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When and How to Pick a Supplement

how to pick a supplement

Ah, supplements—the glittering promise of health in a bottle. With the U.S. market alone raking in a cool $50 billion annually (as of 2022) and growing at 5.7% each year, it’s clear that supplements are big business. Globally, this juggernaut of an industry was valued at $151 billion and is on track to double by 2030, according to Grand View Research. Cha-ching!

But here’s the kicker: despite all those billions, the supplement industry still isn’t FDA-regulated. That’s right, folks—the Wild West still exists, and it’s in your medicine cabinet. With no sheriff in town, supplements can sneak in some unsavory characters like prescription drugs, heavy metals, and even unlisted steroids. Yikes!

So, how can you, the well-meaning consumer, navigate this chaotic marketplace and pick supplements that are not only safe but also actually do what they say on the tin? Before you start peeling your wallet open, let’s revisit when supplements should even be on your shopping list.

When to Consider Supplements

Supplements are like your health sidekicks—they’re there to help out where your lifestyle might be falling short. But here’s what they can’t do:

  • They can’t replace sleep (no magic pill for that yet, sorry).
  • They won’t substitute for exercise (still gotta get those steps in).
  • They can’t take the place of a healthy, whole-food-based diet (no skipping the veggies).

So, if your lifestyle is already top-notch but you’ve got a few gaps that need filling, supplements might be the way to go.

How to Choose the Right Supplement

Now, let’s talk about how to figure out which supplements are actually worth your hard-earned cash. A great resource I like is EXAMINE.COM. These guys peer-review research in the field of nutrition and compile supplement guides based on actual science. And the best part? They don’t sell any supplements or recommend specific companies, so there’s no conflict of interest.

I highly recommend using them and similar sites to find out what could work best for you. Keep in mind, though, that research is always evolving, so those guides are constantly updated. Stay informed!

Avoiding Shady Supplements

Now that you know what you need, how do you avoid getting ripped off by shady providers? Here’s what I do: stick with organizations that test products regularly. Below are some quality resources to help you out:

  • ConsumerLab: A leader in independent test results, ConsumerLab helps consumers and healthcare pros identify the best quality health and nutrition products. They test for purity, label accuracy, and contaminants like heavy metals.
  • Labdoor: This independent testing company buys supplements off the shelf, tests them for quality and purity in an FDA-registered lab, and then ranks them. They provide detailed reports on content, safety, and label accuracy.
  • USP (United States Pharmacopeia): A nonprofit that sets standards for the quality, purity, strength, and consistency of supplements. Products meeting USP standards carry the USP Verified Mark—a badge of quality.
  • NSF International: This independent organization tests and certifies supplements for safety, quality, and performance. Products passing NSF’s tests can carry the NSF Certified for Sport mark, indicating they’re free from banned substances and contaminants.
  • Banned Substances Control Group (BSCG): BSCG offers a supplement certification program that includes testing for banned substances, label verification, and contaminant screening. Their certification ensures that products meet high standards for quality and safety.
  • Informed-Choice: A global certification program for sports nutrition products, ensuring they’re free from substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Their testing process is rigorous, focusing on both safety and efficacy.

Got questions? Want to share your supplement adventures (or misadventures)? Let me know—I’d love to hear about your experience!

Keeping Promises to Ourselves: Why It Matters and How to Do It

Many people pride themselves on being honest, humble, and committed to keeping their word. While this is admirable, the reality is that we often struggle to honor the promises we make to ourselves. Here are some common examples:

  • “This week I will not drink during the week because it negatively affects my sleep.”
  • “I will go to bed by [time] to get more sleep.”
  • “I will meal prep my food this week.”
  • “I will go to the gym three times this week.”
  • “I will spend less time on my phone while with my family.”
  • “I will tackle the task of [specific task] that has been hanging over my head.”

The list goes on. We need to understand why keeping promises to ourselves is crucial and how to improve in this area.

Behavioral Change and Commitment

Promises serve as powerful motivators for change, even in the absence of external consequences. Keeping promises to ourselves helps maintain intrinsic motivation. When we consistently break these promises, even about small matters, we weaken our intrinsic motivation. For example, if someone eats the cake they said they wouldn’t, they might feel discouraged and let the whole day go off course.

Emotional Consistency

Maintaining consistency between our actions and words is essential for personal integrity. When we fail to follow through on promises, it disrupts our sense of emotional consistency and can lead to feelings of guilt or inadequacy.

Internal Value System

Promises align with our internal value system and create a sense of duty. However, if we continuously break promises, we undermine this value system, often without realizing it. This erosion can lead to diminished self-respect and inner conflict.

