Do you like to tackle projects on your own? Yeah, me too. I have been coloring my own hair for years, painting my own nails and even making my own candles. I am even teaching myself how to play the guitar rather than paying for lessons I cannot afford.

I like to do things on my own to save money, but also because of the personal gratification of being a D.I.Y. (do it yourself) person. My latest endeavor was beating the weight loss industry at their own game. Rather than paying $60 for a bottle of hoodia appetite suppressants, I decided to try growing hoodia plants on my own.

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!

More determined then ever (I still had plenty of expensive sand; after all), I found a reputable seed dealer on the internet and patiently awaited their arrival. I knew I was in over my head because I had now spent far more than the little bottle of hoodia pills would have cost. Hoodia plants are scarce and so are the seeds, but I could no t face my friends and let them know my D.I.Y. plan had failed!

This time, I had little plants growing with finger-like stems. Yes! Now that is what a succulent should look like. I showed off my hoodia babies to my friends and waited to see what would happen next. In about a month, I had little flowers on the plants. One would think this was a good thing, but it was not! It smelled like something died in my house! Another F.Y.I. about hoodia: the flowers are meant to attract flies to pollinate the plant.

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 plants withered away and I had to give up my D.I.Y. project. My friends have not said much. I suppose they are just happy they do not have to put smelling salts under their noses to visit my house anymore (or swat away the flies). South Africa can keep its corner on the hoodia market. And yeah, okay, I ended up paying the $60 for the bottle of hoodia supplements. There is a happy ending. I have lost five pounds so far!

Can you grow your own hoodia? Go there now and become a member of our great hoodia community on Facebook.

Tags: dieting, health, health and fitness, hoodia, hoodia gordonii, natural appetite suppressant, natural remedy for weight loss, Weight Control, Weight Loss

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 5:13 am and is filed under Weight Control. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.