Purchase #2 influenced by David Beckham: My thoughts on IM-8 Daily Ultimate Essentials

-

Listening to Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO episodes on inflammation and herbal medicine came around the same time I was exploring how to improve my vitamin levels. I used to take prenatal multivitamins and then individual vitamin and mineral supplements. I even tried green juices. However, the habit of drinking vitamins and minerals in tablet or capsule form doesn't stick; I didn't like the taste of green juices. As I continued researching, I encountered IM8, a product that claims to contain 92 nutrient-rich ingredients, including vitamins, minerals, superfoods, antioxidants, prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics. It sounded too good to be true; however, it contains spore-forming probiotics, Bacillus subtilis and B. coagulans. This is consistent with what Dr Jamnadas said about what he's personally taking to improve his gut microbiome. Moreover, it promises berry flavours with chocolate undertones; not my favourite flavour combination, but still better than the icky taste of artificial sweeteners.


My first shipment of IM-8 Daily Ultimate Essentials

But it wasn't the scientific jargon that convinced me to buy IM8. I also didn't know any of the medical researchers and NASA scientists featured on IM8's website. The credit for convincing me to subscribe to IM8 goes to David Beckham, the football player. 

When I was looking for headsets with theatre-like sound, I was torn between the Bang and Olufsen's Beoplay HX and the Bowers and Wilkins' Px7 S2e. After reading numerous reviews, I bought the Px7 S2e. I then learned that Mr Beckham is the brand ambassador of Bowers and Wilkins. So when I realized that he's a co-founder of IM8, I thought that if he's willing to put his name on a product, it must really be a good one. The power of influence marketing, right?

Anyway, I've been drinking IM8's Ultimate Daily Essentials every weekday as my first drink of the day. During the first week, I was so bloated. Danny Yeung, the CEO of Prenetics and IM8, reached out to me to see how my experience with the Daily Ultimate Essentials has been so far. He assured me that the bloating is typically experienced during the first two weeks of intake and will eventually disappear. 

After being two months into my subscription, here's what I noticed:
  • I'm not as bloated as when I started.
  • My digestion is improving.
  • I feel energised despite a longer daily commute (43 miles one way nowadays, compared to my previous 27 miles).
  • I'm not as sickly despite the change in seasons.
  • I recover faster from workouts (there are some ingredients for joint and bone support, and I've been continuing my Orangetheory and Club Pilates attendance).
  • I'm drinking more water.
The ultimate test to see if this supplement is working is a blood test, which is coming up as part of my annual physical exam. And I'll write a follow-up post to share what I find out then.

Here's what I'm learning about my attempt at being healthier: it's not just about enough exercise, rest, and sleep; it's also about proper nutrition and supplementation. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more