Happy Monday! How was your weekend?! Hope you all had a great Father’s Day out there. I actually like the beginning of the week, back to the old routine!
In today’s post I wanted to answer a question I’ve gotten over the past months…..
What Supplements do I take??
There are A LOT of different vitamins out there, but there are ones that I feel have the greatest health benefit and help me with consistent energy, sleeping well, recovery from exercise, and overall good health.
Since this blog is dedicated to helping BUSY people get healthy and stay that way, I do feel that supplementation is important, especially if your stressed or too busy to eat all the veggies you should. Not to mention the soil is more depleted now from essential nutrients….but that’s a whole other topic!
So, here are some of the supplements I take.
1) Vitamin C in the form of Ester C. Its the most absorbed form (versus ascorbic acid) and is retained in the body the longest as human studies have shown. Humans do not make their own vitamin c so we need it from our diet. It’s also is shown to prevent colds & flu. Well it must work for me because I only get sick once a year (if that!)
2) Fish Oil aka. Omega 3. More recently I’ve been taking Cod Liver Oil as its great for women by balancing & helping the body produce hormones. It also has Vitamin A & D occuring naturally. Otherwise, I would take a great Omega 3 supplement from Salmon Oil or Wild Fish Oil. There are ones out there now that are flavored so you don’t get the fishy burps! (ewww). Most companies use filtering processes to remove ALL impurities from the oil, so there is no risk of mercury.
3) Glutamine. Most people into fitness are familiar with glutamine. Its an amino acid that is needed for protein synthesis (sorry for the technical jargon!). Basically when you work out intensely, you lose glutamine, so supplementation replaces what you lose and also helps minimize the breakdown of muscle tissue.
4) Rhodiola. Its a herb that is GREAT for stress relief. I use the Rhodiola Rosea form. I find I notice a different taking it after only a few days. Its a great adaptagen herb. Meaning it helps your body adapt to stress. When your stressed, if you get anxious, it helps calm you down, if you get lethargic, it gives you more energy. This herb is highly under rated…it works!
5) High Potency Multivitamin. A no-brainer. Most people should be taking at LEAST a multivitamin. Why? Lack of variety in the diet, stress, not eating enough fruits & vegetables. We all get in our diet ruts or constantly eat the same foods day in and day out. This isn’t great from a nutritional standpoint.
6) Calcium. I also take calcium simply because I don’t eat dairy(sensitive) and osteoporosis runs in my family. There is calcium in greens which I do eat each day, but you have to eat a LARGE quantity. So I supplement as well.
Some would include whey protein powder as a supplement. I consider it a food, but technically, its a supplement. Everyday I have 1 protein shake (sometimes 2).
Hope this helps some of you that may have been confused about vitamins. This is what I take as my basics. Different times of the year (and depending on if I’m training heavily at the gym), I’ll adjust. As mentioned, there are many other things out there, and some can be helpful for different health conditions. I’m also looking at taking an antioxidant….as I’m getting to that age…gulp! Although I do drink my green tea quite a bit 😉
