When you hear gurus saying that your diet should provide you with everything you need in your diet, I start gasping for air. Actually my air should contain everything I need for living, but unfortunately it contains more. Like mycotoxins from mold ! Chemical, odour and hormonal pollution from all the detergents, parfums, deodorants, feet-sprays, hand creams and make up, for instance when you are stuck in an elevator with 10 others. Physical particles are also found in air like brake dust, smoke from cars, cigarettes and factories. Light and sound pollution, what also, we can say, are in the air.
The point is, that we are not in a perfect world and don’t live a perfect life, but we still have to get the most out of it. There are elements what we can control and there are actually more, that we cannot. Everything is our choice of course, but it is easier said than done. I mean moving to a pristine home with no neighbours, living barefoot and nearly naked, bathing in the stream just a couple of meters from your home, eating exclusively from your own garden…can be a solution, but is it in reality ? No ! Why ? Mostly because of wealth, goals, human stuff, accessibility and other social factors. Not all of us are internet gurus, work from home or can transform our lives to a monk like idillic small community existence.
This is where supplements come in. Stressors from life do 3 things in case of micronutrients:
- We use up micronutrients and get depleted of them
- We ingest them, but they go through the system with no absorption at all
- We don’t even take them, because of lack of knowledge or food nutrient deficiency
In case of endurance athletes everything we talked about are 1000 folds multiplied ! You ride your bike 3hours a day, so you inhale more fumes than someone drives to work for 15 minutes. You drink chlorinated bad quality water from a fountain on the road side. You get completely smoked after covering a break-away of a training partner and the only commerce open is a bakery or a coffeeshop. You won’t be able to get a little smoothie, nor a steak ! So your stomach is already in a sever state and you further agitate it with not the best coffee and not the best croissant !
Runners loose iron for instance by impact, can be called footstep anaemia. Also, impact strengthens bones, but only if adequate calcium levels are present. You need calcium.
You can regenerate your cells, mitochondria and DNA way more effectively if your B’s are topped up. B12 and Folate are the most crucial but the others too. If you trained a lot, filling up your stomach with a chunk of meat is not ideal and most athletes choose chicken or fish, not beef. Creatine is strength enhancing. It changes the amount of water in the cell and in-between cells, so they can uptake more nutrients, including salts and protein too.
I personally find, that supplements work only, if your diet is top notch. They are called supplements not replacements. You cannot supplement yourself out from a bad diet. When your lifestyle is great, your body works efficiently so you can absorb and utilise micronutrients coming from supplements.
The actual potions you might need
There are couple of things to consider before you fill up your amazon shopping cart. Quality, quantity, purity, form, source, price, company policy and engagements. When you are all okay with these, periodisation and combination comes into the picture. You have to learn about this too. You don’t take in iron with zinc and calcium after eating beef and drinking a post meal coffee. They will compete with each other or eliminate efficacy for one another.
You must know yourself to know how much you need from what, when, how and why !!!
I take in these, my body sees this and I feel way better with than without them. Despite that I have a very clear, balanced and smart lifestyle, my work as a bike messenger and my sport as a trailrunner make me run low on certain nutrients.
Morning the very first thing is IRON on empty stomach with around 5dl of water with half a lemon, squeezed in. Some Iron comes with Vit C in it. If not, just take it with the lemon juice from a real lemon !
Then foam rolling and yoga for for at least 25minutes while listening to a podcast. This might develop to a run or a strength routine. I use chelated iron bisglycinate !
Replacing minerals after the run, is more efficacious in my case, then using a protein shake. I drink a solution of half a lemon 3g of creatine, 2g of l-carnitine, 2g of glucosamine sulphate, a spoon of magnesium chloride (nigari), pinch of salt and a quarter of a teaspoon of organic hand-made egg-shell powder. Then I shower and prepare to go to work.
Before bedtime I use 2 drops of liquid vitamin D and 4 drops of 8% CBD. A high quality cholecalciferol solution with vitamin K2 and an organic CO2 extracted high quality cannabidiol. I keep that under my tongue for at least 3minutes, sometimes more. It is after I washed my teeth. I of course use just extremely fine clay as a tooth paste for like 5 years now. I never touched any commercial or organic tooth paste. Just simply clay. Soft brush, 3minutes.
I might have had an herbal tea from stinging nettles and lavender, maybe with a touch of mint and lemon grass or another shot of salt and magnesium.
B12 is a biggy for me. I time to time take the Methylcobalamin of my wife, what is an under the tongue solution. Jarrow 1000 B12 and an also B12 under the tongue spray. The thing is that I think I need more, but if orally taken the 3000 or 5000 solution, I grow enormous spots on my back. However if I injected up to 10000 units intra muscularly, I have zero issues and in about 3 days I feel the difference. The injected one is hydroxo-cobalamin.
In case of B9 as my wife is pregnant we use a 5 methyl-tetra-hydrofolate. The rest is just coming from nutritional yeast and food.
There are northern athletes taking in vitamin C by the spoonful. I used to be a vegan and learnt the benefits of fruits and veggies. I am a big eater and I think I take in like 10000 folds the vitamin c, than the RDA.
Either ways, you can do two things. You just start supplementing with stuff till you feel better, by slowly increasing the dose. Or do a blood test and determine what you really would need. Don’t be however fooled by the ratio of certain elements proposed by the “medical party”. You might be in the good range for instance in case of B12, what is over 200 units in France. Why do you think cyclist supplement if their values are under 800 ? In Japan the range is 500 to 1300 units too ! This is the case of all nutrients. Some athletes are world class with a level, where you are totally anaemic !
Either ways these are the most important: B12 / IRON / D3
If you sleep great and live fantastic, the rest might follow from food. However if not, just take it, you cannot really over consume, unless stupid ! You will just make expensive piss. Also be smart, if you were on heart medication, don’t take grapefruit extract. Being diabetic might also contraindicate creatin as it we can say “dilutes your body”. If you don’t know yourself you are obliged to go to a wholistic nutritionist, a doctor a shaman, whatever. Or just start learning about yourself and slowly increase your knowledge !
Boundless Runner 
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