VCO and ACV, Oh My!

I've been wanting to try coconut oil since I read about it in Kevin's book, but was a little put off at the price at first. I've been watching the local ads, and finally yesterday we saw that our nearby Sprouts had it on sale. Shannon wasn't too sure about whether or not she was going to give it a go...the look of it kinda scared her...but after telling her about all the benefits I've discovered that it can bring for both your health and weight control, she decided to give it her best shot. We ran to Sprouts this morning and picked up a jar of organic virgin unrefined coconut oil, and while I was in the cooking aisle, I decided to pick up a bottle of Bragg's apple cider vinegar I've read so many good things about on this website.

Let me preface my experience with this first. I've made and drank kombucha for several years now, and for anyone who knows how the tea is made, you'll also know that if you let it sit too long it very much tastes like vinegar, namely apple cider vinegar. Not the same constituents, but very similar acidity and flavor. Unfortunately, I often let mine go too long, so I'm often stuck drinking vinegar kombucha, and have gotten somewhat used to it. So the taste of the apple cider vinegar wasn't that bad for me at all. I just poured up a shot glass and chugged. Burns a little more on the way down than I originally thought it would, but not bad. I don't think I'll have any issue doing that on a daily basis in the morning and evening.

Now the coconut oil, on the other hand, was a different experience. I was intrigued by the strange creamy white glimmer inside the jar, and decided that since I like the taste of coconut just fine, I'd load up a tablespoon and gulp it down. I was instantly surprised at how thick it was when the spoon hit it. I was expecting a thin, runny oil, but this was vaseline consistancy! I guess it was cooler in the car than I thought it was. Nevertheless, I was determined to get this measly tablespoon down. I tried the tip of the spoon...not bad flavor, but not good texture. Like taking a bite out of a tube of chapstick. Blech! So then I resorted to licking it off the spoon little by little. All in all, it took me a total of about 5 minutes to get that tablespoon clean. I relayed my experience to Shannon, who decided to try a different approach. She decided to mix hers into a frozen fruit smoothie. Sounded like a good idea. Only problem was, the colder this stuff gets, the more solid it becomes. So she had big chunks of solid oil to chew through in her smoothie. She said it wasn't that bad, and the taste was good, just not what her mind was expecting in the middle of her smoothie. Tonight we thought we'd try the other end of the spectrum...make some hot tea and stir a tablespoon into it, which would liquefy it and make it easier to get down. Worked well, except for the obvious (or should have been) oil and water incompatibility...the oil DID melt, and immediately floated to the top of the tea! It WAS easier to drink it than it was to chew it, and we both drank our tea without any issues, but the creative search for new ways to get this down is going to continue. :)

If anyone has great ways they've figured out what to do with the darn stuff, please let me know!

Starting off today, my plan is a shot of ACV once in AM and PM, and a tablespoon of VCO once in AM and PM. I'll post comments to this post with any good or bad effects I notice from here in that I think might be contributed to either of the two.

I'd love to lose weight, but my main goal is health. If weight loss comes with good health, then I'm all for it. Starting this morning, current weight is 156 lbs. I have a very old, very cheap scale, so I don't know how accurate that is. I do own a better scale, but need to buy a hard-to-find battery for it. Hopefully soon I'll get that and have more accurate information. My target weight that I'd love to get down to is 135. I'll also keep updates on here about any weight lost.