Vitamins & Supplements

Like many of you, I was completely confused about what vitamins and supplements I should be taking.  It seems like there's so much information to absorb that it can get overwhelming quickly.  Couple that with some vitamins should be taken with food, some combined with others, some on an empty stomach, and some not with others.  Ahhh!  I happen to be a fan of Dr. Oz, so I often listen to his recommendations and then read/research and ask other people about what they are doing.  Here's where I am now with my vitamins and supplements.

I take the vitamins/supplements pictured above every day.  But, I've built up to this slowly over time.  I started over a year ago just taking a multivitamin and using protein powder in my shakes to help repair and build muscle.  Then, when I started doing the Live Fit plan, Jamie Eason recommends adding Fish Oil (1000mg) and BCAA (branched chain amino acids), so I added those too. (Read more about those here.) The BCAA is the bottle of "Twinlab Amino Fuel". 

Dr. Oz recommends Calcium Cocktail (Calcium 600mg + Vitamin D 1,000IU + Magnesium 400mg) - I still need to add in the magnesium.  He also recommends Astragalus (200mg 2x per day).

I talked about Biotin here before and now take it to help aid in hair and nail growth.  It's working! (Thank you for all of your comments!)

I recently added Alpha Lipoic Acid (300mg) for cell damage repair for weight lifters.  

Probiotic Restore Ultra contains the “good bacteria” that can boost your immune system and improve your digestion and much more.  Dr. Oz website actually mentioned the Advocare brand by name stating, "Of the products tested, AdvoCare’s Probiotic Restore is one that contained the amount of CFUs promised on the label." which is why I purchased that brand. 

Nighttime Recovery Amino Acid & Herbal Supplement (400mg) for muscle repair and growth.

So, what does taking all this look like in my daily life?

(oops! that Vitamin C should say "Calcium")

Every week I portion out my vitamins and put them into my pill holder.  (I got mine at Target). I couldn't keep it all straight without it! I keep the two nighttime supplements separate and my multivitamin gummy in the jar because it will dry out and get stiff if you put it into the holder.

I put the BCAA (it's a liquid) in my water bottle when I workout and I drink my protein shake after my workout.  I like the orange flavor the best and like the taste of it.  It's a syrupy consistency and one serving is 3 tablespoons.  

I keep everything right in the kitchen on the counter.

Below is the information I've read from Dr. Oz on the vitamins/supplements: 

A Multivitamin

Dr. Oz says that we only need 100% of the daily value of the 12 essential vitamins and minerals, with iron for pre-menopausal women.  When purchasing your vitamins, check for bottles labeled 100% daily allowance on label. 

Multivitamins fulfill your nutritional needs for the day.  Multivitamins contain:

Vitamin A – critical for healthy vision and skin

Vitamin B – a metabolism booster

Vitamin C – keeps your immune system strong, especially important during cold and flu season.

Vitamin D – promotes healthy bones (and your immune system)

Vitamin E – for healthy development of muscles and brain function

The Dose

Take half in the morning and half at night to maximize absorption.

Calcium Cocktail (Calcium + Additional Vitamin D + Magnesium)

Calcium is a necessary supplement for strong, healthy muscles, bones and teeth. You need to take it in combination with magnesium (to prevent the negative side effects of calcium) and vitamin D (to help the body absorb calcium) in order to get the maxium benefit.  It turns out that vitamin D is crucial when it comes to fighting off colds. An important part of Dr. Oz's anti-aging checklist, vitamin D plays a number of roles in our bodies, including:

 *Promoting absorption of calcium and bone health

 *Boosting immune function

 *Reducing inflammation

 *Healthy neuro-muscular function

 *Protecting against some forms of cancer

The Dose

Calcium (600mg) with Magnesium (400mg) and Vitamin D (1,000 IU)

Take dose with a full glass of water, 2 hours after eating.  Calcium can block the absorption of other supplements and prescriptions, so take it separately. 

Fish Oil (Omega 3’s)

To keep your brain, heart and eyes healthy, take Omega 3’s every day. 

The Dose

For women, the daily dose of Omega 3s is 1000 mg; for men, the dosage is 600 mg.

Astragalus

Although Astragalus isn't a vitamin, I take it daily for energy and anti-aging.

