My Supplements

Greetings!

In 2009, I was at my all time heaviest at 234 pounds and was eating poorly as well as not exercising at all. I could barely walk up a flight of stairs without sitting down to catch my breath. To make matters worse, I was on two separate blood pressure medications, one to reduce my BP, and the other to regulate my heart rate. My doctor had told me that I was pre-diabetic and that I would soon have to go on diabetes medication along with the BP meds. The two heart attacks I suffered at 40 and 42 had taken it's toll on my lifestyle and overall health and I knew I was on that slippery slope to a shortened life. That was the turning point for me. I guess everyone has to go through some self-evaluation before they get to a place that they decide they have to make some sort of change in their lives. Until then, they will continue to decline in their health and lifestyle to a point when they are hospitalized and/or reach their final demise. We are all going in that direction I guess. The question you need to ask yourself is, "Do I want to just sit down and give up, or do I want to live my life to its fullest?"

I chose the latter and have not looked back since. I started doing a program called Power 90, or P90, produced by a company called Beachbody in Jan 09 and have literally changed my life from the privacy of my spare bedroom. That sounds so simple and too easy, but that is what I have done for the past 2 years to regain my health, fitness and a better lifestyle. It was always, and continues to be, challenging every day but I am on my fourth round of P90X, the extreme version of P90 and have never felt better.

As I have progressed in my journey to better health and fitness, I have come to realize that exercise is only part of the equation if you want to be really healthy. Your nutrition is just as important and without proper nutrition, you can never maximize your exercise results and will spend a lot more time getting into shape. You can see that every day as you watch people go into and come out of your local gym. A lot of them have spent years going to the gym and working out with either weight machines, stair masters, free weights, tread mills, and so forth only to look about the same as they did the day they started. They are doing part of what they need to do, but they don't have the whole picture clearly in focus.

There are three legs to the health and fitness stool. Exercise being one, nutrition another, and a community of support have been shown to have the best impact on helping people change their lifestyles and live a better quality of life. This is why I like Beachbody so much. I live a busy life and don't have that much time to be spending on exercise. Most people are in that same boat these days. But, Beachbody has developed a comprehensive program that addresses all three legs of the health stool and you can do it all from your home.

Beachbody produces world class in-home fitness programs and provides you with a wide range of nutrition guidance as well as a on-line community of people just like you who are fighting the obesity epidemic by transforming their bodies and their health together. It is a wonderful experience being around others who support you on your journey to better health and fitness. They know what you are going through and are there to support you and encourage you to continue on your journey. Before you know it, your life will be changed and you will wonder why you ever lived the way you did in the past. Then you almost feel a sense of obligation to "pay it forward" and help your family and friends improve their lives. As we do this one body at a time, eventually, we will reverse the trend of obesity in the US and beyond.

I wanted to post about my supplementation and why I take supplements. It has become an integral part of my nutrition plan and I think you almost have to supplement your nutrition because of what Big Food has done to our food supply over the past 30+ years. I recently read an article about the nutrition in an apple of all things, and according to the article, if you eat a medium apple today, you are only getting 25% of the nutrition you would get by eating an apple 50 years ago! That astonished me when I read it. I eat apples all the time and thought I was getting good nutrition from it. However, the soil is no longer as fertile as it was in the past and seeds have been altered through genetics so the nutritional value of foods we eat have continued to decrease over time.

No longer can we get the nutrition our bodies need without eating 4 times as many calories resulting in the unused calories being stored as fat. Have you noticed that 2/3 of the adult population in the US are overweight or clinically obese according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)? People are not getting the right level of nutrition in the fast, processed foods our society is eating these days. The big food industry, like Monsanto, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. are feeding us low nutrition and high fat food, all for the sake of cheap convenience the American population has embraced over the past few decades. This has resulted in our country being the fattest nation in the world, and one of the most unhealthy.

This is why you almost have to supplement your nutrition if you want to get the right nutrition without all the calories and fat you don't need. If you are like me, you have a very busy life and it is hard to eat "clean" all the time. If you could eat the perfect diet every day at every meal, you wouldn't need to supplement your nutrition. Unfortunately, very few of us are able to do that consistently over time so our waistlines continue to increase and our overall health continues to decline. That is, unless we make a commitment to fight back. Since I know I am not always able to eat properly, I want to make sure I get enough nutrition to provide my body what it needs to function at the best level possible.

