Vitamins and Your Body

Time to talk about something we all need but often ignore—vitamins. Most people don’t get enough of them. Even fewer people understand what they are and why they are important. So that is what I am going to do. Explain what they are and why you need them. Let’s dive in and see what happens to your body when you start taking vitamins.

First things first, what are vitamins? Vitamins are micronutrients we get from what we eat. Whereas foods are categorized as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats micronutrients are categorized as vitamins and minerals. Those two categories are further broken down into four categories: macro-minerals, trace minerals, fat soluble vitamins, and water-soluble vitamins. These are essential items for your body to have in order to perform various functions.

Fitness is personal and a vital part of a bigger picture means taking care of your body as a whole. That means more than just exercise, and that involves overall nutrition. To get better at life and work, you must put your health first because hey, there’s no ‘ctrl+z’ to undo this game of life.

Missing Out on Vitamins: Warning Signs from Your Body

Think about your car. It’s made of lots of things. Steel, aluminum, plastic, and precious metals. But there are other things in there as well such as oil, wiper fluid, brake fluid, and gas. Each of those fluids play a role in making the car move and being deficient in any one of them can really screw up the function that it is involved with. Wiper blades destroy themselves if run on dry glass, pistons seize up, brakes do not work. The same goes for your body. When you miss on vitamins, your body’s machinery groans, sputters and one fine day, it might even break down.

For humans there are 13 types of vitamins. Each one acts like a manager who’s got their own team of jobs. They’re here for us keeping our health in check and deficiencies in different vitamins come in different forms:

• Feeling like a sloth stuck in molasses every day? Or powering through the groggy fog during your workdays? You might have your letter ‘B’ vitamins to blame.
• Does your skin resemble the surface of the moon, complete with craters and all? That’s probably missing vitamin E.
• If you find yourself catching every bug that is doing the round, your immune system is screaming for some vitamin C and D.

These are just a handful of signs your body shoots up when it’s running low on vitamins.

Listen, I know we’re all sailing in the same boat. Working round the clock, parenting responsibilities, or just life being life. But let me tell you, vitamin deficiencies can cause some nasty effects and a big part of getting you out of this mess is fixing your nutrition. The fact is, neglecting nutrition contributes heavily to sedentary behavior.

No matter how demanding your job or how crazy the kids get, don’t let your busy life dictate your health. Vitamins are crucial. Miss out on them, you’re signing up for sluggishness, reduced immunity, and a boatload of other complications.

So, What Happens to Your Body When You Start Taking Vitamins?

That all sounds horrible. No energy, bad skin and nails, other bad stuff. The good news is that when you start taking vitamins a lot of those negative effects. Vitamins regulate various reactions, turn food into energy, and repair cellular damage among other things.

Let’s cover a few of them.

Energy Levels and Metabolism

Vitamins: primarily B-vitamins.

Job: turn what you eat into energy.

B-Vitamins are your invisible power plant, churning out energy to keep you kicking through your workday, gym session, or errands.

Bone Health

Vitamins: Vitamin D and Calcium—your skeletal system’s twin saviors.

Job: Vitamin D does double-duty. First, it helps your gut to absorb calcium. Second, it nudges your kidneys to recycle calcium that might otherwise get kicked out.

The result: stronger bones and a reduced likelihood of fractures.

Immune Function

Vitamins: Vitamins C, E, and Zinc.

Job: Together, they tackle everything from pesky colds to frightening foreign invaders. These nutrients fortify your immune cells, equipping them to fend off threats. Increase their intake, and you increase your immune system.

Other vitamins can help with hair or nail growth or quality, brain function, athletic performance, antioxidation, and eyesight.

How This Translates to a Higher Quality of Life

Alright. You get it — vitamins are essential. They do lots of good things, but is it really noticeable? And how is life better? Does it impact you in the the rest of your fitness journey?

Good Nutrition and Effective Fitness Routines

(Nearly) Everyone knows that being fit is not just about sweating it out at the gym. What you do when you aren’t at the gym is just as much, if not more, important. Sure, sleep quality, stress, and mental space all play a role but nutrition is what mostly determines whether that gym session helps you in the long run or it breaks you. Fueling your body right can give you the most amazing pump, help you shred through the fat layers, or put on an extra layer or lean mass. Meanwhile, pumping iron with a pizza in your belly won’t make you an Olympian. Feed your body properly with the vitamins it needs, and see the gains.

Like my old wrestling coach used to drill into us, “Junk in = Junk out”

If you eat like garbage you will perform like garbage.

A Healthy Lifestyle

With good health in your corner, there’s no limit to your personal journey. Pursuing personal excellence inside and outside the gym is simple with the correct base. Notice I didn’t say ‘easy’, I said ‘simple.’ That’s because the game plan really is simple. It’s just hard to execute.

All of this is an equation that even third grade you could have figured out – proper amounts of vitamins equal better health, higher energy levels, stronger bones, and a better base to build with.