According to Dr. Oz, aging is the primary reason why your body feels depleted of energy. Add to that the boatload of daily tasks most of us face – work, household chores, childrearing – and it’s no wonder we're exhausted.

The supplement astragalus can help keep you going. This root, used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, contains a special chemical that research has shown may actually help slow the aging process. This chemical activates the enzyme telomerase, which works on a cellular level to protect DNA from breaking down, thus warding off exhaustion and a host of other age-related symptoms and diseases.

The Dose

Take 200 mg of astragalus twice a day, in the morning and at night. 

I buy most of my supplements on Amazon but the BCAA liquid is from bodybuilding.com.

I ordered my Advocare Probiotic Restore and Nighttime Recovery through my friend Niki Riat.


*Please talk to your doctor about what's right for you before you start taking anything. -Megan

Tuna Salad

Wanting to change up my meals, I made tuna salad this week.  It's so easy to prepare because you're not cooking anything (except boiling eggs if you want egg whites in yours).  I eat mine over greens (butter lettuce and arugula), but it's also good as a sandwich on whole wheat bread.  One of my favorite things my Grandma used to make for me was a tuna melt.  She put the tuna on a piece of toast with a slice of cheese on top, then microwaved it for about 30 seconds.  It's really good that way!

Because I wanted to make enough to eat for several meals, I used:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 large cans of albacore tuna in water
• 1 onion chopped finely
• Relish (about 1/4 cup of sweet & 1/4 cup of dill)
• 5 cooked egg whites chopped 
• 3/4 cup light mayo 
• Butter lettuce and arugula (I just put a handful of each in my bowl)  
• *a squeeze of lemon is good too, but I didn't have any

I'm guessing on the measurements of the relish and mayo because I didn't precisely measure, I just scooped it in, but I think that's about right.  Use more or less depending on your taste preferences. 

The megafat could be the healthiest

Typically obesity leads to health problems via insulin resistance (). Excess calories are stored as fat in fat cells up to a certain point. Beyond this point fat cells start rejecting fat. This is the point where fat cells become insulin resistant.

When they become insulin resistant, fat cells no longer respond to the insulin-mediated signal that they should store fat. Fat then increases in circulation and starts getting stored in tissues other than fat cells, including organ tissues (visceral fat). When the organ in question is the liver, this is called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

This progression happens with most people, but not with those who can progress to extremely high body fat levels (). Those people are the “megafat-prone” (MP). In the MP, fat cells take a long time to start rejecting fat. So the MP can keep on gaining body fat, often with no sign of diabetes at body fat levels that would have caused serious harm to most people.

One could say that the MP are extremely metabolically resilient. By not becoming insulin resistance as they gain more and more body fat, the MP are somewhat similar to sumo wrestlers (photo below from Nationalgeographic.com); although the main reason why sumo wrestlers do not develop insulin resistance is vigorous exercise. Visceral fat is very easy to "mobilize" through vigorous exercise; this being the basis for the "fat-but-fit" phenomenon (). There are two interesting, and also speculative, inferences that can be made based on all of this.



One is that the MP could potentially be the healthiest people among us. This is due to their extreme metabolic resilience, which should be fairly protective if they can avoid getting up to the unhealthy point of body fat for them. In fact, they could be overweight or even obese and fairly healthy, at least in terms of degenerative diseases. This is a genetic predisposition, which is likely to run in families.

The other inference is that the MP would probably not look “ripped” at relatively low weights. Since their body fat cells have above average insulin sensitivity at high body fat levels, one would expect that high insulin sensitivity to remain at low body fat levels. Insulin sensitivity is strongly associated with longevity ().

So, bringing all of this together, here are two apparent paradoxes. That person who already gained a lot of body fat and is an MP, showing no health problems at or near obesity, could be the healthiest among us. And that person who cannot look ripped at low body fat levels, no matter how hard he or she tries, may be one of the 2 percent or so of the population who will live beyond 90.

Unfortunately it is hard to tell whether someone is MP or not until the person actually becomes megafat. And if you are MP and actually become megafat, the afterlife will very likely arrive sooner rather than later.

Operation Get Lean // Week 2 Recap

Two weeks down and I'm starting to notice some results.  I have been very committed to my meal plan and the workouts, and I want all the results immediately, but I'm taking it one day at a time. Having a photo to remind me where I started and track my progress really helps me stay motivated.  Here's a pic I shared on Instagram.  The pictures were taken 1 week apart, both on Friday morning (after week 1 and after week 2).

