Actually, it's not the yogurt but the probiotics that you ingest and repopulate your good gut bacteria which in-turn helps your body to absorb more nutrients for healthier living.

I'm careful with storebought yogurt or even yogurt mix like Biohealth. They still tend to have too much sugar in them that the sugar makes fungi grow faster than probiotics so whatever benefit that you could get from storebought yogurt is already negated by the sugar content in them.

Easier to swallow probiotic tablets and get better effects. Mind you, I do make my own yogurt although the culture is from an organic source from an Australian yogurt brand (Mundella). Less sweet and less sour at the same time.

Or just go back to eating traditional fermented foods like tempeh, kasam, etc. It worked for our ancestors for thousands of years. Should still work today.

Actually, your body will be immune after 3 months, be it supplements or fermented foods.
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Then you find that you'd have to follow the rule that you mention : a wide variety of probiotic strains and different manufacturers.

Probiotics : Yeah, agree with you about the money bit. Probiotics are on the higher end of the scale when it comes to supplements, almost the same as CoQ10 and Grapeseed tablets. I'm currently taking Advance Probiotic Multiblend by Bio-Life. PRICEY. Cheapest pharmacy I've seen so far is AA Pharmacy in KL. They usually give a discount from the retail price about 10% but not sure if they can give more if you're a regular. I'm in Kuching so I make do with whatever is available at the pharmacies locally although I get about 20-40% discount with the pharmacy that I go to.
The problem with ordering supplements from overseas is that there is always that danger that it will get stopped at customs. So I haven't ordered any so far that is not within Malaysia. Next one I'm planning to try in another 2 months is Oohira's Probiotic. Seems good and the doctor that discovered it found it in Sabah years ago.

I was just thinking about what you've said about the body being immune to the same vitamin supp after a few months. I guess it's somehow related to their quality, and also the age-old synthetic vitamins VS whole food vitamins debate. From the whole foods point of view, synthetic vitamins are not only useless, they're also detrimental in the long run. While synthetic vitamins do have their place, they should be rightfully used to treat clearly identified deficiencies, which then turns it into therapeutic use under the guidance of a qualified professional.

For overall health support, i.e. in the case of Multivitamins, I believe we would benefit much more from whole foods vitamins and green powders instead. Checkout these products: Ultra Preventive X by Douglas Labs, Vitaminal Green by Healthforce, Green Vibrance by Vibrant Health, and the multivitamin range from Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems.


Sleeping Late : Sleep at 10 pm and wake up at 6 am. I'm following the circadian cycle. Plus, black out room. As dark as I can get it. Even a bit of street light from the window will keep me awake. No light, no cortisol formation until 6 am which is about the time the sun starts rising and the sky is getting brighter. A change to even dark blue sky will wake me up. I boarded up the bedroom windows that cannot be covered by curtains.

That's great. Yes, and no light is also important for melatonin production which is crucial to health as well, in addition to allowing you to sleep of course. Next thing you can try is EMF home protection. I'm not sure how effective they are or if they're some hocus pocus but it does make sense, and you should be able to get a much better quality sleep as well.

Stress Level : I journal daily. I have a gratitude journal following a certain structure on what am I grateful for, including the people that have helped me and etc. I also follow Byron Katie's The Work because she has an interesting way of looking at the world i.e. my views and experiences shaped my opinions and that it's ok not to believe my thoughts all the time to avoid depression. http://www.thework.com . Changed my life.

You can give meditation a try as well. It's supposedly an ancient technique that allows people to reach God and be enlightened, and is present in almost all religious practice. Science has now caught up to some of its benefits, firstly with stress reduction, then to happiness levels and hormones, and now neuroplasticity and brain reconditioning. It's a very potent and effective tool I would say.

Sunlight : True but better still is earthing. http://www.earthing.com . I don't buy their products but their book is a good read. I have a homemade earthing plate that is underneath my work table and it's connected to the earth of the power socket.

I got into regular sunlight due to the Vitamin D production and its link to immune health and a variety of other health disorders. A collective 1 hour over the week with full sun exposure (no clouds) on at least 1/3 of the body should alittle bit more than adequate.

Weekly, I goto the beach to get my hourly dosage of minerals from the seawater and sunlight. The minerals helped to counteract the pain from DOMS. I get DOMS so my body gets stiff from the hours at the gym but not the pains or aches. So I get stiff muscles and joints but no pain. A red fire ant can bite me and all I feel is a mosquitoe bite, if any at all. Haven't been bitten by bees or wasps yet so I dunno if the feeling will be less so I can only assume it.

Oh I didn't know about the minerals from the sea part and how they help with pain and irritation. Sure it's not the sea salt counteracting the irritation? Well I guess if it helps you by all means! The closest beach we have here in KL is Port Dickson and that's oil polluted waters.

Try going for a swim, around 5+ to 6+ in the morning while it's still dark. Swim slowly and steadily while fully immersed under water. Then dry yourself and go for a meditation session on the beach and come out of it with the sunrise. Maybe include a sprint on the beach plus some stretching after you're done. Combined together it's the greatest feeling ever!