Self-Regulation Skills

The ability to keep promises is tied to self-regulation skills, such as conscientiousness. Effective self-regulation supports following through with commitments, enhancing personal discipline and reliability. Conversely, failing to keep promises weakens our self-regulation, discipline, and reliability.

Trust and Expectations

When we fail to meet promises and expectations, we disrupt the cycle of trust. This interruption affects both our trust in ourselves and how others perceive us. Consistently breaking promises can lead to a lack of trust in our own abilities and a weakened reputation with others.

Strategies for Keeping Promises

  1. Set Realistic Goals: Break larger commitments into smaller, manageable tasks to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
  2. Prioritize Your Promises: Focus on the most important promises and be selective about additional commitments.
  3. Track Your Progress: Use tools like journals or apps to monitor your adherence to promises and make adjustments as needed.
  4. Reflect and Adjust: Regularly review your commitments and adjust your goals based on current circumstances and priorities.

Summary

Keeping promises is crucial for maintaining healthy relationships with others and with ourselves. It supports behavioral changes, trust, self-regulation, alignment with our values, and emotional stability.

Conclusion

Why do we struggle to keep promises to ourselves? Often, it’s due to overcommitment. We tend to agree to too many things, causing our own needs and promises to suffer. While we can always reset and start over, it’s important to build a strong foundation of values, emotional stability, and self-trust. We all experience discomfort when we break our promises, but it’s essential to balance commitments with realistic expectations.

A practical rule of thumb is to aim to fulfill promises 90% of the time. This approach is challenging, as we tend to overcommit when things are going well, only to face unexpected obstacles later.

In my own experience, managing commitments has been a challenge. Running a business, juggling a three-way split family, and maintaining a long-distance relationship have all contributed to a busy schedule. Despite my initial overwhelm, I’ve committed to this group because I believe in its potential. If it becomes too much, I will be honest about my capacity and adjust as needed.

I hope this article helps some of you. I now commit to fewer things, turn clients away when necessary, and prioritize self-care. Achieving 90% adherence to my promises is a goal I am proud of. When I fall short, I reassess and adjust.

What has your journey been?

References

  • Kanngiesser, P., Serko, D., & Woike, J. (2023). Promises on the Go: A Field Study on Keeping One’s Word. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1097239.
  • Mischkowski, D., Stone, R., & Stremitzer, A. (2019). Promises, Expectations, and Social Cooperation. The Journal of Law and Economics, 62, 687-712. https://doi.org/10.1086/706075.
  • Schwartz, S., Spires, E., & Young, R. (2014). Why Do People Keep Their Promises? A Further Investigation. Experimental Economics, 22, 530-551. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10683-018-9567-2.
  • Vanberg, C. (2008). Why Do People Keep Their Promises? An Experimental Test of Two Explanations. Econometrica, 76, 1467-1480. https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA7673.
  • Peetz, J., & Kammrath, L. (2011). Only Because I Love You: Why People Make and Break Promises in Romantic Relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(5), 887-904. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021857.

Navigating the Sea of Nutrition Opinions

Nutrition Opinions

Nutrition is a topic with as many opinions as there are people on this planet. Surprisingly, the people who are often most trusted for nutritional advice are good friends, hairdressers, and random people on the street. On the other hand, dietitians, physicians, and nutritionists are often trusted the least, as they’re seen as working for “the man” or other nefarious organizations with villainous goals.

All joking aside, social media and the internet have not made it easier to distinguish scientifically sound information from less ideal advice. Every side claims to have all the evidence supporting their claims, and unless someone knows where to look and actually takes a peek at the science, they can quickly start believing things that are potentially harmful.

Since you don’t want to read a forever-long post, I will try to keep this short and concise and add a short guide at the end.

Which Diet is the Right Diet for You?

The diet you can stick to is the right diet. Studies have repeatedly shown that for weight loss, adherence is the most important factor regardless of the diet type (Sacks et al., 2009).

Which Diet is the Healthiest Diet?

The suggestion is to eat primarily a whole foods diet; foods with fewer ingredients are best. You don’t have to cut out whole food groups to be healthy and lose weight. You might be able to stick better to a low-carb diet, but cutting whole groups out can have negative effects on performance and potentially lead to malnutrition (Johnston et al., 2014).

If you are vegan, you may face challenges such as lower protein intake and potential vitamin B12 deficiency, which is crucial for health (Key et al., 2006). This does not necessarily mean you cannot follow these diets, but you might have to be careful to avoid creating other issues that might negatively impact your health.