THE WORKOUTS

I start my workouts with a 5 minute treadmill warmup (speed at 4.0), then go directly to planks - trying to do 3 for at least 1 minute, 30 seconds with a two minute rest in between.  Then I do my weight workout for about 40 minutes or so and then 20 minutes of cardio.  The whole thing takes about 1 hour  and 20 minutes.  I keep my earphones in and don't chat. 

Monday - Back, 3 planks, 20 minutes of cardio (sprints 30 seconds on and off at a 7.0 mph)

Tuesday - Biceps & Triceps, 25 minutes of cardio (18 incline at 2.5 mph - don't hold on)

Wednesday - Shoulders (no cardio)

Thursday - off

Friday - Legs, 3 planks, 20 minutes of cardio (sprints 30 seconds on and off at a 7.0 mph)

Saturday - Back, 2 planks, 20 minutes of cardio (sprints 30 seconds on and off at a 7.0 - 7.5 mph)

Sunday - off

THE MEALS

I'm still on THIS MEAL PLAN, but this week instead of turkey chili, I made Tex Mex Casserole with Egg Noodles.  I also made chocolate protein brownies and had a few.

*This week I'm going to add 2 sausage links to my breakfast to get more protein in at breakfast.  I still need to figure out which ones.

Saturday night, I went out to dinner and had 1 glass of red wine, a cup of lobster bisque, sea bass with jumbo lump crab and lemon butter sauce (ate about half).  Later, I had another glass of wine and a cocktail. But, I think the drinks (and maybe the heavy food) messed with my stomach because I didn't sleep well and felt kinda icky on Sunday.  For lunch on Sunday I indulged in fatty Mexican dish and chip and queso, but I really enjoyed it! :)  

Back on the wagon!  Hope you have an awesome week! 

Mindless Eating

You think you're in control of your eating behavior-- but you aren't

In 2005, Brian Wansink's research group published a remarkable study that demonstrates the powerful unconscious influence of the food environment on our consumption (1). 

Volunteers were invited to a test kitchen to eat bowls of tomato soup for lunch.  Each person was given a bowl containing 18 ounces of soup-- but there was a catch.  Half the volunteers were given custom-made soup bowls that partially refilled as they ate, such that the soup level dropped more slowly.

Read more »

Peanut Butter Brownie Bliss Valentine's Treat (You Won't Feel Guilty About)

With Valentine's Day approaching, we might be looking forward to indulging in our favorite sweet treats.  For me, chocolate tops the list.  Pairing chocolate with peanut butter is even better! One of my favorite treats is homemade peanut butter cups, but they are a little time consuming to prepare and high in calories and sugar.  If you are looking for something with chocolate and peanut butter to satisfy your sweet tooth, you may want to try these . . . Peanut Butter Brownie Bliss. 

Yumminess!

Since I feel like Valentine's Day should be shared among friends as well as honeys, I gave a few of mine this simple treat.  Dressed up in cute packaging makes it even cuter.  

I used a paper mache hexagon boxand filled it with crinkle cut paperand foam heart stickers.

Then, I affixed a doily and glittery red heart to the top of the box with spray adhesive. 

And decorated the rim of the box with washi tape.

Everyone loved them and couldn't even tell they are made by . . .  Weight Watchers!  Cool, huh?!  I thought you might want to hear of some "desserty" things you don't have to feel guilty eating once in a awhile!  They have other flavors too if you want to try something else.  

Each box comes with 6 individually wrapped mini brownies.  They are 2 WW points per brownie, 90 calories, 4 fat grams, and 9 grams of sugar. 

What's your favorite Valentine's Day treat? 

Thank you to Weight Watchers for sending me these yummy desserts!

5 Easy and Effective Ways to Eat Less

Why do we overeat?  Why is it hard to lose fat once we've gained it?  Is there a way to comfortably and sustainably eat less and lose fat? 

 

I recently did an interview with Armi Legge of Evidence Magazine that gives an overview of my thinking on these topics-- based on a large and compelling body of research that rarely reaches popular media sources in useful form. 

 

At the end of the interview, Armi asks me to list my top five tips for reducing calorie intake.  Enjoy!

 

5 Easy and Effective Ways to Eat Less