Are you a D.I.Y. (do it yourself) person? Me too. Whenever I can save some green and do something myself, I do. I have ripped out carpet to cut down on installation costs. I grew my own flowers for my wedding. I even bake my own whole grain bread so I do not have to pay $4.00 or more for a loaf of healthful bread.
You might say I just do not like to spend money, but in reality, it is sort of a personal challenge to do as much as I can on my own. So, when I looked into ordering hoodia supplements, I thought, why not try growing hoodia myself?
Well, that was a bit of a mistake. I found out that hoodia is grown in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa and that it is a succulent. It can suppress your appetite because of a component called p57 contained in the hoodia plant. This component acts as glucose in the body, which staves off hunger by fooling the brain into thinking you do not need to eat. (Hunger is triggered by low blood glucose). Though I knew I could not develop a pill form of hoodia, I knew the natives in South Africa chew on the stems, so why could I not? Or perhaps make some sort of tea with the plant.
I clicked here and there and found some inexpensive hoodia seeds and some surprisingly expensive sand. Living in Arizona, I wondered if could not just pull off the highway and see if Sonoran sand was just as good. But, I decided to spring for the Kalahari sand and make my hoodia plants feel at home. I wish I had the same philosophy with the seeds. I planted these inexpensive hoodia seeds and two weeks later, I had some sort of little flower growing instead of succulents. Oops! The company would not even reimburse me!
I had already blabbed to everyone I knew that I was going to grow my own hoodia plants. I could not exactly back out now. Instead, I researched some companies and found authentic hoodia seeds and special sand. The seeds were pricey, but I was not going to let that deter me. You are thinking I should have just sprung for the $60 bottle of hoodia appetite suppressants, but I was determined!
I planted the seeds and prayed for the best. In about three weeks, I had little finger-like plants springing up through the (expensive) sand. Okay, now that is what a succulent should look like! It was not long and I had little flowers on my little hoodia fellows. The smell of sweet success! Well, actually the smell of “stinky” success. The flowers on a hoodia plant have an odor meant to attract flies for pollination. Yes, they smell like rotting flesh!
I decided the garage and some grow lights were in order. Despite their stink, I did everything I could to care for my little hoodia dudes; however, after two weeks they began to whither. Another little known fact about hoodia: even commercial growers have yet to have much success in growing hoodia. I guess they contract disease and fungus easily.
My little hoodia guys croaked over the next week. I thought my friends would give me a hard time, but I think they were happy they did not have to bring their fly-swatters with them when they visited. I guess South Africa will remain the major provider of hoodia! So, I ordered my $60 bottle of hoodia. The good news is that I have lost 10 pounds!
Can you grow your own hoodia? Go there and join our hoodia community on Facebook.
