Argh, Double Argh; Loading Up Pantry with Superfoods Powders; Have you tried MSM for saggy skin?

I do NOT have a handle on my eating. Just as the scale started going downwards with the combo of delivery meals and raw meals, I got sick. Allergy season is kicking my crappy respiratory and immune system to the curb. I've been congested and wheezy (I have bad asthma since childhood) for two weeks, but last week was really bad and I haven't been able to leave the house. Sitting still lets me breathe. Moving means I need more oxygen and I feel gaspy. It's like a fat person is pushing a knee against my sternum and strangling me at the same time.

Sucks.

So, hubby has been bringing in soups and meals, and I've been eating comfort foods and the scale is up to 269...again. Crap.

I visited iHerb (love this site, my newest online discovery and addiction). I have ordered a bunch of powdered raw and green supplements from Healthforce Nutritionals (just got them a couple days ago) and Madre Labs (should arrive in a week or so).

I was pretty much an invalid 20 years ago and had to quit work due to my immune and respiratory issues. I began to supplement big time back then and found it actually helped. When my blood sugar started soaring, I avoided getting on pills for it by switching the composition of meals (didn't really lose much weight, just didn't eat carbs or sweets without a full meal with protein, fat, and fiber) and adding cinnamon supplements and alpha lipoic acid and beta glucans. Worked. My labs came back great within a few months. And although I didn't lose weight until several years after (and only 30 since my high), I've pretty much kept the habit of not eating carbs by themselves and taking cinnamon when I cave to sweets.

The combo of whey protein, barley grass, acai/berry juice, and amazing grass has given me a bit of extra perk for working out, especially when I don't sleep well. So, I know that these things do work for me to some degree.

I've used Green Magma and Berry/Acai Splash for years and added Amazing Grass recently to my pre-workout regimen, but I decided to try some new "more packed" powdered nutritionals. I saw the link for the Healthforce Nutritionals raw food supplementary powders on The Skinny Online and the website for the products piqued my curiosity.  I do find the taste has that mild freshness to it, but it's not great tasting. I pretty much gulp the stuff down fast. :D

From Madre Labs products, I'm ordering a bunch of free powder and beverage samples (like an instant coffee and mushroom, cocoa and mushroom, vitamin c, etc). From the superfoods, I got the Midori Greens (redundant as, being a Japanese  manga fan, I know "midori" means "green") and the Eureka Berries. The former (Midori) has some superfoods not already in my rotation. The latter includes chokeberry, and after reading about it in a blog at Diets in Review, I decided I want to add it to my supplement line-up.

The other things I'm getting from iHerb I had never heard of until I watched a video linked from Melting Mama.  The info wasn't on THAT video about a woman who was on her own reducing plan that included multiple 100 calorie shakes per day plus two very light meals and a lot of New Agey spirituality. Her loss is impressive. But what was MORE impressive to me was her lack of loose, hanging, stretch-mark-riddled flesh. Her belly looks amazing for someone who's lost like 100 pounds. She posted another video, with some of her own humor added, where she theorizes on why her skin handled the loss well. I figured it was worth trying the MSM (sulfur supplement and moisturizer with the stuff). I ordered capsules and the cream.

You might wanna check out this article, too.  It mentions other vitamins and zinc along with MSM. After Sparking earlier this year, I learned I'm continually deficient dietarily in zinc (and zinc in those multivitamins tends to be poorly absorbed), so I purchased ionic liquid zinc. It tastes AWFUL. But now that I see it relates to skin health/elasticity, I need to be more diligent.  I already have saggy skin, and if MSM and superfoods and zinc can help in any way with skin, general immune  health, and weight loss, why not?

If you've used any of these superfoods or the MSM products with some good result (or no result or bad result), do let me know.

So, there it is and here I am, just plain NOT doing well due to an assortment of reasons mental and physiological and seasonal, but not giving up. Nope. Uh-uh. Hanging in there.

Hope this spanking fresh week we've been given to live is a fat-reducing, health-producing one for us all...