With the cost of living increasing drastically over the past year and a half, I'm finding it harder and harder to find the extra money to invest in top quality supplements and the best nutrition, especially when I'm constantly travelling and incurring expenses related to hotels, restaurant meals, and gas and groceries. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. Even when we have our companies cover our travel expenses, there is a delay in our expenditures and reimbursements, so money can easily get tight and we have to make sacrifices in certain areas of our lives. With in increasing cost of borrowing money with the highest interest rates I've seen in my lifetime, many people's daily cost of living has almost doubled, especially if your mortgage is variable or if you rent your home. The cost of food has skyrocketed, as has the cost of gas to get around. Everyone is feeling the pinch, and it's hard to decide where and what to cut out to weather this storm most effectively. In that light, I created an episode on the most cost-effective supplements and ways to improve your baseline nutrition without breaking the bank. What would I choose if I had limited budget to get the most out of my money for improving my overall health and nutrition? The first is a high quality multivitamin. I currently take Progressive Nutrition's Healthy Active Men's Multi formula. It's cost-effective, well-rounded, not too heavy on any specific nutrients, and consistently manufactured. There are other options out there, but I've tried a lot of them, and I keep coming back to Progressive's Multi Active Men. I only take 2 of the 3 recommended capsules daily to keep costs down, and because I track my nutrition pretty closely and don't need the full dose on the bottle. Secondly, fish oil is of supreme importance in today's society. Our diets are heavily skewed towards Omega-6, and everyone should be supplementing with Omega-3 daily. I currently use the Life Brand Triple Strength Omega-3 from Shoppers Drug Mart, as it's the most cost-effective, highest dose Omega-3 on the market in my area. For those outside of Canada, any local drug store (Walgreens, etc.) should have a house-brand fish oil that is high in Omega-3 fatty acids while also being cost-effective. My current supplement costs me less than 50 cents per day. Lastly, creatine monohydrate is the third most important supplement. It is the most widely studied, safest, cheapest, most beneficial supplement you can take. And it's not just for weight-lifters or athletes. Creatine helps everyone with increased energy via the reuse of ATP once it becomes ADP. Adenosine triphosphate is created by the mitochondria of each cell, and once used for energy it loses a phosphate, become adenosine diphosphate. Creatine can use ADP to create a second reaction from the same molecule, and without creatine that molecule becomes useless to you. You can get creatine from meat, but it's impossible to maximize your creatine storage in muscle on meat alone - you won't be able to consume enough each day. You don't need a fancy capsule or digestible form of creatine - simply monohydrate powder in it's cheapest bulk form is just as good. Your stomach acid will not break down creatine quickly enough to warrant paying more for marketing garbage from companies claiming you get more into your intestines with their patented formulae. It's simply not true. In the tail end of the episode I go over the importance of getting more protein earlier in the day, before you move to simple carbs, fried food, and other processed junk. I also discuss tracking your macros with MyFitnessPal and how I go about that on a daily basis when travelling. For all you road warriors out there, I hope you're not only surviving, but thriving, even when you're out of your element!
