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Let’s Talk About Nutritional Supplementation, Baby!

Hey, squad!

Every time I lead a new bootcamp, I strive to bring information and teaching that will support your fitness goals outside of the workouts themselves. Before our current camp started, I got a lot of really great questions about a topic I want to answer for everyone because I think it’s a super important component of overall health, fitness, and self-care:

 

NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTATION

It’s confusing out there. I get it. The days are challenging, vitamin choices are overwhelming, and the costs add up. So “What should I take, Lacey? And when, and why???” Glad you asked!

I want to give you the best options, share brands I believe in (and I’m not on their payroll so these are my real-deal faves), and give you a priority list of supplements I think will give you the biggest health boosts first.

SO, let’s start with the last question first….

 

Here’s the scoop on why we should all be supplementing with vitamins and minerals:

Nowadays, even when eating local and organic, food is less nutrient dense than it used to be. The hard-hitting added stressors—from your iPhone alarm and blue laptop lights to the beeps, bells, and whistles of our modern everyday life—increase our nutrient needs. All of us are typically working out more than the average, sedentary everyday person and exercise increases your need for further nutrients, too. We face tons of new toxins daily—in the air, in products, in our offices, and lives—and we need extra nutrients to push the toxins into our body’s detox pathways to help get rid of them. And, last, but certainly not least, even organic, local, well-sourced foods have way less nutritional value than our ancestors’ food had because agriculture has changed so much over time, and all these added stressors affect everything down to the soil our food grows in.

Adding nutritional supplements will:

  • Aid in muscle repair and recovery
  • Increase your energy
  • Boost immunity
  • Regulate blood sugar
  • Support cognitive function (You are most likely living with more brain fog than you need!)
  • Create antioxidative defense, which defend against all those free radicals! (Free radicals, by the way, are unstable molecules that can damage cells in your body, that arise due to metabolic process, environmental toxins, and stress!)

 

WHICH SUPPLEMENTS SHOULD I TAKE?

  • Essential amino acids (EAAs): For muscle gain, appetite control, injury repair, recovery. Check out the image I included that gives you a great visual on all the things EAAs do for you.
  • Multivitamin (but not just any!): One that delivers well-sourced and thoroughly researched combinations of benefits from a reputable producer.
  • Collagen: Grass fed or sea harvested (not vegan): aids in joint mobility.
  • Fish Oil/Omega 3: Powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and assists with stress reactivity and depression.
  • BONUS: Sleep: It’s practically a supplement! Sleep is SO IMPORTANT for recovery, system regulation, athletic performance, enhanced memory function, and it keeps you resilient!

 

MY FAVE BRANDS – Highly bioavailable, well-tested, and cleanly sourced, all of these are also available on Amazon Prime if you are a member!

Amino Acids

  • KION: This is what I take. Only available online from Kion or Amazon, and super bioavailable. These are all the essential amino acids (EAAs). Best to take these versus a mix of EAAs and BCAAs (branch chain amino acids) unless you know you personally need BCAAs.

Multi-Vitamin

  • The most comprehensive multivitamin and mineral supplement in easy to manage and take on-the-go packets I have found is Primal Master Formula.
  • Thorne Multivitamin Elite is also excellent, but with a few less fancy ingredients that cost more to source, and is priced at half the cost.

Collagen

I use the unflavored kind so I can add to anything, usually to my a.m. coffee. This will support skin, hair, joint, nails, teeth, elasticity, repair, and recovery. It is an added source of clean protein and is always animal based (not vegan).

  • Bulletproof collagen is my go-to brand.
  • Vital Proteins has some great varieties and also a wild-caught marine sourced version if you only eat fish.
  • If you are need of some chocolatey shake goodness, have no fear, Primal Kitchen has made a chocolate coconut collagen fuel mix!
  • All of the above are sold at Erewhon and Whole Foods as well and usually at your local top-notch supplement shop.

Fish Oil

  • Vital Choice: You want one like this amazing Wild Antarctic Krill Oil, high in Omega 3 with the goal being to balance out all the Omega 6 we get in nuts and oils in our day-to-day eating. Our body thrives on an Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio of 1:1 and most people are living with 1:16!

 

WHEN SHOULD I TAKE THEM?

  • With one exception, take these supplements with or at the end of your breakfast or first meal when the digestion process is most primed to digest the capsule and the nutrients
  • EXCEPTION: amino acids: Take 30 minutes before a workout as priority, a second stack can be taken with a meal should you be in the midst of a heavy training period.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As with everything that has to do with your health, please note that getting approval from your doctor is the first step to being sure what you are taking is right for you.

 

Xx,

-Lacey

 

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