The first supplement I use is Shakeology. I use it because over the years I have researched and studied many of the ingredients are consolidated into what I think is a delicious meal replacement drink. It comes in two flavors, Chocolate and Greenberry. Since I am a chocoholic, I love the chocolate. It gets rid of my cravings and I love the taste and I know I am getting some of the best food nature has to offer into my body every day. I drink it first thing in the morning when my body is most ready to absorb nutrients after a 10-12 hour fast overnight from dinner to the morning. I get a burst of sustained energy from about 6 am in the morning until around 9 am when I feed myself again with a more traditional breakfast that consist of a protein, assorted fruits and berrys and some sort of fat such as walnuts or flax seed.

Next, I take a good quality multi-vitamin that is natural based. The brand I use is called Nutrivit and is a all around great vitamin to ensure I am getting at least 100% of my daily recommended allowance of essential vitamins and minerals.

Along with the multi-vitamin and Shakeology I also take a Calcium and Omega 3 supplement, which rounds out my daily supplementation. I know by taking these supplements every day, my body is able to function at optimal levels for my age and current physical condition. As you probably already know, calcium is great for protecting your bones, joints and different organs in your body. The Omega 3 fish oils help your cardiovascular system work at higher levels. Most people suffer from a deficiency of omega 3's and usually get too many omega 6s in the standard American diet. The Omega 3 supplement helps me keep the balance of Omega 6 and Omega 3 in place.

If you decide to supplement with Omega 3s, make sure you look carefully at the pill. If it is dark, it is probably old or not good quality so don't buy it. Good, clean omega 3 will seem light and bright when you look at the pills. Those are a good indication of the purity of the oils used to make the supplement. As with anything else, it may cost a little more to get a better quality supplement. I recommend you don't short change your supplements by buying cheap ones. Some of them will do more harm than good so do your research to find the best you can afford. The investment will result in better overall health and a longer, better quality of life.

I used to get my supplements from GNC and I paid for what I wanted. For example, I took the GNC Men's Sports Formula multi-vitamin for years. I think the cost was $49.95 for a month supply that I took daily. Once I found Beachbody, I researched their products and found I could get what is called their "Core Nutrition Pack", which includes the multi, Calcium and Omega 3 supplements together. The multi-vitamin is better in my opinion because of the natural ingredients used to manufacture the vitamin vs the synthetic way GNC produced the Men's Health Formula. Also, I get all three supplements as a Team Beachbody Coach for about the same price as the GNC multi-vitamin alone. For me it was a "no-brainer." I have been taking these supplements for almost 2 years and have had no adverse reaction to anything I have used from Beachbody.

During this round of P90X, I decided to give the Beachbody creatine supplement a try for 8 weeks and cycle off of it in the last 4 weeks of my program. So far, I have gained strength and am able to do my workouts with more intensity, but I feel bloated a lot since I have been taking it. I have heard that is normal when taking creatine, so I will have to see over time what kind of gains I get and how lean I get once I cycle off the supplement.

And finally, I use Beachbody's Recovery Formula as my recovery drink after my workouts. It taste like orange sherbet ice cream and has the 4 to 1 ratio of carbs to protein recommended for optimal recovery and muscle repair after doing intense workouts. It helps me reduce the soreness in my muscles after doing my strength workouts and I can tell the difference if I don't have the recovery drink the next day.

So far, these supplements and especially Shakeology have helped me lose 41 pounds and keep it off for almost 2 years now. I have seen many different opinions posted over the Internet by so called "nutrition experts" who claim supplements are worthless. On the other hand, I have done my own research and study about the need for supplementation including sources like the Center's for Disease Control (CDC), FDA, numerous books by Registered Dietitians and PhDs and overall believe the prevailing wind is that you are better off taking them. Personally, I know how I feel when I take them on a regular basis, and how different I feel when I don't take them of a while. I have decided I feel better and live a better quality of life by taking them. It may not be for everyone so I guess each individual will have to do the research and decide for themselves if they will be better off with or without supplements.

I say make sure you are eating as clean as you can, eat a balanced diet of lean protein, complex carbs, and essential fatty acids and supplement if you feel the need. This is the path to long term health and a better quality of life.

If you would like to find out more about these supplements just click this LINK and feel free to look around.

Also, if you want to see what Doctor's are saying about Shakeology, just click this LINK and then click the tab at the top right of the page and see the doctor comments.

To your health and fitness!

jw