Well, summer is just about over. My daughter is tucked in at college and my son has started his junior year of high school. It was a great summer, busy, busy, busy. I had a great time running around with my kids and finishing up two more of my nutrition classes. I spent the summer really digging into macro and micro nutrients. I’m sorry to see the summer come to an end but I’m happy to get back to a normal schedule and start incorporating what I learned about micronutrients – vitamins and minerals into my lifestyle.
It’s possible that I’ve mentioned before that I am terrible at taking vitamins. Actually, I’m terrible at taking any kind of pill. I’ve never been good at swallowing pills. I know, pretty lame but it’s true. I have no idea why nor do I have any idea how to get better at it. You’d think the more pills I take, the better I’d get, but sadly, no. Anyway, that leads me to the admission that I have never taken vitamins, not even prenatal vitamins (I know, I’m a horrible person – if I had it to do over I would take them, I promise!). That horrible admission leads me to my next point – nutrition through food. I have always been very, very good at rationalizing my choices. For example, I have never needed to take vitamins or supplements because I get all that my body needs from my food. I have been a big believer in that idea my whole life and while my nutrition classes started to chip away at my confidence in this idea I have continued to hold steady until now.
I no longer believe that I can get what my body needs just from the food I eat and I eat relatively good food – organic fruits and vegetables, organic pasture raised meats and eggs, wild caught fish, seeds, nuts, healthy fats, and aged raw milk cheeses.
The two nutrition classes that I took over the summer convinced me that I do need to supplement with a high quality multivitamin and some additional minerals. I haven’t completely worked out my personal supplement plan yet but I’m closing in on it. A vitamin and supplement plan will change according to age and other environmental factors so no plan should be set in stone. I will be happy once I dial in a good plan for this time in my life and will continue to tweak that plan as life intervenes.
The biggest problem I have with vitamin and mineral supplements is the lack of “wow”. I start to take something, I don’t notice a difference so after a few days I stop. Yes, I did say “a few days”, certainly less than a week. DUMB. That’s not long enough to notice anything never mind life altering health. My other problem is, I feel pretty good. That’s the one factor that has always led me to believe I was getting everything I need from my food. So, what really changed? I still feel pretty good and I still choke on pills (at least twice a week – gag).
Here’s what changed:
- I feel pretty good but how do I know “pretty good” isn’t miles from GREAT. I’d like to feel GREAT (I can’t help but picture Tony The Tiger)!
- The nutrition software that I have for my class (and future business) tracks every vitamin and nutrient you can think of.
- The information I learned about Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA), Optimum Daily Intake (ODI) and Suggested Optimal Daily Nutritional Allowances (SONA) suggested that I was deficient in just about all vitamins and minerals. Sadly, my nutrition software confirmed this.
- I learned a lot about what all the different vitamins and minerals do in the body and how they work synergistically so a deficiency in one causes a whole lot of problems with the others.
- The stuff that vitamins and minerals do is amazing and I want to have all that I need so my body works like the finely tuned machine that it is, which will optimize my health and help me avoid the diseases and problems associated with aging.
I have been taking my vitamins and additional mineral supplements for the last two weeks (huge for me) and currently I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. This morning I decided to cook up a batch of Magic Mineral Broth. I wrote a post about Magic Mineral Broth a long time ago. It’s great stuff and full of vitamins and minerals. It’s tasty and it’s NOT a pill. Adding Magic Mineral Broth to my diet is an easy way to sneak extra vitamins and minerals in. If you haven’t tried it yet now is a great time. It’s super easy! Here’s my post about Magic Mineral Broth and here is the recipe by Rebecca Katz.
I’m Amy a board certified holistic nutritionist, certified functional nutritionist and lifestyle practitioner and certified Life Coach. I help women in midlife understand the changing needs of their body so that they can stop dieting and lose weight permanently. At 56 I live what I teach. Don’t believe the story that your best years are behind you. They are not. Your best years are just starting!