Posts Tagged ‘hoodia’

The week so far has been:  Monday off, Tuesday a 12-miler, yesterday 8 and today 9.  Yesterday was a late run due to Fran leaving my apartment at 2pm only to call a few minutes later with the words “My car’s not here!”  After asking him 3 times if he was serious before realizing his car had indeed been towed, I got a Zipcar and we anxiously made our way down to the creepy towing company area of Philly (they have their own icky enclave down there).  $251 later, the world was once again restored to normalcy…the shysters.

I’m running a bit slower this week, btw – purposely trying to widen the pace gamut because yeah, it’s fun to be running peppy all the time but then where do you go?  You end up wanting to top yourself each week and I can’t play that game, otherwise this is gonna turn into a grind.

Besides, while I’m not doing quality runs right now I have re-entered 60-65mpw so it’s not like I’m slacking.  Sure, it’s not nearly as effective as doing both workouts and mileage, but at least I’ve got one in the mix.

Appetite Suppressant Wrap-Up
I’m apparently a fickle creature; this experiment was far more interesting when I wanted to get back to 115lbs.  Once I realized my runs were trending for the better despite being 4 lbs up, I stopped giving a shit.  Even so, in the name of faux science, I did a few more tests this week since I said I would.

I tried Hoodia and Glucomannan after dinner (on different nights, of course) and while they do seem to help stave off hunger for an hour or so, neither is like “Wow, I couldn’t eat a thing!”   I’d say between the two, Glucomannan wins, not that it worked more effectively – they were pretty much the same – but at least you know what you’re ingesting with it. That said, I didn’t give Hoodia a fair shot since it should probably be taken a few days in a row to know if it works but I’m not into messing around with it that thoroughly.

The other thing is, I think both Hoodia and Glucomannan are probably more effective for those who don’t have a Stop button on them at meal time.  If I ate the way I did as a young chunky thing, to the point of always leaving the table stuffed, then I could see it having more of an impact.  They are, after all, meant to be taken before meals, but if you eat small meals already and just want to fend off occasional evening munchies, they’re kind of Meh.

Yerba mate remains the winner for my purposes.  I like the fact that it staves off hunger efficiently, doesn’t have any funny stuff added or processed into it and that it’s a common beverage for zillions of South Americans.  I won’t be drinking it all the time but I bought a french press specifically for brewing it.  It’s cool stuff.

A Death In The Family
It’s time to say goodbye to a trusted and longtime running companion, my Garmin 305. Even though it came back to life after the last rainy drowning, it lost another button and started acting strange this week – it starts beeping out of the blue and then the buttons stop working.  As much as I hated to admit defeat, I finally gave in and ordered another 305 at Amazon for $128.  They also had the 405 on sale for $169 but I prefer this version.  Now, please join me for a moment of silence in appreciation of my little mangled baby before I say goodbye for good.

Note the bottom strap is held on with fishing wire, the other strap's clasp is held on with electrical tape, it has 2 replacement buttons made out of wadded-up foil and attached with tape, numerous scratches from taking a few tumbles plus a weird oily drop beneath the screen that won't go away. It had a good life. Amen.

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!