Goals and Nutrition: Tailoring Your Diet

1. Weight Loss:

  • Higher Protein Intake: Maintaining a higher protein intake while reducing overall food intake supports weight loss (Leidy et al., 2015).
  • Whole Foods: Focus on whole foods with plenty of protein and vegetables. Go lighter on fats and carbs, but there’s no need to avoid them entirely.
  • Avoid Snacking: Cut out snacking if possible but ensure sufficient food during meals.
  • Reduce Alcohol: Limit alcohol consumption.

Food Intake Based on 4 Meals/Day; Females/Males:

  • Carbohydrates: ½ cupped handful / 1 cupped handful per meal
  • Protein: 1 palm size / 2 palm sizes per meal
  • Fats: 1 thumb size / 2 thumb sizes per meal
  • Veggies: 1 fist size / 2 fist sizes per meal

2. Muscle Gain:

  • Increase Overall Intake: Your overall intake must be larger than your daily needs by about 250 kcal/day (Garthe et al., 2013). Expect some weight gain, but you will build muscle mass.
  • Higher Carbs for Training: Increased carbohydrate intake supports harder training sessions.
  • Protein, Protein, Protein: Aim for about 0.8-1.1g/lb of body weight per day (Morton et al., 2018).

Food Intake Based on 4 Meals/Day; Females/Males:

  • Carbohydrates: 1 ½ cupped handfuls / 3 cupped handfuls per meal
  • Protein: 1 ½ palm size / 3 palm sizes per meal
  • Fats: 1 ½ thumb size / 3 thumb sizes per meal
  • Veggies: 1 fist size / 2 fist sizes per meal

3. Maintaining Fitness:

  • Slightly Higher Carbs and Fats: For those looking to stay fit and lean, maintain a slightly higher intake of carbs and fats than those aiming for weight loss.

Food Intake Based on 4 Meals/Day; Females/Males:

  • Carbohydrates: 1 ½ cupped handful / 2 cupped handfuls per meal
  • Protein: 1 ½ palm size / 2 ½ palm sizes per meal
  • Fats: 1 thumb size / 2 thumb sizes per meal
  • Veggies: 1 fist size / 2 fist sizes per meal

Flexibility and Adjustments

These recommendations are not set in stone. They are a starting point from which you will need to make adjustments based on your progress.

This approach has worked well for clients and me in the past. It is easily implemented and works well even when eating out.

Personally, I have switched to tracking calories and protein intake. It is neither right nor wrong; it happens to be more accurate for me currently.

Beyond the Basics

This article does not address all areas of nutrition, such as gut microbiome, fiber, vitamins, and supplementation. These aspects become important once you have mastered the basics. Addressing them first is like mowing the lawn while the house burns down. Let’s get the basics down before working on these things.

Conclusion

How do you handle your nutrition?

References

  • Garthe, I., Raastad, T., Refsnes, P. E., Koivisto, A., & Sundgot-Borgen, J. (2013). Effect of nutritional intervention on body composition and performance in elite athletes. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 45(2), 349-359.
  • Johnston, B. C., Kanters, S., Bandayrel, K., Wu, P., Naji, F., Siemieniuk, R. A., Ball, G. D. C., Busse, J. W., Thorlund, K., Guyatt, G., Jansen, J. P., & Mills, E. J. (2014). Comparison of weight loss among named diet programs in overweight and obese adults: a meta-analysis. JAMA, 312(9), 923-933.
  • Key, T. J., Appleby, P. N., Rosell, M. S. (2006). Health effects of vegetarian and vegan diets. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 65(1), 35-41.
  • Leidy, H. J., Clifton, P. M., Astrup, A., Wycherley, T. P., Westerterp-Plantenga, M. S., Luscombe-Marsh, N. D., Woods, S. C., & Mattes, R. D. (2015). The role of protein in weight loss and maintenance. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 101(6), 1320S-1329S.
  • Morton, R. W., Murphy, K. T., McKellar, S. R., Schoenfeld, B. J., Henselmans, M., Helms, E., Aragon, A. A., Devries, M. C., Banfield, L., Krieger, J. W., & Phillips, S. M. (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 52(6), 376-384.
  • Sacks, F. M., Bray, G. A., Carey, V. J., Smith, S. R., Ryan, D. H., Anton, S. D., McManus, K., Champagne, C. M., Bishop, L. M., Laranjo, N., Leboff, M. S., Rood, J. C., de Jonge, L., Greenway, F. L., Loria, C. M., Obarzanek, E., Williamson, D. A., & Wing, R. R. (2009). Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates.New England Journal of Medicine, 360(9), 859-873.

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