At the beach, I also workout slowly by stacking stones. http://badcameragreatpicture.blogspot.com/...g-at-damai.html I haven't posted up all the rock stacks I've done. Each stone is roughly 5-10 kg even though it's small, it's very very dense. I currently have a spot where the stones are still there every week and it's always 5 stones standing. The other 6-8 stones get pushed by the waves but it's still standing. Also there is this growth of beach vines that is slowly progressing towards that stack of stones. An energy source, maybe?    I pour water over the stones and it gives a different vibe each time.

Sugar : Yes, agree on that part. I cut out of a lot of refined sugar but even fruit sugars will give me problems. So I also watch my fruit intakes, especially since tropical fruits has a lot of sugar inside them.

Based on the works of Dr. Lustig total fructose amounts should be limited to less than 50g per day. That means fruits should be limited to small amounts, and more focus given to vegetables and legumes.

Wheat : This is given me problems so cutting this out too. Helps with moods and my skin too. Best part was when an auntie was shock that I wasn't the school girl that she thought I was. Inching closer to 40 soon. >.>

Yeah I've been reducing wheat too. Kinda difficult to remove it entirely as it's present in a lot of food. Always strikes me: Oh that Aglio Olio looks damn good, but no, I'm not gonna take it. lol.

Processed Food : Also giving me problems. I've gone on such a clean diet that even drinking Milo makes my body more tense than drinking a cup of tea.

I refrain from Milo too. It's mostly sugar!

Exercise : Addicted to it at the moment. I do a lot of stretching and self-massage (via ball and foam roller rolling my whole body). Feeling stronger than when I was in my teens. Currently in love with punching the speedball. Trying to punch it faster.

Great work!

Feel healthy is addictive. 

Well, I guess sometimes you gotta weigh the pros and cons. I believe the pros of this outweigh the cons much much more. Of course ideally organic whole foods would be the clear cut solution. But we can't really pay that much or eat that much either. That's when new tech comes in that's able to compress everything together at a reasonable price. And you can apply the usual screening criteria too, e.g. products that utilize very little processing, cold pressed methods, all-natural, USDA organic, USP cert, etc.

Myremi : True on pros and cons. I used to take a protein shake post workout but eventually stopped because of taste and it was starting to make my body tense (a sign that as my body rid itself of process food, once it goes back in, I have problems). As for organic food, I don't like the $$$ prices so I try to go for locally grown food with limited/no pesticide. I roughly know where to buy clean veggies as I spend a lot of time chatting up supermarket workers to find out the source of the veggies or meat (free-range chicken). As for new tech and all the labellings, I follow Marion Nestle's website. She blogs daily except weekends and is always updated on what's happening in US as well as the rest of the world.

I was referring to something like this: http://www.safespaceprotection.com/product...afespace_i.aspx
Not sure if it is effective though, gotta research more into the topic.

Myremi : The EMF protection will run out over time. That's what my coach mention and I know she does a lot more research than I do. She's my goto encyclopaedia for all things physical, mental, emotional. Best information about EMF was the Earthing book I mentioned earlier. Well, it's in the Earthing website. The book describes pretty well how Earthing works and the various research done on it.

Try small tranches instead of one long session. Long sessions typically elicit quite a fair bit of agitation in beginners. Small tranches like, when you just finished your shower, just stay still and meditate for 2 minutes. When you've just parked your car, when you've closed your office door, etc. Collectively throughout the day, say if you done it 10 times, you would have probably got "into the zone" for about a total of 10 minutes out of the 20 minutes work done, as compared to lots of internal chatter and trying to settle down during a straight 20 minute meditation session. By the way this is just one of the many tricks to help beginners, and different approaches work for different people

Myremi : Thanks!

Well that would be weekend retreats out of city centre to some waterfall or hotspring.

Myremi : That would work. Doesn't have to be full-body immersion either although that would help alot. If you're into meditation, would you also be into chakras? I only know a bit based on the Western version. When I go earthing, there are parts of me that will tingle for long time, not unpleasant but enough to know something is happening.

Oh the no fruits 2 hours post workout rule. Refined sugar too I guess. That did not come from Mercola, that was from another guy, but Mercola adapted it. Something to do with keeping the HGH levels high post-workout. Yeap I practice this too. Used to consume sugar post-workout (with a protein supp) as it's touted to help protein absorption post-workout. But decided that I'd prefer the HGH benefits, not for the growth or anabolism, but rather the general health effects. However if I'm not mistaken it's applicable to high intensity shorter duration workouts only.

Myremi : Hmm...will have to have another look at that Mercola post. He writes a lot with a lot of salesman jargon so shifting through all the data is a pain. At the moment, I'm doing a lot of HIIT workouts but in gym class format. A combination of bootcamp and metcon training, similar to the Insanity type of workouts. Usually 10 in a class with 5 of us with HRM, including the lead instructor.

There's probably some kind of organic, gluten free pasta in the market

Myremi : Or I just use meehoon or tanghoon. Good enough! Hahah!

I think we probably digress out of the yogurt topic for a bit now.    

Earthing : http://www.earthinginstitute.net/ This is the technical site of the http://www.earthing.com website.

Other links : http://www.paulcheksblog.com/barefoot-medicine-for-free
There was another link on grounding but I can't seem to find it. It mentioned in there that even meditation will ground you as well as various exercises and foods.

what about yakult??