Favorite Things: Elete Electrolytes

I am a huge fan of Elete Electrolytes. I use their tablytes which you can also get through amazon. I started taking the tablytes about two weeks into my 66-day challenge last year. I knew something was a bit off when I was licking frosting off cupcakes and chucking the actual cake part on the trash.

As any Bikram person knows, electrolyte balance and replacement is a huge deal. For me, I need all the extra help I can get with adding back in potassium and magnesium. I take anywhere from 2-4 tablets a day depending on how much I have been practicing, my diet, and how I am feeling. The directions say you can take up to 12 tablets a day, but I’ve never even come close to that amount.

Recently I tried Yoga Fuel which I also found to be really good. The good thing about yoga fuel is it had B12 in it. As a vegetarian, I have to take a B12 supplement. I was hopeful that I could start taking Yoga Fuel (in place of Elete) and then drop the extra B12 supplement. Hey, it’s one less pill to swallow!

While I loved Yoga Fuel (it left me feeling super focused), it lacked the potassium that Elete has. With Yoga Fuel, you can take one or two capsules a day, but it doesn’t give you much in the way of potassium. One tablet of Elete doesn’t provide a lot of potassium either. However, the difference is you are not supposed to take more than two Yoga Fuel capsules a day whereas I can take a ton of Elete if I need it. The downside to Elete is it does not have the B12. So I had to choose, and I chose Elete. I would rather be able to get the extra potassium in me when I need it (and I do need it) and take the extra B12 supplement.

All that being said, electrolyte replacement is a personal thing. You have to figure out what your needs are and go with the product or whatever it is that it going to keep you balanced.

Potassium & Coke: Who Knew?

I’ve started getting headaches the last three days. At first, I could not figure out why. On the first day, I thought it was strange, but I assumed it had something to do with having my period. But by day three I was getting a bit freaked out. I never get headaches, and if I do it’s a one time isolated event.

My first reaction was that I was having caffeine withdrawal, but that didn’t make sense. I’m still easing off the coke, but I haven’t made a big step down. I had only cut out one soda for the week. Yet when I gave in and allowed myself to drink a soda the headache stopped. On the surface, it seemed like it was caffeine related, but that really wasn’t adding up.

See, I sat at 10 cokes a week for a couple of weeks, and I had felt fine. I didn’t think I should be having a major reaction by cutting down to nine cokes in the period of one week.

Then, as I was pondering if I should take some advil I got a cramp in my calf. That’s when I thought – aha! Postassium deficiency.

I’ve had a potassium deficiency once before  – a long time ago. I thought I had a handle on it. For those of you outside the Bikram yoga world, all the sweating we do in class can create potassium and magnesium deficiencies. I take a magnesium supplement almost daily.

Mark rasied the question about how much potassium is in soda. Turns out that Coke Zero (what I normally drink) is high in potassium for a soda. So, the theory is that I was getting some of my potassium through my obscene soda intake. When I cut back on the soda, I cut back on the potassium, but I did not replace that potassium through another source. And now I have a slight potassium deficiency. Yesterday I remedied that by taking a potassium supplement, eating a bananna, and drinking an extra coke. Hey – I was on my way out for the afternoon when all this clicked, and I needed to find a way to fix it quick. I’ll figure out today how to get more potassium in my system that doesn’t require an extra soda. It’s not that hard.