Adequate vitamin intake gives you so much more than just stronger, healthier muscles. A better immune system, stronger bones, and increased energy are all things adults want and need. I know that office cubicle land seems pretty safe, but the world as a whole isn’t getting any better. Stronger bones and muscles stacked with a stronger immune system, higher energy levels, and less brain fog could honestly save your life one day.

And I’m not even counting the confidence boost and psychological benefits yet.

Easy Ways to Incorporate Vitamins into Your Diet

Remember when I said execution is hard? The term ‘hard’ is relative and depends on quite a few variables. Among them? Habits.

Embracing healthier routines isn’t about turning your life upside down or ditching your job to live in the gym. At first you might think it’s hard, and it really might be, but fixing negative habits is rarely easy.

Remember, small changes lead to big results. You don’t need to completely reorganize your life all at once, but you do need to make some small changes along the way that will pave the road for the larger life changes that happen further down.

Let’s drill down into some straightforward steps to bolster your vitamin intake amidst bustling lives.

Whole Foods

Ditch the processed junk! The fast track to hitting your body’s vitamin jackpot lies in whole foods. The term ‘whole foods’ refers to things found as close to nature as possible such as fruits, veggies, lean meats, nuts, and seeds. These types of foods sharply spike your nutrient intake.

Things like rice and beans should be staples around your home. Throw in a protein of your choice, season it according to your liking, add in some veggies, and you’ve got yourself a delicious whole foods based meals full of vitamins.

Meal Prep

A not so secret tactic that I utilize all the line is meal prep. By planning and preparing your meals ahead of time you can help ensure you are eating properly while also not struggling an hour before diner to figure it out.

No more last-minute junk food dilemmas, no more nutritional compromises. Only fresh, wholesome, vitamin-packed foods that fuel your body. It’s a great idea from a nutritional standpoint, but your wallet will also love you.

Supplements

Multivitamins aren’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. You still need to focus on whole foods. Instead, treat multivitamins like a safety net that catches you when life gets too fast and your nutrition takes a nose dive.

If you want to check out a few varieties, here is a quick overview of two of my favorites:

1st Phorm Micro Factor

My personal favorite. Packed to the brim with the right blend of vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients, it’s more than a multivitamin—it’s the co-pilot to your health journey. It has the usual multivitamins, but also contains Omegas, CoQ10, antioxidants, and so much more. It’s good stuff.

Check it out: HERE

GNC MegaMen

Megamen is a great multivitamin as well, and has quite a few offshoots that is aimed at various segments of society. There is a multi for men, women, athletes, seniors. You name it, they probably have it.

If you want to read more about it, click: HERE

Guerilla Tactics for Office Workers

Listen. Your workstation is a battleground. Ditch the calorie grenades disguised as snacks. They are often void of actual nutrition. When hunger strikes, reach for something better. Maybe an apple instead of the 4 hour old doughnut Karen from HR brought in and left in the breakroom. Perhaps grab a yogurt from the fridge instead of a bag of chips from the vending machine. Choose hot tea over coffee, or at least cut way back on all the sugary additions.

Empty calories will only expand your waistline, not help your vitamin intake.

Conclusion

Vitamins aren’t optional. They’re what keep the engine of your body from sputtering out like an old, poorly maintained car. Bustling careers and parenting chaos are no reason to compromise on health. You know the warning signs – sluggishness, terrible immunity, rough skin. That’s your body banging pots and pans together, screaming for vitamins. And when you start giving it what it needs, miracles happen. Energy soars, bones harden, and immunity slaps invaders out of the park.

It doesn’t stop there. Those workout sessions at the gym? They’re pointless without the right nutrition. Stop treating your bodies like a dumpster. Remember, “Junk in = Junk out.”

There’s a simple equation: more vitamins equals improved health, stronger bones, and more energy. What more could you ask for?

Best of all incorporating these essential nutrients into your daily diet doesn’t mean your life needs an overhaul. It means making smarter choices, one step at a time. Swap processed junk for whole foods. Stop salivating over doughnuts, and start craving fruit.

Understood? Good. Now, push aside your excuses and get yourself in gear. It’s time to recalibrate your life. Hopefully now you understand what happens to your body when you start taking vitamins a bit better.

Let Us Help You Out

I want to help you achieve better physical and mental health through exercise. Check out the plans I offer to my clients and see if you could benefit from working with me. If you have questions, you can always contact me through the Contact Us page. 

Personal trainers, like myself, can help guide you on your pathway towards reaching your fitness goals, whether that is getting bigger, stronger, faster, more lean, or just generally feeling better.

If you choose to join one of my programs I’ll get you setup with a periodized workout plan, supplement information, and advice on nutrition to help you reach your goals. I also do advisory services that guide you along and answer questions you have if you don’t want a fully customized service.

The only thing you need is some motivation and a willingness to change some old habits.

Get into contact with me to find out what, if any, membership is right for you.