The Pope's Daily Supplements

Supplements have always been a big part of my life. I grew up drinking liquid garlic, chewing cod liver oil gelcaps and dousing myself with Tea Tree oil for everything. I was “oily” before it was cool. I was actually quite embarrassed in my younger years to smell like Chinese balms and realize offering a guest a glass of chlorophyll is not normal. But now I am very proud of my proactive healthy lifestyle and it is my hope to point others towards a focus on preventative health through diet, fitness and supplementation. 

First, I’m a big believer in FOOD FIRST. Supplementing a crap diet is not nearly as effective as supplementing a diet already full of a good balance of macro and micronutrients. But you don’t have to complete Whole 30 to benefit from supplements and in fact, if your diet is poor you probably need more than what I’m going to list here.

Levi and I are getting...less young...and we have recently stepped up our supplement game to help with specifically joint health, chronic inflammation, and stress. I had quite a few interested in what we take so I thought I would make a list for you explaining the whys behind each one.

Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega- We take 4 of these which is a little more than 2,500 mg of Omega-3s. This helps with our inflammation (and keeps things moving in the bathroom.) Omega-3s are also beneficial for cardiovascular health by raising HDL, lowering triglycerides and reducing plaque in arteries. 

LifeSeasons Mobili-T- This is hands down a lifesaver for us. We are hard on our bodies. We CrossFit almost daily and soon we will start running quite a lot and our knees will not love us. This Mobili-T is a combo of collagen, glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin and turmeric. The company is also located in Texas so I love that too! We take 2 of these at lunch and two at dinner.

EuroPharma’s Adrenaplex- We work long days. We juggle all the stuff and sometimes it’s a bit too much, too overwhelming. When we realize we are barely holding on by a thread we start back on the Adrenaplex. It is freeze dried adrenal extract, l-tyrosine, licorice, Rehmannia root extract, pregnenolone and DHEA. We both indulge in too much caffeine and I don’t see life getting less stressful anytime soon so our adrenals are pretty much shot right now. The crazy thing is we never really know when the Adrenaplex starts working...we just realize we’ve had way more good days than bad and we manage those bad days with much more grace. We take 1 capsule with lunch and 1 with dinner.

Garden of Life Raw B-Complex- Give me all the B’s! I can always tell if I’m deficient in this vitamin because my energy levels tank and my eye twitches. Plus, who doesn’t want healthy nails, skin and hair?!?! Even though Levi can live without shampoo commercial hair, he takes this too to help with stress and energy. We take 2 with lunch.

Bluebonnet Liquid Methylcobalamin (B-12 5000 mcg)- This is also a Texas company and although we take a B-complex as mentioned above, we take B-12 as a sublingual once a day for Levi...twice a day for me. B-12 in the methyl form is the most bio-available and effective as a sublingual. 

Garden of Life Raw D-3 5,000 IU- I miss sunshine something fierce. I feel it deep down in my soul. I have a tendency to struggle a bit with depression and complacency this time of year and the D-3 is NECESSARY. And with Covid and what used to be the flu, we take it to keep our immune system working well and ready to fight. We just take 1 a day. 

We also take the following at different times and at different seasons but are not in our daily regimen:

Natural Vitality Natural Calm- We drink this powdered magnesium before bed in the summer and anytime we have muscle cramping or struggle with sleep.

GSE- I add 10 drops to everyone’s water anytime anyone in our family starts to show signs of any kind of sickness.

Zinc, Echinacea, Goldenseal, Garlic, probiotics and elderberry- If anyone in our family gets even slightly sick we all start a steady diet of these in therapeutic doses. 

Carlson Totally Zen- I don’t usually struggle too much with anxiety but every now and then life can throw a curveball and this gaba and L-theanine combo does the trick at just keeping me normal...well as normal as can be expected.