of HR, hhe news in the previous post is encouraging to me, since I’m approaching the end of my 2-week break and feeling like a slug.
I think this is very helpful information for anyone considering going that route. There is just so much information out there, it’s tough to know what to believe. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Jim, that’s a good question. I’ve only checked resting one day after I had some (not the super strong stuff) and it was up a couple beats, but I’d also eaten so it wasn’t a clean slate. That was the same day I did the 8:03 with 164HR but I don’t remember how long after I had it that I ran.
From what I’ve read, it’s a thermogenic, so it can make you sweat more but I haven’t noticed it. I read that in the bodybuilding forum thread but those guys drink it during their lifting sessions.
Green, thanks. That’s why I’m into it so much…there’s a real lack of user experiences out there. I tried to search diet forums for some info but there’s more misguided advice than there are solid stories. There are a few reviews on the usual vitamin store/amazon/drugstore sites but not enough for my tastes. Of course, everyone’s mileage will vary but at least you guys know I’m coming from as realistic a place as possible.
I have no real desire to try any of these- mainly because I’m scared to mess with the “eat when hungry, stop when full” mentality that I’ve had to work to cultivate. Which is ridiculous, because I probably already do that with my caffeine consumption… oh, aren’t we humans funny about where we draw our arbitrary lines. And of course you know about the issues with quality control, which, not incidentally, is one of the problems even in looking at randomized controlled trials of herbal supplements- it’s been reported that in few of the cases do they actually test to verify quantity of the important constituent molecules. But, I am admittedly fascinated by reading about this, and have enjoyed your willingness to experiment! It’s like reading about the earlier days of chemistry when someone would synthesize LSD, give it a taste, and document the results. Only… much less of a terrible idea.
That made me laugh out loud. Yeah, I guess it is like that, though a bit less trippy.
And you have a great point about not messing with your own balance, this is hugely important. Part of me worries about others trying this stuff who might have more “sensitive” personalities – that it might trigger someone’s old eating disorder or even create one (my same worry with the weight loss posts). I really don’t want to be responsible for that. On the other hand, I hate the idea of muzzling myself to protect the troubled few. I figure the majority of folks would never abuse this info but I still feeling guilty for experimenting with this particular subject. Just not enough to stop.
Interesting stuff. Since I didn’t see any references to Kashi Ass in this post, I’m guessing the Glucomannan is innocuous enough.
:-) Yeah, I’ve tried it twice and it didn’t do anything smelly or noisy, though I did it on separate days. I’ll try it for lunch and dinner in a single day before the week’s out to see if that causes rumblings. What I do for science!